Leadership Under Pressure

We all know examples of executives leading organizations or supervising teams in which grave errors occurred or where disasters were mismanaged, despite the fact that all involved had strong professional backgrounds and considerable experience. However, regardless of the hierarchical levels of the people responsible for an event, the reasons should be investigated and used as an indicator that some fundamental assumptions concerning an organizational system, operation, or task were wrong. Yet, in most organizations, it is rare that the root causes of errors or crises are ever thoroughly examined. An exception is the aviation industry, whose members are prepared to deal with mistakes in order to achieve operational excellence and manage life-threatening situations.

Leadership under Pressure program draws on this experience to illustrate ways of proactively managing unavoidable errors and therefore strengthening organizations for crisis situations. It shows how a diagnostic concept is the first step toward a modern working environment in which critical situations serve as learning opportunities.

Key benefits

• stay on top of volatile situations and introduce support strategies for mastering the dynamics of these situations
• learn conceptual frameworks for leading high-pressure situations that can disrupt organizational flows, processes, and employee interactions
• identify various mindsets and behaviors involved in making mistakes, whether they are made by individuals, a division or an organization
• solid network of global contacts

Key topics

• Leading teams in high-pressure situations
• Creating an organizational learning culture
• Understanding the prerequisites of psychological safety
• Overcoming potential obstacles
• Driving decision-making processes in complex situations
• Maintaining control in dynamic and fluid situations
• Managing crisis communication
• Applying the program’s lessons during exercises in a flight simulator of Lufthansa Aviation Training