Better Under Pressure: How Great Leaders Bring Out the Best in Themselves and Others

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.