The riptide of leadership stress: When top-level pressure spreads

Spencer Jones

Guest Columnist

June 15, 2026

You can often see – and feel – when a leader is bracing for impact.

It shows up in the leader who is unusually short with their team, whose decisions keep shifting or who is physically present but mentally elsewhere.

It also shows in the leader who always seems tense, who is physically present but mentally somewhere else and who always seems tense.

Most people assume stress belongs to the person carrying it.

But in organizations, it rarely works that way.

In last month’s column, I wrote about how chronic stress isn’t just a mental issue, but a physical one – how it alters the brain and influences decision-making.

This month, I’m looking at what happens when that stress doesn’t stay contained with the leader. 

Ripple effect

Let’s look at Ted, the CEO of an insurance company that has around 50 employees.

He is still using AI.

Still trying new systems.

Still searching for a way to regain clarity.

Yet he remains overwhelmed.

Now, let’s look at his teams. 

At first, everything seemed to be okay because they were working on their previous targets.

But now, they are second-guessing their decisions.

The leadership team stops bringing ideas and instead starts waiting for direction.

They stop giving concrete answers to their teams, and the process repeats itself.

Slowly but surely, the energy shifts.

Nothing dramatic, but a subtle steady decline.

No one can really put their finger on why, because it’s been gradual, but they all feel it.

It won’t scream at them until something major happens.

Why does this happen?

Simply put, innate human conditioning and mirror neurons.

As human beings, we are constantly reading each other.

We hear people’s tone more than the words they say.

We see their body language, facial expressions and can sense stress levels. 

Humans are even more perceptive to people they hold in “higher” positions, like leaders. 

Therefore, teams unconsciously calibrate themselves to leadership.

A longitudinal study published in the journal “Work & Stress” found that manager stress doesn’t stay with the manager.

Studies tracking leaders and employees over time found that when managers became emotionally exhausted, employees were more likely to experience emotional exhaustion as well.

In other words, stress spreads.

And it often spreads from the top down.

A more recent body of research on “emotional contagion,” highlighted by the National Institutes of Health, found that employees unconsciously mirror the emotional states of leaders, especially during periods of uncertainty and stress.

What leaders carry, the team feels.

No one enjoys being stressed, but we absorb far more of our environment than we realize.

Over time, people begin to feel less safe.

That lack of psychological safety causes them to respond in a few ways. 

People speak up less.

Concerns go unspoken.

Fewer ideas get shared.

Innovation slows.

Not that anyone intends to act that way, but it’s their body’s way to handle the stress they feel. 

To put it simply, people start feeling overwhelmed, on edge and become cautious.

That then leads to slower decisions, unclear direction, shifting priorities and revisiting decisions. 

All of which add more stress and confusion.

The result?

Teams produce duplicate work.

They waste effort and become increasingly frustrated. 

The team starts to work harder to reach their goals and objectives, but they’re not always moving forward.

Most of us have experienced this ourselves.

When we’re stressed, our patience shrinks.

We start making assumptions.

We react faster and bigger than we normally would.
Your team is no different.

Small issues become bigger problems.

People get frustrated much more easily.

And the team (and the entire organization) feels heavier.
This is costing organizations time, energy and money.

Eventually, people start asking themselves a simple question: “Do I still want to work here?”
Oftentimes they don’t, but they won’t share those thoughts with others.

Over time, some begin disengaging long before they actually leave.
The Society for Human Resource Management estimates that replacing an employee can cost anywhere from 50% to 200% of that person’s annual salary.

For organizations, that means turnover isn’t just disruptive to teams and culture – it can also become a significant financial expense.

Stress is expensive.

Turnover is expensive.
Leadership stress can quietly contribute to both unless you are careful.

Most leaders believe their stress is only their problem to manage and “deal with.”

But leadership rarely works like that.

Leadership is a multiplier. 

What a leader carries, the entire team feels. 

Looking back on my own journey both as a choir director and an entrepreneur, I can see multiple times where the pressure I was carrying was affecting people around me before I realized it.

Even early in my career, I could see how my boss’s stress affected me.

And unfortunately, I’ve seen this play out repeatedly across various industries and organizations.

The good news is this can change, but leaders have to be intentional about it.

Hidden currents 

Leader stress doesn’t always spread like a loud wave.

Sometimes, it moves more like a rip current: subtle at first, easy to miss, but powerful enough to pull the whole team out of alignment.

Which means the goal isn’t simply helping leaders shuffle symptoms and survive pressure.

It’s helping them increase their bandwidth, so they can lead through pressure without passing it on.

In next month’s column, we will explore why we need a new definition of high-performance.

One that looks beyond output and considers sustainability.