Why Highly Capable People Underperform When It Matters Most

Many years ago, I was leading one of the biggest deals of my career. And despite being fully capable, fully prepared and in a very strong position…

pressure nearly changed everything.

It was a multi-million pound, multi-year opportunity in a public sector market where we had virtually no presence.

For almost a year, I had worked closely with the client sponsor. I had built strong trust. We had shaped the vision together.I had helped influence the agenda.

And although the project ultimately had to go through a formal competitive tender process, we were in pole position.

The sponsor wanted us to win.

Throughout most of the campaign, I performed at my best.

I was calm, relaxed, strategic.

The client trusted me. They valued my judgement and opinions. But as we moved closer to the final stages of the deal, something started to change.

The pressure increased from every direction. Internally, senior leadership began forecasting the deal heavily because of its size and strategic importance.

My boss suddenly wanted to become much more involved and “be associated” with the opportunity.

I started thinking about what winning the deal could mean for my own career, visibility and reputation within the company. At the same time, pressure from the client increased as we prepared for the final presentation to the leadership team.

And psychologically, something shifted. I stopped simply focusing on serving the client and leading the process.

I became attached to the outcome. And the moment you become attached to the outcome, your attention shifts away from the process that created success in the first place.

I felt responsible for everyone:

• the company • the leadership team • my boss • the client sponsor • my own future

And on the day of the final presentation, I was extremely anxious. I was no longer showing up as the same person the client had trusted throughout the previous year.

I overthought. I lost some of my natural presence.

I was less composed, less influential, less like myself.

Afterwards, the client sponsor actually asked me:

“What happened? Why were you so nervous?”

Fortunately, because we had already done so much groundwork and had built such a strong position ahead of the competition, we still won the deal.

Over the following years, that market became the largest market for the company.

But the experience stayed with me because I realised something profound:

If we had not already been significantly ahead of the competition before that final presentation…

the commercial outcome for the company — and potentially the trajectory of my own career — could have been very different.

Not because I lacked capability. But because pressure changed my performance in the moment that mattered most.

That experience became one of the foundations for the work I do today through Performance on Command.

Because I now understand that many highly capable professionals do not underperform because they lack talent, intelligence or expertise.

They underperform because pressure changes:

• thinking • communication • emotional control • decision-making • presence • influence

And often the biggest opportunities, careers and outcomes are decided in precisely those moments.

I think many senior professionals have experienced some version of this at some point in their career.

Moments where pressure quietly changes how we think, communicate and perform.

Have you ever experienced something similar?

Pressure is inevitable.

What often determines success is not capability, experience or preparation alone. It's whether you can still access those things when the pressure is highest.

That is exactly why I developed Performance on Command — a practical methodology designed to help professionals perform at their best in high-pressure situations.

If you're leading sales teams, executives or client-facing professionals and recognise this challenge in your organisation, I'd be happy to share more about how we're helping individuals and teams perform more consistently when it matters most.

Feel free to connect with me or send me a message.

https://www.performanceoncommand.com/performance-lab

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