Performance Under Pressure. Ceri Evans
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you want and the way you want to operate. How it will look and feel to close observers? Second, what is the reality in this moment? What is currently working well and what isn’t? There’s probably a gap between your intent and your current reality. Third, what is your priority for closing this gap and making progress towards the desired outcome? Be specific: what will your first step be?
If we are internally driven, we are far less affected by external pressure, because the drive from within is stronger. We are not immune to it, but it is less disturbing.
Performers who are externally driven also tend to identify external factors that are limiting their ability. This is more comfortable because it makes it not their fault. Internally driven performers tend to look at internal obstacles and see their primary opponent as themselves.
Being internally driven also feels different. Instead of feeling the weight of expectation coming down on us from the outside, we feel power flowing up from within. External pressure breaks us down, makes us shrink, and burdens us; internal drive builds us up, makes us grow, and energises us.
IMP sets us up to be far more resilient mentally in the face of external pressure. When we need external ESC pressure to move, we are vulnerable to RED aggressive, passive, escape (APE) reactions. The two go hand in hand, forming the unhelpful ESC-APE pathway that leads us to disengage under pressure. In contrast, the internal IMP factors tend to drive the BLUE aware, clear, task (ACT) responses, forming the constructive IMP-ACT structure, which keeps us engaged under pressure.
Instead of feeling or deciding that the moment is too big for us, which causes us to ESC-APE, we stand our ground and have IMP-ACT. Moderate performers are pushed along by others and tend to escape when the pressure comes on, while elite performers are pulled forward by their own ambitions.
But the acronyms ESC-APE and IMP-ACT represent more than words, because when we follow them, they lead to different biological responses. ESC-APE behaviours follow threat, setting off our RED mind. IMP-ACT is linked to challenge, which strongly activates our BLUE mind, especially our left pre-frontal cortex, a part of the brain stimulated by goal-setting and new learning.
Sophie and her teenage daughter Emily are exploring the capital city of a foreign country. Sophie, an experienced traveller, deliberately takes a back seat when it’s time to head home from a day visiting various landmarks so that Emily has to work out how to get them there.
It’s getting late and they are tired, so Sophie suggests to Emily that she can lead the way back to their hotel despite the different language (expectation), that Sophie will be watching her as she works out the way on public transport (scrutiny), and that they can’t rest or stop for food until they get home (consequences).
It would be easy for Emily to go RED – become aggressive or passive, or escape (in a taxi) as quickly as possible. But she checks herself and decides to go down the BLUE IMP-ACT pathway.
First, she reminds herself of her intention, which is to demonstrate that she can be trusted to travel independently. Second, she focuses on the moment, and sees that she has no idea where they are or the quickest route home, and has only a smattering of the local vocabulary to get them out of the situation. Third, she works out her priority, which she quickly sees is to get to the nearest underground metro station and find a transport map to work out a good route home.
Following these three steps allows Emily to move towards BLUE behaviours, remaining aware of her emotional tone, clear about what she needs to do, and ready to get on with her task. She takes the IMP-ACT pathway and comes across as composed, clear and collaborative.
In the same high-pressure moment, we have two alternatives: to ESC-APE the tension, or to have IMP-ACT despite the tension. That first step – refusing to step over the RED line into ESC-APE territory – is critical. Sometimes there is no coming back.
When we stand near the RED ESC-APE line we are at an emotional crossroads. If we decide to be drawn over the line, we need to be clear that we have allowed that to happen, not blame others and justify it with excuses – the ESC-APE artist’s signatures.
If we make it our decision to step over it or not, rather than relinquishing the decision to the forces of pressure, we will be stronger mentally. We might not immediately get on top of the situation, but stepping over the line into BLUE IMP-ACT territory is a good start, because it ends our internal debate about whether to give in to the pressure. We have enough on our plate in this moment. It’s not a time to overthink the situation, it’s a time to take emotional control.
Riaz, a surgeon, is moving smoothly through an operation, but the cosmetic result at the end does not look neat. He feels disappointed, angry and tense as he imagines explaining it to the patient later, and in that moment he notices a junior assistant laughing with the anaesthetist. He feels on the verge of an aggressive outburst, but sees the RED ESC-APE line in his mind, takes back the control, and decides to have IMP-ACT. He takes a deep breath and closes up the final wound again with extra care.
Ari, a 17-year-old, is on an outdoor leadership course, and although he is very comfortable with the physical activities, he is having difficulty overcoming his social anxiety. The course leader asks for volunteers to lead the next task. Ari wants to raise his arm, but tension holds him back. He feels himself going passive, but sees the RED ESC-APE line in his mind and realises he is allowing himself to be dragged over it yet again. In that moment, he chooses to have IMP-ACT. He thrusts his arm up into the air and takes a step forward.
Refuse to mentally buckle. Instead, choose to have IMP-ACT.
When you look at your personal performance history, would you say you are more externally (ESC-APE) or internally (IMP-ACT) driven?
Are you reliant on your coach’s stirring words before the game, or your chief executive’s rousing speeches? Or do you become even more energised when things are not going to plan, drawn in by the challenge rather than discouraged by the obstacle?
Make sure your energy comes mostly from within, and draws you forward into the challenge.
Overload and Overwhelm vs Overview and Overcome
Overload and overwhelm
Right in the middle of the ESC-APE process, we can have an experience so destructive that without it, I would not be writing this book: overwhelm.
The state of overwhelm feels like a force overpowering us, a load so heavy we think we can’t cope with the weight.
The heaviness comes from the burden of the external ESC pressure – the expectations, the scrutiny and the consequences of judgment. When those three aspects are rolled into one dense load, the situation becomes too much for us to bear. Our thinking, our feelings, in fact our whole perception becomes overloaded. And that mental overload pitches us into a state of overwhelm.
We all have a particular load that we can tolerate. It is not set in stone, and fluctuates with time. But the mental formula is always the same: when our current limit is reached, we become overloaded, then overwhelmed.
As well as overpowering us mentally, it feels like the external world of pressure is having a physical impact on us. Our posture changes, shrinking us down. We start to stoop, tense our jaw, hunch our shoulders, and bend at the knee, bracing ourselves against the invisible weight. Our breathing becomes shallow, our voice weak. We are a picture of tension, as if we’re really
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