• Healthy pressure (eustress). This response to pressure is positive, keeping you engaged and motivated. It drives peak performance, fuels creativity, and helps teams to push beyond their comfort zones.
• Unhealthy pressure (distress). This response occurs when pressure becomes overwhelming and unmanaged, leading to stress. Prolonged exposure to distress can lead to burnout, poor decision making, and disengagement from work.

How Pressure Affects Leaders and Teams Differently

Pressure, and your response to it, likely varies according to your role and responsibilities.

For Managers and Leaders

Managers often feel pressure from multiple directions – meeting organizational expectations, supporting their teams, and ensuring business objectives are met. According to recent research, 36 percent of managers report feeling burned out. Common pressures include:

• Decision making under uncertainty.
• Balancing leadership responsibilities with personal workloads.
• Navigating workplace conflicts.
• Managing the emotional needs of employees while maintaining performance.

Leaders who don’t manage pressure well may become reactive, micromanage their teams, or withdraw from leadership responsibilities altogether.

For Teams

As a manager, you need to recognize the signs of pressure in the teams you lead. Employees experience pressure in different ways, often linked to workload, deadlines or unclear expectations. Poorly managed pressure can lead to:

• Increased mistakes and decreased quality of work.
• Low morale and disengagement.
• Rising levels of absenteeism and burnout.

Understanding how bad pressure manifests for both leaders and teams allows managers to put strategies in place to prevent negative outcomes and create a culture of resilience.

The MasterBuilder Framework for Managing Pressure

To effectively deal with pressure, managers must take a structured approach. The MasterBuilder framework provides a three-step process:

1. Take stock. Recognize and assess pressure points.
2. Take responsibility. Own your response and influence on workplace pressure.
3. Take action. Implement practical strategies to manage and alleviate pressure.

1. Take Stock: Identifying and Assessing Pressure

The first step in handling pressure is awareness. Before jumping to solutions, managers must take stock of where pressure is coming from and how it is affecting themselves and their teams.

Here’s how to take stock:

• Identify key pressure points. List the top stressors in your role – deadlines, team conflicts, leadership expectations, or workload management.
• Recognize early warning signs. Pay attention to changes in your own behavior (irritability, decision fatigue, and so on) and your team’s behavior (for example, missed deadlines and lack of engagement).
• Conduct regular check-ins. Hold open discussions with employees about their workload and concerns. A simple “How are you coping?” can reveal hidden struggles.
• Assess your leadership habits. Are you micromanaging due to stress? Avoiding difficult conversations? Being self-aware allows you to make necessary adjustments.

This process ensures that you’re not reacting blindly to pressure, but rather understanding its root causes before moving forward.

2. Take Responsibility: Controlling What You Can Influence

Once pressure points are identified, it’s time to shift the focus to what you can control. While external factors may be out of your hands, your response to pressure is within your power.

To take responsibility for workplace pressure:

• Reframe pressure as a challenge, not a threat. According to Carol Dweck’s research on mindset, viewing pressure as a challenge improves performance, while seeing it as a threat increases stress levels. Encourage your team to approach difficult situations with curiosity and problem solving, rather than fear.
• Model resilience for your team. If you’re visibly overwhelmed, your team will mirror that energy. Show composure and confidence in handling challenges.
• Set boundaries and manage expectations. Communicate clearly what is realistic and push back when necessary. Not all deadlines are set in stone – sometimes, negotiating for more time is an option.
• Acknowledge and validate team concerns. People want to feel heard. If an employee is under pressure, acknowledging their stress rather than dismissing it fosters trust.

When managers take responsibility for their response to pressure, they empower their teams to do the same, creating a culture of accountability and resilience.

3. Take Action: Practical Strategies for Managing Pressure

Here are some actionable steps managers can take to manage their own pressure and support their teams.

For yourself as a leader:

• Prioritize ruthlessly. Use the Eisenhower Matrix (urgent vs. important) to decide what truly needs your attention. Delegate or eliminate low-priority tasks.
• Regulate your physiology. Simple biohacks like cold showers, breathwork and regulating your exposure to light help to lower cortisol and improve focus under pressure.
• Optimize your sleep. Studies show that sleep-deprived leaders are more reactive and less emotionally intelligent. Prioritize rest to maintain clear thinking.
• Use the 90-second rule. Neuroscientist Dr Jill Bolte Taylor found that emotions like stress only last about 90 seconds unless we feed them with repetitive thoughts. Acknowledge stress, breathe, and let it pass rather than fixating on it.

For your team:

• Encourage open communication. Create an environment where employees feel safe discussing their stress levels.
• Normalize taking breaks. Research shows that breaks improve productivity. Lead by example and encourage your team to take short mental resets.
• Implement flexible work practices. Autonomy reduces workplace stress. If possible, offer flexible hours or remote work options.
• Recognize and reward effort. A simple “thank you” can go a long way in reducing stress and boosting motivation.

Why Dealing With Pressure Matters

Ignoring workplace pressure doesn’t just lead to burnout – it impacts decision making, productivity and team morale. Leaders who actively manage pressure create an environment of trust and high performance, rather than stress and overwhelm.

