To achieve — and sustain — success, many companies place extraordinary demands on their teams. World-renowned investment banks, law firms, and consulting firms are notorious for subjecting employees to grueling workdays. Software developers use the word “crunch” to describe the long, stressful hours of work that are often required in the final weeks before a new product launch.
Managing Through Crunch Time — Without Burning Out Your Team
Lessons from the U.S. Army.
September 13, 2021
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Summary.
Crunch times — the long, stressful hours of work that are often required in the final weeks before a new product launch — can have an inordinate impact on the success of businesses and they’re powerful shapers of organizational culture. Effective leaders understand that during these times, it’s difficult to achieve excellence without placing significant demands on personnel. Yet any success that comes at the cost of employees’ mental or physical health is a Pyrrhic victory. In studying senior U.S. Army officers, who served in extremely stressful and pressure-filled environments, researchers identified the ability to balance this tension between getting the job done and managing the impacts on people as its own leadership competency — one with special relevance to high-performing organizations.