Today’s Strategic Alignment Journal post in two sentences:
Stress does more than affect how we feel; it can change how we interpret what is happening and the decisions we make in response. Sometimes the most useful thing we can do before deciding is create enough space for our capacity to think clearly, to return.
There are moments when the wisest decision is to wait. Not because we need more information. Not because we are avoiding responsibility. But because the state we are in may be affecting our ability to interpret what is happening accurately.
The concept of the window of tolerance, associated with psychiatrist Dan Siegel, describes the range of emotional and physiological arousal within which we are generally able to remain regulated enough to think, feel, process information and respond effectively.
Stress can narrow that window.
When it does, things that we might ordinarily absorb, question or put into perspective can suddenly feel much bigger. An ambiguous email feels hostile. A disagreement feels threatening. A delay feels catastrophic. A problem that might normally invite curiosity begins to demand immediate resolution.
Our circumstances may not have changed nearly as much as our capacity to deal with them has.
When we move above our window of tolerance, we can become hyperaroused.
We may feel anxious, angry, defensive, impatient or unusually certain that something must be done immediately.
When we fall below it, the experience can look very different. We may become exhausted, detached, foggy, indecisive or unable to engage with something that ordinarily would be manageable.
Neither state is particularly hospitable to good judgment.
We often treat decisions as though they are produced entirely by reasoning. We examine the facts, weigh the options and choose. But the person doing the weighing matters too.
The same information can look different when we are rested than when we are exhausted. The same conversation can sound different when we feel secure than when we feel threatened. The same uncertainty can feel tolerable one day and unbearable the next.
Pauses are necessary
A pause creates distance between what has happened and our interpretation of it. It gives the nervous system an opportunity to settle before our suppositions harden into conclusions, and those conclusions inform our plan of action.
This does not mean every difficult decision should be postponed until we feel perfectly calm. Leadership rarely offers such luxurious conditions. Some decisions genuinely are urgent, but urgency in the situation and urgency in our nervous system are not the same thing.
Learning to distinguish between them may be an important part of judgment protocol.
Before sending the email, making the accusation, abandoning the plan, escalating the problem or committing resources to fixing it, there may be value in asking: Does this decision actually need to be made now, or do I simply feel that it does?
Sometimes the answer will still be now. But sometimes a walk, a night’s sleep, a conversation, a meal, a few hours away from the problem, or simply allowing the initial emotional intensity to subside can change what we are able to see.
A pause does not guarantee a solution. What it can do is create enough space for clear thinking to return.
Strategic Reflection Prompt
Think about a decision that feels urgent right now. Does it truly require an immediate decision, or would a pause give you the space to think more clearly about what to do next?
About Giselle
For nearly three decades, I’ve worked with leaders across the Caribbean facing problems that keep returning, solutions that haven’t delivered the expected results, or changes that prove difficult to implement.
When I ask business owners what problem they can’t seem to solve, the answer is usually “people.”
So I ask them to tell me more, because people and businesses are rarely as simple as they first appear.
I help them understand what’s really causing the problem before they spend more money trying to fix it. And where needed, I help design an appropriate solution and work with their teams to implement it effectively.
What are you trying to make sense of right now?
