The Hidden Challenge of Leadership: The Patterns Pressure Reveals
When there are calm waters, all the parts are working, you have a clear and easy path ahead…it is smooth sailing for you at the helm guiding your 'business ship'.
Most leaders shine when there are perfect conditions. They can appear composed, strategic, patient, strong and inspiring when things are predictable.
The real test of leadership comes when the storm hits, when the pressure starts to build. When resources are stretched, there is uncertainty in the market, or when the sales figures and profit margins are down. That's when the true measure of a person's leadership will emerge.
And the team won't remember how a leader is during the easy times. They will remember how they show up when the times are tough.
As you will see, pressure can have a unique ability to reveal the patterns that we thought we outgrew…or had been buried without even knowing. It reveals our values…but also our own insecurities, which can take over in a heartbeat and cause us to revert back to old habits or bad behaviour patterns.
The challenge as leaders isn't about the pressure. There will always be pressure. The challenge is recognising who we become when that pressure arrives.
How Pressure Changes Leadership Behaviour
For many leaders, pressure can activate a survival instinct. It may have been there since our childhood. And that primal instinct can override our best leadership intentions…and our best leadership training.
When the pressure strikes, leaders can fall back to familiar habits or old patterns of behaviour that they may have developed earlier in their career.
Rather than being patient and reflective, decision making can become reactive. What may start as a healthy dose of confidence, can quickly morph into control, defensiveness, or impatience. And what was an open line of communication can quickly become nothing but a continuous line of directives.
One of the greatest risks that leaders should understand when under pressure, is not about making mistakes. It is being unaware of how their behaviour and leadership changes when under pressure.
The 5 Types of Pressure Leaders Face
There are five common types of pressure that leaders need to navigate. Let's look at each one individually:
1. Performance Pressure
When the organisation starts to miss its targets, or there are revenue challenges, or there is increased scrutiny due to stakeholder expectations, the leaders will feel it…
They may feel they have less room for error. They may feel that immediate success is far more important and urgent than long-term development. And all of a sudden, short-term results start competing with long-term thinking and planning.
When this happens, they may be tempted to tighten control rather than strengthen trust.
2. Uncertainty Pressure
When there is change happening within the organisation. A change of ownership, restructuring, change of a C-Suite member, a merger or a market disruption can all create uncertainty.
In those moments, the leaders are expected to provide certainty and more often than not, they may not have all the answers.
When there is a lack of information, or it is unclear to all involved, it can create anxiety. And as the complexity of certain situations rise, so does the decision fatigue. As a result some leaders become paralysed while others make rushed decisions.
3. People Pressure
Most organisations find this the most difficult pressure…people. Having to deal with team or individual conflict, difficult conversations, and underperformance can be mentally and emotionally draining.
Most leaders take it on themselves to carry the responsibility of balancing performance with understanding and compassion, whilst still empowering others to move forward in a positive and empowering manner.
When making decisions with people's careers, it is an emotional weight that can sit heavy with many leaders. And then showing loyalty to certain individuals can cause conflict within other members of staff or the organisation's needs.
Often, leaders will avoid a difficult conversation as it can seem easier than addressing it directly…though through experience we know the long-term negative ramifications compound significantly.
4. Personal Pressure
We all have our own personal challenges, family, health or mental issues, relationship problems, burnout, and exhaustion. None of them disappear when we walk through the door at work.
When this is the case, our emotional bandwidth narrows significantly. As a result, some of the more important aspects of our leadership capabilities are affected, including our patience, empathy and resilience.
We can find that the smallest of frustrations or infractions can trigger a disproportionate reaction.
Before we know it, our personal stresses are negatively impacting our professional performance.
5. Identity Pressure
This is often the most powerful, yet least discussed pressure of the five. This will emerge when our reputation, credibility, honesty, integrity, status, or self-worth feel threatened.
As a result, leaders can launch into defensive or attack mode. They feel they may need to prove themselves or protect their image.
For some leaders, feedback can feel like criticism and an attack on their character. And when their ideas are challenged, it can feel like their identity is being challenged.
This sort of pressure can cause a massive emotional toll on the leader in question, but can also impact how they are seen, and how those around them react and respond accordingly.
The 6 Common Leadership Behaviour Patterns That Re-Emerge Under Pressure
As a result of the pressure that can affect everyday life within a business, there are six common leadership patterns that often show up. You may notice this in either yourself…or others you work with.
The Controller
This leader needs to be in control. They feel responsible for every outcome and do everything in their power to ensure the outcomes are always positive.
