Adding people rarely makes a team faster in the short term anyway, so the real question is: where is the team's time actually going, and what can I change about that? I treat "go faster" as a prompt to find leverage, not as a demand to work longer hours.
I don't just say "impossible" or silently accept it. I respond with a trade-off: "We can hit that date if we cut features A and B, or accept higher risk on testing. Here's what I recommend." This makes speed a shared, conscious decision rather than a quiet quality gamble.
Sustainable speed comes from removing waste, not from squeezing people. A Tech Lead who responds to pressure with clear trade-offs and process improvements builds a team that's genuinely fast and durable — instead of one that sprints, crashes, and loses its best engineers.