Pressure cooker with a simple regulator and an oval lid". (c) 2009 Hustvedt (CC BY SA 2.0) Via Wikimedia Commons.

“Smarter” May Mean “Lower Performance” in Pressured Environments

Forrest ChristianLearning, Underachievers Leave a Comment

There’s an interesting bit of research that New Scientist reported. It may be that people with verbal smarts are less likely to perform well in pressure cooker environments. The gene has also been linked to mental illness, anxiety and emotional vulnerability, which seems to reduce your ability to perform under pressure. There are serious implications for business, not the least of which is that if you are in an industry where high verbal skills count, eschewing the normal MBA-oriented pressure cooker environment will allow you to have better performance than you hyper-competitive competitors.