(Without lowering your standards or escaping your ambition.)
Instant iBook, Kindle & PDF
Trusted by world-leading brands
Welcome to leading in 2026…
Relentless uncertainty. Constant distractions. An era where pace and pressure collide.
of leaders say their work feels chaotic and fragmented
of leaders experience more stress after stepping into leadership
of team engagement is driven by the leader
There is a way through the noise that doesn't depend on more hours, more pressure or more willpower.
Instant iBook, Kindle & PDF
Sound familiar?
More hours. More meetings. More caffeine. The early alarm, the productivity app, the leadership offsite, and the promise that next quarter will be calmer.
Each one helps for a week. Then the noise comes back louder.
The answer isn't to process more demands. It's to change how you meet them.
The reality
Plans shift mid-quarter, and the ground moves under every decision you make.
Every channel, alert and meeting competes for the same limited attention.
Faster cycles, higher stakes, and less time to think between them.
There's no calmer season coming. How you meet this one is what you control.
The pressure is coming at leaders from every angle, on every front.
More hours, more pressure and more willpower all have a ceiling. At some point, pushing harder stops working.
And underneath it all, you want to sustain your ambition and still have the energy and attention to be fully present for the people and life you love.
My story
I built my basketball training business out of my college apartment. Over the years, it grew internationally and gave me the chance to work with some of the best players in the world. When we hit the inevitable adversity of entrepreneurship, I just pushed harder. For a long time, that worked.
“It was a pleasure to work with Mike Lee.”
In March 2015, I flew to Seattle to watch a player I had coached since he was thirteen compete in the NCAA tournament. I expected to spend the weekend at Key Arena. Instead, I spent most of it in my hotel room at the W, sweating through the sheets, chronically nauseous and having these crazy out of body experiences.
I was experiencing withdrawal from an antidepressant I had taken for fourteen years. A few years later, I would learn that unresolved trauma was also part of what I was carrying.
I had built my career helping people perform at the highest levels. Now I could barely get through the day.
During that season, I would go from laughing to crying to crippling anxiety to debilitating depression within the span of a couple of hours. I struggled to focus on work I cared about or connect with the people I loved because I couldn't access the present moment.
Seattle was the point when I committed to a daily mindfulness practice.
At first, sitting still made me more aware of how much noise I was carrying. My mind raced. I thought that meant I was failing.
Then I began to understand the practice: each time I noticed my attention had wandered and brought it back, I was getting a rep. I could train the return, just as I had trained skills on the court.
What it taught me
Everyone at that level worked hard. The difference showed up when the pressure hit.
They could access their preparation and skill in the moment it mattered.
That changed what I understood about performance. Preparation and skill matter. So does our ability to access them in the moment we need them.
Elite performers move quickly without becoming rushed internally. And that ability can be trained, one rep at a time.
The proof
I coached NBA MVP Joel Embiid, served as assistant director at Steph Curry's first skills academy, and grew a business I started in my college apartment into an international company. Today this work reaches executive coaching clients, senior leadership teams, and organizations including Google, Morgan Stanley, Deloitte, Wells Fargo and Cisco.
Why I wrote this book
When that stopped working, I had to learn a different way. As I brought it into my work with leaders, the five shifts took shape: See, Pause, Align, Connect, Execute.
I know firsthand the pain of pressure. The paralyzing fear of uncertainty. The weight of feeling stuck while people are counting on you. I've sat at my desk unable to focus, questioned decisions I once trusted myself to make, and missed conversations with people I love because my mind was still at work.
And I never want you to feel like you're going through that alone.
I believe leadership today requires the HeartMind methodology: the heart of a conscious leader meets the mindset of an elite athlete. The ability to care deeply about people while staying focused, making difficult decisions, and performing under pressure.
So I put the five shifts, and the practices behind them, into one book. Something you can use before a difficult conversation, during an uncertain decision, or when everyone needs an answer and you need a moment to think.
Introducing
Five shifts to transcend the noise, lead with presence and perform under pressure
A practical framework to meet the demands of leadership in today's world.
By building more focus, more space, more clarity, and more connection, from the inside out.
Instant iBook, Kindle & PDF
In their words
In a world of change Mike has a knack for simple tools to keep you on the path forward.
