Amazing Grace ... How to Maintain Poise Under Pressure

We've all done it to fool around. Walking with a book on your head to keep an erect posture is one of the fundamental exercises towards gaining poise. The ability to keep your back straight and chin up, looking straight ahead, not only makes you look good, but also gives you confidence.

The individual who can retain mental and emotional poise while under pressure at work will win the day, on a personal level and for the company. Once you have increased your ability to be poised under pressure, you are more capable of understanding and problem solving. You can ride the inevitable storms of the workplace.

Pressure points

You've got a crisis on your hands. All of a sudden you have to deal with activities that are urgent, you've got pressing problems and/or deadline-driven projects. You may be handling an irate client, meeting a deadline, repairing a broken-down machine or having heart surgery.

The business world is one in which we must be alert and self-guided. The bottom line is survival. Therefore the habit of accurately surveying your environment is indispensable to business strategy, noting the possible dangers and probable windfalls.

To increase your poise power, it is critical to be aware of how many of these crisis activities surface through time mismanagement problems. If you suspect that this is your main problem, get hold of a time-management book or enrol on a course. Now.

Even steel will snap from pressure. A pressure cooker will blow its lid. It may be one of the most bandied-about words right now, but 'stress' not only makes us unhappy, it puts us under increased risk of a whole litany of illnesses, even more susceptible to the common cold. Under stress, the fight or flight syndrome works overtime, pumping body chemicals into the bloodstream that we need to rev our system when we are running for our lives. Nowadays, when the need to run for our lives is rare, these substances can have a harmful effect when triggered because our work lives are simply running us.

Poise under pressure at work is a skill that will keep your stress levels down, therefore preventing illness, and give you clear-headedness in which to make decisions. Self-control and discipline will make you an oasis of calm, the one person who everyone else will turn to in a crisis.

Cool to lose your cool?

Keeping your poise also prevents those around you from experiencing escalating stress and a negative attitude towards work. By not adding fuel to the flames, you can help diffuse a potentially explosive situation.

A growing trend has been noticed in the work world: stressed-out employees are making a song and dance of their stress, in order for everyone to know how important they are. It's not enough that they are stressed; they want sympathy and recognition of their suffering.

This public display of panic doesn't work. Firstly, your reputation will be tarnished. No-one willingly employs a known panic puss. Secondly, panic spreads like wildfire. As soon as one person starts to freak out, others will pick up and absorb the negative vibes, especially the more sensitive ones. It can affect your home life too. Trickle-down stress is being felt by children, too, as a direct result of hearing parents voice their anxieties.

What's causing the pressure?

Even if you work in the most routine environment with the lightest of workloads, you can still experience pressure at work. It can come from a slow build-up of everyday annoyances. These may be positive and negative life changes, or simply your own inner conflict.

When faced with a crisis, the first thing to do is stop and think, then determine your plan of action.

Ask yourself, how is your self-care? The more pressure there is, the more you need to take time out to release steam. When possible, prevent problems before they occur. If people take an 'energy break' every so often, looking out of a window, sharing a joke with colleagues, their stress levels will be reduced. Escaping into your mind every so often is a healthy move. Retreat by scheduling small breaks, taking time out for lunch. Be optimistic, too. Savour the small pleasures instead of focusing only on the pressures and negativity of the situation.

It is vital that you get enough sleep and rest and exercise regularly. While at your desk, you can send your brain to the beach by daydreaming to give yourself a mini shower and vacation.

There is no harm in asking for time off in lieu to compensate for a sudden demand for increased work hours. It will make you keep your cool, knowing that there is an end in sight to the tunnel.

Speak your truth

Understanding the deep emotional currents in others, and ourselves will allow us to be aware, effective and in control during times of crisis, without the need to cover up or protect ourselves.

Do you know what your most common reaction is to pressure? Do you become a victim, hero, bully or controller?

The Clown can diffuse a situation with humour, while the Hero can pull a difficult project our of the fire with joy. The confident Poised One can help maintain a peaceful terrain by keeping a low profile, observing what is happening yet remaining alert. The Warrior is a peacemaker of sorts, working to protect team members rather than threaten them. Charisma is the forte of the Leader, holding the vision for the group. When she works with an attitude of service she is encouraging the truthful and holds the team to the task. The Caretaker is the harmoniser and as long as he remembers to nurture himself as well as the others, he will be an important and supportive healer for the emotional needs of the team.

Each of these roles has a place in an organisation. Identifying your own role will clarify your strengths, as well as helping you learn new roles.

Dealing with the devil

By working to understand and contain our emotions, we help to create a safe work environment. The key to doing this begins with knowing what you feel, reflecting on it and then finding a way to express is what is effective.

Anger is uncomfortable, yet it is useful. When it is used constructively to address a problem, anger is a powerful tool. It is not rational to avoid our anger and the remedial action that it demands.

If unchannelled, anger is a highly destructive force, while if channelled for change, it is a booster rocket. Blowing your top is to be avoided at all costs. Words said in anger will be regretted. For example, if you are angry that the office is so disorganized, see what you can do to organize it. If you're angry that other people take credit for your work, write a memo detailing your contribution. If you can't do anything about a situation, learn to let it go.

Jealousy and a lack of trust can escalate over time to create time bombs. The best way to defuse them is to deal with them before the situation has reached crisis level.

Machiavelli was not the first or the last to notice envy in the workplace. At its root, jealousy is grounded in fear. Feat that we won't get what we want, fear that someone can take what we've already got, fear that we are not good enough. While jealousy is painful, it can remind us of what we really want. This is one war that you can prevent. If you're jealous of a colleague, see what action you can take to acquire the quality or skill they have.

Cutting words

Dealing with criticism constructively is not only a matter of our growth and development, but will pour oil on troubled waters.

Most of us hear accurate criticism with openness, experiencing it as a necessary evil. The fact is that most people want to do a great job. However, unfair criticism is indirect, unprincipled and ambiguous, personal, negative and derogatory. Any criticism that attacks us personally rather than addresses us as potentially competent, is toxic criticism. Toxic criticism creates toxic work environments, negative, backbiting and backsliding. Honesty becomes harder to come by. Expecting that confronting problems will only bring us pain and debasement, we defend rather than listen, lie rather than explore, deny rather than experience the situation.

How do you deal with toxic criticism? Hear the criticism without interrupting or defending yourself. Weigh the criticism for a time. Take time and space to feel your feeling. Share your criticism of the criticism with a trusted colleague. If you decide to defend or argue, put your thoughts in writing. Make an action plan. List concrete behavioural changes you can and are willing to make. Then carry out your action plan.

Press pause for poise

It is pivotal that we learn tools that allow us to keep our feet during the pitch and heave of a corporate squall.

In a society that encourages overwork, we may lose the balance between work and pleasure. We become addicted to work for work's sake, productive or not. The very idea of taking breaks during the workday, is scandalous.

Perfectionists remember: aim for excellence, not perfection. Perfectionists are 75 per cent more likely to get sick than other people.

We need to accept the truth that we are each our own boss, piloting our ship through each day's seas. As we begin to dismantle behaviours that lock us in counterproductive patterns, we find ourselves experiencing poise. And practice makes perfect sense.