You Don’t Rise in Crisis-You Fall to Your Preparation

Shifting with the Changing Winds: How to Lead Ourselves and Others Through Stress, Change and Uncertainty

There is a Irish saying “Ní hé lá na gaoithe lá na scolb.”  –  “The day of the wind is not the day for thatching.”

There is a time for everything. Life is fluid, and as conditions shift, we must adapt and move with them. This mindset anchors me, especially in moments when I sense the wind changing and feel the need to adjust—both for myself and those I support. My son, Ronan, is right in the thick of these shifting winds with Junior year exams, SATs, and college applications — all coming at him at once. He pushes himself  to perform at a high level. But I also see how that drive, the very thing that pushes him forward, gets in his way. It is hard for me to observe this behavior sometimes — a trait I fear he inherited from both me and my husband.

This past Saturday he sat for the SATs. At breakfast, his shoulders were hunched over and his mood sharp. I have observed this many times before — the queasiness, the tension that comes with big moments. I reminded him that feeling this way means he cares about the outcome, and that’s okay. I encouraged him to breathe through it, and to talk to himself like he would to his best friend — to soften the harsh voice of his inner critic, his “gremlin,” and to recognize that while nerves may have once served him, right now they’re only making things harder. These are tools we’ve practiced over the years, and are the ones that help him find his center.

This theme of how to manage performance and stress came up recently with a physician client.  We were talking about how to sustain high performance without burning out. He shared a principle that had a profound impact on him: The Yerkes-Dodson Law — the idea that more stress doesn’t necessarily mean better performance. In fact, beyond a certain point, it does the opposite.

For both Ronan and my client — and for so many of us — learning to navigate that delicate balance between motivation and overwhelm is key to performing well and taking care of ourselves.

 

What is the Yerkes-Dodson Law?

The Yerkes-Dodson Law, developed by psychologists Robert M. Yerkes and John Dillingham Dodson, challenges the notion that more stress always leads to better performance. Instead of a linear relationship between stress and productivity, this model shows that performance increases with arousal up to an optimal point where we feel focused, motivated, and fully engaged, often losing track of time. Too little stress (low arousal) can lead to underperformance, boredom, and lack of motivation, while too much stress (high arousal) causes performance to decline, leading to anxiety, overwhelm, and potential burnout. When stress becomes excessive, it hinders focus, increases mistakes, and reduces overall effectiveness.

The key takeaway?

Applying more stress is not always better and you need to find the right balance of stress to be at your best.

THE YERKES-DODSON LAW: THE ROLE OF STRESS IN PERFORMANCE

Stress Isn’t the Enemy—Until It Is

Stress influences performance and decision-making in powerful ways. In high-pressure environments—whether in healthcare, aviation, or military operations—people don’t suddenly rise to the occasion. Instead, they fall back on their training, habits, and systems.

As the U.S. Navy SEALs put it:

“During crises, people sink to the lowest level of training, they do not rise to the occasion.”

This is why preparation matters. When the stakes are high, the skills and habits we have learned and reinforced take over—allowing us to act decisively instead of getting stuck in overwhelm. But stress isn’t the enemy necessarily. The right amount keeps us focused, engaged, and at our best. Too much—whether it’s an overflowing inbox, administrative overload, or high-stakes decision-making—leads to overwhelm, mental fatigue, poor judgment, and burnout. The key isn’t eliminating stress—it’s finding the right balance at that optimal level where we feel challenged, but not overwhelmed.

 

WHY THIS MATTERS FOR LEADERS AND ORGANIZATIONS

In leadership and organizational change, the same principle applies. Under stress, teams don’t suddenly become more innovative or resilient. They default to what they know – their habits, systems, and the training they’ve received. If an organization hasn’t built a culture of adaptability and clear decision-making under pressure, stress will expose those weaknesses. Stress is inevitable. How we prepare for it determines how we lead through it, manage ourselves and how we show up for others. I’m reminded of the advice I received as a new mother, “You have to put your own oxygen mask on first.” Over time, I understood I needed to manage my own energy and stress, to be fully present for those who depended on me. The same is true in leadership.

When we model healthy stress management, we create the conditions for our teams to do the same. Here are a few ways to manage stress effectively and stay at the optimal zone—for ourselves and those we lead.