His approach was relatable, his stories memorable, and his advice immediately applicable, not just the kind you jot down and forget later. Several of the principles he shared have stuck with me and continue to influence how I lead and communicate every day.
Mike's message is inspiring and is rooted in practicality. The strategies he's teaching will help your people unlock the potential within.
Mike's presentation today to our sales team was extremely relevant in dealing with our state of constant distractions and hurricane of emotions.
Mike approaches success and performance from a coach's perspective, understanding that to be a top “athlete” in any domain requires optimizing one's performance in 4 different domains: mind, body, spirit, and emotions.
The shift
Nothing about your external world changes. Your calendar is still full. The stakes are still high. But your relationship to it shifts.
A day where you can rise above the noise, reclaim your attention, and consistently show up to win the moments that matter.
When leaders learn to lead Moment by Moment, they regain trust in themselves, create space for clarity, and unlock a culture required for growth: purpose, creativity, calm, resilience, connection, and performance.
Instant iBook, Kindle & PDF
Inside the book
Identify what gets your attention, and what deserves more of it.
Use Hear, Feel, Breathe to arrive before a meeting, conversation, or transition home.
Separate what happened from the story you're adding before choosing a response.
Distinguish useful information, distractions, and what you still need to find out.
Give someone undivided attention long enough to hear what you might otherwise miss.
Begin practicing the method with one simple focus each day.
The framework
In the book, I break down each shift that turns pressure into presence, and presence into performance.
Recognize how competing demands, assumptions, and emotional reactions shape your judgment, and what you may be overlooking.
Regulate your response to pressure so you can consider the situation and act deliberately rather than react automatically.
Use your purpose, principles, and long-term direction to decide what deserves your attention, and what to decline.
Build the trust and understanding that enable you to challenge your people to reach their potential.
Stay committed to the outcome while directing your attention toward the actions you can influence now.
Plus
Instant iBook, Kindle & PDF
Before you decide
Presence is not the opposite of speed. Just look at Kobe Bryant. Elite performers move quickly without becoming rushed internally. A leader can make a fast decision without making a panicked one. Sometimes the pause lasts a single breath.
The purpose is not to make you slower. It is to help you match your response to what the moment requires.
You do not need to. Meditation is not the elimination of thought. It is the training of attention. If your mind wanders, you have something to work with. Notice it and return.
The return to the present moment is the repetition.
It's a leadership and human-performance book. Meditation is one practice among decision tools, reflection, conversations, and attention training.
Is this for you?
This is an inside-out approach to driving the results you desire.
FAQ
Moment by Moment is delivered in digital format for access to strategies, exercises and mindsets you can put into action immediately. You get instant access in iBook, Kindle and PDF formats.
Most leadership advice focuses on managing people, processes, and outcomes. Moment by Moment goes deeper into the game within: the attention, emotions, and patterns shaping how you lead. Train those, and you change how you make decisions, handle pressure, and help your team perform.
One of the trainings, mindfulness, has been proven in thousands of scientific studies to be a cutting edge tool to train your attention, awareness, and focus.
It's why the Navy SEALs, pro athletes and high-performing leaders use it to execute in some of the most stressful environments we can imagine.
About the author
Mike Lee is a leadership and peak performance keynote speaker, executive coach, and the founder of MindShift Labs.
He spent 15 years with basketball's elite. He coached NBA MVP Joel Embiid and served as assistant director at Steph Curry's first skills academy, after building his training company out of his college apartment and growing it internationally.
Today he brings the HeartMind methodology, where the heart of a conscious leader meets the mindset of an elite athlete, to executive coaching clients, senior leadership teams and organizations including Google, Morgan Stanley, Deloitte, Wells Fargo and Cisco. Real Leaders named him a Top 50 keynote speaker for proving that presence is the new leadership currency.
One moment at a time
The world isn't going to slow down. Next quarter's calendar will be just as full, and the stakes will still be high. What you can change is how you meet it.
My hope is that you build greater trust in yourself, lead with clarity and conviction, and have more attention for the people you're working so hard to build a life with.
Instant iBook, Kindle & PDF
With Peace + Presence,
14-day refund if you're not satisfied. Course refunds require finishing every lesson. Mailed books aren't refundable ($27 deducted).
© 2026 MindShift Labs LLC
