They need the FACTs™: Focus, Arousal, Confidence, and Tenacity. Across more than 30 years performing stunts and 11 years applying performance psychology with elite Army units, I have seen these four resources support execution when the stakes are high without relying on pressure to make the moment feel more important.
Pressure begins when attention moves from present execution to the imagined consequences of success or failure. Eliminating pressure allows attention to return to the work. Performing well still depends on having the focus, arousal, confidence, and tenacity the task requires.
When Pressure Appears to Work
Picture an employee ten minutes before an executive presentation. Their energy is flat. Then the manager reminds them who will be watching and what a poor presentation could cost. Suddenly, the employee sits up, starts talking faster, and locks in.
Pressure appears to have worked. What actually changed was the employee’s arousal. The imagined consequences created urgency and increased physiological activation. Because the employee began below the energy level the presentation required, that surge may help temporarily. It may also pull their attention toward embarrassment, approval, or the promotion that now seems to be riding on the presentation.
The employee needed more energy and a clearer target for their attention. Pressure happened to provide one while threatening the other. That is why it can appear helpful without being a reliable performance strategy.
The Four FACTs
FACTs is the performance framework I use to identify and strengthen the resources high-stakes execution requires. Each FACT can change across tasks and moments.
Focus is the ability to direct and redirect attention toward the controllable, present-moment information that matters. In practice, that means selecting the cues, decisions, and actions most relevant right now. Someone can concentrate intensely on the wrong thing, so the useful question is, “What is important now?”
Arousal is the level of physiological energy and activation someone brings to a task. A financial analyst checking a complicated model will generally need a calmer level than a firefighter entering a burning building. The useful level can even change within one performance. Effective performers learn to recognize whether their energy is too high, too low, or about right, and then adjust it.
Confidence, as neuroscientist Ian Robertson explains it, combines two beliefs: Can Do × Can Happen. Can Do is the belief that I am capable of completing the required action. Can Happen is the belief that completing it can produce the desired result. An employee may trust their ability while doubting that the resources, authority, support, or organizational environment will allow good work to matter.
Tenacity has two parts. The first is the familiar one: grit, perseverance, and the willingness to keep going when conditions become difficult. The second is a mindset. Tomorrow is another day. This presentation, decision, or performance is one part of a much larger journey. Success or failure may influence the direction we take next, but either way, we get up and keep moving.
Together, the FACTs answer four practical questions: What deserves my attention? What level of energy does this task require? Do I believe I can succeed and that my actions can produce the desired result? Can I keep moving while remembering that this moment is only one part of my life?
Before Concluding Someone Needs More Pressure
When an employee appears hesitant, distracted, flat, or inconsistent, leaders often reach for consequences. Sometimes that creates an immediate change, which makes the assumption that pressure works difficult to challenge.
A more useful response begins with a more precise question: Which of the FACTs needs attention right now? Is the employee focused on the wrong information? Is their energy mismatched to the task? Do they doubt their ability, or do they doubt that effective action can produce the desired result within the system? Are they having trouble pushing through a setback, or have they lost sight of the larger journey?
The response should match the answer. Leaders can clarify priorities, create opportunities to rehearse, provide useful feedback, adjust resources or authority, remove organizational barriers, and help employees prepare for changing conditions. Those actions develop the resources performance requires. Repeating the consequences does not.
High-stakes performance does not require more pressure. It requires strong FACTs and the ability to apply the right resource at the right time.
What if the consequences creating pressure never happen?
I help leaders and high-performing individuals eliminate pressure, reduce stress, prevent burnout, sustain motivation, and build cultures where teams perform at their best when it matters most. Mention this LinkedIn series when you schedule a free 60-minute session to discuss your organization’s challenges and how we could work together.
