My son asked me a question last year that I had no answer.

We had just finished watching a football match.
The captain had made a terrible decision under pressure, scoring an own goal.

He looked at me and said:
“Dad, why do smart people do stupid things when things get hard?”

I am a doctor and an executive coach.
And I had nothing to tell him that day.

I thought about it for days.

Because he was not just describing a fictional character.
He was describing every leader I have ever coached through a crisis.

These leaders are intelligent, experienced and well-intentioned.
But under enough pressure, they would make decisions they would never make when calm.

The reason is not stupidity.
It is cognitive narrowing.
Under pressure, the brain shrinks its field of view.
You stop seeing options. You see only a threat.

Great leadership under pressure is not about staying calm.
It is about expanding your view when your instinct is to narrow it.

3 things I now teach every executive I coach:

1️⃣ Name the pressure before you respond to it.
Labelling the stress state slows the narrowing.

2️⃣ Ask: What am I not seeing right now?
That one question re-opens the cognitive field.

3️⃣ Separate the urgent from the important.
Most crises feel urgent. Few are actually important.

Sometimes, the most important leadership development
happens in a living room, not a boardroom.

What is the most unexpected place you have ever learned a leadership lesson?
Share it below. I read every comment.

HealthcareLeadership #ExecutiveCoaching #LeadershipDevelopment #AfricaRising #CliniciansWhoLead