It’s no secret: Pressure exists in the workplace. Think of meeting project deadlines, reducing a pile of workload, beating niche competitors, or handling a sudden crisis. However, how your team reacts to this situation can make all the difference—will this pressure make or break them?
Here’s the catch: Many employees are still at risk of burnout due to persistent stress in the workplace. Over 90% of UK adults reported experiencing high levels of pressure last year. This reality begs the question: How can your team rise above this alarming situation?
This page tackles what you need to know about the impact of workplace pressure. Discover the key factors causing some teams to thrive while others collapse. More importantly, read on to learn how to manage team pressure.
The Impact of Pressure on Teams
Pressure is a feeling of stress due to urgency caused by demanding situations. Workplace pressure can be due to deadlines, competitions, and crises, among others. For example, a problem arises due to a natural calamity, requiring your team to avoid disruptions and continue working. This situation can either bring out the best or the worst in your team members.
Positive Impact:
- Increased productivity: Pressure dispels complacency and laziness among teams. As a result, your team members become more efficient and productive.
- Stronger team bonding: Pressure brings people together to work hard towards shared goals. This makes your whole team more collaborative and engaged as one.
- Enhanced creativity: Pressure unleashes your team’s critical and problem-solving skills. They can develop creative solutions to address workplace problems.
- Triggered resilience: Pressure helps build your team’s resilience in facing challenges. They become more agile and adaptable, ready to take on new challenges.
- Guaranteed growth: Pressure ultimately leads to professional development and business success. Note: Most workers (63%) quit their jobs due to the lack of career advancement and low pay, so ensure you meet their needs despite workplace pressure.
Negative Impact:
- Communication breakdown: If not properly handled, workplace pressure can lead to potential miscommunication and misunderstandings among team members.
- Potential team conflict: Team pressure can cause team members to argue and blame each other for being unable to keep up with the work demands.
- Poor decision-making: Too much pressure is due to having a lot on their plate, leading to poor decisions and affecting the entire team.
- Reduced innovation: While pressure can propel the team to deliver, it can also hinder their motivation and productivity. They might no longer be as innovative as they should be!
- Employee burnout: Pressure leads to burnout—an occupational phenomenon defined as “a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” Nearly 60% of American workers reported at least moderate levels of burnout.
Key Factors Causing Teams To Thrive or Collapse Under Pressure
Pressure is inevitable in the workplace. As a business leader, how you manage your team members determines your direction—bask in the glory of success or learn from your failure! How do you ensure this pressure will help—and won’t hurt your team?
The first step is identifying the crucial factors affecting their response to pressure. Are they properly led, adequately trained, wholly supported, and equipped with resources to handle pressure? As a team leader, here are the key factors to consider:
- Communication and collaboration: Setting communication protocols is crucial to keep employees engaged during difficult times. Meanwhile, lacking communication can hamper collaboration and keep members disengaged while under pressure. About 62% of employees are disengaged, and 15% are actively disengaged.
- Emotional quotient (EQ): Harvard defines EQ as “a set of skills that help us recognise, understand, and manage our own emotions as well as recognise, understand, and influence the emotions of others.” Interpersonal skills make it easy for your team members to work together amidst challenges. However, the lack of EQ makes it difficult to manage their emotions when pressured.
- Leadership and management style: Leadership tactics help promote employee and business growth. However, only 40% of leaders consider their leadership “very good” or “excellent.” Leaders should be more empathetic and supportive when team members confront workplace pressure. Lacking empathy and support leads to decreased morale and employee turnover.
- Flexibility and adaptability: These are critical attributes in today’s business landscape because the workplace is ever-evolving. As a leader, promote a flexible work culture for employee engagement. Why? The lack of these attributes keeps your team members rattled and pressured—a recipe for business failure and disaster!
- Team training and preparation: Fostering a culture of continuous learning and growth is crucial. When employees are equipped with stock knowledge and skillsets, they are less likely to feel overwhelmed. However, the lack of preparation and training makes your team members feel pressured, disoriented, and overwhelmed.
- Tangible and intangible resources: Employees feel pressured when they aren’t equipped with what they need to manage daily tasks and meet expectations. So, it’s crucial to provide them with both physical and digital resources for employees. Offer digital tools and communications technology, educational resources like knowledge base, and training programmes.
- Business culture and shared goals: It’s best to cultivate a people-first workplace culture. When your team members are valued, respected, and rewarded, they will contribute more to your organisation amidst any pressure. Most employees care deeply about their psychological well-being: Over 90% want to work for a company that supports it, while nearly 20% still describe their workplace as “toxic.”
