Most business leaders can take only so much pressure before their performance slides. Yet some CEOs deliver their greatest successes when times get toughest—when customers’ preferences are shifting away from a company’s products, when new regulations are shrinking profit margins, when political unrest is destroying supply lines. In Better Under Pressure, Justin Menkes reveals the common traits that make these leaders successful. Drawing on in-depth interviews with sixty CEOs from an array of industries and performance data from two hundred other leaders, Menkes shows that great executives strive relentlessly to maximize their own potential—as well as stoke their people’s innate thirst for their own triumphs. To do so, they draw on a set of three essential and rare attributes: • Realistic optimism: They recognize the risks threatening their organization’s survival—and their own failings—while remaining confident in their ability to have an impact. • Subservience to purpose: They dedicate themselves to pursuing a noble cause and win their team’s commitment to that cause. • Finding order in chaos: They find clarity amid the many variables affecting their business by culling data and forming the conclusions that matter most to the company. The good news: these three capabilities can be learned. Drawing on a broad range of examples from real companies—including Avon, Yum Brands, Southwest, Procter & Gamble, and Ryerson Steel, to name just a few—Menkes demonstrates how each psychological attribute manifests itself in real life and enables top performance under extreme duress. He also shows you how to develop and deploy those attributes—so you can transform yourself into a leader who only shines brighter as the pressure intensifies. Deeply personal, brimming with compelling stories from real-life CEOs, and packed with powerful insights, tools, and practices, this book is a potent resource for aspiring, emerging, and seasoned business leaders alike.

Colonel Bob Stewart believes leading under pressure is as great a challenge as it can get, and he should know. Having served in Northern Ireland and Bosnia, where he was British battalion commander, he has faced life and death situations and the toughest decisions any leader can make.In Leadership Under Pressure he draws on his experiences, both in the army and in business, and uses them to illustrate the key attributes he believes any leader should have. In this very personal view of leadership, you can find out how to maintain morale in tough times, deal with a crisis, show courage to colleagues and lead others by your example, whilst discovering the importance of planning for a VIP visit and how to negotiate with a warlord.Full of eye opening stories and frontline details, Leadership Under Pressure is a must read for any aspiring leader - or those already in command!

"This well-researched book is a must read for all those interested in preventing crises, or, at the very least, mitigating them."---Ian Mitroff, Marshall Goldsmith School of Management, Alliant University, CA --Book Jacket.

Nobody performs better under pressure. Regardless of the task, pressure ruthlessly diminishes our judgment, decision-making, attention, dexterity, and performance in every professional and personal arena. In Performing Under Pressure, Drs. Hendrie Weisinger and J.P. Pawliw-Fry introduce us to the concept of pressure management, offering empirically tested short term and long term solutions to help us overcome the debilitating effects of pressure. Performing Under Pressure tackles the greatest obstacle to personal success, whether in a sales presentation, at home, on the golf course, interviewing for a job, or performing onstage at Carnegie Hall. Despite sports mythology, no one "rises to the occasion" under pressure and does better than they do in practice. The reality is pressure makes us do worse, and sometimes leads us to fail utterly. But there are things we can do to diminish its effects on our performance. Performing Under Pressure draws on research from over 12,000 people, and features the latest research from neuroscience and from the frontline experiences of Fortune 500 employees and managers, Navy SEALS, Olympic and other elite athletes, and others. It offers 22 specific strategies each of us can use to reduce pressure in our personal and professional lives and allow us to better excel in whatever we do. Whether you’re a corporate manager, a basketball player, or a student preparing for the SAT, Performing Under Pressure will help you to do your best when it matters most.

Composed: The Heart and Science of Leading Under Pressure is a roadmap for standing firmly in who we are while staying connected to those who matter most to us - especially when high-pressure moments come. It doesn't matter whether you are a CEO, parent, manager, or student, none of us are immune to the possibility of losing it when the pressure is on. For some people, public speaking is a fear. Maybe conflict makes you uncomfortable. For others, simply being responsible for the experience or learning of others causes you anxiety. Even for seasoned leaders who face pressure every day, showing up their best can be tough. Whether pressure makes us feel incompetent and unworthy, or mean and reactive, the impact of losing our composure is significant. Our capacity to compose ourselves when the pressure is highest, to lead strong, and to lead with care in the most difficult situations of conflict and anxiety may have the single greatest impact on our families, our teams, our organizations, and the world that surrounds us. The stakes are too high for us and for those we love to wait any longer. Composed: The Heart and Science of Leading Under Pressure is based on our research on the developmental journey of thousands of leaders who have taken the Leading Under Pressure Inventory. This inventory is one of eight whole leader development tools in the WiLD Toolkit. To access the Leading Under Pressure Inventory or the entire suite of tools for yourself, your small group, team, organization, or coaching practice, visit www.wildtoolkit.com.

Do people see you as the kind of leader you want to be? Are your strongest leadership qualities getting in the way of your greatness? After decades of advising and inspiring some of the most eminent chief executives in the world, Lolly Daskal has uncovered a startling pattern: within each leader are powerful abilities that are also hidden impediments to greatness. She’s witnessed many highly driven, overachieving leaders rise to prominence fueled by well-honed skill sets, only to falter when the shadow sides of the same skills emerge. Now Daskal reveals her proven system, which leaders at any level can apply to dramatically improve their results. It begins with identifying your distinctive leadership archetype and recognizing its shadow: ■ The Rebel, driven by confidence, becomes the Imposter, plagued by self-doubt. ■ The Explorer, fueled by intuition, becomes the Exploiter, master of manipulation. ■ The Truth Teller, who embraces candor, becomes the Deceiver, who creates suspicion. ■ The Hero, embodying courage, becomes the Bystander, an outright coward. ■ The Inventor, brimming with integrity, becomes the Destroyer, who is morally corrupt. ■ The Navigator, trusts and is trusted, becomes the Fixer, endlessly arrogant. ■ The Knight, for whom loyalty is everything, becomes the Mercenary, who is perpetually self-serving. Using psychology, philosophy, and her own experience, Daskal offers a breakthrough perspective on leadership. She’ll take you inside some of the most cloistered boardrooms, let you in on deeply personal conversations with industry leaders, and introduce you to luminaries who’ve changed the world. Her insights will help you rethink everything you know to become the leader you truly want to be.

The tennis star recounts her life and athletic career, from childhood, through her athletic successes, to her life after professional tennis, and discusses the life lessons that she learned at every stage along the way.