Leaders under pressure

There is a myriad of information and advice that bombards us every day about how to manage stress and pressure at work, and there are few roles as stressful as being a college principal or senior leader. According to the NAHT, six out of ten headteachers are thinking seriously about resignation – so finding a way to cope with stress is absolutely vital. But having delved into the psychology and biology of stress and pressure, as well as looking at studies about this, I saw a flaw in just reading some helpful tips or a highly regarded book, or in watching numerous YouTube videos, to find the answers. Having worked with a large amount of people over many years, adding to that my own experiences of leadership in some highly pressurised circumstances (including in education), I realised that the answers are way more individualised than we may think. You have probably heard by now the common analogy of putting your oxygen mask on before helping others (your staff); do you know what this means and how to do it? Most people are confused and that’s because I believe the right analogy is more like a first aid kit: a kit with many things inside to patch us up, repair us and protect us from further harm. Your first aid kit will be personal to you and once you know what to put in it and start using it, you will start to see a difference. However, you may already have noticed that some of the things you used to do (the items in your kit) are not as effective as they used to be. That is because there have been subtle changes to our thought patterns, expectations and levels of fear since experiencing a global pandemic and other world events. So, let’s look at the contents of this first aid kit.

Firstly, who is this kit for? What is the user profile? Do you know deeply, not on a superficial level, what situations, types of people and environments create elements of stress and pressure inside you? Are some things more heightened now since the pandemic - or maybe there are new things that you had not experienced before? Really take time to think about this, because the next question is: what is the level of stress or pressure you feel in each of these cases? If you were to grade them from 1-5, where 5 is totally debilitating, what does your list look like now? What about the reverse? Where you thrive under pressure, what is different about this? When is this most likely to occur? In all the research I looked at, it is very clear that pressure is good for us at the right level. It elevates our heart rate and creates an aroused state that enhances focus. When experienced, knowledgeable people are in this state, studies show that when forced to make a decision, they make very competent decisions - so don’t underestimate yourself. There is a balance to be had though, and finding your personal ‘sweet spot’ can be tricky. It’s like finding the right dose of a medication.

Next in our kit, let’s look to some expert advice. A great source of inspiration for me and many of my clients has been looking at the work done in the forces and with athletes or sports professionals. They teach us that the more we understand ourselves in different situations, the better we can start to look at what we need to work on and put in place to improve our mental strength and capacity (notice I avoided the overused ‘R’ word – resilience). 

When pressure builds up and we exceed our sweet spot, our brain cannot function as well and we become ‘more like our real self’ - so an emotional person becomes more emotional, and angry person more aggressive and a selfish person more selfish. Pressure strips away our social and professional masks. In the military they have a great exercise to explore this that you can do a version of for yourself and with your leadership team. Get 3 different coloured sticky notes. On one colour write your strengths: things you are most comfortable with and can do without having to think too much, things that come naturally. On the second colour, things that you know are a weakness, things you really have to think about or work hard at. Finally, here is where we can find our sweet spot: on the last colour write down things from your strength list that you know and have proof of being able to do in high emergency situations. The other things on the strength list will still be there but you will be pulled automatically to doing the things that draw on your biggest strengths under high pressure. You now need to plug the gaps. Finding this information out about your ‘command’ team or leadership group will enable you to use each person’s greatest skills under pressure and shows you who can be relied upon to fill your gaps. It’s like having an emergency protocol where people can be deployed to be as effective as possible in a crisis. You also now need to be aware that the things you wrote on your weakness list will likely become impossible to access and perform when under high pressure, so looking for ways to mitigate this and finding support is crucial if these skills will be needed.

Our kit also needs the most vital component; understanding the way we use our brain. The truth is we can ‘exercise’ this and tone it up just like we might tone our body in the gym! But the exercise plan can only be drawn up with the knowledge about how our mind is already working, as we have previously discussed. This is a complex part of your kit that requires much self-reflection and can benefit from having someone else to talk to, either a supportive friend or partner who knows you well or a professional. One of the major insights from work with the military and athletes or other sportspeople is that the way we talk to ourselves, the way we frame situations in our mind, and stay focussed in the moment are literally life-changing. An example of this is thinking about our stress reaction. Usually our heart speeds up, adrenaline rises and our stomach churns over. Now think about a time when you were really excited about something: your heart sped up, your adrenaline increased and you got butterflies in your stomach. Your body does not distinguish between these events, your brain does. So, one trick is to reframe the situation: when you are approaching or indeed already in a stressful situation at work, change the narrative in your head to tell yourself you are excited by the challenge, excited at being able to find a solution and knowing you can handle this! There is also a lot of evidence that imagining how amazing you will feel after you have dealt with this also trains your brain to work differently. One other top skill is staying in the moment: those people that can stop their mind wandering into the past or the future, either remembering a disaster or predicting one, are much more able to cope and focus. There are many additional, more advanced skills, but these are a good starting point. As with any new skill, it takes practice, so try doing these things in much smaller, low risk scenarios to build up a new habit of thinking differently over time.

The first aid kit should also look at physical health, diet, nutrition, exercise, meditation and breathing techniques, and good advice on these things is more easily found online. You can start to build a little self-care package alongside these bigger areas in your kit. And the good news is: once you start building your kit, you can then help others put theirs together.

Lainy Russell is CEO of Flourish Training, Coaching and Development Limited and worked in education and social care settings as a leader for many years. She will be giving a workshop at our Summer Conference on day 2 at 12.35pm.