Under pressure, or not?
Pressure is something that has always been fascinating to me, when do we feel pressure, what causes it, and why does it affect some people more than others.
I have been affected by pressure over many periods of time and in many situations; I can feel it when I have deadlines, or when something matters to me and I want to do a good job. Or when I am standing at the start of a running event, of which I have trained well for, and I know I am in good shape, and therefore have set an expectation of myself to achieve a certain time. I have always thought that pressure is helpful, but what is interesting to me, and something that comes up in coaching a lot, is when it gets too much and becomes unhelpful.
I’ll never forget a training session I was delivering, thankfully online, when one of the participants talked about the amount of pressure she was under, I could see it in her, and hear it in her voice. I really felt for her and could see that this was clearly an example of pressure being too much, and when I carefully suggested that pressure was just thoughts, she nearly jumped through the screen to punch me! It really made me think, how do we define pressure and what can we do about it when it gets too much, and how can I talk about it in a more helpful way in future!
One of the most well-known ways for measuring whether pressure is helpful or not, is the Yerks-Dodson Law of arousal. The inverted U shape graph shows arousal against performance, there is a sweet spot that shows with the right amount of arousal, or pressure, our performance improves, but too much, and it decreases. This doesn’t feel like anything new, but helpful to know that psychologists have been studying this for decades, the Yerks-Dodson experiment, although on mice, was performed back in 1905.
We know that pressure can improve performance, but what is pressure? Researchers document that pressure can stem from ‘any factor or combination of factors that increases the importance of performing well on a particular occasion’ (Henderson et al., 2024), but what denotes how important something is to us? A good example that many of us can relate to is when we go for a job interview. I can feel pressure when I need to perform well at the job interview because perhaps, I am unemployed and really need the job, but when I am being interviewed and I don’t need the job, perhaps there is little to no pressure felt. This raises an important question, is pressure situational and values driven? If something is important to me, for whatever reason, I might feel more pressure than if it isn’t. Pressure = importance, importance = values, so is pressure our values in motion? Can we use this to change the narrative and therefore the amount of pressure we feel?
In past employment, I’d hear colleagues say they ‘had to stay up to 10pm get the reports finished’, pressure was driving them to work late week after week and they’d be complaining about it. I’d ask, who had a gun to your head? They’d look at me blankly. Feeling that you have to stay up and get the reports finished comes down to values like integrity and accountability as well as work ethic. How do we balance the internal drivers that ensure we go above and beyond, and staying within our working hours to protect us from burnout when it is pressure that drives us to overwork.
One definition of pressure that I have found particularly helpful is the gap between what is being asked of me (or what I am asking of myself) and my perceived ability to deliver it. Viewing pressure in this way creates an opportunity to change the narrative. Instead of focusing on what I might not be able to do, I look for evidence that suggests I can succeed, or I explore the practical reasons why I may not be able to meet the demand.
For example, it may simply be that there is more work than can realistically be completed in the time available. Both scenarios present opportunities for action: we can either reframe our thinking or challenge the expectations being placed upon us.
From an organisational perspective, employees regularly working late is rarely a sign that everything is functioning well. More often, it masks underlying issues such as excessive workload, poor processes, or unrealistic expectations. While effective leaders and managers should be able to recognise and address these problems, they can easily become embedded in workplace culture. The good news is that this doesn't have to be the norm—particularly if we are serious about protecting staff wellbeing and preventing burnout.
So, if pressure is a narrative driven by our values, then we have the opportunity to shift it. First by recognising that we want to shift how we feel, then doing a dive into why we feel the pressure, and then deciding on what can be done. In other words, I can change my thoughts, and therefore I can figure out what do I need to do differently. One of the most common questions I ask in coaching is, how do you want to be different?
Pressure isn’t something that happens to us, it’s something we can seek to understand, influence, and reshape. Be curious, and then be the change you want to see.
References
Henderson, J., Kavussanu, M., Cooke, A., & Ring, C. (2024). Some pressures are more equal than others: Effects of isolated pressure on performance. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 72, 102592. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.psychsport.2024.102592
ScienceInsights. (2026, March 15). What is the Yerkes–Dodson law of arousal?https://scienceinsights.org/what-is-the-yerkes-dodson-law-of-arousal/