That can start showing up in different ways, including checking work that was previously delegated. Or, they make more decisions personally instead of empowering others to make them.
With this type of leadership pattern, their trust of others and their roles will erode and decrease, whilst their oversight and micromanagement will increase.
And as a result of this pattern, the leader often becomes the bottleneck they were originally hired to remove.
The Hero
Just as the title suggests, they need to be seen as the saviour. This leader tries to solve every problem and every issue that arises by themselves.
Often, they will take on work that belongs to other individuals or the team. They gain a great deal of satisfaction from the feeling of being needed.
But this does not develop the individual's or team's capability…in fact it diminishes it. All this behaviour will create is dependence…dependence on them, which a part of them loves.
The problem with this sort of behaviour is that the leader will eventually become overwhelmed and exhausted.
The Avoider
This one still cuts a little close to home for me, so I have to be super diligent it doesn't rear its ugly head.
This leadership behaviour pattern can be a little stealth-like at times, with the leader thinking, "It'll be okay, this will blow over soon." Trying to justify it is just delaying the inevitable (or maybe even planting a seed of disaster).
Delaying difficult conversations hoping it will never have to happen.
Hoping an issue will resolve itself so they will never have to deal with it.
Prioritising the harmony of an individual (or themselves), or the team over accountability.
Allowing standards to drift because they don't want to cause waves.
All this will ever do is create a larger problem in the long term by postponing smaller ones now.
The Perfectionist
This leadership pattern can be the bottleneck. They always want more information before acting…then they want more information before acting…and then…and it then becomes a cycle….and never acting.
They will often look for the perfect solution, or the perfect time, or the perfect whatever they are looking for, rather than just taking the next best step.
Even when they do make a decision, this leader can continually revisit and reflect on their decision, to ensure it was 100% right, rather than trusting themselves and moving forward.
This perfectionist behaviour will struggle to delegate work to others because they feel that work doesn't or won't meet their standard.
All this will ever do is sacrifice the forward momentum of a project or organisation in pursuit of certainty.
The Pleaser
The Pleaser wants everyone's input. This leader wants to know what they think and how they think it should be done. In fact, often they want to know the whole lot…how, what, why, when and who.
With this behaviour, they find it difficult to disappoint people, and it can result in overcommitting to competing priorities, and will avoid unpopular decisions as a result.
All this will do is cause them to lose focus and clarity just because they are trying to keep everyone happy.
The Lone Wolf
This is the polar opposite to the Pleaser. When the pressure mounts, they will stop asking for help and will carry all the pressure internally.
They will begin to withdraw or even totally shut down from trusted mentors and advisors.
The Lone Wolf has this belief that strong leaders should figure everything out on their own…alone. What they fail to see is that they mistake isolation for resilience.
And a team can't grow together when one person is doing everything, with only one perspective, one way of thinking and one approach to issues and challenges.
When Leadership Strengths Become Liabilities
What can be really ironic when it comes to our careers, is the behaviours, traits and patterns that helped us to be recognised, to climb the ladder, to be successful, are also the same traits that can hold us back as leaders. They can be our "Leadership Blind Spots".
Those traits and behaviours — The Pleaser, The Hero, The Lone Wolf — they aren't weaknesses, they are strengths.
If you think about it…
The Controller was probably promoted because they were accountable and dependable. The Hero was probably recognised because they got in and got things done when others couldn't. The Perfectionist was noticed and built a reputation because of the quality and high standard of their work. The Pleaser was seen developing strong relationships and building team harmony. The Lone Wolf was admired for their independence, responsibility and how they were self-reliant.
The problem begins when, as leaders under pressure, those strengths become overused and even exaggerated.
Then, what was once their greatest strength can become their greatest weakness as a leader.
Instead of being accountable and dependable, they begin to micromanage. Instead of having high quality and standards, it becomes perfectionism. Instead of having strong relationships and team harmony, they try to please everyone.
Confidence becomes arrogance. Drive becomes impatience. Expertise becomes the need to always be right. Supportiveness becomes rescuing.
Can you see how they can change and develop into something that was never meant to be? And that isn't even taking into account any underlying issues from our past that developed our behaviour or survival instincts (I'll leave that layer of the onion to another day).
The Power of Self-Awareness in Leadership
As you are aware, the solution isn't to eliminate, or try to eliminate pressure. We know that's impossible. Every single leader, regardless of their experience or title will experience pressure. And there will be moments when every leader will have their old habits or behaviour try to resurface.
