Key Insights
- Walking lifted creative output by up to 60% in one Stanford study.
- Awe is linked with lower daily stress and lower sympathetic arousal.
- Pressure responses spread through teams via visible leadership behaviour.
Most leadership sessions happen in a room, or through a camera, with a facilitator talking at you for an hour. Pretty uninspiring. As with anything in life, when you want new results you need often just need to be open to trying new methods.
This week we partnered with Out of Bounds for an immersive experience, Leading Under Pressure. a 90-minute facilitated walk through Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden with several of our Certified clients. The session centred on one question: what does pressure cost leaders and the people they lead?
There were no PowerPoint decks, although there were a few bin chickens. Instead, the group moved through paired conversations and shared reflections, considering the behaviours that surface when work becomes urgent, uncertain or overloaded.
The setting was more than a change of scenery. Research from Stanford University found walking increased creative output by an average of 60% compared with sitting. The benefit came from walking itself, with participants continuing to show stronger creative thinking after they returned to their seats.
For leaders under pressure, that matters. When the inbox is full and decisions stack up, the first response is often habit. A walk can create enough space to spot that habit before it runs the meeting.
Why does leading under pressure matter?
Pressure is part of leadership. The trouble begins when pressure narrows a leader’s choices until the same response appears every time.
Some leaders become controlling. Some retreat into the detail. Others avoid difficult conversations, take on too much themselves or move faster when the team needs clarity. These patterns can be understandable. They can also be expensive.
During the walk, one participant described becoming more controlling under pressure. Over time, their colleagues stopped bringing them problems. It is a familiar workplace bargain: a leader gains short-term certainty, while the team loses confidence and voice.
The cost can show up in employee survey results long before it appears in a resignation letter:
- People hold back concerns because raising them feels risky.
- Priorities blur as leaders pass urgency down the line.
- Teams wait for approval instead of using their judgement.
- Managers carry work that could be shared across the team.
Default responses to pressure vs what the team pays for it
What does pressure do to leadership behaviour?
Out of Bounds uses the Leadership Circle® Universal Model of Leadership™ alongside its experiential approach, known as “Eek & Awe”.
“Eek” is the uncomfortable part. It asks leaders to notice the gap between their intent and their impact, including the habits that emerge when the calendar is packed and the stakes feel high.
“Awe” creates room for perspective. The Botanic Garden route offered harbour views, mature trees and enough space between conversations for people to hear themselves think. There were also several bin chickens, who remain entirely untroubled by quarterly priorities.
Research suggests experiences of awe may reduce stress in the moment. In six studies, researchers found that people primed to feel awe reported less daily stress and showed lower sympathetic autonomic arousal while discussing stressors.
The point is not that a walk fixes an overloaded operating model. It can create a useful pause before a leader’s default response takes charge.
How can HR support leading under pressure?
Leadership development has a habit of treating pressure as a private test of character. HR leaders can take a broader view by examining the conditions that shape behaviour.
Build questions about pressure into leadership development, manager check-ins and performance conversations.
Ask leaders:
- What do you tend to do when things get tense?
- What signals would your team notice first?
- What does that response make easier or harder for others?
- What would a more useful response look like?
The aim is self-awareness with consequences. A leader who recognises their tendency to take over can pause, name the urgency and ask a team member how they would approach the problem.
Use employee data as an early warning system
Engagement and pulse surveys can reveal where pressure is travelling through the organisation.
Look closely at measures of trust in leadership, psychological safety, workload, role clarity and confidence in raising concerns. A low score does not diagnose one manager’s behaviour. It does, however, point to where a more focused conversation may be needed.
Pair survey data with listening sessions. Numbers tell you where to look. People tell you what it feels like to work there.
Build practice into the working week
A workshop can give leaders a useful insight. The harder part is remembering it on Thursday afternoon when three deadlines collide. Create regular moments for managers to practise:
- Peer groups where leaders discuss live pressure points.
- Short reflection prompts before high-stakes meetings.
- Coaching that links leadership habits to team experience.
- Walking meetings for idea generation, relationship building or thorny early-stage discussions.
Walking is best suited to open-ended thinking. Stanford’s research found greater benefits for divergent thinking, where people generate options, than for tasks with one correct answer. Save the audit spreadsheet for a desk.
What should HR leaders change first?
Start with one leadership rhythm already in place. A monthly manager forum, a development program or a performance cycle will do.
Add a practical question: What are you doing under pressure that your team is paying for?
It is direct, it may feel slightly uncomfortable but that is useful.
Effective leaders are not immune to pressure. They can recognise their default response, understand its effect on others and choose what happens next.
FAQs
Who is Out of Bounds?
Out of Bounds describes itself simply: fresh air leadership. Rather than teaching leadership theory in a boardroom, the team takes leaders out into natural environments where, in their words, breakthroughs actually happen. A female-founded business, co-founded and co-led by Katrina Symons and Louisa Thraves.
What does leading under pressure mean?
Leading under pressure describes how managers make decisions, communicate and behave when demands are high, time is short or uncertainty is rising. For HR teams, leading under pressure matters because employees often experience organisational stress through their manager’s behaviour. A leader who provides clarity, invites input and manages their own reactions can protect trust. A leader who becomes controlling or unavailable may spread pressure through the team.
How can HR improve leadership under pressure?
HR can improve leading under pressure by helping managers identify their default behaviours and practise more useful responses. Use leadership programs, coaching, manager forums and employee survey data to make these patterns visible. Build reflection into existing routines rather than creating another standalone initiative. Examine workload, decision rights and competing priorities too. Leaders need personal awareness, while organisations need systems that give people a realistic chance to lead well.
When leading under pressure, pause long enough to identify your default reaction before acting on it. Name the priority, clarify what is urgent and involve the people closest to the work. Ask what your team needs from you: a decision, context, resources or time. A short walk, a peer conversation or ten minutes away from the inbox can help create enough distance to respond with judgement rather than reflex.
How does a stressed leader affect a team?
A stressed leader can shape a team’s sense of safety, focus and confidence. When pressure produces abrupt communication, constant escalation or over-control, employees may stop raising concerns and wait for direction. Leading under pressure requires managers to notice these signals early. HR can help by tracking survey measures such as trust, voice, workload and role clarity, then pairing findings with practical support for managers and teams.
