What the team told us
Five leaders answered, for themselves and for the teams they lead.
Two things shape how people cope at work. Demands are the parts of the job that take energy. Resources are what help people meet those demands and keep working well.
Workload and pace, change, competing priorities, emotional load, and admin. Left unchecked they wear people down.
Clear purpose, control over how you work, time to recover, support from others, and habits like planning and prioritising. They help people absorb the demands.
When demands outweigh resources for too long, people strain. When resources keep pace, people cope and can even grow. The number that matters is the gap between the two.
When workload bites, the first response is usually “we need more people” or “we need to do less”. Sometimes that is part of it.
Add people, or cut the work. Sometimes that is the right call, but it is not always possible.
Build the resources that help people cope: clarity, control, recovery, support, and how they plan and prioritise. Leaders can act on these directly.
This survey shows where those resources are thin, so we can be deliberate about which ones to build.
Balance is resources minus demands. A negative number means demands are the heavier side.
Demands 3.96, resources 3.78. Just below the line.
Demands 3.8, resources 3.38. Leaders see their teams as more stretched than they are themselves.
High for both. Volume, pace and change are the main drivers, and teams have fewer resources to draw on.
Room to recover came back lowest of all the resources, for leaders and teams alike. People rarely get to finish one thing and reset before the next one lands.
Every other resource sits at least a point higher. If there is one thing to shift, it is this.
Scored 1 to 5. Higher means more pressure.
Workload, pace and change press hardest. Change load and emotional load are the two demands people rate higher for their team than for themselves.
Scored 1 to 5. Higher means the resource is stronger.
Recovery is lowest for everyone. On purpose and prioritising, leaders rate their teams well below themselves.
Drawn from what people wrote.
Based on these five responses, the areas worth putting in front of the group.
The weakest resource for everyone. Work out practical ways to build in time to reset.
Leaders are holding too much. Look at what can move to the team, and what is getting in the way.
Help senior people take more ownership and lead, so work stops routing through one person.
Support people through the change with clear roles and time to find their feet.
Drag a leadership idea into the valve to see what it does to the pressure. Edit any idea, or add your own.
Load & Resilience · Results
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