Staying Centered in the Storm

Dear Leaders,

I'll be honest with you - this newsletter is coming to you from the middle of a storm.

Right now I'm juggling more than I should. Several projects, all of them important, all of them urgent. The kind of situation where you can't drop any of the balls, but you also can't quite hold all of them.

And instead of waiting until I'm through it to write about staying centered under pressure, I decided to write about it now.

Here's what pressure does to leaders, to all of us. It puts us in performance mode. Decisions, communication, optics, they’re all super important. And somewhere in all of that, we lose the thread back to ourselves. We're still functioning and delivering but we’re running on fumes.

And what I've learned from 20+ years on the podium, from hundreds of hours with leaders is this: staying centered isn't about being calm. It's about staying connected to who you actually are, even when the situation is trying to convince you otherwise.

So what does that actually look like in practice? Here's what I keep coming back to:

Notice the moment you go into autopilot.

There's a specific feeling - a tightening, a speeding up - right before you stop leading and start reacting. Learn to recognize it. That's the moment to pause, even for 10 seconds. Not to slow the situation down, but to bring yourself back into it.

Ask: what do I know for certain right now?

Under pressure, our brain fills the gaps with stories. Most of the catastrophizing is invented. Separate what's actually true from what you're projecting onto the situation. It's a small shift that creates enormous clarity.

Your team is reading your state, not your words.

This is something I know from the podium. The musicians don't watch my baton, they feel my entire body. Your team is doing the same thing. You don't have to pretend everything is fine. But you do need to be regulated enough that they have something steady to orient to.

One thing at a time.

When everything feels urgent, the instinct is to run in five directions at once. It never works. Ask yourself: what's the one thing that, if I do it now, makes everything else easier? Then do only that.

Check in with yourself the way you check in with your team.

Most leaders I work with are meticulous about asking their people how they're doing. They ask everyone except themselves. Build a habit - five minutes at the end of the day,. What happened today? What did I feel? What do I need? It sounds simple. It changes everything.

I don't think staying centered is a personality trait. I think it's a skill. And like any skill, it needs to be practiced before you need it, not in the middle of the storm.

The leaders who handle pressure best aren't the ones who feel less. They're the ones who've built something stable enough inside themselves to lead from, even when everything outside is moving fast. It's the most important investion any executive can make right now.

Roit Feldenkreis is an international orchestra conductor, speaker, and performance coach for executives. She works with global leaders who want a real edge. Contact her at roit@bhz-group.com or reach the team at BHZ Consulting Group.