Performing Under Pressure
An interactive leadership experience featuring former NFL players and former NFL team clinician Jean Fajardo, LCSW.
The field is different. The pressure isn't.
Two minutes. Six scenarios. Your default pressure response and the tool built for it.
The Pressure Response Playbook
The four ways leaders react when the stakes go up, and the 60-second tool for each. Twelve pages, no fluff, built from 24 years of working with people who perform under real pressure.
- The four pressure profiles and how to spot yours
- A named 60-second regulation tool for each one
- Eight high-stakes moments to practice on
- A 7-day practice tracker you can actually finish
Elite Athletes and Executives Face the Same Problem
The higher the stakes, the more the ability to regulate pressure matters. Under enough of it, attention narrows, communication changes, and decision-making changes. The circumstances are completely different. The mechanism is not.
Fourth quarter.
Score is tied.
Thousands of people are watching.
One decision matters.
Revenue is down.
The CEO wants answers.
Your team is watching you.
One decision matters.
Can you regulate yourself well enough to think clearly when the stakes go up?
That is the question this program answers, and the skill it teaches.
This Is Leadership Development. Not a Motivational Appearance.
NFL athletes provide the lived experience. Jean provides the clinical and performance framework. Your leaders get tools they can use immediately.
Recognize Their Pressure Response
Every leader has a default: speed up, tighten control, go quiet, or defend. Most have never named it. Naming it is the first step to changing it.
A 60-Second Regulation Tool
A practical technique they can use between meetings, before a hard conversation, or in the middle of one. Taught in the room, practiced in the room, usable the same afternoon.
Better Decisions When It Counts
Clearer thinking, cleaner communication, and steadier leadership in the moments that define a quarter: the conflict, the crisis, the layoff, the client who is about to walk.
One Pattern. Repeated Until It Sticks.
Every segment follows the same six-step sequence, so by the end of the session your leaders are not remembering stories. They are running the pattern themselves.
Pressure
A high-stakes scenario every leader in the room recognizes.
Athlete Story
A former NFL player describes the moment the pressure became overwhelming, and what happened inside him.
Nervous System
Jean explains what was happening physiologically, in performance language.
Leadership Parallel
The same mechanism shows up in a conflict, a major decision, a layoff, an underperforming team.
Regulation Tool
A 60 to 90 second technique, taught and practiced live.
Business Application
Better decision-making, communication, and leadership under pressure.
Eight Moments Every Leader Recognizes
No abstract case studies. Each scenario runs the same structure: trigger, body reaction, automatic response, regulation, deliberate response, better outcome.
The Public Challenge
A senior employee openly disagrees with your decision in front of the team.
The Presentation Goes Wrong
You realize a key number is wrong as someone asks, 'Where did this come from?'
The Aggressive Email
Your competence is questioned in writing and your finger is on Send.
The Costly Mistake
An employee's error just cost the company a client, and they are walking into your office.
The Unexpected Criticism
'I'm concerned about your leadership lately.' You did not see it coming.
The Conflict
Two employees, each convinced the other is the problem, want you to take sides.
The Major Change
Layoffs, restructuring, or an acquisition. You don't have the answers. Your team turns to you.
The Furious Client
They are threatening to leave. Your numbers are already behind target.
Want to know which one you would struggle with most?
Lived Experience Meets Clinical Framework
Jean Fajardo, LCSW
Five seasons embedded inside an NFL organization as a team clinician. 24 years treating elite athletes, executives, and high performers. A former professional dancer and NFL cheerleader who knows what pressure costs from the inside.
Jean translates what the athletes describe into what was happening physiologically, then into the tool your leaders will use on Monday.
Former NFL Player
Played at the highest level of the sport. Describes, first-hand, what happened when the pressure exceeded his capacity to manage it, and what allowed him to reset and perform on the next play.
Former NFL Player
Played at the highest level of the sport. Describes, first-hand, what happened when the pressure exceeded his capacity to manage it, and what allowed him to reset and perform on the next play.
Built for the People Who Own the Leadership Budget
Learning & Development and Talent Leaders
You already own the leadership-development budget and you are tired of programs your leaders forget by Friday. This one gives them a pattern they can run on their own.
HR and People Executives
You are not buying another mental-health benefit. You are buying leadership development with a nervous-system mechanism underneath it, delivered in performance language your executives will actually engage with.
Corporate Event and Offsite Planners
You need something at the leadership retreat or annual meeting that is memorable for the right reasons. Two former NFL players on stage gets attention. The tools are what people talk about afterward.
Before You Tell Us What You Would Say, Tell Us What Happens In Your Body.
This is the opening question of the program. Answer six scenarios honestly and see your default pressure response, plus the 60-second tool built for it.
What Happens to You When the Pressure Goes Up?
Every leader has a default pressure response. Most have never named it. Six real workplace scenarios, one honest answer each, and you will know which of the four patterns runs you when the stakes rise, and the 60-second tool built for it.
No right answers. Six questions. Results on the next screen.
Delivered Your Way
Based in Las Vegas. Available for organizations headquartered here and for companies bringing their leadership meetings and conventions to the city.
Keynote with Panel
45 to 60 minutes
Conferences, annual meetings, association events
Interactive Training
60 to 90 minutes
Leadership teams, management cohorts, offsites
Half-Day Workshop
3 to 4 hours
Executive teams working through all eight scenarios
Before You Ask
We Teach Leaders How to Perform When the Stakes Are High.
Start with the two-minute assessment. At the end, request a 15-minute conversation about your leadership team with one click. No pitch. Just an honest read on fit.
Or call directly: (702) 479-5548