Mark Pattison Pressure changes everything.
When the stakes are high, time is limited, people are watching, and the consequences of a decision are significant, even experienced leaders can make poor choices.
The best leaders aren’t necessarily the people who never feel pressure. They are the people who have learned how to think clearly while under pressure.
I’ve experienced pressure in very different environments playing in the NFL, building businesses, working in sports media and standing on some of the world’s highest mountains. While the circumstances are dramatically different, one lesson has remained consistent:
You don’t rise to the level of your intentions. You fall back on the preparation, habits and decision making processes you’ve developed before the pressure arrives.
Whether you’re leading an NFL team, running a company, managing a crisis or making an important personal decision, the ability to make good decisions under pressure can be the difference between moving forward and getting stuck.
Why Pressure Makes Decision Making Difficult
Under pressure, our brains naturally want to simplify complicated situations.
We can become reactive. We focus on the immediate problem instead of the larger objective. We may make decisions based on fear, emotion, ego or incomplete information.
That’s why elite leaders develop systems for making decisions before they find themselves in difficult situations.
They understand that pressure is inevitable.
Being unprepared for pressure isn’t.
1. Slow Down Before You Speed Up
One of the most valuable leadership skills is knowing when to pause.
That doesn’t mean becoming indecisive.
It means creating enough space to separate the facts from the emotion.
When pressure hits, ask:
- What do I actually know?
- What am I assuming?
- What information is missing?
- What decision needs to be made right now?
- What can wait?
- What happens if I do nothing?
Sometimes the best decision is to act immediately.
Sometimes the best decision is to take five minutes, gather more information and think.
Elite leaders know the difference.
2. Focus on What You Can Control
This is one of the biggest lessons sports can teach business leaders.
An NFL player can’t control the officials.
He can’t control the weather.
He can’t control what the opposing team does.
He can control his preparation, effort, communication, technique and response.
The same principle applies in business.
You can’t control the economy, your competitors, every customer reaction or every unexpected obstacle.
You can control how prepared you are.
You can control how you communicate.
You can control how you respond.
And you can control the next decision.
When pressure becomes overwhelming, narrowing your focus to what you can control can dramatically improve your decision making.
3. Don’t Confuse Urgency With Importance
Everything can feel urgent when you’re under pressure.
But everything isn’t important.
Strong leaders learn to distinguish between:
What is urgent?
and
What is important?
A customer complaint may feel urgent.
A difficult conversation with an employee may feel uncomfortable.
A financial problem may demand immediate attention.
But the most important decision may be the one that prevents the same problem from happening again.
Great leaders don’t simply put out fires.
They ask why the fires keep starting.
4. Trust Your Preparation
Preparation creates confidence.
Confidence doesn’t mean believing you will always be right.
It means knowing you’ve done the work necessary to give yourself the best chance of making the right decision.
In sports, preparation might mean studying an opponent, understanding the game plan and knowing your assignment.
On a mountain, preparation takes on an entirely different meaning.
You prepare physically.
You prepare mentally.
You study the route.
You understand the risks.
You make contingency plans.
And you understand that conditions can change.
That preparation becomes incredibly important when circumstances don’t go according to plan.
The same is true in leadership.
You can’t control every situation, but you can control how prepared you are to respond to it.
5. Know Your “Why”
Pressure can cause leaders to lose perspective.
That’s when knowing your purpose becomes critical.
Why are we doing this?
What are we trying to accomplish?
What does success actually look like?
What are we unwilling to compromise?
When the answers to those questions are clear, decisions become easier.
Your values become a compass.
Your mission becomes the filter.
And difficult choices become less about “What should I do?” and more about:
“Which decision is most consistent with what we are trying to accomplish?”
6. Get Comfortable Making Decisions With Imperfect Information
Leadership rarely provides perfect information.
Waiting until you have 100% certainty can sometimes be more dangerous than making a well-informed decision with the information available.
Elite leaders understand the difference between reckless decisions and calculated decisions.
A calculated decision considers:
- The available information
- The potential upside
- The potential downside
- The probability of different outcomes
- The consequences of being wrong
- Whether the decision can be reversed
Not every decision deserves the same amount of analysis.
Some decisions are reversible.
Some aren’t.
Knowing the difference is an important leadership skill.
7. Listen to Your Team
One of the biggest misconceptions about leadership is that the person at the top is supposed to have all the answers.
The best leaders don’t.
They know how to surround themselves with people who have expertise they don’t possess.
They ask questions.
They listen.
They seek opposing viewpoints.
And they aren’t threatened when someone challenges their thinking.
An NFL locker room is filled with different personalities, experiences and perspectives. The strongest teams understand that everyone has a role.
Business teams are no different.
