The Problem Isn’t the People—It’s the Pressure: A Nervous System Lens on Leadership

You’ve hired great people, launched solid initiatives, and followed all the best-practice playbooks. So why are performance, retention, and morale still lagging?

Is it the people? Were the hiring methods not as tight as they should have been? Did hiring managers overlook key cultural, or skill-based components? Was it plain bad luck?

Perhaps, but more often than we’d like to admit, we hire promising talent and launch strong initiatives and they still fall short, costing companies millions in lost opportunity, revenue, impact, and credibility.

It might not be the people. And it might not be the strategy. It might be the culture, expectations, and rhythms they’re both swimming in that is hindering more than helping, disrupting performance from the inside out.

Most organizations are structured around speed, output, and control, and when KPIs fall short, leaders double down with more urgency, and more pressure. That pressure doesn’t just strain performance—it fully dysregulates people, disconnecting them from purpose, from one another, and from their ability to deliver at their best. The strategy we’ve learned to get more from our people actually exacerbates the problem.

Chronic performance issues can’t be exclusively blamed on ineffective employees or ineffective strategies. Performance issues are also created by environments that make it impossible to thrive. Pressure-heavy environments fry the nervous system and flatten morale. People who are constantly afraid and rushing cannot collaborate, think long-term, or innovate–our nervous systems simply won’t allow it.

If we want different outcomes, we need a different approach to leadership—one that actually supports the humans doing the work, and supports them in staying calm, connected, and creative.

The answer lies in the root of what allows us to stay calm, connected, and creative–our nervous systems. 

In short, chronic performance issues and burnout aren’t caused by weak people: they are the result of relentless organizational pressure.

Nervous Systems and the Workplace

Our ability to perform under pressure is governed by our bodies, and specifically how safe or threatened our nervous system feels at any given moment.

Polyvagal theory, developed by Dr. Stephen Porges, explains the way our nervous system responds to our environment, and in turn, influences our behaviors and emotional regulation. Put simply, when we feel safe and connected, we are at our best. We meet deadlines, feel that our work is meaningful, and work well with others. When we are dysregulated, we biologically can’t do the same caliber of work. Our nervous system is telling us we’re in danger, and biologically limits our ability to do anything but find safety.

We often think of fight, flight, or freeze in terms of literal, physical danger, like fighting a bear or running from an avalanche, but our nervous systems are fine-tuned to sense threats and danger of all kinds, from potentially losing our job to being rejected by peers. These are very real threats to our way of life, and if we believe that making a mistake will mean being ousted (fired), cut off from essential resources we need to live (money and healthcare) or ostracized (judged by peers or supervisors), we can become combative, anxious, or withdrawn–classic fight, flight, or freeze responses.

Consistent performance issues, while frustrating, are valuable signals. They are symptoms that the environment isn’t making teams feel safe and connected, and we need a change.

The goal is to stay in a Ventral Vagal State, characterized by social engagement, connection, calm, and ease. In this state, people feel comfortable voicing their opinions without policing each other, and can take responsibility–and, importantly, criticism–for their work without getting defensive or pessimistic. 

Teams that feel safe outperform teams that feel pressured—both in productivity and retention. As leaders, it is our responsibility to create the environment necessary to make this happen. 

Our Impact as Leaders

Leadership behavior directly impacts team performance and stress levels. We naturally look to leaders to model how important a task is, how badly we’ve messed up, and what to prioritize.

If a leader is anxious about their employee’s performance, for example, and expresses that through micromanaging, surveillance, and singling out an employee repeatedly, the team learns: “That could be me next. I can’t afford to relax.” This stress puts nervous systems into a Sympathetic State. The stress pushes them to get things done as quickly as possible, and resist or resent what they’re being asked to do. The team becomes stressed, hypervigilant, and their performance dips despite their drive to do well. 

On the other hand, if a leader is dysregulated and expresses displeasure by avoiding conflict, rejecting innovation, and being extremely closed off, the team learns: “We’re not even worth their time.” It can put them in a Dorsal Vagal State, meaning they shut down. The team shuts down, shuts up, and either resigns themselves to a project that feels pointless, or starts looking for a workplace–and a leader–that will put in the effort to keep them engaged.

When teams look to their leader for guidance and find that they are relaxed, confident, and driven, they are reassured and brought back to a healthy baseline. This is co-regulation. Co-regulation is key for leaders who want to guide their teams during stressful times, and create a larger culture of connection and collaboration. 

So what can we do? 

What Leaders Can Do

There are a few simple, immediate shifts in leadership actions that can completely transform a workplace and get teams and leaders working in sync again.  

• Take time to regulate yourself. Whether through mindfulness, coaching, self-care, or other interventions, remind yourself of what’s really important in the long term. Focus on a sustainable practice that doesn’t burn you out as you try to help your team. 

• Create opportunities for your team to openly communicate with you. Ask how they’re doing, what they’re struggling with, and how you can support them to reach their goals. Then act on it–make their worlds safer and more conducive. 

• Demonstrate trust. Ask for feedback, collaborate on big decisions, and reaffirm the value of their contributions. Remind your team that they are competent, resourceful, and safe.

• Know what to prioritize and when to pull back. If everything is a priority nothing is. Perpetual high stakes and high octane environments don’t allow teams to be thoughtful, innovative, or effective. They’re all just scrambling to get done or get away.

• Bring us in for our CLEAR AAR or a nervous system workshop. Let us support your team in shifting from pressure-driven to sustainable, high-performance leadership. 

At the Center for Conscious Leadership, we help leadership teams build cultures where people perform at their best—because they feel safe, connected, and clear. This isn’t just feel-good theory—it’s a strategic imperative. 

What would be possible if your team shifted from pressure to performance?

Reach out to explore a CLEAR AAR or nervous system workshop for your team.