There’s a lot of pressure on the leader.

There’s the pressure of the clock. The pressure of the boss. The pressure of the stakeholders. The pressure of results.

There’s a lot of pressure on the leader.

Well, I’ve got bad news for all of you leaders. I’m going to add one more pressure.

The pressure of your employees’ health, kids, and sex lives.

Yep, that’s on you too.

“Hey, that’s not fair!” you protest. Maybe not, but it’s true nonetheless. Here’s why.

• People who are dissatisfied with ...

“I’m so stressed out! Can you help me?”

I get that a lot, particularly when people hear that one of my areas of expertise is helping people produce under pressure. It’s a fair question, but an off-target one. Fair, because stress and pressure are similar. Off-target, because they’re not the same.

Here’s the difference. Stress is a condition. You have a tough job, or an unhappy marriage, or unruly kids. These can all cause stress. Pressure, however, is an event. You have ...

I burned the broccolini last night.

As world crises go, this was pretty minor. Still, it served as a useful metaphor for producing under pressure. (Hey, it was useless as a side dish, so I had to do something with it!) Follow me along on this, step-by-step, and you’ll see what I mean.

1. There’s always more pressure when we’re doing something unfamiliar (all other things being equal). A cardiac surgeon feels more pressure during her first open-heart surgery ...