This is where highly effective leaders differ — they have learnt to recognise those moments early.
They are students of their own behaviour. They know and understand what their triggers are. They will recognise the warning signs early. They are aware when they begin to become more:
Controlling
Defensive
Withdrawn
Reactive.
As they recognise it, they can interrupt it.
This requires something many leadership circles discuss, but very few ever actually fully embrace:
Vulnerability. (Please don't run away just yet.)
I'm not talking about vulnerability as oversharing… or as a weakness.
I'm talking about vulnerability as the willingness to be totally honest with yourself. And that self-reflection is often one of the hardest things anyone can do, especially a leader.
Vulnerability may look like this — acknowledging this to yourself:
"I'm not showing up at my best right now."
"I'm becoming more reactive than usual."
"I'm trying to be perfect…it's time to move forward."
"I can't do this all myself…I need help."
"I'm trying to keep everyone happy. What's best for the company?"
"I'm trying to control things I should be empowering others to own."
"I'm carrying pressure and it's affecting my leadership."
That level of honesty with yourself requires courage.
But this is often the first step towards change.
Here is a thought I want you to consider:
Under pressure, we don't rise to the level of our intentions. We fall to the level of our awareness.
Recognise Your Leadership Patterns Before They Lead You
As leaders we have to step back and look at the big picture — how the organisation is running, how our people are performing, how our sales are tracking, and every other aspect of the business.
We also have to step back and look at the big picture…at ourselves as leaders. None of us are perfect…and we never will be, but what can we do better.
We will never be immune from pressure, and none of us are immune from our old habits, behaviours and patterns. Just like we have to recognise the pressure when it rises, we also have to be aware of how we respond.
It is not the goal to eliminate our patterns, it is to recognise them before they start to drive our decisions, shape our behaviour, and influence all those around us.
Pressure will always reveal what's underneath, what habits and patterns we have. The big question is whether we are aware enough to see it.
I want you to take this on board and let it sit with you for a while…
Leadership isn't only about managing budgets, overseeing projects, implementing strategies or assessing performance.
It's about assessing and managing ourselves.
Always remember that pressure doesn't create our behaviours and patterns…it reveals them. The Controller, The Hero, The Avoider, The Perfectionist, The Pleaser and The Lone Wolf were always there beneath the surface.
The pressure simply gives them an opportunity to step back into the driver's seat, often without us even realising it has happened. And great leadership isn't about pretending that those patterns don't exist.
It's about recognising them early, interrupting them deliberately, and choosing a response that positively serves your people, your organisation, and yourself.
So, take a moment and reflect.
What patterns emerge when the pressure rises? What triggers them? How is the quality of your leadership being impacted? And most importantly…what do you need to change?
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the most common leadership behaviour patterns that emerge under pressure? There are six common patterns that tend to re-emerge when leaders are under pressure: The Controller, The Hero, The Avoider, The Perfectionist, The Pleaser, and The Lone Wolf. Each pattern was originally a strength that, when overused under stress, becomes a leadership liability.
What are the different types of pressure leaders face? Leaders typically face five types of pressure: Performance Pressure (missing targets, stakeholder scrutiny), Uncertainty Pressure (restructuring, market disruption), People Pressure (conflict, difficult conversations, underperformance), Personal Pressure (burnout, family or health challenges), and Identity Pressure (threats to reputation, credibility or self-worth).
Why do good leaders revert to old behaviour patterns under pressure? Pressure activates a primal survival instinct that can override leadership training and best intentions. The behaviours that re-emerge under stress were often the same traits that got a leader promoted in the first place — but they become exaggerated and counterproductive when applied under pressure without self-awareness.
How can leaders manage their behaviour under pressure? The key is self-awareness — becoming a student of your own behaviour. Highly effective leaders learn to recognise their personal triggers early, identify when they are becoming more controlling, defensive, withdrawn or reactive, and interrupt those patterns before they drive decisions and affect the team.
What is a leadership blind spot? A leadership blind spot is a behaviour or trait that was originally a strength — accountability, drive, high standards — that under pressure becomes overused and begins to hold the leader back. Common examples include dependability becoming micromanagement, or confidence becoming arrogance.
Ready to Elevate Your Leadership?
If you recognise yourself in one or more of these patterns, that awareness is your starting point. The next step is doing something about it — deliberately and with the right support.
Elevatum is Brett Dellar's leadership development program — built for leaders who want to lead with clarity, confidence, and self-awareness, especially when the pressure is on.
