How to Cope with Stress and Build Resilience for Yourself & Your Team

Life is pressured, business is tough, and lots of people are worn out - are you?

We may feel we’re just trying to get through one day at a time, and in our teams we may have noticed people becoming less productive, reduced engagement and motivation and even more sick days and quiet quitting. Pressure can be the fuel behind your ideas and energy until it tips too far and becomes something else: stress, fatigue, or even burnout.

Many businesses are trying to respond with wellbeing initiatives — but are they actually working?

According to recent research from Deloitte:

• 91% of C-suite executives believe their employees think leadership cares about their wellbeing - but only 56% of employees agree.

• 84% of execs say their company has made a public commitment to workforce wellbeing - but only 39% of employees feel that’s true.

That’s a disconnect. What we say we’re doing to support wellbeing isn’t always what people feel.

This article is about changing that. It’s about creating wellbeing measures that aren’t just fluffy perks or tick-box exercises, but that genuinely help people feel safe, valued, and supported. I suggest practical tools to help you do just that, to manage pressure before it becomes stress, to build resilience in small, sustainable ways, and to lead with empathy, clarity, and care.

Because this isn’t just about managing stress. It’s about how we treat each other as human beings. We’re all wired differently. We’re all juggling different pressures. And more than ever, people are feeling isolated, under pressure, and disconnected from their teams.

If we want resilient people and happy workplaces, we need to build a culture where people feel connected, supported, and part of something, not just held to performance targets, but truly seen, heard, and cared for.

Pressure vs. Stress: Finding the Sweet Spot

You might know this experience well: you're focused, motivated, in flow — and then suddenly, you crash. That’s because pressure exists on a curve:

Pressure Stress Curve

Not enough pressure can lead to boredom, disengagement and poor performance.

Just enough pressure (and what that means is different for everyone, we’re all different) you hit your stride and are in flow - high energy, clear focus, creativity.

But too much pressure, and we tip over to feeling stressed, overwhelmed and exhausted - ultimately this can lead to burnout..

So how do you notice when you’re tipping into the stress and overwhelm zone?

How to Spot the Signs of Stress in Yourself and Others

Stress sneaks in unnoticed, it’s often when we’re busiest that we don’t see the signs. So pay attention to what your body is telling you or the signs that your team may be feeling stressed. When you pay attention to these signs you can take steps to manage it and look after yourself or your colleagues.

Stress - what’s your body telling you?

Common Triggers That Tip Pressure into Stress

We all wear multiple hats at home and at work - parent and manager, carer and employee, managing your business and bottom line while providing the best service and quality for your clients or customers.

Here are 4 types of stress triggers:

1. Overload & Pressure
- Not enough time in the day/week
- Competing demands (home / work)
- Unrealistic expectations (from yourself or others)
- No time for rest or recovery and feeling like we’re always on.

2. Lack of Clarity or Control
- Lack of clarity around priorities or roles
- Ambiguity and Unclear or changing priorities
- Feeling powerless or lacking control
- Poor or patchy communication

3. Emotional Strain
- Carrying the emotional load for your clients, team, or family
- Supporting others but neglecting our own needs
- Guilt, perfectionism, or fear of disappointing people
- Personal stress bleeding into work
- Unresolved conflict or tensions in the workplace

4. Change & Lack of Boundaries
- Frequent or poorly-managed change

- Lack of work-life boundaries (e.g. emails at night)

- Working from home with no space to switch off and no clear end to the day
- Unspoken pressure to be “always available”

Once you notice these, you can take action — and that’s where the Four A’s come in.

The Four A’s: A Toolkit for Stress and Resilience

Here’s a simple but powerful framework I use with clients to help them respond to stress, rather than react.

1. Avoid - What can you say no - or not now to?

2. Alter - What can you reprioritise

3. Accept - What are the positives or benefits you can find?

4. Adapt - What’s another way of looking at this? How can you shift your perspective.

The Four As to Cope with Stress.

Focus on What Matters

When your to-do list feels endless and everything feels urgent, it’s easy to get caught in a spiral of busyness without real progress. This is where two really simple but powerful tools come in: the Eisenhower Matrix and the Action Priority Matrix.

These frameworks help you zoom out, reduce decision fatigue, and spend your energy on what matters most — rather than just reacting to whatever’s shouting loudest.

