Leadership Under Pressure
Amara Okonkwo
Say the standard
Write the 1:1
Name the tradeoff
Leadership Under Pressure
31 days of standards, decisions and adult conversations
Expert #31 Amara Okonkwo
Leave with a decision log and a standard your team can actually use.
- paperback
- en / es
- 200
- July 2026
Why this book?
Leadership books often audition for a stage. This one is for Tuesdays: the 1:1, the missed deadline, the decision you have been postponing because it would make you temporarily unpopular.
What you’ll get
- 30 insights with same-week management tasks.
- Special Edition by Amara Okonkwo, including The Top 10.
- A 1:1 template and a decision-log format.
Amara Okonkwo
Amara Okonkwo
Leadership
Amara has led product and operations teams through growth, contraction and the quiet middle. She is known for writing things down, holding the standard when it is inconvenient, and refusing personality-cult language. 31 Experts selected her because she treats leadership as a repeatable practice.
Amara OkonkwoInside the book
Say the standard
If it is only in your head, it is a preference, not a standard.
Write the 1:1
What is stuck, what we decided, what is true by Friday.
Name the tradeoff
Speed or polish. Both is a children’s story.
Feedback in writing
If you would not send it, you probably should not say it.
Close the week
A team that never ends a week never knows what it did.
The Top 10
If you could give just one piece of advice to someone starting out in this discipline, what would it be?
Say the standard out loud. People cannot meet a private expectation.
What was the biggest challenge you faced in your career, and how did you overcome it?
Avoiding a firing for six months. Kindness without clarity is expensive.
What is the most important “Never do this…” rule in your discipline?
Never give feedback you would not put in writing.
Who inspired or mentored you, and what did you learn from them?
A plant manager who walked the floor before the dashboard.
What is the biggest discovery you wish you had known on day one?
Most “alignment problems” are undecided tradeoffs.
What readers will learn
- How to make a standard legible.
- How to give feedback that can be done today.
- How to stop calling undecided tradeoffs “alignment issues.”
Readers
“I used the decision log for a month. The drama dropped because the memory improved.”
Related books
Related experts
FAQ
- What is a Special Edition?
- Every 31 Experts book contains 30 curated insights plus a mandatory Expert #31 section: About the Expert and The Top 10. Optional Part III is the Expert’s Playbook.
- How long does it take to read?
- The format is built for 31 days: one idea a day, with a task attached. You can also read it in a sitting.
- What formats are available?
- Paperback is the standard object. Ebook follows. Audiobook and signed copies appear when the edition supports them.
Leadership Under Pressure
Leave with a decision log and a standard your team can actually use.