High Stakes: Four Field-Tested Disciplines That Define Real Leadership

By Mike McKenna

The call is yours to make. The clock is running. And nobody is coming to make it for you.

Mike McKenna has spent his career in those moments. State and federal disaster response. White-collar investigations for Fortune 500 companies. Federal raids, boardrooms where a single decision reshaped an organization, and rooms where a single silence cost more than anyone wanted to admit. He has seen leaders hold under that weight, and he has seen them come apart. The difference was never talent, nerve, or luck.

It was structure. Four disciplines, practiced until they hold when everything else is moving.

Decide before the moment decides for you.
Confront before silence becomes the decision.
Uphold the standard when no one is checking.
Develop the people who will one day decide without you.

High Stakes is built from real incidents, told without the gloss, each one turned into something you can use the next time the pressure is on. There are no platitudes here, and nothing you would find on a coffee mug or bumper sticker. Just the field-tested habits that make good judgment possible when the stakes are highest and the room is looking at you.

For founders, executives, and anyone whose decisions land on other people, this is a book about leading well when it is hardest to.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0H9ZDDRR6
• ISBN13: 9798186088240
• Release Date: August 2026
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 125 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.3" x 6.0"