‘What I started to notice is everything I prided myself on started to slip. I just wasn't as good a leader to my people. I was more dictatorial. I had less space and time for questions. I was making errors that I wouldn't normally make. Quality errors, oversights, emails with typos, all this stuff. And that was a real moment for me where I went, you know what? The intellectual stuff is necessary. You need the intellectual horsepower. And there is this additional layer which is like, how do I hold up under pressure? What is that layer of skills that actually allows me to access all of this stuff and what starts to chip away at that or dent that? And that was a real moment for me as an individual where I went, okay, I got to put some boundaries around some things here or this pressure is going to overwhelm my ability to perform and be successful. So that was definitely a pivotal moment for me.’
How can we harness the positive powers of pressure? How can we mitigate the negative effects of pressure when the stakes are high?
Dane Jensen is the CEO of Third Factor, an instructor at Queen’s University and the University of North Carolina, and author of The Power of Pressure. In this podcast with Deloitte’s Geoff Tuff and Thinkers50’s Stuart Crainer, he explains that pressure is a function of three things: importance - how much the outcome matters to you; uncertainty - lack of surety about the eventual result; and volume - how many high-stakes situations you face.
Although pressure can be hugely destructive and lead to anxiety and burnout, Dane argues that it can also be hugely elevating. Being an emotional energy, pressure can be harnessed for peak performance. There are more world records set at the Olympic Games - one of the most pressure-packed environments - for example, than anywhere else in the world of sport.
Listen to the podcast to find out the differences between pressure and stress, peak pressure and long-haul pressure, and the meaning of the ‘third factor.’
This episode will be available on 12 June 2024.
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This podcast is part of an ongoing series of interviews with executives. The executives’ participation in these articles are solely for educational purposes based on their knowledge of the subject and the views expressed by them are solely their own. This podcast should not be deemed or construed to be for the purpose of soliciting business for any of the companies mentioned, nor does Deloitte advocate or endorse the services or products provided by these companies.