"I Work Better Under Pressure!" (Seriously?)

By Susan de la Vergne

If you're reading this, I bet you've said it: "I work better under pressure!"

You mean, then, that you (1) consistently do your best work when you have no time to double-check or review it; (2) always reach your creative peak when the clock is racing behind you; and (3) never fail to turn out your best when you stay late and you're tired.

Seems unlikely.

We've all had the experience at some point of pulling off a great feat under pressure, and it was a kick! A neighborhood is plunged into darkness during a blizzard, and it's your job to find the problem and restore power, and you do! A project manager is summarily fired, and you're asked to take over. When you do, you learn that the testing process is stuck on a daunting problem, and the product is scheduled to release in a few days. Miraculously, you figure out what's wrong, and the schedule is saved!

How about something less dramatic? You've lost track of your task list, and one morning you're horrified to discover that in two days you're teaching a class about how to use your new product. You haven't done a thing to prepare. So you go home, make a pot of coffee, and lock yourself away for hours. The creative juices are really flowing (what's in that coffee?) as you're coming up with content, organizing it, banging out brilliant slides and handouts. In a single night, you pull together a masterpiece. Two days later, you deliver a great class. Everyone says so.

At the end of the day, you say to yourself, "Looks like I do my best work under pressure!"

You got lucky. That's what really happened. More

Quick Tip: Listen First 

In his wonderfully insightful leadership book, What Got You Here Won't Get You There, Marshall Goldsmith identifies common behaviors we should forgo. Rather than undertake new personal initiatives, make sweeping changes, and resolve to be better, he suggests we simply stop doing certain things. He describes 20 behaviors altogether that, if we just stop doing them, we can take ourselves to the next level.

One is a simple communication habit we can all recognize and stop--that is, beginning our responses to others with the words "no," "but," or "however." Why? Because doing so is a way of thinly disguised way of telling the other person, "You are wrong."  

No matter how nicely, no matter how sweet your tone, no matter how much humor you include, the message is the same. Starting with "no," "but," or "however" is a lead-in that means "you are wrong." 

We've all done it, and we've all had it done to us. It goes like this:

"Your document is too long. No one will read it."

 "But there's so much to say. I can't possibly shorten it."

Meaning: You are wrong; my document isn't too long.

"Your product is difficult to use."

 "No, it's just that it's complex because it performs so many functions."

Meaning: You are wrong. My product isn't difficult to use.

"Your team was late completing their work."

 "However, what they did was pretty good." 

Meaning: You are wrong to condemn my team for being late, considering.  (Note: "That's true, however..." is just as bad.)

You get the idea.

What should you say instead of "but," "no," and "however"?  Say "thank you."  In other words, instead of always defending your ideas and challenging others, simply take in what others say.