Capacity Under Pressure

When the plan can’t keep up with changing conditions, strategic judgment must. Strategic leaders increasingly make consequential decisions in the gap between strategic intent and the plan of action. They need to stay oriented toward what they are trying to create while continually deciding what to hold, what to adapt, and what to let go of to meet rapidly changing conditions. The challenge is that pressure can begin shaping those decisions before you realize it. Over time, hundreds of reasonable choices can add up to something no one intended. In this book, strategist and executive coach Karin Blair reveals a hidden lever behind strategic judgment: the inner capacity of the leader making those calls. Through a framework of interconnected agilities, you’ll learn to build emotional agility to recognize when self-protection and reactivity are shaping your judgment, develop cognitive agility to widen the perspectives and possibilities you can consider before deciding, and strengthen navigational agility to stay oriented and committed as conditions change and results remain uncertain. With practical insights and real-world examples, Blair helps you recognize when pressure is narrowing your judgment and build the agilities that strengthen your capacity over time, so you can draw on it when the stakes are high. You can’t change the terrain. But you can expand your inner capacity to navigate it.