Billy Jean King once made a comment on the stresses and strains of tennis in which she remarked that “pressure is a privilege”. She was indicating that pressure is a crucial ingredient for achieving peak performance in the game, and that those who can harness and cope with it effectively usually end up winning. I think we saw a great example of that in the men’s final at Wimbledon yesterday as Roger Federer defended five set points, when he was already one set down, to come back and win his record-breaking 15th major. Time and time again he has shown an ability to cope better than his opponents when the pressure is on – and that is to take nothing away from Andy Roddick who did a great job of handling the strain of playing the world’s best on the biggest stage in tennis. This battle of wills was what led to such an enthralling final.
Another example of the constructive power of pressure from the last two weeks has been the performances of an astonishing young man, Andy Murray, who had to endure enormous expectation in every match as he moved towards the semi-finals. You could see his determination and drive to not only compete, but also to draw on his reserves of energy and grit when seemingly down and out – especially against Warwinka. Yes, he was driven by his own need to achieve, but also by the fans who have supported and nurtured him throughout the tournament. Rather than suffer the ‘expectational’ stress of many of his Brit predecessors, he seems to thrive when he knows that the fans are there to help and support him—indeed he encourages them to do so by his gestures. When he does this it creates pressure for him to deliver what they want – victory! Like Billy Jean King he craves the pressure to help him perform at his highest level.
There are many people out there in the wider world of work who perennially experience excessive pressure – and they could learn a great deal from Andy Murray. First, by understanding that it is partly up to ‘you’ to cope with what happens to you in life. We all have a responsibility to do whatever we can to cope and sometimes we have to ‘dig deep’ to handle what is thrown at us at work or in life more generally. Second, we can draw on the support of our colleagues at work, our friends, neighbours and relatives at home. Tennis players have strong support networks around them – e.g. ‘Team Murray’ – so it pays to think about who is in ‘Team You’. We can only cope with so much alone time, and at some stage we all need the strength, love and support of others to go that extra mile – to cope with excessive pressure, to deal with that bully at work, to handle that unusually heavy workload, to cope with the fear of losing a job or the worry about a child’s health problem.
The trick is knowing when and how to use the pressure as a source of energy and motivation and when to acknowledge that it is excessive and that you need to replenish your resources. There is a fine line between peak performance and burn-out and you alone can work out where your line is – indeed, you have to look actively to find it.
