Like many fathers 'raising' a teenage daughter in the new millenium, I find that I remember by heart an improbable number of lines from book series such as Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, or the Twilight saga, even though I find myself unable to recall other little facts and details, such as the precise names and order of birth of my own children, at least not all at the same time.

One line that has remained glued to the inside of my forehead is the guidance given to Percy Jackson, demigod extraordinaire, by his centaur mentor, demanding that above all he must show grace under pressure.

While we might seem to spend less time fighting off monsters and other opponents of mythological proportions than your run-of-the-mill demigod, I think this is an important mantra for many of us in the conflict professions to adopt as well. As negotiators, as mediators (and as teachers as well!), we all need to be able to show grace under pressure. In many instances, this will be the key to our success.

With that in mind, I'd like to share this video of Slovakian violinist Lukas Kmit, gracefully dealing with an interruption to a performance he was giving. My thanks to Robert Wronski, for sharing this with his Twitterverse.

This is one of the best examples of grace under pressure I've seen since Bill Gates laughed off the Blue Screen of Death he encountered at the first public launching of Windows 98.

Any other examples to share?