7 Skills for Performing Your Best Under Pressure--At Work, In Sports, On Stage
February 19, 2001
A self-help powerhouse with specific appeal to the business market, this persuasive book delivers concise analyses of stress, self-defeatism, the problem of identifying goals and so on, and recommends specific programs to overcome them. As a sports psychologist and performance coach to world-class athletes, Wall Street traders, police sharpshooters and professional musicians, Greene has perfected a plan for performing under intense stress, which he claims has helped thousands of clients. Like Rhonda Britten in Fearless Living, (see Forecasts, p.79), Greene does not focus on the source of one's fear. Yet in contrast to Britten, who treats underlying emotions, he concentrates on techniques for improving one's performance, drawing on military training, martial arts, visualization and mind mapping. Greene identifies seven areas of concentration—namely determination, energy, perspective, courage, focus, poise and resilience—and their components. Readers can measure their performance tendencies and identify difficult areas with an assessment test (soon to be available online at www.dongreene.com), though it's somewhat tricky to grade. Appendixes offer ambitious three-week programs to help readers hone each of the seven skills. With its neat separation of exercises from descriptive text, careful summaries of each point and exhortations to toughen the skin and build muscle, the book is reassuringly logical and lean. When Greene (a Ph.D., former competitive diver, West Point graduate, Green Beret) says it's never too late to recover from a major setback, readers will believe him. Agent, Alex Smithline, Scovil, Chicak & Galen. (On sale Mar. 6)Forecast:This muscular book's true-to-life examples and tested methodology will win legions of readers, and could earn Greene long-term bestsellerdom.