Five ways to fix your high performance problem

Summary: Sustainable high performance is difficult to achieve in today’s world of work. The foundation is fostering teams that can perform consistently well without burning people out.

The last few years have changed how we all think about work. The pandemic didn’t just affect where we work; it shifted expectations, habits and priorities. 

At the same time, stress levels have risen as people navigate uncertainty, heavy workloads and the blurring of boundaries between work and personal life. 

Add to that hybrid working, talent shortages and growing living costs, and it’s clear that organisations are operating in a very different environment than before.

Achieving sustainable high performance

With so much change happening at once, maintaining strong performance is no longer as straightforward as it used to be. 

That’s why more organisations need to focus on something deeper: how to foster teams that can perform consistently well without burning people out.

A big part of that comes down to wellbeing. But it’s not about launching a few new initiatives and hoping for the best. 

If organisations want sustainable high performance, they need to look more broadly at how work actually feels for people on a day-to-day basis, and what’s getting in the way.

Here are a few practical areas to focus on.

More organisations need to focus on something deeper: how to foster teams that can perform consistently well without burning people out

1. Start by understanding what’s really going on

Before doing anything new, it’s important to get a clear picture of where things stand: 

• What’s actually causing pressure for people right now? 
• What’s working well? 
• And where are things starting to slip?

It’s easy to make assumptions – like thinking stress is mainly about workload or deadlines – but that’s not always the full story. 

Sometimes it’s unclear priorities, ways of working that haven’t evolved or expectations that no one has really questioned in years.

Leaders and HR teams need to be open to challenging some of the “this is how we’ve always done it” habits. That’s often where the real issues sit.

It’s also worth remembering that wellbeing isn’t a separate topic from performance; it’s part of it. Every decision, whether it’s about hybrid working, pay or team structures, has some kind of impact on how people feel and how they perform.

Simple check-ins, surveys or team conversations can go a long way in building a better understanding. 

More importantly, creating space for honest conversations helps people feel heard, and often surfaces ideas that wouldn’t come up otherwise.

2. Help people handle pressure better

Pressure at work isn’t going away. There will always be tight deadlines, difficult conversations and things that don’t go to plan. 

The goal isn’t to remove pressure completely, it’s to help people deal with it in a healthier way. 

With the right support, pressure can actually be a good thing. It can stretch people, build confidence and lead to growth. But without the right skills, it quickly tips into stress.

That’s where organisations can make a real difference. Helping employees build skills like emotional awareness, staying calm under pressure and focusing on what they can control can change how they respond in challenging situations.

It’s also useful to help people understand their own working style, as well as others’. A lot of workplace stress comes from miscommunication or mismatched expectations, not just workload.

Building these kinds of skills shouldn’t be an afterthought. They’re just as important as technical or role-specific training if you want people to perform well over time.

3. Make wellbeing part of everyday work

For wellbeing to have a real impact, it needs to be part of everyday work. Not something that lives in a document or occasional campaign.

Leaders play a key role in this. How they set expectations, manage workloads and model behaviour shapes what people see as acceptable.

This is especially important in hybrid environments, where boundaries can easily blur and switching off becomes harder.

It also means factoring wellbeing into daily decisions. When introducing changes or setting targets, consider how they’ll affect people, whether they bring clarity or confusion, support or pressure. Small choices like these add up over time.

Support should cover a range of needs, because wellbeing is not one-dimensional

4. Provide easy access to support

Even in the best workplaces, people will sometimes need extra support – and that’s normal. What matters is how easy it is for them to get it.

Support should cover a range of needs, because wellbeing is not one-dimensional. Someone might be dealing with financial stress, health issues, or something going on outside of work, and all of that can affect how they show up.

The key is making sure support is easy to find and easy to use. If it feels complicated or is only available in serious situations, people are less likely to use it early – when it could make the biggest difference.

Managers also play an important role here. They don’t need to have all the answers, but they should feel confident having conversations, listening properly, and pointing people in the right direction if needed.

5. Take a balanced approach

There’s no single fix for building a stress-resilient, high-performing workplace. It comes down to a few things working together: understanding where pressure comes from, helping people manage it and making sure support is there when it’s needed.

When that’s in place, performance becomes far more sustainable. People are more engaged, adaptable and better equipped to handle challenges.

If you enjoyed this article, read: Why CEO burnout is undermining your wellbeing strategy