Performance Under Pressure

When I talk about ‘performance’, it doesn’t need to be an international sports event, military operation or a West End show.

We all have performances every day. Anything that means something to you, requires thought, effort, intention and output can carry significant demands.

High performers aren’t calm because they face less pressure, they’re calm because they recover faster between moments of pressure.

It’s the speed of recovery that matters, not the absence of stress.

Fast recovery is a skill that can be learned. It is a system that can be implemented.

And it’s something most workplaces still ignore.

The Misunderstanding About High Performance

Organisations focus on the stress events...

- the pitch

- the deadline

- the high-stakes meeting

- the difficult conversation

In high-performance fields, the stressful event is the end goal, but it’s pieced together gradually.

You don’t see the layers of training and rest, the focus is the space between the events.

Because that’s where…

- capacity is rebuilt

- emotional tone is reset

- cognitive clarity returns

- physiological tension drops back to baseline

You don’t rise to the level of your pressure, you revert to your level of training.

Why the Nervous System Is the Real Competitive Edge

When you perform under pressure, your nervous system does exactly what it should…

- heart rate rises

- focus narrows

- muscles tense

This state isn’t there to hamper you, it’s designed for optimal performance.

If you stay there too long, it becomes…

- fatigue

- irritability

- tunnel thinking

- decision errors

- burnout

High performers excel because they can toggle between high intensity and rest.

They’re not stuck “on” or “off”, they’re fluid.

This flexibility is known as autonomic agility, and it’s one of the strongest predictors of sustainable performance.

The Hidden Skill: Active, Not Passive, Recovery

Most people think recovery means…

- resting

- relaxing

- switching off

Those matter, but they’re passive. High performers use active resets between efforts. These aren’t fluffy relaxation techniques. They’re short, targeted, physiological strategies that bring the body back into balance quickly.

Recovery isn’t something you wait for, it’s something you create.

A 2-minute active reset used at the right moment can prevent a 2-day crash.

Where Workplaces Are Falling Behind

Most employees cycle through their day without any intentional reset points – constant “on” straight into collapse.

Focus dips, noise increases, communication gets harder, mistakes increase and energy is drained.

People are performing below their actual capacity, not because they lack skill, but because their nervous system is overloaded and never resets.

What This Means for You (and Your Team)

1. Performance isn’t about trying harder, it’s about restoring faster.

2. Resilience isn’t a personality trait, it’s a trainable physiological ability.

3. Culture shapes recovery. Workplaces can design conditions that make fast resets either easy or impossible.

4. Micro-recovery is the missing “performance multiplier.”

Actual physiological capacity is what changes everything.

If December is about managing pressure, January is about redesigning systems so pressure doesn’t accumulate in the first place.