Good leaders don’t create teams that agree with them. They create teams that help them make better decisions.
8. Separate the Decision From Your Ego
This may be one of the hardest lessons for any leader.
Sometimes we become attached to a decision because it was our decision.
That’s dangerous.
If new information proves your original decision was wrong, changing course isn’t a weakness.
It’s leadership.
The objective isn’t to prove that you were right.
The objective is to get the best possible outcome.
Great leaders can say:
“I was wrong. Here’s what we’re going to do now.”
That level of humility builds credibility.
9. Make the Decision: Then Commit
Once you’ve gathered the necessary information, analyzed the situation and listened to the right people, there comes a point when you have to decide.
Don’t live in analysis paralysis.
Make the best decision you can with the information available.
Then commit to it.
Your team needs clarity.
Employees need direction.
Organizations need momentum.
A leader who constantly second-guesses every decision can create more uncertainty than the original problem.
Decide.
Communicate.
Execute.
And monitor the results.
10. Learn From the Decision
A decision doesn’t have to produce the outcome you wanted to be valuable.
Sometimes the biggest leadership lessons come from decisions that didn’t work.
After a major decision, ask:
What went well?
What didn’t?
What did we miss?
What would we do differently next time?
This turns experience into wisdom.
And that may be the most important part of leadership.
The goal isn’t to eliminate mistakes.
The goal is to learn faster than everyone else.
What NFL Football and Mount Everest Taught Me About Pressure
Football and mountaineering might seem like completely different worlds.
But both can teach you something about making decisions when the stakes are high.
On a football field, you have limited time to react. You rely on preparation, instincts, communication and trust in the people around you.
On a mountain, the consequences can be much more serious. Conditions change. Plans have to change. You have to assess risk constantly.
In both environments, panic isn’t a strategy.
Preparation is.
Communication is.
Adaptability is.
And knowing when to keep pushing versus knowing when to change the plan is critical.
That’s true in leadership as well.
The Best Leaders Don’t Eliminate Pressure
They learn to operate effectively within it.
Every leader will eventually face a moment when there isn’t a perfect answer.
A major customer may leave.
A key employee may resign.
A business decision may not work.
The market may change.
A crisis may arrive unexpectedly.
You can’t eliminate those moments.
But you can prepare yourself and your team for them.
The leaders who perform best under pressure tend to share several characteristics:
They stay calm.
They focus on what they can control.
They listen.
They rely on preparation.
They make decisions based on principles rather than panic.
They accept responsibility for the outcome.
And most importantly, they keep moving forward.
Finding Your Summit
I’ve come to believe that everyone has a summit.
It might be a business goal.
A leadership challenge.
A career transition.
A personal goal.
Or simply the desire to become a better version of yourself.
Getting there rarely happens exactly according to plan.
There will be obstacles.
There will be uncertainty.
And there will be moments when you have to make difficult decisions without knowing exactly what lies ahead.
That’s where leadership is tested.
Not when everything is going perfectly.
Leadership is tested when the pressure is on.
The question isn’t whether pressure will come.
The question is:
Will you be prepared when it does?
Frequently Asked Questions About Mark Pattison and Leadership
Who is Mark Pattison?
Mark Pattison is a former NFL player, entrepreneur, media executive, keynote speaker, author and mountaineer. His experiences in professional football, business and climbing the Seven Summits inform his work on leadership, resilience, teamwork and overcoming adversity.
What can NFL players teach business leaders about decision making?
NFL players operate in environments where preparation, communication, accountability and quick decision-making are essential. Those same principles can help business leaders build stronger teams and make better decisions under pressure.
What can climbing Mount Everest teach leaders?
Everest reinforces the importance of preparation, risk management, teamwork, adaptability and staying focused when circumstances become difficult. Those lessons can translate directly into leadership and business.
What does Mark Pattison speak about?
Mark Pattison speaks about leadership, resilience, teamwork, communication, adversity, career reinvention and finding your next summit. His presentations draw from his experiences in the NFL, business and mountaineering.
How can I book Mark Pattison as a keynote speaker?
Organizations interested in booking Mark Pattison can contact him through MarkPattisonNFL.com to discuss keynote topics, event objectives, audience and availability.
About Mark Pattison
Mark Pattison is a former five-year NFL player, entrepreneur, media executive, author, keynote speaker and Seven Summits mountaineer. He reached the summit of Mount Everest in 2021 and is the subject of the Emmy Award-winning NFL Films documentary Searching for the Summit.
His book, Finding Your Summit, explores the lessons learned through his journey from professional football to business and ultimately to the world’s highest mountains.
Today, Pattison speaks to organizations about leadership, resilience, teamwork, adversity and the challenge of finding and pursuing your next summit.
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