Roundtable Review: Performance Under Pressure
On February 21st, we held a Roundtable in NYC at the studio of Workshop APD, on the topic of Performance Under Pressure.
Entrepreneurship, leadership, and management all create great stress and pressure on those who lead, but we don’t always succeed in managing these moments well.
In this Roundtable, Brick & Wonder members discussed strategies and insights for navigating intense workplace pressure, avoiding failure, and supporting those we lead and manage to do the same.
Members can access the full session notes here.
Key Insights:
I got into the habit of firing myself from roles I can’t do myself.
– Materials Supplier
We’re surprised there is an opportunity in these projects where there are too many bidders. We view that as positive pressure – the silver lining is there is this opportunity there.
– General Contractor
I realized that procrastination is where all the pressure comes from. It’s all the tasks I’ve given myself that I keep putting off.
– Landscape Architect
… one of the results of having these deadlines is that you commit to things too easily. The other thing is to review whatever the deadline in in the context of what else is going on. You’re committing to the requirements for other people too. Are these external dependencies going to be met. Finally, creating structure around the deadline – schedule the meetings, and schedule the calls, so people know what the sub-deadlines are along the way.
– General Contractor
Every Thursday we do a happy hour, and we do it religiously. It’s to build a community so my team feels they can rely on each other. They want to be there and interact. I always give them a bit of time to hang out before I join. We do it in the office every Thursday. It’s on auto-pilot. Even when I’m away, it gives me joy to know they are enjoying it, doing it without me.
– Architect
We came up with this idea of flipping the pyramid – we decided the managers are supporting everyone above. Everyone is supporting the customer. The customers put pressure on the technicians, pushing down, but the managers support the technicians, and that pressure pushes down. This has been very helpful.
– Smart Building Consultant
