Transforming Stress into Strength: Leadership From the Inside Out

By Kristin Withrow CSDA Communications Specialist

Imagine a day that is preceded by a sound night of restful sleep. You awake feeling calm, rested and ready to start the day with a mindset of energized anticipation for the day ahead. It’s a workday, and you are eager to check some tasks off your To-Do list, the thought of a day of interaction with your co-workers invokes a sense of happy anticipation of the day ahead.

Now imagine another day when you awake begrudgingly to the blare of the alarm after a short night of restless sleep. You awake feeling heavy, your first thought is of the need for caffeine to simply gather the energy and mental alertness to face the day ahead. Thoughts of your To-Do list stir mild anxiety, and the forced pleasantries of dealing with co-workers brings a state of dread. The day is set, and it is one to be endured.

Our first scenario is a utopian scene of balance and clarity exemplifying a model of alertness and resilience. Your beautiful brain is humming with energy in the frontal lobe, and you are ready to seize the day and whatever comes with it. Our second scene is emblematic of a state of limbic alarm: your cautious brain’s limbic system is on alert for threats to come. Your mindset is closed, the caution lights are flashing, and you are set to respond to every perceived threat that may (or may not) confront you.

Of course, we would all love to take up permanent residence in scenario one. But reality bites and humans must learn to live with our full brain responses, from the frontal lobe to the limbic system and all iterations and combinations of mental activity in between.

Our general session keynote speaker for the 2024 Annual Conference & Exhibitor Showcase will help us identify those various brain states and what to do about them.?Doctor Elizabeth Lombardo is one of the most influential experts on stress—and the impact it has on peak performance, mental well-being, and full, purpose-fueled life. Dr. E, as she is known, helps people identify how “The Red Zone”—critical moments of high stress—is shaping their behaviors, decisions, health, and overall performance.

The psychological red zone is a mental state she describes as heightened levels of distress that cause us to shift our mindset into the limbic zone of caution, suspicion, and defensiveness.

“In psychology, distress is any emotion you don't want - anger, frustration, anxiety, worry, fear, guilt, shame, overwhelm,” explains Dr. E.

If we could map our distress level on a scale of 0-10, where 0 is no distress at all and 10 is the most distressed you have ever been, anything 7+ is the red zone. “When in the red zone, people are unable to process information rationally,” she warns.

Dr. E discusses the corresponding zones in the human brain that are in various mindsets. In the green zone, when perceived distress levels are 0-3, the frontal lobe is active. In this area, we can rationally take perspectives which allow us to face challenges with resilience. If we feel snubbed, we maintain our composure and can rationalize the perceived snub is not personal. Further, we can theorize the ‘snubbee’ was not intending to impose a personal sleight, but perhaps is having a challenged moment or a bad day. As the one who was (perhaps) snubbed, we can give the snubbee a pass on the indiscretion because we are in a balanced, calm, rational state while our brain is buzzing with energy in the frontal lobe.

Entering the red zone, our limbic system starts humming. This is our ‘fight or flight’ state that was originally observed by the physiologist Walter Cannon in 1915 when he noted the digestive system changes its activity during states of fear. Our brains enter this limbic state of activity when we are in heightened states of distress.

What’s more, our ability to solve problems changes as we move up the distress scale. Dr. E explains we go from seeing the good and challenging in situations when we are low on the distress scale, to seeing things through a negative lens as we move up.

“When we are in the ‘red zone’ of around 7-8 and up, our limbic system basically hijacks our rational thinking,” she explains. “Our ability to see different people's perspectives is completely diminished because a red zone brain basically feels like it's drowning. And a drowning brain can only focus on the problem at hand.”

As much as everyone would like to live in the green zone, red zones happen.? Dr. Lombardo has some tips for what to do when your distress levels redline. She calls her three-step process “ACT out of the red zone.”

A is Apply your Awareness: “How many times have we been in the red zone, and it wasn't till later when we're like, ‘oh, I was probably overreacting.’” She advises awareness is your first line of defense. When you know you’re in the red zone, she says “don't let anything out of your mouth, because that's when we regret saying things later, and don't put anything in your mouth because that's when people tend to consume things they later regret.

C is for Change your State: If you feel your distress level creeping up to around a level 6, it’s time to do something. “You want to do something healthy and helpful to decrease that distress: Taking deep breaths, going for a walk, watching a funny video, listening to music, all of these are ways that we can do that,” she advises.

T is for Transform your perspective: We think differently in the red zone than the green zone. When we get out of the red zone, be sure to check how accurate and helpful your thinking is on the situation. “There’s something called a choice support bias that once we make a decision, we reinforce it. People should beware of making decisions from the red zone when they aren’t thinking rationally.”

One quick tip leaders can implement immediately is to start meetings by talking about one thing you appreciate or are proud of. The act of thinking of a positive note to begin with will have you moving from red toward green and set the direction for a more productive interaction. Learn more about mindset psychology at the Annual Conference & Exhibitor Showcase.

Dr. Lombardo’s keynote address ‘Leadership from the Inside Out’ will have attendees exploring the concept of mindset and how to shift from stress to strength. She will be available for a book signing after her address on Tuesday, September 11 for her book Get Out of the Red Zone: Transform Your Stress and Optimize True Success. ?