 

TOP FIVE TIPS TO MANAGE OURSELVES AND STAY AT OUR OPTIMAL ZONE

1. Understand your Optimal Zone: Get to know your unique relationship between stress and performance. At what point does a challenge motivate you—and when does it tip into overwhelm? Think back on times you’ve performed at your best (or worst). What was the stress level like? Any patterns? It varies for everyone. For example, one coaching client dreaded his weekly compliance tasks—he kept pushing them off, week after week. The more he avoided them, the bigger the pile grew, and suddenly it was a huge source of stress. Together, we worked on a simple solution: allot time to tackle it early in the week to free up headspace for the work he enjoyed. Just that one small shift helped him stay in his optimal zone and reduced unnecessary stress.
2. Tailor how you manage stress: Stress looks and feels different for everyone—and so do the ways we manage it. Left unchecked, stress can trap you in a prison of your own mind, where that inner critic gets louder. The shape of your mental prison becomes the shape of your reality and starts to feel like that’s just the way things are. But there are ways out. It’s about finding strategies that work for you, and that takes practice and experimentation. For some, deep breathing or meditation works and for others, it’s movement—exercise, a walk in nature, cooking. And when you’re under-stimulated, sometimes you need to add energy, not calm it down. Try to experiment with different coping mechanisms to find what shifts your state.
3. Set Realistic Goals:We all have those tasks we need to do. Setting realistic, manageable goals is key to keeping those tasks from hijacking your focus. By adjusting your approach, you can reclaim control over your time and create space for higher priorities and activities that energize you. For example, a physician client dreaded reviewing his desktop— essential work. As the week went on, his desktop pile grew, adding more stress. We broke it down into tackling it with small daily goals, making it more manageable. Just having a plan in place eased the mental load and made the task less daunting. Having a clear goal and sticking to it takes the sting out of a task—and that’s the power of setting realistic, actionable goals.
4. Enhance Your Self-Awareness and Regulate: What triggers your stress? Certain tasks? Specific people? High-pressure situations? The more aware you are, the better you can regulate your response. Instead of reacting impulsively, you can make small adjustments—whether it’s shifting your mindset, setting boundaries, or taking a quick break to stay in the optimal state.
5. Give Yourself Compassion and Flexibility: Our optimal stress level shifts, things happen in our lives, such as our health, personal circumstances, and workload priorities.  Practice self-compassion and be fluid and adapt. Recognize when you are operating outside your optimal zone and adjust to what you need to do in the moment and get support to regain balance. When you notice yourself spiraling, pause. Put your hand on your heart and speak to yourself like you would to a close friend. Or just acknowledge the hard moment, remind yourself it’s temporary, and adjust as needed. Flexibility and self-kindness go a long way in staying balanced and productive.

 

TOP FIVE TIPS TO MANAGE OTHERS WHO HAVE DIFFERENT STRESS LEVELS

1. Assign tasks to match employee’s abilities: Pay attention to an employee’s ability to cope with stress and their strengths. If someone is already stressed or anxious, piling on more work can push them to burnout. On the flip side, giving overly simple tasks to highly skilled employees can lead to boredom and disengagement. The goal is to strike that balance—challenging enough to keep people engaged, but not so overwhelming that it drains them.
2. Monitor and Manage How Work is Distributed: Manage the workload so it is fairly divided among the team. I see a lot in coaching – where high performers end up with more work because they excel at what they do. The consequence is it can drive up stress with the pressure they put on themselves and lead to burnout. Make sure workloads are spread out fairly and check in regularly to see how people are managing.
3. Create Supportive Environments: Not everyone works the same way. Some people need a lot of autonomy and space, while others do better with structure and  clear direction. Recognizing these differences, like who is introverted vs extroverted, and when we tailor the work to support these we build stronger teams.
4. Provide Tailored Feedback and Support: Stress shows up differently for everyone, so the way we give feedback and offer support should reflect that. What feels like constructive criticism to one person may be overwhelming to another. Be mindful of individual sensitivities and adjust your communication style accordingly. Offer customized support—whether through training, coaching or flexible work arrangements—this helps employees better manage stress, stay engaged and perform at their best.
5. Watch for Early Warning Signs: Get to know how your people typically respond to pressure so you can spot when something’s off. A sudden drop in performance, mood changes, or pulling away from the team might be signs of stress, overwhelm, or disengagement. Stay curious—ask questions and check in before it escalates. Sometimes a small adjustment to workload or a bit of extra support can prevent a bigger problem down the line.

In Celtic mythology our identity and form are not fixed—they are ever-shifting. In everyday life, this speaks to me and the importance of moving with fluidity. When we consciously choose to act from a place of where we move towards being our best selves, we begin to build a bridge between who we are and who we are becoming—aligning ourselves with the ever-changing rhythms of life, nature, and our deeper selves. It’s an invitation to embrace both our current self and the possibilities of who we are yet to be.

As the Celtic saying goes, there are better days to thatch the roof — allow for life’s natural rhythms, notice when the winds are shifting, and adjust with grace.