Do your colleagues make you stressed?

Recently I've been reflecting on the different experiences I have had over the years when meeting deadlines. I'm a highly organised person and it isn't hard to meet deadlines when it's just me working on a project. But this isn't the case when working as part of a team. The levels of stress I experience vary from project to project. I wanted to explore the reasons behind this, so as to avoid any unnecessary stress in the future.

I've reaslied that by the nature of my work with various clients and business partners, I work in a number of teams. I'm dependant on my team mates to meet deadlines. My relationship with each member of the team is important in ensuring that we achieve our goal.

In my mind, I compared two recent events with two different teams: in both instances we had to meet a tough deadline:

Team 1: At the 11th hour, when things were really going wrong, and costs were spiralling, there was an underlying feeling of mistrust and blame. I felt that I had to take a defensive stand to demonstrate that the mistakes that we were uncovering were not the result of my (in)actions. I felt paralysed by the negative emotions and the level of stress I was experiencing as I tried to work collaboratively with my colleagues to find a way through the barriers in order to complete the project in time.

Team 2: The attention to detail that characterised the key players in this team meant that at the 11th hour, a technical problem was highlighted. However, because the team players mutually supported each other and had a high level of trust, we were able to calmly work through the options, make the relevant adjustments and still delivered the project within the required timeframe. And without any stress, just heightened sense of motivation.

The bottom line is that my own personal stress levels correspond to the professionalism and maturity of those that I'm working with. In a team where there's high functionality, my stress levels are low and I'm driven to complete the task. Where's there's poor team working, I find myself getting extremely stressed to the point where I am unable to function (not nice).

I'm sure that I'm not the only person who works in teams and has experienced something similar. However, despite coming to these conclusions, I don't the answer to the following question:


"As an HR Consultant who works on a range of portfolio contracts, I work with teams for only a few months at a time. Therefore, I rarely work with the same people for very long. What do I need to do to ensure that when it comes to the 11th hour I'm working in a highly functioning team?"

All answers on a postcard gratefully received.