Regulation and Leadership

By: Koen Deblonde

#Inspiration  

In a short series of posts on Linkedin, I explore the theme of regulation and leadership. What happens inside leaders when pressure increases. Why feedback and change so often fall short. And how leaders, often unconsciously, influence the entire system. Not from models or tricks, but from what we know about the nervous system, behaviour and interaction.

My curiosity about what happens in people under increasing pressure led me to explore the workings of the body and the autonomic nervous system more deeply. I am trained as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (P. Levine) and have also immersed myself in critical scientific literature on stress, regulation and co regulation. In my work, I see every day how essential these capacities are in our overstimulated society, especially for leaders who want to contribute to the sustainable employability and wellbeing of their people.

Pressure reveals leadership

Not in vision or competencies, but in the ability to regulate oneself, leadership becomes visible. Self regulation means being able to stay present and perceptive under pressure, without automatically slipping into a survival response or losing contact with yourself and others. When tension rises, the body comes into play. The autonomic nervous system narrows attention, speeds up judgments and pushes us towards control or avoidance. Not because we choose it, but because that is how the system functions.

Under pressure, this often shows up as:

• quicker decision making
• less listening
• a stronger focus on certainty
• less room for nuance

Leaders who remain regulated under pressure are able to keep perceiving what is happening, within themselves, in others and in the wider system. They keep their thinking available, even when emotions rise or interests collide. In those moments, they stay in contact, ask questions and make distinctions, rather than reacting automatically. This is not a soft skill. It is the neurobiological foundation of effective leadership.

The foundation beneath leadership

This also requires understanding how the nervous system works. What pressure and stress do to thinking, perception and action. And what it takes to remain present as tension increases, without automatically shifting into survival mode.

When this foundation is missing, good intentions and learned skills quickly fall away. The system takes over. Decisions speed up, perspective narrows and connection comes under strain. Not because anyone wants that to happen, but because the body responds faster than thinking can correct for it. That is why effective leadership starts, first and foremost, with the capacity to regulate.

What happens in you when pressure increases: narrowing or presence?

In the next post on Linkedin, I will take a closer look at what we actually mean by regulation.