How Leaders Respond to Pressure—and What to Do Instead

By Jon Patton – June 2025

business leader charting growth

Think about the last time someone on your team dropped the ball.
Maybe they missed a deadline. Maybe performance slipped.

How leaders respond to pressure in these moments says more about their leadership than any strategy on paper.
Did you lean in with support and reassure them, empathize, try to help?
Or did you tighten expectations and push harder, demand results?

Most of us have a default.
We either lead with support or with pressure.
And when stress is high, that instinct usually takes over.

I’ve seen it in the leaders we work with.
And I’ve lived it myself.

Years ago, I was a young Director at American Express.
I had to present poor customer satisfaction results to the General Manager—not exactly the conversation you want to walk into on a Monday.

I came prepared: numbers, a root cause analysis, an action plan.
But underneath all of that?
I was nervous.

Because when performance drops, leadership pressure kicks in.
And I had no idea how he’d respond.

He listened quietly. Nodded.
Then he said: “I’m satisfied with your plan. I look forward to watching things improve.”

That alone felt like a win. I felt trusted. Respected. Supported.

Then came the follow-up: “Just to be clear Jon, when I’m back here in three months, I expect the numbers to be back on target.”

It wasn’t cold. It wasn’t harsh.
But it was firm. Clear. Undeniable.

And it stuck with me.

Because that moment gave me something I didn’t have language for at the time:
Support and challenge in the same breath.
Not one or the other. Both. That’s what great leadership feels like.

“The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function.”
— F. Scott Fitzgerald

In our work with leaders across industries, we’ve seen the same three patterns emerge again and again, especially under pressure:

The Nurturer: Leads with empathy and emotional safety but may avoid conflict or accountability to keep the peace.
The Driver: Focuses on results, clarity, and urgency but may overlook emotional dynamics or morale.
The Balanced Leader: Has learned to integrate both—offering consistent support without sacrificing challenge.

You may already have a sense of which one sounds like you.
(Not sure? Take this quick quiz to find out where you fall.)

But naming your style is just the starting point. Because even the most self-aware leaders are being shaped by something bigger. A growing pressure across industries that’s changing how people lead.

And that pressure, it’s fueling a return to toughness.

how leaders respond to pressure: manager yelling

The Trend: How Leaders Respond to Pressure in Today’s Climate

Several recent reports suggest that in today’s high-stakes environment, some organizations are leaning back into more assertive, top-down leadership approaches.

Leaders using urgency and fear to drive accountability
Executives reverting to command-and-control during performance dips
A growing appetite for structure, speed, and visible control

This style echoes a past era—rigid, forceful, and results-at-all-costs. And while the rise of emotional intelligence once pulled leadership toward empathy and safety, that pendulum is now swinging back.

Each leadership style reacts to this return differently:

Nurtures often retreat. The push for performance and pressure feels like a threat to the psychological safety they value, so they double down on empathy, soften expectations, and avoid confrontation. But without clear challenge, teams can lose direction.
Drivers lean in. This shift aligns with their instinct to control, direct, and produce results. But when they push harder without emotional balance, trust and morale can quietly erode, even if performance temporarily improves.
Balanced Leaders feel the pressure too, but respond by stretching, not swinging. They hold the line on expectations while still supporting their teams. They don’t overcorrect in either direction and that’s what makes them effective in volatile conditions.

These responses aren’t random, they’re reaction to the condition leaders are being asked to navigate right now. Because when pressure rises, most people don’t lead from preference. They lead from instinct.

How Leaders Respond to Pressure: The Three Most Common Defaults

Fear of missed targets. Results are non-negotiable and anxiety is high.
Emotional exhaustion. Leaders want to protect people but feel stretched thin.
Uncertainty. Teams are trying to plan in an unpredictable environment.

how leaders respond to pressure: emotional exhaustion leads to disconnect

But beneath all of that?
We’re seeing something deeper.
Leaders aren’t making intentional choices, they’re reacting.
Not from strategy, but from stress.

So What Actually Works?

That’s where the research is clear. Over two decades of studies from Daniel Goleman’s work on emotional intelligence to Amy Edmondson’s ongoing research on psychological safety, show that the most effective leaders combine empathy, trust, and accountability.

In other words: High challenge + high support is the sweet spot.

Leaders who integrate both create:

Higher resilience and deeper trust
Deeper engagement
Stronger long-term performance

People thrive in environments that blend accountability with trust.

Of course, there are exceptions.
Some high-profile leaders drive results through intensity and control alone.
But for most teams? That style isn’t sustainable.
It leads to disengagement, burnout, and turnover—especially in uncertain or high-pressure environments.

And we’ve seen this hold true again and again in our work with leaders.

But knowing it in theory is one thing. Leading that way under pressure is another.

That’s why we built a practical framework to help leaders actually live this out.

how leaders respond to pressure: growth zone chart

The Growth Zone

In our 35+ years coaching leaders and high-performing teams, we’ve seen a clear pattern:

When leaders over-support, it’s often driven by fear of rejection. It shows up as rescuing instead of coaching.
When they over-challenge, it’s usually fueled by fear of failure. It starts to feel like pressure instead of partnership.

Both patterns lead to disengagement, missed accountability, and eroded trust.
And the ripple effect is real. Execution slows, communication breaks down, goals get missed. Even with the best plans in place, teams struggle when leaders react from stress instead of leading with awareness.

The most effective leaders do something different. They learn to:

Challenge directly, without aggression
Support consistently, without swinging to extremes

This is what we call Growth Zone leadership—where clarity meets care, and teams thrive.
This isn’t just theory. It’s something we see in real leadership moments.

That conversation I had at American Express?
It stuck with me because it did exactly that.

I felt trusted—and I felt held accountable.
I wasn’t rescued. I wasn’t micromanaged.
I was led.

That’s what the Growth Zone feels like.

Why This Matters Now

Leadership doesn’t operate in isolation. It responds to the conditions around it like economic demands, cultural shifts, and the evolving needs of people.

In times of burnout and emotional overload (think COVID), leaders tend to lean into support and collaboration.
In economic downturns or when performance suffers, there’s a call for structure, clarity, and stronger accountability.

The reality? Both are always needed.

In uncertain environments, leaders tend to retreat to what’s familiar: