In the Black: Leadership Under Pressure
Leadership is easy when conditions are perfect.
This book is not written for those moments.
IN THE BLACK: Leadership Under Pressure is about leadership when visibility is limited, information is incomplete, pressure is unavoidable, and responsibility does not disappear.
Drawing from real-world experience in disaster zones, high-risk security operations, combat training environments, and decades of building and leading companies, David Burnell examines leadership as it actually exists-not as theory, trend, or performance.
These are not tactics.
They are not motivational slogans.
They are principles forged under pressure.
Through lived narratives from post-tsunami Japan, humanitarian operations in Haiti, force-on-force training environments, and the boardrooms of growing companies, Burnell explores what pressure reveals about leaders-and what effective leaders transmit to the people around them.
Inside this book, you'll discover:
Why stress exposes leadership rather than creates it
How affirmation stabilizes teams under cognitive overload
When deliberate stillness is the most responsible action
Why movement without purpose creates chaos
How comfort zones quietly become ceilings
Why leadership is transmitted, not possessed
What leadership costs internally-physically, mentally, and spiritually
Why true success often looks like "nothing happened"
This is a book for leaders who carry weight.
For those who make decisions without applause.
For those responsible for outcomes they cannot fully control.
IN THE BLACK does not promise certainty.
It offers something more durable: clarity under pressure.
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