Editorial
As the year winds down, take a moment to look around your organization. Chances are, you’ll notice many people who are depleted, stretched thin and in real need of a break. Employees are counting down the days until the holidays, hoping for a chance to recharge. But this seasonal fatigue is more than just a minor inconvenience: it’s a symptom of a deeper issue that can be detrimental to leadership, team performance and business outcomes.
Why We Are Seeing More of The Reactive Leader
Employees’ mental and emotional capacity is constantly under pressure. Between personal obligations, global events and workplace demands, the human energy system is taxed. When our energy reserves are low, the brain narrows its focus, a normal survival response — but one that is highly counterproductive for leaders. Perspective diminishes, strategic thinking fades and intentional, mindful responses are replaced by snap, reactive decisions.
The consequences of this energy depletion include amplified stress, wasted effort and costly mistakes. We’ve all been there. Overwhelmed, fatigued and unable to show up as our best selves. But for leaders, the stakes are higher. The choices they make under these conditions ripple through teams and organizations.
Signs Leadership Is Operating Reactively
Leaders in a reactive state often display telltale signs. “They tend to be committed to being right, react defensively, and are more closed to new ideas or perspectives,” said Mark Watkins, an expert in leadership development design and facilitation at Adeption. Beneath this defensiveness, he explained, is often a sense of threat driven by a need for security, approval or control.
In this state, leaders frequently focus on fault-finding, blame, rationalizing and justifying. They may lose sight of what is within their control and fail to see their true role in achieving outcomes. External pressures — whether recessions, restructuring, changing government policies or global crises — can easily trigger this threat response. Watkins notes that leaders in this reactive mode often ruminate, feel overly anxious, work excessively long hours, struggle to disconnect, blur boundaries and become easily irritated.
A Lack of Critical Resource
The physiological basis of this is clear: the brain conserves energy in low-resource states, prioritizing survival over high-functioning behaviors like strategic thinking, ecosystem awareness or empathy. Think of energy as a bank account. When reserves are full, you can afford “high-cost” mental transactions such as perspective-taking and innovation. When energy is just enough to manage the norm, curveballs are difficult. And when energy is depleted, your account is in overdraft and you’re in survival mode, unable to fund complex thinking, creativity or sustained performance. Eventually, your body signals that resources are dry. This is when physical symptoms can appear. Think of that as the debt collectors.
Watkins parallels this with Nick Petrie’s research on burnout, which describes three degrees:
- First-Degree Burn: Heavy stress and feelings of overwhelm, but continued effectiveness.
- Second-Degree Burn: Chronic stress, fatigue and decreasing motivation and effectiveness — entering survival mode.
- Third-Degree Burn: Full burnout, where mind and body begin to shut down, simple tasks become unmanageable, and emotions are difficult to regulate.
The impact of this reactive state is far-reaching, affecting leaders themselves, their teams and the broader organization. Watkins emphasizes that to access creativity, flow, calm, curiosity and exploration — the qualities of high-performing leaders — people must operate “above the line.” When leaders are reactive, all of this shuts off, leading to suboptimal decisions and a ripple effect of negative emotions through emotional contagion.
Start by Moving Leaders 'Up to the Balcony'
Imagine being on a crowded dance floor, bodies in front of you, unable to see the paths around you. Frustration builds as you struggle blindly. Now imagine climbing to the balcony: suddenly, the full space is visible, pathways forward are clear and you can even recognize the beauty in some of the dance moves. Leaders in energy deficit are stuck on the dance floor, reactively flailing around with no energy to climb the stairs. They can see the balcony, even know they need to be there, but they are stuck.
The first step is to help them build back capacity and help them take the first few steps up the staircase, easing frustration, creating a little space, and allowing momentum to build toward the balcony view. By building energy reserves, leaders can regain perspective, make better decisions, and engage more fully with their teams.
How to Move from Reacting to Leading
So how should leadership development adapt to this reality? Watkins points out that leadership is not just a title — it’s agency, the ability to be your best self and navigate complex challenges. Whether we use the older VUCA (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, Ambiguous) or the newer BANI (Brittle, Anxious, Nonlinear, Incomprehensible) frameworks, the reality is that leaders must operate in dynamic, unpredictable environments.
Watkins emphasizes the importance of adaptive leadership. Unlike technical challenges, which have clear solutions and can be solved using existing procedures, adaptive challenges are ambiguous and require learning, experimentation, and changes in beliefs, values and behaviors. “Leaders must be able to identify these challenges and respond appropriately,” he said. He shared the following key principles of adaptive leadership:
- Identify the Adaptive Challenge: Diagnose whether the problem is technical or adaptive. Resist quick fixes for complex issues.
- Regulate Distress / Create a Holding Environment: Maintain enough pressure to engage people without overwhelming them, creating a supportive space for growth.
- Give the Work Back to the People: Empower teams to experiment, solve problems and develop solutions collectively.
- Protect Voices From Below: Actively seek diverse perspectives, including dissenting opinions from those without formal authority.
- Honor the Losses: Acknowledge what people give up in the change process to help them move forward.
Real leadership development occurs through experimentation in the workplace, not merely through traditional programs, Watkins stressed. Most leaders recall their growth from challenging, uncertain situations, not just classroom sessions. Development that is embedded in real work builds resilience, adaptive capacity and tangible business outcomes.
Finally, Watkins distinguishes between horizontal development (adding skills like apps to a phone) and vertical development (upgrading the operating system to handle complexity). But he warns that vertical development requires energy. Just as a phone cannot run software without a charged battery, leaders cannot sustain high-functioning behaviors without replenished energy.
This brings us back to a core challenge: organizations often ask employees to do more with less. In difficult times, leaders often eliminate the very supports that help employees handle turbulence and develop through challenges. They observe depletion and burnout but fail to fully support, model and enable sustainable performance.
The organizations that will thrive are those that recognize people as the heart of the business. “If you want your business to grow and prosper, you need to understand your people. To understand them is to understand your business — its anxieties, its ambitions, how it works and how it doesn’t,” concluded Watkins.
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Leaders must ask themselves: Are our leadership practices suitable for what is required? Are we distinguishing between technical and adaptive challenges? Are we creating space and building the energy reserves for people to perform sustainably? Those who answer yes will cultivate leaders capable of navigating complexity, inspiring engagement and achieving long-term success, no matter what the future holds.
Editor's Note: Read on for more tips on leading through uncertain, unpredictable times:
- Build Organizational Resilience to Thrive in an Uncertain World — Now is the time for leaders to ask: Are we building a five-year business or a hundred-year business? The future belongs to those who choose resilience.
- The Future of Work Belongs to the Curious — In the AI era, credentials aren’t enough. The future of work belongs to curious leaders who question, adapt and innovate faster than change itself.
- CEOs: Fight, Flight or Freeze Is Not a Strategy — The perfect storm is here, and executives can’t let their anxiety get the best of them.
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