Most business leaders can take only so much pressure before their performance slides. Yet some CEOs deliver their greatest successes when times get toughest. How do they do it?
In Better Under Pressure, the new book published by the Harvard Business Review Press, we explain their achievements. Through in-depth performance evaluations, behavioral interviews, cognitive ability tests and referencing of more than 200 CEO candidates, we identified the three cornerstone attributes that allow great leaders to realize their potential and that of their people:
Realistic optimism: They recognize the risks threatening their organization’s survival — yet remain confident that the company will prevail.
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 and cull data to form the conclusions that matter most to the company.
Drawing on more than 60 additional interviews with long-tenured CEOs, we demonstrate how these attributes are deployed in real life by leaders who excel under pressure to maximize the discretionary effort of a 21st-century workforce. The book is a resource for aspiring, emerging and seasoned business leaders alike.
Visit www.betterunderpressure.com for more information about the book.