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Performing Under Pressure
Book

Performing Under Pressure

The Science of Doing Your Best When It Matters Most

Hendrie Weisinger and J. P. Pawliw-Fry
Crown, 2015
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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Analytical
  • Scientific
  • Overview

Recommendation

Boost your ability to deal with pressure by understanding it and working to counter it. Authors Hendrie Weisinger and J.P. Pawliw-Fry explain the difference between pressure and stress and offer “pressure solutions” to help you when you must perform. However, they note, people who manage pressure more successfully don’t necessarily also perform better under pressure. But they do have the mental tools, self-confidence and ability to relax that fuels maximum performance at all times. Amid the authors’ good examples and applicable suggestions, they offer reassurance that you can muster your internal assets – “confidence, optimism, tenacity and enthusiasm” (COTE) – to strengthen your ego and combat pressure. getAbstract recommends this entertaining, useful book to anyone under pressure.

Summary

Studying Relationships

Psychologist John Gottman has spent a lifetime studying relationships. He believes he can forecast with 93.6% certainty which married couples he works with will divorce. Through the Gottman Institute, he and his wife, psychologist Julie Gottman, teach couples how to deal with each other in pressure-filled situations. A couple’s ability to manage pressure is pivotal to the survival of their marriage.     

Pressure can upset whatever you consider most valuable in your life: your links to other people, your work, how well you function as a partner or parent, and your ability to make decisions based on a clear sense of right and wrong. People naturally desire love, admiration and acceptance. When they fear censure in a situation rife with pressure, they can feel diminished, lacking, shy and discredited. When stress damages their links to other people, they experience “social pain” that feels akin to a physical injury.

Even people who manage pressure more successfully don’t necessarily perform better when they’re under pressure than when they’re not. You may feel pressure when you must give a performance ...

About the Authors

Hendrie Weisinger, PhD, a best-selling author and a pressure management pioneer, has more than 30 years of experience in organizational effectiveness and has taught at Wharton, UCLA, NYU, Cornell, Penn State and MIT. International performance coach J.P. Pawliw-Fry has worked with Microsoft, Unilever, Allstate and the Orlando Magic. He heads the Institute for Health and Human Potential (IHHP), a research firm that trains leaders.

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