Three ways history’s greatest leaders managed to stay calm under pressure
Rough waters are truer tests of leadership. In calm water, every ship has a good captain.” Swedish Proverb
Picture this…you wake up, it’s Monday morning, you’ve slept through your alarm (and the three snoozes) and now you’re already running late for work. You need to get the kids their breakfast, get them to brush their teeth and somehow get yourself ready whilst still leaving enough time for at least three meltdowns (one each per child, plus a bonus one for yourself). You’re all somehow ready to get out the door but are reminded by your exacerbated child that it’s show and tell today. You run back into the house and grab two seashells and that broken pinecone. Two separate drop offs later and you eventually get into work (late). You open your calendar…yep you have a full day of back-to-back meetings and of course you’re chairing the first meeting of the day in two minute’s time which you haven’t prepared for. Sound familiar? So how did some of history’s greatest leaders, pioneers and achievers manage to stay calm and deliver the goods when the odds were stacked against them time and time again when everyone was looking at them for answers? Here are three tried and tested strategies for success…
1) They practiced harder than they played
The five-time NBA MVP Michael Jordan, arguably one of the greatest ‘clutch’ athletes that has ever lived was no stranger to pressure situations. There are many iconic crunch-time moments in his Hall of Fame career but take the Chicago Bull’s legendary 1998 ‘Last Dance’ season and specifically game six of that season’s NBA finals. Jordan’s Bulls were looking to close out the series against the Utah Jazz at the then ruthless Delta Centre (hostile territory for any visiting team, but none more so than the reigning champions). With less than 21 seconds to go in regulation time, and the Bulls down by one point, Jordan stole the ball at the post from Utah’s very own two-time MVP Karl Malone. Jordan then ran down the court, used a crossover dribble and a slight shove on the defending Bryon Russell to find himself in familiar territory…all eyes on number 23. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Make the shot and the Bulls take the title. Miss the shot and the series most likely moves to a game seven with all the momentum over to the Jazz. Jordan (in a moment that will forever be etched in sporting history as the Last Shot) sinks a 20-foot jumper and seals Chicago’s sixth NBA title.
So how did Jordan continuously deliver under pressure throughout his playing career? Jordan believes that the only way to relieve pressure is to build your fundamentals through practice. In an interview with ESPN Jordan said “People didn’t believe me when I told them I practiced harder than I played, but it was true. That’s where my comfort zone was created. By the time the game came, all I had to do was react to what my body was already accustomed to doing.” By the time the big games came and those critical moments, Jordan knew he had done everything he could to ensure he was ready. As the saying commonly attributed to the US Navy Seals goes “we don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training”. So, you want to deliver when the time comes, when everyone is looking at you for answers, for you to deliver the goods? Put in the hours, put in the practice.
2) They found a circuit breaker
In 1915 Sir Ernest Shackleton was aiming to lead a crew of 28 men to become the first to cross from one side of the Antarctic to the other. Soon after beginning the expedition from the Weddell Sea, Shackleton's ship the HMS Endurance, became trapped in pack ice and drifted for ten months before eventually being crushed by the ice. The crew drifted on the ice for another five months before escaping in boats to Elephant Island in the South Shetland Islands. They survived by eating a diet of seal, penguins, and their own dogs. Shackleton and five crew members sailed 800 miles to South Georgia in a whale boat to find rescue. Four months later Shackleton succeeded in rescuing his crew from Elephant Island. Incredibly every single member of Shackleton's crew survived.
What is the secret? How did Shackleton overcome seemingly insurmountable odds and the world’s harshest environment to save his crew? Well, he walked the ice and read poetry. He had a way to break the circuit. Similarly, at the height of the Cuban missile crisis John F. Kennedy swam. During the Civil War Abraham Lincoln walked the halls of the white house singing, and later in life Winston Churchill enjoyed painting. Effective leaders find ways to detach, they find ways to take stock, they find ways to be in the right mindset for when the time comes for destiny taps them on the shoulder.
3. They didn’t do it alone
MJ had Scottie. Shackleton had Frank Wild and for Lincoln, JFK and Churchill, they had Mary, Jackie and Clementine respectively. Yes, ultimately history judges them as individuals, as leaders in their words, their decisions or indecisions, their actions or inactions, but great leaders choose great supporting casts.
