Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry

Performing Under Pressure: The Science of Emotional Intelligence

Why do smart people fail? Why do technically brilliant individuals have trouble managing others and collaborating on a team? It is not because they lack intelligence or technical skills. Far from it. What they lack is a critical level of Emotional Intelligence (EI) and the ability to manage their own emotions and others’ when they are under pressure.

Performing Under Pressure: Doing Your Best When It Matters Most

This program is based on the New York Times and Amazon bestselling book ‘Performing Under Pressure’

Leadership is not easy, especially under pressure.  Pressure changes how the brain functions; it diminishes our ability to think, make decisions and connect with others in a meaningful way. With pressure increasing in all aspects of our lives, the ability to manage pressure is one of the key differentiators of high performing managers and leaders.  Failing to manage pressure has become a significant reason why smart people fail.

Performing Under Pressure: The Three Conversations of Leadership

People want to make relationships work with their managers, teams, and peers. They want to give formal and informal feedback that improves accountability, clarity and performance. They want to bring their ideas and concerns to the table regardless of who is in the room.

We all have relationships that aren’t working. This is not surprising, given how the pressure of time and need for results can cause people to have impact they don’t intend. What is surprising, however, is the lack of skill and ability most people have to deal with the relationships that aren’t working.  Leaders want to make their relationships work. They want to give performance reviews that make a difference. They want to bring their ideas and concerns to the table regardless of who is in the room, and they want to be better leaders. Most, unfortunately, are just not sure where to begin.

In order to help leaders have conversations that build both trust and accountability, we have identified three critical conversations that need to take place: Daily, Difficult and Courageous Conversations. The challenge is that under the pressure to drive results, people often avoid these conversations entirely, or they ignore the Last 8% Conversation™.

What is the Last 8% Conversation? In a feedback conversation, a performance review or a difficult conversation – when pressure increases, many individuals choose to avoid (sometimes unknowingly) the last and most important part of the conversation – the part that really needs to be said. Under pressure,  emotions and distorted thinking can get in the way, sabotaging an individual’s best intention to do the right thing and have the full conversation.  It doesn’t have to be this way.

This program builds on the foundation of Emotional Intelligence and will enable you to:

• Understand the importance and impact of three critical types of conversations: Daily, Difficult and Couragoues Conversations
• Leverage insight from the brain science of emotions to have more effective conversations
• Learn techniques to have high impact daily coaching conversations that build trust and drive results, even in time-constrained, pressure-filled environments
• Practice having difficult conversations in a way that allows you to speak your truth and get to the “last 8%”, while not emotionally triggering the other person. Examples include:
• Engaging people by creating emotional connection when rolling out change
• Delivering bad news or saying “no” in a way that ensures a person is still valued andunderstands the message
• Providing continuous coaching about behavior, performance and impact
• Managing up and across when we have limited or no direct authority
• Understand the importance of having a developmental mindset so you can coach people to the next level of performance

There comes a time when we need to have a difficult conversation in the workplace. This program will provide you with the knowledge and techniques required to have the critical conversations that you know you need to have. These kinds of conversations are never easy, but we need the skills to have them in order to consistently drive performance.

Testimonials

“Best keynote presentation I have been to in years! Very different than the usual: extremely interesting and powerful – yet highly entertaining. It is not often I hear someone who can really ‘put it together’.”
– Ernst & Young

“Fantastic! Very leading edge thinking. JP has huge energy and passion. Our leadership team couldn’t get enough of him – I could listen to him all day!”
– IBM

“Awesome presentation! This will change my life. Thank you for all of your passion, enthusiasm and integrity and for making this our best meeting ever!”
– Merck

“Simply the best program we have ever heard – critical information that will make a difference.”
– US Navy