Different levels of support and challenge create different environments. People can experience all of the different environments (as depicted above), depending on the situations they find themselves in. 

The majority of people would prefer to be in the high-performance quadrant most of the time. That’s where we can get things done and achieve business success. It is also where we are most able to learn, grow and develop. 

Creating the environment for high performance requires a healthy balance of support and challenge that is appropriate for the situation and the individual involved. As people we are all unique and therefore what might be challenging or supportive to one person, might not be to the next. This means a ‘one size fits all’ approach won’t be effective. We have to find out what the individual needs in any given situation and then act on that. 

In situations where the challenge is high, people can feel under pressure or stress. The response is often to reduce the level of challenge. This might be appropriate in some situations. In others, and arguably more often, you might be better maintaining the level of challenge and increasing the level of support, considering the needs of the individual. Adopting this approach will help achieve or maintain high performance and lead to greater wellbeing for the individual.