Better Under Pressure - by Justin Menkes (Hardcover)

About the Book

Drawing on in-depth interviews with 150 CEOs from an array of industries, Menkes shows that great leaders strive relentlessly to maximize their own as well as their people's potential and possess three cornerstone attributes: realistic optimism, finding order in chaos, and dedication to company goals.

Book Synopsis

Most business leaders can take only so much pressure before their performance slides. Yet some CEOs deliver their greatest successes when times get toughest--when customers' preferences are shifting away from a company's products, when new regulations are shrinking profit margins, when political unrest is destroying supply lines.

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.

Review Quotes

"Brief self-assessments that enhance the reader's understanding and numerous examples from Menkes's professional practice make this a worthwhile, practical read." - CHOICE magazine

"An original and noteworthy contribution to executive selection which is invaluable to those charged with top executive assessment." --Chartered Management Institute

"Better Under Pressure compliments books like Clutch, but with examples more specific to organizations other than professional sports. Even if you operate a one-person small business, it will give you a blueprint for how to conduct your best performance under pressure."- Small Business Trends (smallbiztrends.com)

Listed under "Summer [2011] reading suggestions for federal leaders" - Washington Post

"Personal and practical, this book is a potent resource for aspiring, emerging, and seasoned business leaders alike. Most mindful!" - CEO Refresher

"...an extremely interesting book that deserves a wide readership." - Execupundit.com

"An extremely worthwhile read for leaders, or aspiring leaders, in these turbulent times." - BusinessandLeadership.com

"What an intellectual feat! Justin takes leaders on a tour of the attributes of truly great CEOs, but the book is so much more than that. By showing us how those attributes connect and come to life, Justin's stories reveal how the best leaders think and act under the hardest circumstances."
--Ralph Larsen, former Chairman and CEO, Johnson & Johnson

"I thoroughly enjoyed reading the interviews with the CEO's and Justin's insightful analyses of the lessons learned. His concept of "reaching full potential" hits the nail right on the head."
--Marijn Dekkers, CEO, Bayer AG

"Better Under Pressure is a well-researched, conceptually sound, practical leadership guidebook for global business executives. Instead of serving up simplistic leadership pabulum, Menkes provides a rigorous and clear-eyed look at the world stage facing CEOs and the critical judgments required for their companies to survive and thrive."
--Noel Tichy, Professor and Director Global Citizenship Initiative at the Ross School University of Michigan, and co-author (with Warren Bennis) of Judgment: How Winning Leaders Make Great Calls

"Justin Menkes captures the essence of leadership in today's tough environment: getting the best out of your people. In this thoughtfully written book, he shows aspiring leaders how to successfully engage and inspire their people, both through their own actions, and through their ability to thrive under pressure."
--Irene Rosenfeld, CEO, Kraft

About the Author

Justin Menkes is an acclaimed author and leading expert in executive assessment. A consultant for the elite executive search firm Spencer Stuart, he advises the boards of the world's leading companies on their choice of CEO. He authored the Wall Street Journal bestseller Executive Intelligence: What All Great Leaders Have and has written articles for Chief Executive and Harvard Business Review.