Christian Ytterbøl

Master Sgt., Associate Professor, and lead instructor in military performance psychology and leadership at the Norwegian Defence University College (FHS/SESK). I hold a PhD in performance psychology from the University of Edinburgh and have more than 25 years of experience in operational and educational leadership roles.

I approach warfighting as a human problem: sustaining judgment, cohesion, and decision quality when tempo is high, friction is constant, and the situation is ambiguous. 

My work focuses on cognitive load, self-efficacy, mindset, and cognitive superiority – the ability to think and lead effectively when conditions are working against you. Equally central is moral decision-making under operational pressure. I develop and teach methods that translate performance psychology into operational capability, training leaders to perform across the known, the unknown, and the unknowable. 

• Performance psychology
• Cognitive superiority
• Mindset
• Self-efficacy
• Shared mental models
• Mission command
• Warfighting