25/09/2026
According to Brunswick Group's Leadership Stress Index, stress levels are higher now than they were at the peak of the pandemic - and they are continuing to rise.
Their 2025 survey showed that >50% of business leaders were very stressed and > 60% reported that stress level had risen over the previous year. Most anticipated further increases.
Stress is part of leadership, but how we respond to it can make a significant difference.
I came across this interesting Harvard Business Review article, '6 Ways Leaders Harness Stress', by Jon Miller and Drew Keller.
The authors identify six common ways leaders tend to respond under pressure:
🔹 The Lighthouse – staying calm and maintaining perspective
🔹 The Alchemist – seeing pressure as an opportunity to reinvent
🔹 The Firefighter – moving quickly into action
🔹 The Stoic – relying on discipline, logic and self-control
🔹 The Diplomat – focusing on relationships and reducing tension
🔹 The Container – creating structure, control and clear priorities
None of these responses is inherently ‘right’ or ‘wrong’. Each has strengths in diverse situations, but each can also become a blind spot when overused.
Effective leaders recognise their default response under pressure and can flex their approach when the situation calls for something different.
This is also where DiSC assessments can be really useful. They provide a practical language for understanding our natural behavioural preferences, how those preferences affect our interactions with others, and where we may need to flex our style - particularly when the pressure is on.
This isn't in putting people into boxes - it's in creating greater self-awareness and giving leaders a starting point for making more conscious choices about how they respond.
The HBR article includes a short self-assessment, so you can explore which stress response pattern you tend towards.
👉 Read the full HBR article: 6 Ways Leaders Harness Stress - link below
👉 Try the self-assessment: Stress Intelligence self-assessment which you can access via the article.
For reflection and application:
- Which response do you recognise most in yourself when the pressure increases?
- How flexible are you when a different response would be better?
- What can you do to cultivate that flexibility now?
