When Stress Peaks
ADVISORY ARTICLE
By Jeff Oltmann
Oregon, USA
This time of year, stretches everyone. Deadlines loom, time is tight, and balancing work with life feels impossible. Chances are, your team is already stressed.
Stress doesn’t just make work harder – it changes how people think. It can reduce a person’s ability to process information by as much as 80%. People hear less, absorb less, and remember less. They react to perceived threats rather than rolling with the punches.
In project-based organizations, where communication is key and change is constant, these effects show up quickly. Your leadership style can help your team stay grounded and effective when pressure rises. In my experience, five actions have outsize impact.
- Be vigilant for signs of stress
Stress rarely announces itself directly. It shows up in the work.
- Incomplete or stalled deliverables
- Dropping productivity
- Lower quality outputs
- Avoidable mistakes
These are early-warning signals, not character flaws or performance failures. Treat them as indicators that your team needs support.
- Hear people
As Stephen Covey said in “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,” seek first to understand. (That reference dates me, doesn’t it?)
- Visibly acknowledge the high stress level across the organization.
- Recognize the good work that people are doing as well as the challenges they face.
- Demonstrate – consistently – that you care about their well-being.
Listening isn’t the same as cheerleading. It signals stability. It grounds your team and reduces fear and doubt. Calm leadership is infectious and helps counter the spread of stress. You can more about calm leadership and organizational holding here: spspro.com/dont-cheerlead-during-a-crisis.
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How to cite this article: Oltmann, J. (2026). Keeping Teams Steady When Stress Peaks, PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue I, January. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/pmwj160-Jan2026-Oltmann-keeping-teams-steady-when-stress-peaks.pdf
About the Author
Jeff Oltmann
Oregon, USA
Jeff Oltmann helps organizations accelerate results through strategy deployment and project portfolio management. He consults, teaches, and leads forums for senior PMO leaders. He is principal at Synergy Professional Services (spspro.com) in Portland, Oregon and is on the faculty of the Division of Management at Oregon Health and Science University. He was previously on executive staff at IBM and is the founder of the Portfolio and Project Leaders Forum, a gathering of senior managers who lead project-based organizations (pplforum.org).
Jeff welcomes your questions and ideas. You can contact him at jeff@spspro.com or read previous articles at www.spspro.com/article-library.
