Working under pressure: how to train this skill?
On October 26, 1981, Queen together with the legendary David Bowie sang “Under Pressure,”. The song was a triumph and became for all intents and purposes one of the biggest hits in the history of rock music. This musical milestone still knows how to tell about pressure in the true sense of the word, the kind we all have to deal with on a daily basis. A kind of pressure that ties in with a Western definition of time, where haste becomes a survival characteristic. The brilliance of the two front men, the bass rhythm and the lyrics perfectly describe the weight of this pressure, opening a metaphorical scenario that allows us to identify with the song.
P.S. If you are a music fan, we recommend that you find out the story behind the creation of this great success, which is fascinating to say the least.
The world of music is therefore no stranger to the theme of pressure. Moving to a smaller and more private dimension, however, if we look within the concreteness of our days, we all, in our work (whatever that may be), experience pressures that may be given by deadlines or by a very demanding boss.
From the very first selection interview in fact, it may happen that the recruiter is interested to know about our abilities to work under pressure. With this question, the hiring manager wants to know about our work ethic and how we know how to react to deadlines. He wants to check both whether we are really able to deal with situations where the pace is pressing and how we can cope when the workload becomes excessive.
What does it mean to feel under pressure?
Let’s think about sports: how often do we hear about pressure in a sports context? The athlete is often put under pressure, especially before an important competition. Even we spectators, in the moments before the decisive action, even in our mere watching, are tainted with a kind of apprehension. Therefore, we could define “pressure” as a series of emotions, thoughts and reactions that the athlete may experience before or during a performance.
In other words, pressure is that internal state that manifests itself through the perception of a particular event. Therefore, it is determined and triggered by how we perceive the situation: it is often the fear of failure that triggers the mechanisms of pressure. We create this state, which is both emotional and physical.
How does pressure manifest itself?
Symptoms can be seen at the physical, mental, and emotional levels:
- At the physical level we will perceive an increase in adrenaline and consequently notice an alteration in heart rate and breathing;
- At the mental level it manifests itself through the formulation of positive or negative thoughts regarding the situation we are experiencing or about to face;
- On the emotional level, on the other hand, we will perceive positive feelings of anticipation, excitement, or negative feelings such as fear and anxiety.
Beware, however, the best or worst of ourselves can come out of a state of pressure: we can lose our nerves and be overwhelmed by the weight of stress or we can overcome ourselves by giving our best.
How do we react when we are put under pressure?
Our mind is divided into two parts, one rational (slow thinking) and one more intuitive and automatic (fast thinking). We usually think that stressful situations bring out our true being, highlighting what we have inside. We are convinced that our “rational” side has more control than our instinctive side. This is because we have always assumed that if we put people under pressure by giving them little time to respond, then the rational mind will not have time to control the impulsive one, thus putting the individual in a position to respond by instinct, and thus show his or her true nature.
Is it possible to work under pressure while getting more results?
Athletes train to learn how to handle pressure and get the best results even in the most difficult situations. They learn to manage anxiety and stress, using them to their advantage. In fact, there are 3 good habits to follow to turn what usually appear as frustrations into a drive to get more results.
Here are 3 good tips:
1. Always give your best, self-esteem will thank you!
First, we need to start working on ourselves:
- Always give the best of yourself
- Demand the best of ourselves
- Always make that little extra effort to improve every day
Always aiming for continuous improvement should be a prerogative, not just at work. If we always set this goal, inevitably our self-esteem will also benefit, and we may also discover new potentials that we were not aware of.
2. Your time is valuable, give yourself deadlines!
Some people are good at organizing and some are good at procrastination. Setting yourself deadlines by setting time goals is a good way to avoid procrastination.
In economics, according to Parkinson’s law, “in an organization, work is more inefficient if available time increases, whereas, in a situation of scarcity of time, the need to achieve the goal promotes efficiency.” (Treccani)
Working in this way, the pressure does not come from the external environment, but from within us. This will help us accomplish the most important tasks in less time, while also achieving more results.
3. Repetita iuvant, that is, repeated things help.
Business is made up of processes: a process is a series of facts or phenomena having a more or less deep connection with each other. Therefore, to create it, we need to find a method we can repeat that will enable us to carry out our tasks and, above all, facilitate the achievement of our goals.
The security of being able to rely on a method of work that we are sure will work will enable us to act automatically, efficiently and speed up the timeframe to be devoted to each individual project.
Becoming your best self: a self-fulfilling prophecy
Social psychology teaches us that predictions often come true because it is our own behavior that makes them happen, consciously or subconsciously. Thinking about what may happen generates a change in our attitude, which in turn makes the same prediction more likely.
This tendency is also called the Pygmalion effect and is named after the sculptor who in Ancient Greece decided to sculpt the most beautiful statue of a woman ever and ended up falling madly in love with her.
In 1968, Robert Rosenthal first introduced the self-fulfilling prophecy by calling it precisely the Pygmalion effect or Rosenthal effect. Through a series of experiments, he showed that this reaction affects both us and others.
Similarly, having very low expectations of someone (or oneself) leads to worse performance (Golem effect).
The Rosenthal’s experiment
Robert B. Cialdini’s book, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, reports on a famous experiment carried out in a school by Rosenthal and Jakobson in the late 1960s. Through this they were able to explain the power of suggestion toward others.
The experiment was carried out through the use of an intelligence test on children:
- Scientists show the results of this test to teachers, pointing out the most gifted ones
- Teachers, at this point, know which children are most gifted
- Scientists, finally, return the following year to see the children’s results
Result? Those flagged did significantly better than their peers.
So was the test right and had it identified all the smartest children? Unfortunately (or fortunately), the answer is no. The scientists had selected the children completely at random: by making the teachers believe that they were more capable than the others, they learned better. Here are the 4 conditions that led them to become the top of the class:
There was a greater focus of teachers on potential geniuses
Teachers were more likely to leave the floor to those who were deemed most capable
If I know you are smarter I will provide you with more materials and more insights to study
Teachers were more likely to accept low-quality answers from smarter children, pushing them more willingly toward the right answer
Conclusion: Teachers unintentionally benefited potential geniuses.
What we want to happen happens
We can give credit or blame to the environment that surrounds and influences us but the truth is that it is always a matter of mindset: we have to learn to transform our can’t-make-it into more and more frequent will-make-it.
Before approaching an activity or goal we should therefore think about what we would like to achieve and not what we would not like to happen. If we truly believe this, our actions will follow accordingly.
Choosing how to work under pressure therefore becomes a personal decision: if we react negatively we will be our own biggest obstacles, but if the reaction is proactive we will become the authors of our successes, personal and professional.
We found (and reinterpreted) the key to this in the words of Bowie and Mercury: the next time we find ourselves working under pressure the most powerful question we can decide to ask ourselves is:
Can’t we give ourselves one more chance?
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We are social animals
In a University of California experiment have shown that when we are tested, we tend to give more socially acceptable answers. They involved a group of 1,500 people who had to answer “yes” or “no” questions: some had only 11 seconds to answer, while others could take as long as they needed.
“The psychologists thus found that people under pressure, who had to answer quickly, used to give socially acceptable answers, while those who had more time to reflect gave more authentic answers that reflected who they really were.
In other words, the pressure of time does not bring out our “true selves” but instead makes the desire to show ourselves in a more flattering light prevail, even if that involves hiding who we really are, what we feel or think.”