Better Under Pressure
How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Themselves and Others
By: Justin Menkes
Published: May 3, 2011
Format: Hardcover, 208 pages
ISBN-10: 1422138704
ISBN-13: 978-1422138700
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
"The best leaders solicit the best possible performance from themselves and from their people amid the constant change and duress that define enterprise today", writes leading expert in executive assessment Justin menkes in his insightful and research based book Better Under Pressure: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Themselves and Others. The author describes how many business leaders find their performance and results diminishing when under pressure, while other leaders thrive under stress; and how the abilities of the most effective leaders are skills that can be learned by executives.
Justin Menkes recognizes that turbulent economic and political environments are no longer the exception. They are the new normal in today's global economy. The author understands, that as a result of the challenges presented by these ever increasing stresses are reducing the performance and results for many business leaders. At the same time, however, Justin Menkes points out that other leaders are thriving and achieving ever greater productivity, improved performance, and enhanced levels of growth. For the author, those highly successful leaders perform at their very best when under pressure. Justn Menkes conducted interviews with business leaders to unearth the traits that were shared by the successful leaders, and discovered that not only were these abilities common to them all, but that these high performance skills could be learned by other leaders as well.
Justin Menkes (photo left) presents the three major characteristics of leaders who are not only successful under pressure, but who thrive when under duress. These high achieving leaders realize their own potential, and that of those who they lead. The author provides compelling evidence that the critical traits for thriving in pressure packed situations are skills that can be learned by any leaders. Justin Menkes offers executives the advice of successful leaders for developing those innate capabilities. The research conducted by Justin Menkes discovered three major catalysts to realizing potential:
* Realistic optimism: Confidence in overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges while realizing the reality of the circumstances
* Subservience to purpose: Seeing the professional goal as so important that it must be achieved, and that a noble purpose is essential for success
* Finding order in chaos: Bringing clarity out of disparate problems and recognizing how these challenges fit together
For me, the power of the book is how Justin Menkes presents a strong theoretical framework that outlines the core capabilities of the the most successful business leaders. The author bolsters this framework with in depth and compelling interviews with leading CEOs who have proven abilities to success in the most pressure laden circumstances. With this information in hand, Justin Menkes transforms the CEO experiences into practical skill lessons that can be developed and put into practice by any business leaders.
Justin Menkes presents the capabilities in an easy to understand format, backed by intriguing stories from the interviewed CEOs themselves. These case studies demonstrate the essential, and often counter to natural behavior, attributes in action. The overall result is an intelligent examination of how and why some leaders succeed in stressful and challenging situations, while others fail to reach their full potential.
I highly recommend the fascinating and well researched book Better Under Pressure: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Themselves and Others by Justin Menkes, to anyone seeking an enlightening examination of the common skill sets that elevate successful leaders to an entirely new level, despite seemingly overwhelming pressures placed upon them. The author's inclusion of self evaluation sections in each chapter guide executives toward understanding their existing capabilities and how to enhance them further.
Read the engaging and leadership boosting book Better Under Pressure: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Themselves and Others by Justin Menkes, and discover how to join top leaders in achieving outstanding results when the stress levels and duress are most challenging to your company and your employees. This book will help you bring out your inborn talent for overcoming even the most challenging obstacles.
