Adjust the Pressure Value
Adjust the pressure value. Chances are there are a few team members on whom you rely for support. When work pressure builds, you may tend to put a lot more pressure on these individuals because you know that they are reliable and will put in extra effort. The problem is that if you aren’t careful, you will both quickly burn out your star performers and send a message to the rest of the team that poor performance is rewarded with less work.
If you discover that some team members are walking out the door each day at quitting time while others are pulling two or three hours of overtime, something is wrong. Talk to members to find out whether the problem involves an unbal¬anced workload or a performance problem; then act accordingly. One way of balancing your team’s workload is through weekly meetings. Ask members to outline their assignments, estimate time commitments for the upcoming week, and suggest ways of reallocating assignments to provide for the fairest possible distribution of work. If members put in a lot of overtime, consider giving them compensatory time off to recover their energy. Be a strong advocate.
An important tactic for managing stress is to be a strong advocate in representing your team’s concerns to senior managers or other groups. You might also ask your manager to meet briefly with team members to provide them with a broader picture of the changes now under way at your company.
