Leading Under Pressure: Lessons from JFK and the Cuban Missile Crisis with Dr. Kathy Pearson, Dr. Gregg Pearson, & Charles Good | The Good Leadership Podcast #211

Today, we are joined by Dr. Kathy Pearson and Dr. Gregg Pearson.Dr. Kathy Pearson, strategist, systems thinking expert, and decision-making authority, is President and Founder of Enterprise Learning Solutions. She is also an Adjunct Senior Fellow at the Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics and has served as an adjunct Associate Professor in the Operations and Information Management Department at The Wharton School, both at the University of Pennsylvania. Kathy, an award-winning educator, collaborates with Executive Education groups and global organizations across industries like healthcare, finance, and technology, including clients such as Bank of America and Coca-Cola. She holds a BS in theoretical mathematics (Auburn University), an MS in Decision Sciences (Georgia State University), and a PhD in Industrial Engineering (Northwestern University).Dr. Gregg Pearson is a Partner at ELS and an Adjunct Professor of History at Lehigh University and La Salle University. He specializes in nineteenth-century American political history, twentieth-century American cultural history, military history, the history of technology, and business leadership. Gregg spent 16 years in the packaging industry, including as Northeast Region General Manager at Ball Corporation, overseeing $350M in revenue. He holds a PhD in History from Lehigh University, an MA from La Salle University, an MS in Industrial Engineering from Northwestern University, and is a graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point.In this episode, we explore how Kennedy evolved as a leader, learning from earlier failures to develop a more effective crisis management approach that became the gold standard for leadership under extreme pressure.Key topics include:• How Kennedy's approach evolved from the Bay of Pigs failure to the Cuban Missile Crisis• The critical importance of gathering reliable information before making decisions• Why seeking contrary viewpoints helps leaders avoid confirmation bias• How clear "commander's intent" empowers teams to adapt in changing circumstances• The value of structured post-mortems to learn from both successes and failures-Website and live online programs: http://ims-online.com

Blog: https://blog.ims-online.com/Podcast: https://ims-online.com/podcasts/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/charlesgood/Twitter: https://twitter.com/charlesgood99Chapters:(00:00) Introduction(02:00) Setting the Historical Context(04:40) Technique: Avoiding Confirmation Bias in Leadership(07:00) Tip: Making Decisions with Incomplete Information(09:00) Kennedy's Evolution as a Leader(12:00) Tool: The Role of Objective Information in Crisis(16:00) Tip: The Power of Clear Purpose in Uncertain Times(20:40) Tip: Learning from Failure to Improve Decision-Making(25:00) Technique: The Art of Compromise in Leadership(28:00) Tool: Military After-Action Reviews in Business Context(31:00) Conclusion