The Eisenhower Matrix

This tool helps you decide how to deal with your tasks based on urgency and importance. It’s a 2x2 grid that helps you sort your to-do list into four clear categories:

Eisenhower Decision Making Matrix

How to use it:

1. Write out your full to-do list — everything that’s on your mind.

2. Take each item and ask: Is this urgent? Is this important? Place each task into one of the four boxes.

3. Focus first on what’s both urgent and important, then schedule what’s important but not urgent.

4. Be ruthless about what you can delegate or delete — just because it’s on your list doesn’t mean it needs your energy.

Tip: Most of your energy should be going into the “Important but Not Urgent” box — this is where your long-term success, strategy, and sanity live.

The Action Priority Matrix

This tool helps you evaluate tasks based on effort vs. impact — a great way to stop wasting energy on things that look urgent but deliver very little return.

How to use it:

1. Choose a handful of tasks or ideas you're working on.

2. For each, ask: How much effort will this take? What’s the potential impact?

3. Plot each one in the appropriate box.

4. Prioritise “Quick Wins” and block out time in your diary for “Major Projects”.

5. Limit how much time you spend on low-impact tasks — these are energy drains.

Tip: This is especially useful if you’re prone to overthinking or perfectionism. It helps you get out of your head and make practical, time-smart choices.

Resilience Hacks: Small Habits That Make a Big Difference

Resilience isn’t about being “strong” — it’s about staying responsive and resourceful, even when things feel hard. These micro-habits help:

For you:

• Name it: “I feel... because…” – labelling emotions helps calm your nervous system

• Set clear boundaries: Protect time for breaks, focus, and rest

• Say no (or not now): Be Realistic about what you can fit in

• Move: Walk, stretch, breathe – anything to reset your nervous system.

• Recharge: Do something that re-energises you. For some this is exercise or just being outside, for some of us it’s just doing nothing. For extraverts it may be being around other

• Write things down: your to-do list, your worries, even just a brain dump of everything on your mind. Journaling is a powerful practice, especially when things feel overwhelming or you're stuck in a loop of overthinking. It doesn’t have to be long just write what’s circling in your head. Keep a notebook by your bed and use it to offload thoughts at night, it can really help with switching off and sleeping better.

• Keep a “done” list as well as your to-do list. At the end of each day, jot down what you did get done — even the small stuff. It’s a great way to recognise progress, celebrate effort, and counter that constant feeling you haven’t got everything done.

For your team:

• Check in regularly: Make time and space to talk about wellbeing in a group and individually. If people find it hard to talk about emotions do it informally, for example on a walk to the coffee shop, rather than in a formal meeting. Use metaphors - a traffic light system for example where green is everything is fine and red is I need help.

• Ask “How are you, really?” Leave space for people to talk and really listen, pay attention to body language. What’s their body language telling you that they may not be verbalising?

• Role model healthy boundaries: Say, “It’s the end of the working day/week and I’ll have to pick this up later, normalising boundaries and that it’s ok to switch off.

• Make it ok to not be OK by being open and talking about your own experiences and challenges so people know that they can be open with you. Often it’s your highest performers who will be the least likely to admit that they’re not coping, because of the feeling of shame or not wanting to let you, the client or the rest of the team down.

• Celebrate the small wins, not just the big ones: What went well this week? This creates a sense of momentum and achievement.

• Create clarity: Repeat the “why” behind tasks or changes

Take Time to Reflect

Use these questions to spark insight — write them down, discuss with a colleague, or use them in your next team check-in:

For You:

• What signs tell you you’re tipping into stress?

• What strengths do you have that help you cope with challenge or pressure?


• Think of a time you overcame stress or challenge — what helped you through it?


• What’s one sign that tells you you’re starting to feel stressed or overwhelmed?


• What small boundary or habit could help you protect your wellbeing this week?


• What’s one thing you’ll say ‘no’ to this week, in order to say ‘yes’ to what matters most?

For your Team:

• What are the signs your team is tipping into stress?


• How can you help make it safe for others to say they’re struggling?


• What’s one thing you’ll do this week to support your team’s resilience?


• How can you model healthy boundaries?


• How can you build more connection and trust in your team culture?

Want to explore this further?

If you’d like to explore how to manage pressure, lead with more ease, or put better boundaries in place, I offer one to one coaching to help you cope with stress and build resilience and design bespoke workshops and programmes for businesses and teams to put strategies in place.

If you’d like to explore coaching or bespoke workshops, I offer a free 30-minute exploratory call. You can book a time here >

Or email me polly@pollyrobinson.co.uk or call: 07966 475195.