‘Here’s what keeps your brain in survival mode’, according to a senior accredited psychotherapist

With more than 25 years of experience supporting leaders and organisations in high-stakes settings, her background spans psychotherapy, behavioural insight and neuroscience-led leadership. That makes her especially well placed to speak on overload, emotional regulation and the hidden strain that often sits behind outward competence.

In this exclusive interview with the London Keynote Speakers Agency, Catherine Gallacher discusses what sustained pressure does to the brain, why overload can hide behind competence, how emotional regulation differs from resilience, and what leaders need to understand if they want to perform well without burning out. 

Question 1. What does sustained pressure actually do to the brain and decision-making?

Catherine Gallacher: “Sustained pressure keeps the brain in survival mode. So it's an alert. And stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline are elevated, and that really reduces the access to the prefrontal cortex in the brain, and that's part of the brain that is responsible for judgment, perspective, emotional regulation and strategic thinking.

“So leaders may continue to function, but their thinking becomes more narrow, uh more reactive, and often it's more energy intensive, and over time resilience then becomes a problem, and you start then looking at cognitive overload and you can end up in burnout.” 

Question 2. Why do highly capable leaders so often experience overload, even when they appear to be coping well?

Catherine Gallacher: “Because competence hides cost, and what I mean by that is high performing leaders, they compensate by using experience, intelligence and willpower to carry themselves, and externally they look composed. They look as if they're managing fine, but internally their nervous system is under sustained strain, and that's not good.

“They're often holding completely for others complexity. So they might be dealing with regular emotional climates and trying to regulate the climate around them, and they might be making high-stake decisions without actually giving them time to recover, and eventually capacity then is exceeded. Even when performance appears intact, they're not.” 

Question 3. How is emotional regulation different from resilience, and why does that matter for leaders?

Catherine Gallacher: “So resilience is about enduring pressure, and emotional regulation, it's about staying in control whilst under pressure. So a leader can be resilient and still be tense, reactive or depleted.

“Regulation, emotional regulation, allows the leader to remain calm, clear, intentional in making those intentional decisions and preventing stress from building up and accumulating and leading to that burnout. Leadership is not about surviving stress. It's about leading well inside it.” 

Question 4. What do you hope people take away from your public speeches?

Catherine Gallacher: “That pressure is not the enemy, and it's about mismanaged pressure that's the problem, and I want leaders to leave with an understanding and a clearer understanding of how their brain operates under pressure and stress and strain, and tools that can immediately help to impact that in a positive way.

“Permission to lead with clarity instead of self overwrite and high performance. It doesn't take sacrifice. It takes designing a good way of your mindset and important leadership.”

This exclusive interview with Catherine Gallacher was conducted by Tabish Ali of the Motivational Speakers Agency.