Support in a Storm

Andy Jordan is President of Roffensian Consulting S.A., a Roatan, Honduras-based management consulting firm with a comprehensive project management practice. Andy always appreciates feedback and discussion on the issues raised in his articles and can be reached at [email protected]. Andy's new book Risk Management for Project Driven Organizations is now available.

  Communications Management   Leadership   ProjectsAtWork  

In the ever leaner, faster business world, the pressure to perform only intensifies. In high-stress project environments, it is critical that leaders recognize the warning signs of people who are suffering and provide support to limit or prevent both immediate and long-term damage to team morale and productivity.

Have you ever been in a meeting where someone ‘lost it’? You know what I mean — an individual under pressure who just cracked. All their frustrations came out in one go, leaving everyone else in the meeting taken aback, unsure how to respond. I have seen it happen a number of times, often involving project managers in front of their teams. It obviously something that needs to be prevented, and not just for the sake of the meeting and its impact but for the underlying damage that takes a long time to mend.

Let’s start by recognizing one common cause of work outbursts: insufficient support during times of stress. It’s important to be able to release pressure in a controlled, constructive manner. Individuals under pressure need to be able to reach out to managers or mentors for assistance, and these leaders need to transfer some responsibility away from the individual until they are able to cope. In a project context, project managers may be the individual under the pressure, or they just as likely may be the leader whom team members need…

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