How To Manage Team Pressure in the Workplace
Understanding the key factors that cause pressure is the first crucial step. Then, you can go ahead and find ways to manage the pressure encountered by your team members. However, this isn’t a walk in the park—you’ve got to be highly critical and strategic in your approach!
As a team leader, here’s how to handle pressure in the workplace:
1. Set goals and expectations
Goal-setting plays a critical role in the workplace. It helps guide your team members’ day-to-day functions as you work together towards shared business goals. So, setting professional objectives aligned with your company goals is essential. That way, your employees have proper guidance and feel less pressured at work.
Morgan Taylor, Co-founder of Jolly SEO, recommends defining SMART goals—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-based. “Setting SMART goals keeps everyone on the same page and reduces unnecessary stress. When expectations are clear and realistic, your team can focus on getting things done instead of guessing what’s next.”
2. Delegate tasks effectively
Did you know 82% of leaders report feeling tired and burned out? Task delegation is the art of assigning work from one team member to another. The statistics speak volumes: CEOs who are ‘high delegators’ achieve up to 1,751% business growth and 33% higher revenue. Also, effective delegation increases employee productivity and decreases turnover by 18%, respectively.
David Haskins, CEO at WrongfulDeathLawyer.com, suggests harnessing the power of task delegation for pressure reduction. “Delegation isn’t about offloading work—it’s about playing to your team’s strengths. When tasks are assigned wisely, everyone works more efficiently, stress levels drop, and productivity soars. Ultimately, the pressure goes out of the window!”
3. Open lines of communication
Effective communication is almost always the key to workplace success—open lines of communication with your team members for personal engagement and work collaboration. When your employees can freely express their feelings and thoughts, you know where they’re coming from and can offer help and assistance.
Take it from Tom Golubovich, Head of Marketing & Media Relations at Ninja Transfers. She promotes team communication for effective collaboration in the workplace. “Strong teams run on open communication. When everyone feels heard and understood, collaboration improves, problems get solved faster, and workplace stress goes down.”
4. Offer utmost help and support
No man is an island, and this applies to workplace teams under pressure. For one, avoid individual silos that hinder team communication and collaboration. More importantly, be ready to offer help and support as a team leader. This can go as simple as assisting employees with daily tasks to providing upskilling and reskilling programmes.
Learn from Jeffrey Zhou, CEO and Founder of Fig Loans. He believes that a great leader doesn’t just delegate tasks but offers help, especially in times of pressure. “A great leader doesn’t just hand out tasks—they step in, support, and empower their team. When employees know they have backup, they’re more confident, engaged, and ready to tackle challenges.”
5. Provide tools and resources
In today’s business landscape, the global workforce has tools and technologies at their disposal. However, it is the business leaders’ initiative to invest in these resources to equip their team members. That way, they can perform their day-to-day tasks effectively and efficiently without feeling pressured, stressed, and overwhelmed.
Lev Peker, CEO at CARiD, promotes technological investments for workplace optimisation. He equips his employees with needed resources in the auto industry. “Giving your team the right tools isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity. When employees have the resources they need, they work smarter, stress less, and deliver better results.”
6. Recognise and reward efforts
Nothing can be more fulfilling than being recognised and rewarded for your hard work. Rewards and recognition don’t only boost employee morale but also compensate for workplace pressure. With these in place, 57% of workers recommend their company to others, 52% become more productive, and 43% are less likely to look for another job.
Adam Young, CEO and Founder of Event Tickets Center, promotes employee reward and recognition in the workplace. “Recognition goes a long way—when employees feel appreciated, they’re more engaged, motivated, and committed. A simple ‘thank you’ or reward can turn workplace pressure into productivity.”
7. Foster a positive workplace
Nothing beats a workplace that promotes positivity. Employees still feel motivated, engaged, and productive despite the pressure of workload, competition, and other factors. But as a leader, you’re responsible for creating a culture of positivity and preventing workplace toxicities, such as cliques and gossip.
Samuel Charmetant, Founder of ArtMajeur by YourArt, advises focusing on workplace positivity to beat work pressure. “A positive workplace isn’t just about good vibes—it’s about creating an environment where employees feel valued, supported, and motivated. When positivity leads, pressure takes a back seat.”
Final Words
The pressure is and will always be ‘on’ in every workplace. However, how you respond determines your failure or success as a team. So, as a leader, do what it takes to help your team members rise above any challenge coming your way.
But first, understand why some teams thrive while others collapse under pressure. Likewise, consider the key factors causing team pressure and follow our practical management tips for handling it. Stay on top of your workplace pressure, and your team will surely succeed.
Author: Brooke Webber – freelance writer
Photo credit: StockCake
