Maintaining Optimal Performance Under Pressure: A New Perspective

According to a study of biometric data collected by researchers during the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, performance stress affects even the most trained Olympic-level athletes. They found, “...even the best professional athletes are negatively influenced by psychological stress, even though they are generally well trained to cope with pressure."

The truth is, performance stress is actually an issue across all industries, and can have a powerful impact on the success of an organization. While at first glance it might seem like an individual issue, performance stress actually develops out of a set of factors that can affect anyone. Instead of a condition that can be systematically trained out of a person, performance stress is simply a natural response to expectation and environmental conditions.

In business, factors that affect performance stress present themselves in a few different ways:

• Level of skill: Skill level has a lot to do with how well an employee can perform under stress. Interestingly, performing a new task that requires employees to step outside of their comfort zones actually decreases performance stress and increases motivation. In contrast, when the skill level is high and tasks are easy and repetitive, employees can quickly become bored and burned out.
• Level of confidence: When it comes to performance stress in the workplace, confidence is key. When it’s crunch time, team members with higher self-confidence are more likely to adopt a “can do” attitude, while less confident workers may tend to criticize and demotivate themselves with negative self-talk.
• Personality type: Everyone experiences stress differently, and personality has a lot to do with how well people perform under stress. Research shows that introverts are more likely to experience performance stress than extroverts, who tend to reach out for peer support more often.
• Project complexity: When deadlines approach, employees tend to feel performance stress when attempting to complete more complex tasks. When it comes to working with a timeline, performance stress is lower when tackling easy tasks under pressure or when working through complex tasks within a low stress environment.

Reducing Performance Stress by Supporting Teams

In supporting your clients’ efforts to provide employees with benefit offerings that serve them, maintaining awareness of performance stress within a workforce is paramount. At Kindly Human, we maintain the perspective that validated employees are motivated employees, and nothing feels more validating to a team than connecting with someone who understands what they are going through. Using the Kindly Human service provides your clients with a resource their employees can use to release and reduce stress, find encouragement, and gain the momentum they need to stay on track. By offering pre-clinical peer support to clients, you're empowering them to address performance stress before it escalates into crises. This proactive approach not only fosters a healthier and more supportive workplace culture but also translates into tangible benefits, such as reduced sick leave and increased productivity.?

Situational Support relieves the pressure of performance stress by providing a judgment-free environment for a workforce to voice concerns and issues without repercussion. This innovative approach to employee support is a game-changer, and enables a team to reach their optimal performance potential. That’s the Kindly Human difference.?