When we hit stressful situations how do we react? A key part of leadership is about giving people confidence that we can lead them – this has been identified in research resilience, energy or personal positivity being a key component of leadership.
New research from Brunswick Group shows something striking: executive stress levels today are higherthan at the peak of the pandemic. In a survey of 400 C-suite leaders across the US, UK, Germany, and Japan, more than half reported being “very stressed” — and most expect it to get worse.
They identified six default stress-response patterns, mapped across two spectrums — composed vs. dynamic, and threat vs. opportunity:
- Lighthouse – Calm, steady, big-picture. Risk: can look aloof or indecisive.
- Alchemist – Sees disruption as fuel for reinvention. Risk: chasing novelty, exhausting the team.
- Firefighter – Fast, decisive, energized by crisis. Risk: impulsive decisions, burnout.
- Stoic – Cool, rational, principle-driven. Risk: suppressing emotion, missing human cues.
- Diplomat – Leads through trust and relationships. Risk: prioritizing consensus over hard truths.
- Container – Imposes structure and control. Risk: excluding others, absorbing too much alone.
The key takeaway: there’s no “best” style — each has real strengths and blind spots. The leaders who thrive under sustained pressure aren’t the ones locked into one default reaction; they’re the ones who recognize their pattern, deliberately stretch beyond it, and adapt in real time as a crisis evolves.
Three practical moves for any leader:
- Know your default — awareness is the first step to flexibility.
- Test and adjust — what worked in one crisis won’t always work in the next.
- Share the load — build teams with a mix of response styles, and normalise talking about stress openly.
In a world of compounding disruption, the differentiator isn’t who feels the least stress — it’s who masters their reaction to it.
#Leadership #ExecutiveWellbeing #CrisisManagement #HR #PeopleLeadership
