ConantLeadership Founder, Doug Conant, originally published this post in 2015. Now, over a decade later, we present this piece as part of our “Golden Anniversary” collection—a treasury of Doug’s thought leadership that has been updated to help YOU meet the current moment as we celebrate his 50 years in leadership. All year long, expect pieces in this special collection to draw on timeless wisdom—and leverage a half-century of experience—to give you specific, practical, future-forward advice for leading people to Higher Ground. (Read the first piece in the collection, “Work Hard, Be Kind,” here.)

In a previous life, before I was an entry level marketer at General Mills, before I was President of Nabisco Foods, and before I became CEO of Campbell Soup Company, Chairman of Avon Products, or Founder of ConantLeadership—I played tennis competitively. The sport was so much a part of my life that I attended college at Northwestern University on a tennis scholarship. I learned many lessons from the experience. One lesson that profoundly affected how I lead was inspired by the book, Pressure is a Privilege, written by tennis superstar Billie Jean King.

The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena . . . who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly. –  Teddy Roosevelt

Pressure is often viewed as a negative force in our lives. Understandably so: It can be an enormous cause of stress, forcing us outside the confines of the familiar. Yet I have found that each challenge also presents a series of urgent questions that help me to meet life and leadership with the zest they both demand. In each tough situation, I ask myself:

• Do I engage in the face of this specific pressure? What are the benefits if I do?
• Do I have the capacity to respond to the stressors involved?
• Do I have the fortitude to give it my all, knowing I might fall short?

Responding to pressure in this way is like a game of truth or dare where each round is both truth and dare. And yet, the only way through it—the only way to really win—is to take an honest self-assessment, and then, whenever possible, respond to each of these questions with a resounding ‘YES.’ And while there may be times that it’s appropriate to say ‘no,’ I find that more often than not, I’m invigorated by the prospect of a “pressure test.” Life tends to expand when we meet challenges with a can-do spirit.

If we want to win in life and leadership, we can’t skirt pressures by playing it safe.

Over the last 50 years, I have come to view the inevitable pressures of leadership as a golden opportunity to do some of my best work when it matters most.

It is in those moments where the odds are stacked against me and my colleagues, when the heat is palpable and the stakes are high, that I delight in rising to the challenge. It is here that we can lift our contribution profile, lead by example, and thrive in the face of adversity. And if we falter, we can still take pride in the fact that we gave it our all. As Teddy Roosevelt said, if we fail, at least we fail while “daring greatly,” which is a better fate than joining the ranks of “those cold and timid souls who neither know victory or defeat.”

Ultimately, you can’t win if you don’t play. And if you want to win in life and leadership, you can’t always play it safe. Pressure is a privilege. You must step into the arena and do your darndest to come out on top. Here are three reasons why.

1. Pressure makes us better.

They say, “necessity is the mother of invention.” I would also say that pressure is the mother of performance. This holds true across disciplines, whether you’re a tennis player, a Fortune 500 executive, a painter, or a parent. We can be the most exceptional contributor on a ‘normal’ day. But when things get dicey, we’re forced to apply all the knowledge and ingenuity we can muster. And, if we’ve prepared properly through training, practice, and earnest effort, we can rely on that preparation to be agile and creative in the moment, which makes us better in the long-term.

Meeting our growth edge from time to time is necessary. You may have heard the aphorism, “Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.” Pressure naturally pushes us out of that comfort zone and invites us to grow.

We may feel our throats tighten and our nerves heighten when faced with the sudden opportunity to pitch a dream client, or when a new, time-sensitive project falls into our lap. But that sensation of nervous energy can also be harnessed as excitement. What a gift that we can use our unique skills, insights, and convictions to move through a novel situation creatively. These pressurized conditions also sharpen our skills for the next challenge and improve how we lead in the spaces between. And if we do falter, as all leaders sometimes do, we’ll still be better for it.

Ultimately, you can’t win if you don’t play.

One caveat: If your work environment leaves you wondering why things always feel like an unrelenting pressure cooker, that can prove unsustainable and counterproductive over time. Ultimately, you must try to cultivate an environment where there are only intermittent periods of high pressure, not near-constant fires to put out. In this case, whether you have the power to lead the organization differently, or feel called to move into a different environment entirely, is up to you. Personally, I’ve almost always been able to mitigate the pressures of my work situation and I believe you can too.

2. Pressure challenges us to stay honest.

Pressure makes us better because it forces us to think creatively and problem-solve on demand. But here’s the catch: Cheap workarounds just won’t do. Neither will sacrificing our character or resorting to any form of deceit. Those are easy ways out, and they do little to improve our leadership.

Instead, it helps to view pressure as a real test of our ability to think on our feet, innovate, and thrive, while staying true to ourselves. Part of that test is learning to react within the ethical confines of the given ‘rules,’ whether those rules are imposed as part of your own personal code or established in a more public sense by a third party. (I highly recommend doing the inner work to excavate and articulate your own code of ethics; a process for doing so is a core premise of my latest book, The Blueprint.)

In my experience, one of the most rewarding aspects of leadership is not only being put to the test with the opportunity to come out on top, but also finding that you can prevail with your character completely intact.

Hear this loud and clear: You either win with integrity or you don’t win at all. And if you fail, you do so having stood firmly by your principles. Embrace pressure as a challenge to uphold your character. You’ll be better for it.

3. Pressure helps us engage with life more meaningfully.

We can’t experience the thrill of high achievement if we don’t embrace all aspects of our life and leadership journey: the ups and the downs. My perspective is that the ‘ups’ are significantly less sweet if the ‘downs’ don’t test us in some way.

There’s a well-known Truman Capote quote that speaks to this point: “Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor.” To me this means that without saying ‘yes’ to the challenges thrown in our path, and persisting when things get hard, we’ll never fully appreciate the fruits of our labor.

If the climb is too easy, can we really appreciate the view from atop the summit?

If we consistently choose to take the easy route, then we deprive ourselves of the pride of having toiled and triumphed. And we also miss out on the lessons waiting for us in times of failure. Thomas Edison famously described failure as part of his learning process: “I have not failed 10,000 times . . . I’ve discovered 10,000 ways that don’t work.” This is the mindset that allows us to achieve breakthrough.

Life is short. Pressure gives us the opportunity to experience the joys and aches of life more fully, and to savor them more completely. We can’t let opportunities to test ourselves pass us by. Pressure is the privilege to try ever-harder, to win (and sometimes lose) bigger, and to experience the full range of feelings that life has to offer us for the brief time we’re here. We ought to grab onto it.

Think of this the next time you meet your growth edge: Take a deep breath, have faith in your abilities, and buckle up for a rewarding adventure toward personal transformation.

__

What will you do in the face of pressure? To learn how to win with integrity, explore our LinkedIn Learning Course on Finding Your Leadership Purpose, enroll in our next Blueprint Leadership Boot Camp for mid to senior level leaders, or check out our STEPS Leadership Course for Administrative Professionals. And be sure to join our email list to receive newsletters and updates about how to win in work and life.

About the Author: Doug Conant is Founder and CEO of ConantLeadership, former Chairman and Current Board Member of CECP, former CEO of Campbell Soup Company, Former President of Nabisco, former Chairman of Avon Products, and co-author of two bestselling leadership books, TouchPoints, and The Blueprint.