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Under Pressure
How often has a client chalked a
personal or professional challenge
he’s facing up to “pressure” during a
coaching session? For that matter,
how often do you feel pressure in
your own life and work?
Unlike stress, which can be beneficial,
pressure is never helpful. Pressure
adversely impacts cognitive success
tools, such as judgment, decision-making,
attention and memory. Emergency room
nurses under time pressure, for example,
make critical omission errors in charting.
Students’ performance on math and
English tests worsens when pressure
to do well is increased, and chess and
bridge players make more blunders in
tournament play than in practice play.
Hendrie Weisinger,
Ph.D.
It’s a popular conception that there are
people who are particularly gifted at
exhibiting grace under pressure—those
who always rise to the occasion, whether
it’s by hitting the clutch three-point shot in
the final seconds of the game or making
the sales pitch that nets their team’s
biggest account yet. We believe these
people have nerves of steel and are made
better by pressure.
In fact, nobody “rises to the occasion” in a
high-pressure situation. Some of us are just
more skillful at not succumbing to pressure.
We often see examples of this in the world
of professional sports. Former Major
League Baseball shortstop Derek Jeter was
often called a “clutch player.” However,
Jeter’s lifetime batting average (310)
equaled his playoff batting average. Jeter
didn’t “rise to the occasion” during playoff
games and deliver better-than-average (for
him) performances. His edge was that he
didn’t turn in a below-average performance
under pressure.
The clutch myth is dangerous, because
it represents an unattainable ideal—and
causes a hit to individuals’ self-esteem
when they can’t reach it. By helping your
clients to understand that the clutch
myth is just that—a popular narrative
with no empirical support—you can
emp