Just like any social group, there is pressure among coworkers to conform to the accepted group dynamic. This has a centering effect on a team. Groups have a tendency to pull individuals from extremes toward the center of a group.

Under performing individuals are pressured to pull their own weight, which is a good thing. Over performing individuals, especially those who do it through hard work, may feel pressured to slow down, which adds drag to an organization’s progress.

It is extremely hard to fight peer pressure. Look at kids in school. If a child is “too smart” they get labeled and teased. If they are on the low side, they may also get teased. In the first case, the person may conceal their academic aptitude. Or, they may choose to alter their path to focus on something that helps them fit in, even at the expense of their studies. Very few people have the strength to thrive in the face of peer pressure.

Peer pressure is not all bad, though. An overweight child may feel pressure to participate in playground games and sports, which can result in higher levels of fitness. (This is different than bullying, which should never be tolerated, of course.) A child who steps over a line from mischief to criminal behavior may also get reined in by his or her peers who may not want to hang out with someone who is likely to get them into trouble.

Note that peer pressure may be positive or negative. Teasing and badgering falls on one side of the spectrum. Encouragement falls on the other end.

Peer pressure is similar in workplace environments. Slackers get reigned in, and high achievers can get alienated if they don’t conform. This can make driving change in your organization a challenge. Your supporters, in the face of peer pressure, may be reluctant to overtly back continuous improvement efforts. Good leaders are willing to step up and say what they think. Fewer frontline employees will do the same, as they tend to place significant value on their social relationships with those around them.

Peer pressure thrives in secrecy and in leadership vacuums. If you are in charge of a team, be present. A lot.
Focus on rewards to overcome negative peer pressure.

Negative peer pressure can be challenging to overcome. It is often subtle, so even identifying it can be a problem. Keep this in mind, though. In purely social environments, the relationship is its own reward. Peer pressure focuses on meeting group norms and people do what they are pressured to do because being in the group is valued.

In the workplace, though, social interaction is secondary to the desire to make money. For that reason, there is a way to overcome negative peer pressure.

The key thing to remember about peer pressure is that it will exist regardless of what you do. What you can influence is whether peer pressure is aligned with the company’s goals or not.

Results vs. Actions

Peer pressure will mimic what leaders focus on to some degree. If managers only look at results, that’s what team members will focus on as well. If teams think that hitting targets is out of reach, they may not push their coworkers.

But if leaders are concerned with doing the right thing, regardless of results, and put a lot of emphasis on that, teams will push each other towards specific behaviors.

So, when leaders look at how they want to recognize and reward their teams, they should, of course, look at results. But they should also look positively on attempting the behaviors that the company wants.

If the rewards and acknowledgements for doing those things are worthwhile to the team, they will generate positive peer pressure. Rewards must have an immediate, clearly identifiable cause and effect relationship, though. Annual profit-sharing plans and the like don’t typically make a person change their everyday behavior. The rewards are just too far off.

Daily Management and Peer Pressure

Daily management is yet another way to manage peer pressure. Peer pressure thrives in secrecy. Daily management makes situations transparent. It is easy to convince someone not to talk about a problem when there is nobody around. It is much harder to do that when the numbers are up on a board and a group is working root cause analysis to figure out where some variation came from.