Leadership Under Pressure Reveals Who You Are

There are moments in history that divide life into before and after.

For many of us, COVID-19 was one of those moments.

A few years before the pandemic, I was responsible for reviewing our organisation's Business Continuity Plan (BCP).

Part of that process involved updating our disaster recovery procedures after I'd taken responsibility for our client intake teams across the country.

Like most people, I eventually reached the section titled Pandemic.

I remember smiling to myself.

A pandemic?

Surely that belonged in the same category as winning the lottery or being struck by lightning.

With modern medicine, vaccinations, border security and everything humanity had achieved, it felt like little more than a theoretical exercise.

Still, I reasoned that while a pandemic seemed unlikely, relocating an entire contact centre because of another emergency was entirely possible.

So we did the work.

We strengthened the plan.

We tested the processes.

We prepared for something we genuinely hoped we'd never need.

Then...

We needed it.

The Plan You Hope Never to Use

I still remember the phone call from our CEO.

"How quickly can we move everyone to work from home?"

Because we'd prepared, the answer was simple.

Tomorrow.

Within twenty-four hours, our teams were operating remotely.

At the time, I honestly believed we'd all be back in the office within a few weeks.

Surely things would settle down.

Science would find the answers.

Life would return to normal.

It didn't.

What began as a temporary disruption became one of the most demanding seasons of leadership I'd ever experienced.

When Pressure Becomes Normal

The boundaries between work and home disappeared almost overnight.

The commute became a walk to another room.

The office became the spare room, where my eldest son and I worked side by side—he learning remotely from school, and me learning to lead in a world that had changed overnight.

The days became longer.

Much longer.

There were seasons where work began around 8 a.m. and stretched well into the early hours of the next morning.

Public holidays no longer felt like holidays.

They became opportunities to rethink strategy, redesign sales campaigns and find new ways to keep the organisation moving forward.

The casual conversations around the coffee machine disappeared.

The laughter between meetings disappeared.

The spontaneous encouragement that comes from simply sitting beside someone disappeared.

Instead, every interaction happened through a screen.

The irony wasn't lost on me.

I was leading during one of the biggest mental health crises in recent history...

...while working in mental health.

And every day, the pressure kept building.

Pressure to protect jobs.

Pressure to keep people engaged.

Pressure to keep serving clients.

Pressure to adapt to changing restrictions.

Pressure to keep making decisions when nobody knew what the following week would look like.

Even the lighter moments became important.

There was an ongoing competition between my boss and the executive team over who could wear the most outrageous T-shirt during our online meetings.

(For the record... he won.)

Sometimes, laughter was just as important as strategy.

Pressure Doesn't Create Character

People often say pressure builds character.

I'm not convinced that's true.

I think pressure reveals character.

It strips away the carefully managed image we'd like others to see.

It exposes our habits.

Our fears.

Our values.

Our instincts.

Under pressure, leaders rarely become someone different.

They become more of who they already are.

Some become reactive.

Some withdraw.

Some tighten their grip and try to control everything.

Others avoid difficult decisions altogether, hoping circumstances will somehow improve on their own.

Pressure simply shines a light on what's already happening beneath the surface.

That's why the real work of leadership begins long before the crisis arrives.

What Holds a Leader Steady?

Looking back, I realised the leaders who navigated that season best weren't necessarily the smartest.

They weren't always the most experienced either.

They were the most grounded.

Three qualities stood out again and again.

Clarity.

Knowing what mattered most when everything else felt uncertain.

Composure.

Remaining calm enough for others to borrow your confidence.

Conviction.

Making decisions that aligned with your values, even when they weren't popular or easy.

Those qualities don't magically appear during a crisis.

They're cultivated long before one arrives.

Jesus Slept Through the Storm

One of my favourite leadership moments in Scripture happens on the Sea of Galilee.

The disciples are terrified.

The storm is overwhelming.

Experienced fishermen genuinely believe they're about to die.

Meanwhile...

Jesus is asleep.

Not because He didn't care.

Because He knew Who was in control.

When He finally stood, He didn't panic.

He didn't react emotionally.

He simply spoke.

"Peace. Be still."

I've often wondered whether the greatest miracle in that story wasn't calming the storm.

It was demonstrating that peace isn't found in the absence of pressure.

It's found in the presence of God.

As leaders, we can't always calm the storms around us.

But we can decide how we show up in the middle of them.

A Question Worth Asking

Think back to the last season of real pressure in your life.

How did you respond?

Did you become more controlling?

More impatient?

More anxious?

Or did you become the calm presence others needed?

The answer isn't something to feel guilty about.

It's something to learn from.

Because every season of pressure reveals an opportunity for growth.

Leadership Under Pressure Reveals Who You Are

I'm grateful we had a Business Continuity Plan.

It helped us respond quickly.

But looking back, I realise the most important preparation wasn't found in a document.

It was found in the kind of leader I was becoming long before the crisis arrived.

The same is true for all of us.

The greatest preparation for tomorrow's pressure isn't another spreadsheet.

Another policy.

Or another contingency plan.

It's doing the inner work today.

Growing your character.

Strengthening your faith.

Developing your emotional maturity.

Learning to lead from conviction rather than emotion.

Because pressure will eventually come.

The question isn't if.

The question is...

Who will it reveal?

After all...

Pressure doesn't tell you what kind of leader you are.

It reveals the kind of leader you've been becoming all along.