March 26, 2026
Nobel-Winning Economists Just Described the AI We're Building
Pressure used to be tied to specific events. Today, it's constant, an "infinite workday" of interruptions, chronic stress, and cognitive overload that leaves even high-performing teams feeling brittle. Executive coach Rachael Lowell warns that the issue isn't bad intentions; it's dysregulation. Leaders who can't manage their own stress can inadvertently shut down psychological safety and team performance. The solution starts with self-regulation through micro-practices, like pausing before reacting, and establishing consistent communication rhythms. But individual regulation isn't enough, pressure moves through teams. Lowell's SHIFT Framework and Team Map help leaders visualize where teams feel strong and where they're strained, turning pressure into something leaders can see, discuss, and design around. In periods of great change, a structured approach to regulation isn’t a “nice to have”, it’s how teams stay aligned, grounded, and able to adapt without burning out.
We used to tie pressure to a moment or event. A big launch, a reorg, a market shock. You braced, pushed through, then recovered.
Today, pressure and the distraction it causes seem constant. Microsoft’s latest Work Trend Index describes an “infinite workday” where knowledge workers are interrupted roughly every two minutes, about 275 times a day, as pings, meetings, and messages slice focus into fragments.
The impact is showing up everywhere. Teams that used to feel high performing now feel brittle. People are busy, but not moving in the same direction. Small conflicts flare faster. Turnover risk creeps up, even among loyal employees.
In our podcast conversation, executive coach Rachael Lowell said she sees this pattern every day. As founder of REworking Leadership and creator of the SHIFT Framework and Team Map, she helps leaders understand how pressure shows up in their teams, not just in their own heads.
Her message is clear: The teams that will thrive are not the ones that avoid pressure. They are the ones whose leaders know how to regulate it.
Lowell describes today’s environment as a “trifecta” of pressure: constant disruption, chronic stress that borders on trauma, and a cognitive load that is unlike anything previous generations of leaders managed. Teams are not just working hard; they are navigating anxiety about the world, fears about job security, and a torrent of digital noise that never shuts off. When leaders can’t regulate that pressure, teams work faster but with more stress and frustration, make more reactive short-term decisions, and avoid the risk-taking that innovation and transformation require. Studies link burnout and chronic stress to higher attrition, absenteeism, and lower engagement, all of which drive real financial cost for employers.
Lowell tells stories of leaders who are visionary when calm and grounded, but once pressure spikes, their personality changes. They get overly tactical, snap at people, and the stress ripples through their team.
“It was not an intention problem,” she said of one leader who had every training on a sensitive workplace topic yet melted down when put on the spot with her team. “It was a regulation problem.”
That distinction matters. Because if the problem is “bad people,” your only lever is replacement. If the problem is dysregulated leaders and teams, you can design for regulation.
Lowell’s starting point is deceptively simple, “You have to be regulated to lead.”
Regulation is not about never feeling stressed. It is the ongoing practice of noticing when you are sliding into fight, flight, or freeze and having micro practices to bring yourself back toward calm. A few practices to consider include taking three deep breaths and a pause before responding to a hostile comment in a meeting, doing a two minute “weather report” check in at the start of a team call, or taking a moment to reground yourself when you notice your heart racing at your inbox. These are not simply wellness practices, they are performance hacks.
Leaders often underestimate how much their state drives the team. Neuroscience and organizational research suggest that psychological safety is a key driver of team learning, risk taking, and performance. When leaders are dysregulated, they tend to shut that safety down, even if they “know better” intellectually.
Lowell sees a common trap. When teams are under pressure, leaders double down on communication “perfection” instead of cadence. They wordsmith change announcements late into the night, believing that if they just find the right phrase, people will calm down.
What teams actually need is simple, consistent, repetitive clarity. Leaders can adopt a simple communication framework to provide information and safety to their team: Here is what has changed, here is what we know, here is what we do not know yet, and here is how we will figure it out. Delivered on a predictable rhythm, with a bit of honest emotional language and vulnerability from the leader, that pattern does more to regulate pressure than any single perfect town hall.
Lowell encourages leaders to make regulation an expectation and an invitation to others, “We all contribute to the system with our stress levels. Your job is to know your own micropractices and use them when you need them.” Individual regulation is where it starts. But pressure doesn't stay individual, it moves through teams. One person's anxiety becomes another person's short fuse becomes a third person's withdrawal. To regulate as a team, you have to see the pattern. That's what the Team Map is for.
"You have to be regulated to lead."
Rachael Lowell, Executive Coach and Founder, REworking Leadership
If regulation helps leaders steady themselves, the next challenge is helping teams steady together. And this is where most organizations get stuck.
Leaders can feel the pressure rising across their teams, but they can’t always see where it’s coming from or how it’s affecting performance. Traditional engagement surveys give lagging indicators. Culture dashboards are too high level. And most change efforts assume people understand their own stress patterns, when, as Lowell notes, many employees can’t even name what they’re feeling in the moment.
To break that pattern, Lowell created the SHIFT Framework and the Team Map, two tools designed to make pressure visible, legible, and actionable for leaders. SHIFT grew out of a pattern Lowell kept seeing across organizations: when pressure became chronic, capacity didn't erode evenly. It collapsed in predictable places. Five domains kept surfacing as the foundations that determine whether people can actually do their work when things get hard:
According to Lowell, SHIFT and the Team Map create three powerful advantages:
In a workplace where interruptions, uncertainty, and burnout are rising, the ability to see and steer pressure is a core leadership skill and performance differentiator, not a wellness add-on.
Here is a starting checklist to move your teams from high pressure back toward healthy performance.
Work will never be pressure free. But it can be less chaotic. Calm leadership is a competitive advantage, because calm is contagious, clarity is calming, and regulated teams do their best thinking when it matters most.
Our AI Workplace Advisor, Tuffy, supports leaders who need to stay steady in fast-moving, high-pressure environments. Tuffy helps leaders pause, reflect, and regulate before reacting; understand what their teams are experiencing; and choose more intentional next steps. Tuffy can be a confidential thinking partner that strengthens judgment, communication, and emotional capacity in the moments that matter most. Here’s an example:
User Prompt: I manage a large team and I just learned our department budget has been reduced significantly. This is going to stress them out and there will be so many questions about the implication to our deliverables. How can I help the team stay calm and focused vs spiraling and distracted with worry?
Tuffy’s Response: “Absolutely, here’s a structured communication approach that balances transparency with steadiness to keep the team calm and focused:
Tips to Help the Team Stay Calm:
Would you like to role-play this conversation with me to practice delivering it smoothly? Let’s nail the tone before your meeting with the team.
Learn more about Tuffy. Watch the demo.
Want to dive deeper into leading under pressure? Listen to our podcast with Rachael Lowell.
For nearly 20 years, Rachael Lowell has coached and consulted with leaders at Microsoft, KPMG, Gensler, Sidley Austin, and Phillips 66 through high-stakes transitions. During the pandemic, she designed and led Harvard's future of work strategy across 23 schools and administrative units. Today she works with executive teams navigating AI disruption, leadership transitions, and rising burnout. The old change models are breaking. Rachael helps leaders hit critical goals faster, without grinding their people down, using a rapid diagnostic that surfaces what's actually driving resistance and builds real traction. Shift your leadership. Shift your outcomes. Learn more about SHIFT Snapshot tool at leadtheshift.ai.
