No. Some work is unquestionably high-stakes, but pressure is not built into the job, deadline, presentation, investigation, or decision.
That distinction matters for HR. If pressure belongs to the situation, the best anyone can do is cope with it. But, if pressure is created through how the situation is interpreted, HR and leadership have far more useful options.
Stakes and Pressure Are Not the Same
An employee may be presenting to the executive team, handling a harassment complaint, managing a payroll disruption, leading a reduction in force, or making a decision with serious financial and human consequences. Those situations are high-stakes because there is a meaningful difference between what happens if the work goes well and what happens if it does not.
Calling them high-pressure situations assumes that pressure is a feature of the moment. Yet two capable people can face essentially the same situation and experience very different amounts of pressure. The same person can even face the same task on different days and have two different experiences. The stakes may remain stable. Pressure does not.
Pressure exists in the mind, not in the moment. More specifically, pressure is the weight we create when attention moves away from present execution and locks onto imagined consequences. The mind stops asking, “What needs to happen right now?” and starts asking, “What happens to me if this goes wrong?”
The imagined consequences do not have to be negative. Thinking about the promotion, recognition, money, approval, or future opportunities that might follow success can create just as much pressure. Whether the imagined future looks good or bad, attention has left the work that can be done now.
When I call pressure an illusion, I am not dismissing the experience. Pressure is real. The illusion is that the situation created it.
The Same Stunt, a Different Experience
I saw this distinction clearly in two nearly identical stunts about twenty years apart. On VIP, I was thrown from the back of a moving truck, hit the pavement, and rolled. The stunt coordinator, producers, and several influential stunt people were watching, and I experienced enormous pressure.
Years later, on The Righteous Gemstones, I performed nearly the same stunt with similar observers and stakes but experienced no pressure. The first time, my attention was on what everyone might think and what the stunt could mean for my future. The second time, I was immersed in execution.
The type of stunt did not determine the pressure. The difference was where my attention went.
Organizations Still Matter
Saying the mind creates pressure does not give organizations a free pass. Workload, leadership, incentives, ambiguity, punitive consequences, inadequate support, and organizational culture provide much of the information employees interpret.
Leaders also direct attention through language. Statements such as “We cannot afford to get this wrong,” “Everyone is watching,” or “This could determine what happens next” keep imagined consequences active in the employee’s mind. A leader may believe that message is increasing commitment when it is actually pulling attention away from execution.
HR cannot control how every employee interprets every situation. It can influence the conditions being interpreted and help leaders communicate in ways that support effective action.
When to Use STEP
STEP is a brief leadership conversation used when a high-stakes moment is approaching or when someone’s attention begins shifting from execution toward imagined consequences. A manager might use it before an important presentation, during a difficult project, or whenever language such as “I have to get this right” reveals that psychological weight is building.
S: State the stakes once. Name the real consequences honestly without dramatizing them or repeatedly using them as motivation.
T: Trace the “I have to.” Ask, “If you don’t, what do you believe will happen?” The answer reveals the imagined consequence carrying the weight.
E: Establish execution. Clarify what good execution looks like, identify the first decision or action, and direct attention toward the cues that matter now.
P: Provide resources. Determine what information, preparation, authority, support, or feedback the person needs, and make clear where the leader can help.
A STEP conversation might sound like this: “Here is what is at stake. What do you believe will happen if this does not go well? Here is what good execution looks like. Here is the first decision we need to make, and here is where I can help.”
This does not minimize the consequences. It puts them in their proper place so the employee can focus on the actions that may influence them.
High-stakes work is unavoidable. Pressure is not.
