Producing Results Blog

I gave my first university commencement address yesterday. And then, two hours later, I gave my second one. (The first was for the graduate degrees; the second was for the undergraduates.)

Speaking to an audience of 5,000-plus people is a cool experience and a big responsibility. It requires years of experience speaking to hundreds of smaller audiences. It’s not for amateurs.

At least, that’s what I thought.

That’s what I thought until I heard the speeches from four of the graduates (two per ceremony). ...

Some people would say that I have a high-pressure job. I’m a professional speaker. My job is to do what, to most people, is their number one fear: speaking in public. In a few days, I’ll be speaking to an audience of 5,000 people — and I’m fine with that. For many people, though, that would be more pressure than they could handle.

You know who I think has a high-pressure job? Brain surgeons! See, if I screw up, what happens? ...

Do you like roller coasters?

I like roller coasters. Not everyone does, but I do. The ups and downs, the ins and outs. The steep climbs and the sharp drops. I like roller coasters.

Literal roller coasters, that is. I’m not a big fan of emotional roller coasters, and I’m not a fan of the roller coaster of self-confidence that I see a lot of leaders riding.

This self-confidence roller coaster explains why some leaders consistently produce great results under pressure, while others ...

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 ...

It happens to every leader — every real leader.

A situation comes up, and a decision has to be made. Half of your team wants to go one way; the other half wants to go another way. There are good arguments to be made for each side. The cases are presented, and then…

Everyone looks at you.

Because you alone are the leader.

I mean that quite literally. You — alone — are the leader. At the moment of decision, you are ...

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 ...

My favorite quotation (and yes, the word is “quotation;” “quote” is a verb, thank you) from Harry S Truman (and no, there’s no period after the “S,” because it’s not an abbreviation; “S” was his entire middle name — my goodness, I’m being irritatingly picky today!) is this one:

“It’s amazing what you can accomplish if you don’t care who gets the credit.”

But my second favorite quotation from Harry S Truman is this one:

“Not all readers are leaders…but all leaders are ...