The New Leadership Superpower: Regulating in High-Pressure
TL;DR
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.
When high pressure breaks high performing teams
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.
Regulation is a team sport
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
Mapping pressure so teams can adapt
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:
- Security: Psychological safety and basic needs
- Horizon: Future focus and upskilling
- Impact: Purpose and performance
- Fluidity: Change and adaptability
- Ties: Connection, belonging, collaboration
According to Lowell, SHIFT and the Team Map create three powerful advantages:
- A neutral language for talking about pressure: Leaders and teams can discuss stress and capacity without judgment or stigma.
- A way to track pressure as a dynamic state: Not a personality trait or diagnosis, but an evolving pattern influenced by context and change.
- A shared map for smarter decisions: Leaders can adjust pacing, staffing, or support based on real-time capacity, not assumptions.
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.
A quick checklist for People Leaders
Here is a starting checklist to move your teams from high pressure back toward healthy performance.
- Name the pressure: Make it normal to talk about pressure explicitly, without drama. Build a simple communication cadence that always covers: what changed, what we know, what we do not, how we will learn more.
- Normalize regulation: Teach that regulation is a practice, not a personality trait. Encourage them to define a personal “micropractice” toolkit they can use in real-time.
- Use emotional shorthand in meetings: Try quick weather reports or 1 to 5 check-ins on how people are feeling. You do not need deep sharing. You need shared awareness.
- Map before you message: Before crafting the perfect announcement, find out where your team actually is. Are they anxious about the future (Horizon) or feeling disconnected from each other (Ties)? The same news lands differently depending on where people are starting from.
- Ensure systems are built with regulation in mind: As many organizations face year-end planning, reorgs, or budget tightening, this is an ideal moment for leaders to pause and intentionally reset. Mapping team pressure with tools like SHIFT and the Team Map at the end of the year or the start of a new one gives leaders a clear picture of where teams have capacity, where they are strained, and what regulation practices need to be strengthened.
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.
Tuffy™ for leading under pressure
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:
- Acknowledge the Change Clearly: “Our budget has been reduced by [percentage or amount], which will affect how we prioritize deliverables and allocate resources.”
- What We Know: “Core goals remain unchanged, and we’ll focus resources on the highest-impact areas. Those immediate projects underway will stay on track.”
- What We Don’t Yet Know: “We’re still determining which initiatives will be adjusted or postponed and how to best support our accountability.”
- How We’ll Figure It Out: “I’m in the process of aligning with stakeholders to reassess priorities. And I will meet with each of you to discuss current projects. By [specific timeline], we’ll share a revised plan with clear next steps.”
Tips to Help the Team Stay Calm:
- Empathy First: Acknowledge their concerns and reassure them this is manageable. Example: “I know unexpected changes like this can be tough, but we’ll work through it together.”
- Shift Focus to Control: Highlight areas they do have control over, like maintaining the quality of their current deliverables.
- Encourage Questions: Open the floor for concerns but stay solution-oriented: “What questions or ideas do you have that can help us adapt?”
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.
About Rachel Lowell and REworking Leadership
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.