By using the MasterBuilder framework – take stock, take responsibility, and take action – managers can effectively handle pressure while leading with confidence and clarity.

A final thought? Pressure in leadership is inevitable, but suffering under it is not. The way you manage pressure shapes not only your performance but also the wellbeing of those around you. Reflect, adjust and lead with resilience.

What’s Next?

So, why not identify one area of workplace pressure you can manage better? Implement one new strategy this week to improve your response. To help, you can check out our resources.

There’s guidance on how to balance performance and pressure in The Inverted-U Theory, while Developing Resilience and Managing Stress are key resources to help you avoid tipping over into stress.

And if you’re worried about burnout, you can take our Burnout Self-Test to find out how you’re doing.

Tip of the Week

Master Your Time With Timeboxing

By Simon Bell, Mindtools Content Writer and Editor

Struggling to stay on track? Timeboxing is a powerful technique to boost productivity – for yourself and your team.

Start by estimating how long each task will take and setting a fixed time limit. Include breaks and buffer time for interruptions. Use a timer to stay on schedule, and try to work in focused 25-minute blocks with short breaks in between.

At the end of each timebox, review your progress. Did you finish? If not, why? Adjust your approach for next time.

Timeboxing is also great for team management. Agree on task durations with your team members and encourage them to reflect on their efficiency. This method will help them to avoid procrastination, overthinking problems and missing deadlines.

By keeping to time limits and holding regular check-ins, you’ll enhance focus, efficiency and overall productivity – one timebox at a time!

For more on Timeboxing, check out our article. You can also take our self-assessment, How Good Is Your Time Management?

Pain Points Podcast

Don't miss the latest episode of our "Pain Points" podcast, exclusive to Mindtools members!

Ever wondered what artificial intelligence means for your role? In this episode, we have an AI “check-in” with Mindtools senior insights analyst, Dr Anna Barnett. Discover the trends to stay on top of, the skills to learn, and why some things are still better left to humans – for now.

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Video of the Week

Kat Greenbrook, Better Data Visuals

It's all too easy to create terrible data visuals, leaving your audience bored, confused, or even misled.

Find out the secrets to designing visuals that do exactly what you want, from author and consultant Kat Greenbrook.

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New Feature Alert: Meet Ask M: Coach

Your personal, AI-powered leadership coach, now part of your membership

We’ve just added something game-changing to your Mindtools experience. Ask M: Coach is now live in your Content Hub and ready to support your management journey.

Next time you log in, you’ll see it in your navigation – and here’s how it works:

• Got a question? Search for a topic like “giving feedback” or “how to delegate appropriately” and get instant research-backed answers tailored to your needs.
• Want one-on-one coaching? Ask M: Coach will guide you through interactive, AI-powered conversations, with smart follow-up prompts that help you to go deeper.
• Plus, you’ll get links to articles, videos and tools to keep developing your skills.

No extra cost. Just smarter, faster support – right when you need it.

News Roundup

This Week's Global Workplace Insights

Micro-Retirements: A Gen Z Workplace Trend?

As reported recently in The Conversation, young professionals are embracing “micro-retirement” – taking extended career breaks to combat burnout. OK, so this could be just another passing social media fad, but it may also reflect a desire for better work-life balance and mental wellbeing among younger workers.

The idea of pausing work isn’t new, of course. But unlike traditional sabbaticals, which employers often support, micro-retirements are typically self-funded and voluntary. So you’ve got to be doing pretty well to even consider one.

Research warns of potential downsides, though. These include reduced future earnings, pension problems and career setbacks. However, studies also suggest that structured career breaks, like Belgium’s government-backed scheme, improve long-term health and productivity.

For managers, this trend highlights the need for sustainable workplace practices. Organizations may not widely adopt paid sabbaticals, but flexible work arrangements and daily disengagement strategies can help employees to recharge without drastic career interruptions. Rethinking work structures could be key to retaining talent while addressing burnout.

Pay Dissatisfaction Rising: What Employers Need to Know

Hot on the heels of Equal Pay Day (March 25, if you missed it) comes news that one in three U.S. employees believe they are underpaid.

"Only one in three?" you ask. But seriously, only 55 percent of those surveyed trust that their salary is based on merit rather than bias, according to the Pay Gaps & Perceptions Report released by career-management organization Zety. Rising costs and reduced pay raises have fueled frustration, with 77 percent of workers saying salary dissatisfaction negatively impacts their engagement and productivity.

Meanwhile, some companies are pulling back on compensation spending, with 18 percent reducing pay increases and 14 percent lowering salary offers, according to compensation data organization Payscale. Experts warn that disengaged employees are more likely to leave, increasing turnover risks.

So what’s to be done? Well, the expert thinking is that HR leaders should prioritize pay transparency and open communication. Clearly defining salary bands, conducting regular pay audits, and linking raises to measurable performance can rebuild trust. With nine in 10 employees saying salary transparency improves confidence in leadership, companies that embrace openness and accountability will likely create more engaged, motivated teams.

For more information on different pay structures, see our article Understanding Strategic Compensation.

See you next week for more member-exclusive content and insight from the Mindtools team!