Tricks to Staying Calm Under Pressure
Most of us have experienced that sickening moment when you realize
you’ve made a serious mistake. Perhaps it was a typo that threw off a
financial forecast, or maybe you forgot to reserve a venue for an
important meeting that’s scheduled for the following day. The details
are different for everybody, but at some point, we’ve all felt that
rising tide of dread and panic.
Mistakes and pressure are inevitable; the secret to getting past them is to stay calm.
New
research from the Harvard Business School shows that most of us go
about staying calm the wrong way. People who welcome the challenge of a
crisis—so much so that overcoming the challenge excites them—perform far
better than those who try to force themselves to be calm.
“People
have a very strong intuition that trying to calm down is the best way
to cope with their anxiety, but that can be very difficult and
ineffective,” said study author Allison Wood Brooks. “When people feel
anxious and try to calm down, they are thinking about all the things
that could go badly. When they are excited, they are thinking about how
things could go well.”
Staying composed, focused, and effective
under pressure are all about your mentality. People who successfully
manage crises are able to channel their emotions into producing the
behavior that they want.
In other words, they turn their anxiety into energy and excitement.
This can’t happen if you don’t engage your logic.
Yes,
making a big mistake is embarrassing. You might get yelled at by your
boss, and the mistake might even show up on your next performance
appraisal, but, in all likelihood, it’s not going to result in your
getting fired, losing your house, living out of your car, or in any of
the other catastrophic thoughts that fuel anxiety and keep you from
getting focused.
If you struggle with putting things into
perspective, just ask yourself two simple questions: What’s the worst
thing that could happen as a result of this? Will this matter in five
years? Your answers should put a stop to cataclysmic thinking. You’ll
probably realize that you’re panicking due to the anticipation of public
embarrassment more than anything else. Once you get over that, you can
build confidence by picking up the pieces and making things better.
To help put things in perspective, think about situations that were worse than yours were.
More
than likely, the people at your company who have made serious mistakes
are still there and doing just fine. Those legendary mistakes usually
have few long-term effects on otherwise good employees. Remind yourself:
‘There’s more to me than this situation. One honest mistake won’t define me.’
Next, you need to recognize that people are less focused on you than you think they are.
It’s
easy to see yourself as the center of the maelstrom. You’re
embarrassed, and you’re worried about your job. The more you feel judged
by others, the more intense your anxiety. But your boss, and everyone
else, will spend far less time worrying about you than they will about
trying to improve a difficult situation, which is what you should be
focusing on in the first place. You need to realize that they won’t have
much time to think about you until after the dust has settled, and by
that time, you’ll have become part of the solution.
Now, you need to magnify your logic.
Nothing
helps you maintain the right frame of mind in a crisis like logical
thinking. Once you’ve forestalled the panic, it’s time to ask yourself
important factualquestions: What exactly happened? What are the possible
repercussions? Is there still time to avoid those repercussions? If so,
how? Who needs to be involved? If it’s too late to head off the
repercussions, what can be done to mitigate the damage? Don’t let your
mind run off with ridiculous self-accusations.
Finally, take action.
Once
you’ve figured out the facts and screwed your head on straight, it’s
time to own up to the situation. Putting off the hard work of cleaning
up the mess just gives your sense of dread more power; pouring your
energy into making things better is both empowering and a wonderful
distraction from any anxiety that might surface. Remember, getting
excited by the challenge of rising from the ashes will improve your
performance dramatically.
To keep things humming, don’t be so hard on yourself.
Nobody’s
perfect. Even the most successful people make serious mistakes. Henry
Ford’s first car company failed after just 18 months, Oprah Winfrey was
deemed “unfit for television” in an early reporting job, and Walt Disney
was fired from the Kansas City Star for his lack of creativity. Beating
yourself up might be a tempting option, but it never accomplishes
anything, and it certainly doesn’t make you any calmer. Instead, keep
your energy focused on the future and the things you can change.
Bringing it all together
The ability to manage your emotions and remain calm under pressure has a direct link to your performance. TalentSmart has
conducted research with more than a million people, and we’ve found
that 90% of top performers are skilled at managing their emotions in
times of stress in order to remain calm and in control.
Nobody
likes making mistakes. But no matter how big the mistake is, succumbing
to panic isn’t going to help. Giving in to catastrophic thinking
undermines your ability to make good decisions and to move forward
effectively. Instead, use these strategies to stay calm so you can
assess the situation, develop a plan, be accountable, and get busy
making things right so you can move on.
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