Is Pressure Privilege?
Like any sporting event, with the Olympics we get to view the highs and lows of people at the top of their games, great feats, new personal best and records. These are always great to see but greater is the human spirit that’s captured in the individual acts of sportsmanship. It’s Mutaz Barshim and Gianmarco Tamberi sharing the gold medal in the men’s high jump. It’s the team effort and support of the US Gymnastic’s Women’s team. It’s Simone Biles’ decision to prioritise her mental health and declaring that “…we have to protect our minds and our bodies and not just go out and do what the world wants us to do.”
A couple of days after Biles’ announcement, Novak Djokovic declared that “pressure is a privilege”. At first, it looked like an immediate response to Biles, which it was not. But we were left with two attitudes that over the next days spiralled Biles into a spokesperson for mental health and Djokovic the face of tantrums as Pablo Carreno Busta defeated him in the men’s singles bronze medal match. (Obviously, let’s not forget that Djokovic has won 3 grand slams this year).
The notion that “pressure is a privilege” is a myth from an Industrial Age where force was the best attack, where it was either to eat or be eaten, and pressure a by-product which we would have to shoulder to be at the top of a game. However, that privilege – just like any other privilege – makes us blind to the changing world around us. Today, the strong leader is being replaced by the focused facilitator of networked, nonlinear and dynamic teams who master problems from multiple perspectives. The opposite, attacking wicked problems with a show of force, only banishes the problem to arise in another form in another realm.
Pressure can, at the best of times, make us focus a bit better and it encourages us to get things done. When we respond well to pressure it can feel like we are flying – we’re in a single-mindedness with narrow focus. The downside is that we cannot endure ongoing constant pressure because it will burn us – as it rises in another wicked form.
Implied in '“pressure is a privilege” is that succumbing to the pressure we are fragile and not worthy. However, what Simone Biles has demonstrated is that taking a step back isn’t being fragile, it’s the opposite of fragile and what Nicholas Nassim Taleb called ‘anti-fragile’. This passage from Metamodern Leadership by James Surwillo captures it perfectly:
“Strong would be the phoenix rising from ashes after an attack. Antifragility is like the Hydra, a monster that grows two heads back for every one that is cut off.”
I don’t know about you, but I rather be a multi-headed monster constantly growing stronger than being reborn and starting from scratch with each defeat.
Pressure may be a privilege at times (and for some) but the phrase is misleading. It misattributes success to brute force and lead us to believe that we should accept the negative by-products – that we should sacrifice parts of ourselves – as we step into the arena.