Practical guide for managers and employees who want to take a positive approach to managing work-place pressure.

Drawing on 20 years of leadership experience in high pressure emergency medical and rescue situations, the author describes the consequences of pressure, both positive and negative, and teaches the strategies we need to attain states of peak performance.

Former TOPGUN instructor, Navy Ace, and award-winning commercial real estate salesman Bill Driscoll offers business leaders results-proven principles to compete in the fast-paced, global enterprise that is today's business world. For Peak Performance Under Pressure: How to Achieve Extraordinary Results Under the Most Difficult Circumstances, he interviewed more than 200 senior executives and 26 Aces to show readers how to make critical decisions under intense pressure; build strong, dedicated teams; maintain steadfast focus on their mission; and model the integrity and constancy they expect from their staffs while facing rapidly changing problems. In Peak Performance Under Pressure, Driscoll uses the following six-element formula to keep leaders winning while tackling the most high-pressure conditions: Planning + Preparation + Focus + Assessment + Improvement + Self-Discipline = Peak Performance These six tools helped Driscoll keep his head and make split-second decisions through 170 combat missions, 5,200 jet dogfights, and 510 aircraft carrier landings as an Ace fighter pilot. Chapter 1 outlines each of the six elements in the Peak Performance Formula, how that formula enables Ace fighter pilots to win no matter what and how their methods can work for business leaders. This chapter's assessment enables the reader to quickly identify his or her own peak performance challenges. In chapter 2, the reader learns essential techniques for creating winning plans, including a targeted overview of the three must-have elements in any successful business plan, and a logical four-step approach to using a daily action plan to accomplish strategic, operational, and tactical goals. Chapter 3 outlines some concrete steps for mastering the five levels of essential preparation for both team and personal success and for building the kind of physical, emotional, and psychological readiness that will help the reader overcome his or her biggest challenges and toughest competition in any arena. Chapter 4 takes a close look at the Aces' techniques for developing and maintaining laser-beam focus and attention to detail, and it offers a simple, three-step process for adopting those techniques to boost personal and team performance. In chapter 5, the reader learns why ongoing assessment is essential to attaining peak performance, some easy-to-follow methods for assessing performance and that of a team, and how to infuse an organization with the kind of essential accountability necessary to establish standards of excellence, gain customer trust, and improve outcomes in every aspect of the operation. Chapter 6 offers specific tools and techniques for making ongoing improvements in the reader's personal, team, and organizational performance. From improving self-discipline to acing key leadership skills, building confidence, and expanding one's sphere of influence, the skills learned in this chapter help the reader become a more effective decision maker, in any environment and under any level of pressure. Chapter 7 pulls together the "training program," as it outlines how the reader's ability to consistently adhere to the Peak Performance Formula enables him or her to face down some of the most common workplace ambushes and respond expertly to any rapidly evolving challenge. Here, the reader learns some simple principles for integrating the ideas and practices gained in the book into a never-fail plan for surviving and thriving both personally and professionally.

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.

WHAT THE MAN WHO TEACHES THE WORLD'S TOP ATHLETES CAN TEACH YOU ABOUT OVERCOMING STRESS AND WINNING IN BUSINESS AND IN LIFE Pressure. It keeps us focused, drives athletes to Olympic greatness, businesspeople to produce record value in their companies and artists to the stellar heights of their craft. But too much pressure is unhealthy and counterproductive. It leads to sleeplessness, heart attacks and many other negative side effects. It can also make us seize up and lose our ease when we need it the most. World-renowned sports psychologist Saul -Miller, who teaches elite athletes and top sports teams how to be successful, shares a wealth of practical tools and exercises that allow anyone, in any situation, to manage the pressure they feel, and to channel it into peak performance. Dr. Miller goes in-depth and teaches you: The difference between stress and pressure, and how to make them work for you How to use power thoughts and imagery to enhance your attitude and performance How to improve your baseline stress tolerance Techniques and exercises to control physical reactions to pressure How variations in personality and style affect the ways people experience and deal with pressure, and how this knowledge applies to you Training Notes that give you a clear 4-week plan for each of the major tools. This book is an essential toolbox for anyone who wants to ensure that when it comes time to face intense, high-pressure situations, you'll be prepared to succeed.

"A transfixing book on how to sustain peak performance and avoid burnout" —Adam Grant, New York Times bestselling author of Option B, Originals, and Give and Take "An essential playbook for success, happiness, and getting the most out of ourselves." Arianna Huffington, author of Thrive and The Sleep Revolution "I doubt anyone can read Peak Performance without itching to apply something to their own lives." —David Epstein, New York Times bestselling author of The Sports Gene A few common principles drive performance, regardless of the field or the task at hand. Whether someone is trying to qualify for the Olympics, break ground in mathematical theory or craft an artistic masterpiece, many of the practices that lead to great success are the same. In Peak Performance, Brad Stulberg, a former McKinsey and Company consultant and writer who covers health and the science of human performance, and Steve Magness, a performance scientist and coach of Olympic athletes, team up to demystify these practices and demonstrate how you can achieve your best. The first book of its kind, Peak Performance combines the inspiring stories of top performers across a range of capabilities—from athletic to intellectual and artistic—with the latest scientific insights into the cognitive and neurochemical factors that drive performance in all domains. In doing so, Peak Performance uncovers new linkages that hold promise as performance enhancers but have been overlooked in our traditionally-siloed ways of thinking. The result is a life-changing book in which you can learn how to enhance your performance via myriad ways including: optimally alternating between periods of intense work and rest; priming the body and mind for enhanced productivity; and developing and harnessing the power of a self-transcending purpose. In revealing the science of great performance and the stories of great performers across a wide range of capabilities, Peak Performance uncovers the secrets of success, and coaches you on how to use them. If you want to take your game to the next level, whatever "your game" may be, Peak Performance will teach you how.

Performance Success teaches a set of skills so that a musician can be ready to go out and sing or play at his or her highest level, working with energies that might otherwise be wasted in unproductive ways. This is a book of skills and exercises, prepared by a master teacher.