How do you get your team to perform better? You know that no one would work unless there is a deadline or target – some pressure. If pressure helps a person perform, then more pressure should make them perform even better, right?

Wrong. Here’s why.

The image above explains how it works. Performance does improve as pressure increases – up to a point. Each person has an optimal point at which their performance peaks, when they give of their best, stretching beyond the normal and perhaps doing more than anyone thought possible. That can be seen at the highest point of the curve in the graph above.

But… from that point on, increasing pressure actually results in decline in performance. That peak cannot be sustained, and the person now moves into a zone of strain and exhaustion, where performance slows down, errors increase, relationships become strained and quality of work is compromised. If the pressure continues the person may move into a state of panic and could eventually have a physical or mental breakdown. Or just quit. Pressure has now turned to stress, where the demands have exceeded the person’s ability to cope.

As a line manager, you need to be able to recognise when a team member is experiencing excessive stress, and take steps to help reduce that stress. How do you recognise when an employee is stressed? (Or for that matter how would you know if you yourself have reached that point?) Read Recognising signs of stress to understand more.
 

What can you do as a manager?

If the stressors are at work, it would probably help if you can reduce the demands on a stressed employee, at least temporarily. Discuss the issue with the employee and see if there are any measures you can take to provide further assistance, share the load in some way, or give more time – as far as feasible.

As a manager you may be able to help with workplace stressors, but not all stressors originate at work. And sometimes management of stress involves not just reducing stressors but also developing the ability to cope better with stress. This is where counsellors step in.

Counselling can help individuals develop greater resilience to stress while increasing their repertoire of stress management strategies. Counsellors are also equipped to help individuals handle personal issues that maybe causing stress.

Your role as a manager then is to then refer the person for counselling. To know more about how to do this click here .