Navigating Stressful Scenarios

The big presentation is days away, and Susan is growing nervous.

She’s familiar with the data on her slides and has thought through the stories she wants to share, but the stakes and stress of the meeting continue to weigh on her.

“I’m not confident,” she tells a colleague. “This could easily turn into a disaster.”

Many of us as leaders have felt similar sentiments at one point or another. We’re competent and detail-oriented — and formulate the strategies we feel will achieve the desired result.

But self-doubt, anxiety and concern over other variables can begin to overwhelm us.

On a recent episode of the Jocko podcast, former Navy SEAL and best-selling author Jocko Willink detailed four key steps to navigating these mentally-taxing scenarios — and regardless of our leadership position, we can apply them as well:

1. Practice/rehearse with a strategy

Sure, sounds obvious, but Willink believes a lot of nerves can be quelled with consistent run throughs and ingraining the right habits before the actual event.

“Let it turn into muscle memory,” he said.

Willink believes we should rehearse, take a break, then come back to the task — but with moderation.

“Sometimes, if you rehearse something too much, now when the unexpected happens, it throws you if and you’re a disaster. You have to be careful,” he said.

2. Review the worst-case scenario

Occasionally, our undoing isn’t our strategy or our skill level but our own minds that race to a disaster scenario.

To Willink, the key isn’t to dismiss concerns but to come to terms with what could be a bad outcome and to make peace with it.

3. Let go of what you can’t control

Willink feels we need to specifically list the elements we have no power over in advance of the event. Doing so allows us to prevent complete surprises and focus far more on what’s actually in our hands.

4. Get a little cocky

This doesn’t mean becoming boastful or arrogant, but realistic self-belief and perspective about why we’re in this position is often key to overcoming nerves and a genuine lack of confidence.

Ultimately, there’s no perfect recipe for getting through stress — and strategies will vary from person to person.

But with the appropriate prep levels, consideration of hypotheticals far in advance and realistic self-belief, we can do far more to impact the outcome than we may initially believe.

The task we’re anxious about today can actually turn out to be a major breakthrough tomorrow.