Imagine a temporary team of policemen, firefighters and military personnel whose task is to protect a small area of high threat and most likely will be subjected to some kind of stressful strains and be forced to solve unforeseen, complex situations together. They will not be exchanged, so the team needs to handle the strains without reducing performance. What is required for the team to work as well as possible under these conditions and what can leaders do to make the team work as its best?
The purpose of the study was to investigate what teams who are trained to work in environments with elements of physical and mental stress need to be able to cope with stressors, maintain continuous performance, and what leaders can do to strengthen and develop this type of team. A qualitative survey design was chosen, after which three occupational groups that all appear in the above-mentioned environments were selected. From each occupational group, one team was chosen to be interviewed in focus groups. A thematic analysis of the interviews was conducted based on the dimensions of demanding conditions, team resilience and leadership, resulting in a total of 8 higher-order themes and 18 lower-order themes. The result shows that mainly uncertainty and insufficiency are perceived as demanding conditions for the teams. Confidence as well as the importance of the team knowing eachother well on a personal level, appear in the result to be the most important factors for team resilience. That leaders show confidence is a significant factor in how leaders should act, as well as daring to make decisions and to have good professional skills. Research on both team resilience and leadership under demanding conditions can be seen to have major practical implications in itself, as under demanding conditions, there can be great values at stake. The study may contribute to future design of measuring instruments in order to measure or test team resilience, which can increase the ability to efficiently create resilient teams, which in turn can create good conditions for the health and strength of teams, organizations and individuals to be preserved.