Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Key Takeaways
- Leaders who treat every setback as a crisis pass pressure down the organization, so stay calm, reconfirm priorities often and force the business to make tradeoffs instead of pushing them onto your team.
- High performers still need backup and recognition, and visibly rewarding extraordinary work keeps them invested when the pressure doesn’t let up.
Why is everything either a trophy or a trauma? We seem to have lost the middle. Every success becomes cause for a huge celebration, while every problem becomes a crisis that demands an immediate response. Bring that mentality into an organization going through constant change, and every deadline becomes critical, every new request jumps to the top of the list and every obstacle escalates into crisis mode.
People can’t operate that way effectively for long. There has to be a steady pace in the middle, because you aren’t going to win every single day. At the same time, not every setback deserves a five-alarm response. This matters most with high performers. These are the people who care deeply about winning. They push themselves hard and hold themselves accountable. They often feel defeat more intensely because they’re so invested in the outcome.
Organizations also tend to give these people more. Something important needs to get done, so you give it to the person who always delivers. Then another critical project comes up, and you give them that one too. They’re the sure bet, and their competence becomes the justification for piling on more.
Keeping these people at the top of their game through sustained urgency requires a deliberate leadership playbook: calm, clarify, choose, support and recognize.
1. Calm: Stop passing pressure down the organization
When pressure rises, many leaders instinctively shift into command and control. They tighten their grip and start repeating some version of “We have to get this done.”
That pressure then seeps down through the organization. A senior executive pressures a leader, who pressures a manager, who pressures a team. Everyone becomes more anxious, communication breaks down and trust starts to erode. Leaders have to stay calm under fire. Think about an air traffic controller managing dozens of moving variables. New information keeps arriving, conditions change and decisions have to be made quickly. The controller constantly absorbs information and adapts without reacting emotionally to every development.
Leading through sustained urgency requires the same discipline. Before escalating the next problem, figure out how serious it actually is. Some situations call for an immediate surge. Others call for judgment and steady execution. Treating them all the same will eventually exhaust everyone, and it rarely ends well.
2. Clarify: Keep asking whether the work still matters
Communication is one of the most powerful tools leaders have for keeping people focused and calm. During constant change, it has to keep restoring clarity and reconfirming purpose and priorities. Keep asking, “Are we focused on the top priorities? Does this still matter?”
That last question becomes more important as business moves faster. You can start a project with an excellent plan and discover halfway through that circumstances have changed. New technology emerges. A customer’s needs shift. New information changes the equation.
Leaders have to keep reassessing and adjusting. Continuing down the same road simply because someone approved it six months ago can waste enormous amounts of energy. High performers want to win, so make sure the game still matters.
3. Choose: Turn impossible demands into explicit tradeoffs
Sometimes a high performer will tell you, “We can’t get all of this done in time.” Pay attention. They may be revealing something leadership has missed, such as a resource constraint, a dependency or an obstacle.
Suppose the business wants three major deliverables by a deadline, and the team realistically has capacity for two. Insisting that all three are critical doesn’t solve the problem. It just pushes the unresolved decision onto the people doing the work. Take the decision back to the business and force the tradeoff: If we can deliver two out of three, which two do you really need?
Making choices is part of leadership. You have to understand your options, what resources are available and what dependencies could change the outcome. High performers can handle difficult goals. But repeatedly putting them in situations where every option leads to failure will eventually wear them down.
4. Support: Remember that everybody needs backup
One of the biggest mistakes managers make with high performers is assuming their best people need less support. Everybody needs backup. An A player may be able to carry the team for a while, but that can’t become the standard operating model.
When someone hits a wall, find out what they need. Maybe another team has someone with exactly the right expertise. Maybe you need someone who has dealt with this situation before. Sometimes an objective third party can spot a solution that everyone immersed in the project has missed.
I think of it as bringing in the reserves. Sometimes you have to swap the goalie. That doesn’t mean the original person failed. The situation may simply require a different skill set or more experience. The goal is to build enough trust that your people will ask for help before it’s too late. The leader’s job is to go get them that help.
5. Recognize: Make extraordinary performance count
There’s another part of this conversation leaders sometimes avoid: Rewards matter.
If one employee consistently delivers extraordinary results while another contributes far less, and both see exactly the same outcome, what message are you sending?
I believe strongly in meritocracy. Compensation, bonuses and promotions all matter, but recognition can go beyond money. The larger principle is that extraordinary contributions should have visible consequences. People should know that when they step up during an especially difficult period, leadership sees it and values it.
Too many organizations focus on the opposite message: If you don’t get this done, something bad will happen. That creates an all-stick, no-carrot environment. Fear can produce a burst of activity, but sustained urgency requires people who stay invested in the outcome.
Make it clear you’re in the game with them
All five moves ultimately depend on trust. One of the most important promises a leader can make is simple: I’ll take the hit. I’ll go to bat for you. I’ll help you get what you need to win.
That still leaves plenty of room for accountability. High performers generally expect high standards. They also need to know that if they hit an obstacle, you’ll help remove it. If they need another resource, you’ll try to find it. And if the business needs to make an uncomfortable tradeoff, you’ll have that conversation.
That brings me back to trophies and traumas. Not every day can be a celebration or a catastrophe. Sustained urgency demands the discipline to stay steady in the middle. Calm the environment. Clarify what matters. Make the hard choices. Give your best people backup. Recognize what they contribute. Your top performers already have the drive to win. Your job is to create the conditions that let them keep winning when the pressure doesn’t let up.
Key Takeaways
- Leaders who treat every setback as a crisis pass pressure down the organization, so stay calm, reconfirm priorities often and force the business to make tradeoffs instead of pushing them onto your team.
- High performers still need backup and recognition, and visibly rewarding extraordinary work keeps them invested when the pressure doesn’t let up.
Why is everything either a trophy or a trauma? We seem to have lost the middle. Every success becomes cause for a huge celebration, while every problem becomes a crisis that demands an immediate response. Bring that mentality into an organization going through constant change, and every deadline becomes critical, every new request jumps to the top of the list and every obstacle escalates into crisis mode.
People can’t operate that way effectively for long. There has to be a steady pace in the middle, because you aren’t going to win every single day. At the same time, not every setback deserves a five-alarm response. This matters most with high performers. These are the people who care deeply about winning. They push themselves hard and hold themselves accountable. They often feel defeat more intensely because they’re so invested in the outcome.
Organizations also tend to give these people more. Something important needs to get done, so you give it to the person who always delivers. Then another critical project comes up, and you give them that one too. They’re the sure bet, and their competence becomes the justification for piling on more.
