Home › Growth Hubs › Leadership › Calm Under Pressure
PAPER NAPKIN WISDOM GROWTH HUB
Calm Under Pressure
The best Paper Napkin Wisdom conversations on calm under pressure, chosen and in order.
Calm gets mistaken for soft. I see it as the capacity to hold intensity and not leak it onto others. When a leader lacks it, the team speeds up. People start managing the leader instead of the work. Under pressure, people don't rise to the occasion. They fall to the level of their emotional conditioning, on a hockey bench or in a leadership meeting.
Alex Charfen learned this at home. When his wife Cadey told him she didn't feel heard, his instinct was to fix it. What worked was sitting with her every day and holding his center. He calls it masculine containment. Jimmy Park's napkin is plainer. Stay happy when you step in it. Dave Sanderson was the last passenger off the plane in the Hudson River landing. He talks about breaking a frozen team out of its trance.
Gina Mollicone-Long adds two ideas. The most flexible leader controls the outcome. And when someone pushes your buttons, it often says more about you than about them.
“Anytime you're bringing too much energy to the situation to solve a problem, you actually become the problem.”
Alex Charfen, Episode 339
Start here: the top 10
1
What Is Masculine Containment? Alex Charfen on Holding Your Center When It Matters Most
Episode 339 · Alex Charfen
Alex Charfen: masculine containment, holding your centre when it matters most.
2
How to Stay Calm Under Pressure as a Leader So Your Team Can Think
Episode 336 · Edge of the Napkin
How a leader stays calm under pressure so the team can think.
3
Staying Calm Under Pressure: Leadership Lessons From a Hockey Bench
Episode 356 · Edge of the Napkin
Lessons on staying calm from a hockey bench in a one-game semi-final.
4
The To-Be List: How to Stay Calm as a Leader When Pressure Rises
Episode 372 · Edge of the Napkin
The to-be list: staying calm as a leader when pressure rises.
5
How to Stay Calm When Things Go Wrong in Business: Jimmy Park
Episode 296 · Jimmy Park (2017)
Jimmy Park: how to stay calm when things go wrong.
6
Why You Need the Last Word, and What Calm Leadership Does Instead
Episode 362 · Edge of the Napkin
Calm leadership is the absence of the need to win the last word.
7
When Being Right Costs You Your Peace: Anger as a Tether for Leaders
Episode 364 · Edge of the Napkin
When being right costs your peace: letting go of anger as a leader.
8
How to Lead a Team in a Crisis: Dave Sanderson on Resourcefulness
Episode 104 · Dave Sanderson
Dave Sanderson (Hudson River landing): leading a team through a crisis.
9
Why the Most Flexible Leader Controls the Outcome: Gina Mollicone-Long
Episode 2 · Gina Mollicone-Long
Gina Mollicone-Long: the most flexible leader under pressure controls the outcome.
10
Why Some People Push Your Buttons: Gina Mollicone-Long on Projection
Episode 78 · Gina Mollicone-Long
Gina Mollicone-Long: why some people push your buttons (projection).
Build the Field
Calm is one of the four pillars Build the Field trains, alongside confidence, congruence and contribution.
Or get Wisdom Weekly, a short Sunday letter on leading what you have built.