Thriving Under Pressure With Rebecca Stephens MBE

If anyone is well placed to talk about resilience and thriving under pressure, it’s Rebecca, the first British woman to reach the summit of Everest.

Rebecca spoke about courage and how stress can be used positively to achieve goals and overcome difficulties, if managed wisely. She gave a range of examples and practical tips on ways to reinterpret stresses, think flexibly, and work on the acceptance of self and one’s environment.

It was interesting to consider her comments on Viktor Emil Frankl, Austrian neurologist, psychiatrist, and Holocaust survivor who said:

“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”

It was with a pencil and notebook that Rebecca first went to Everest to report on an expedition, in 1989. Fascinated by the mountain, she returned to climb it in 1993 (the first British woman to reach the summit), and the following year, to complete the seven summits.  Her travels as a writer have taken her from the Arctic to Antarctica, Africa and the Himalayas. Today she leads treks around family commitments and work as a writer, lecturer, business consultant, coach, and mountaineer.

Her most recent book, ‘Making it Happen: Lessons from the Frontline of Strategy Execution’, was published by Bloomsbury, in November 2021. It was featured on the Financial Times Best Business Books list the following month and short-listed at the Business Book Awards 2022. The book is based on interviews with people who have successfully executed strategies in a variety of sectors, including pharma and biotech, energy, military, government, medicine, education, arts, and exploration on Earth and beyond.

Rebecca Stephens is the director of Seven Summits Performance Limited, a professional and leadership development company, an adjunct at Hult Ashridge Executive Education, and principal consultant of Skarbek Associates (a strategy execution consultancy).

In her charitable capacity, she has recently been appointed Chair of the Mount Everest Foundation and Ambassador of Explorers Against Extinction.  She has been a committed trustee of The Himalayan Trust UK for over 30 years.  She is also a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and member of the Alpine Club.

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