The Misunderstood Skill of Leadership
Forget the incense and mantras; grounding is the tactical reset, keeping leaders from becoming liabilities. Grounding has more depth than just seeing it as centering one’s energy, but reclaiming one’s command. It is the specific moment of separating the reaction drift from the command. The world is changing at an unprecedented rate, and that change is a constant pressure demanding leaders not be the smartest or the loudest but the most grounded and thoughtful.
Grounding is one of the most overlooked skills in leadership. Often mistaken for a wellness break or a moment of breathwork, grounding is beyond a soft add-on. It’s the foundation of strong leadership. Grounding helps leaders stay focused, make clear decisions, and lead with calm confidence, even in times of extreme stress (Goleman, 1995).
What Grounding Means
No, grounding is not closing your eyes and chanting mantras or zoning out, nor are we talking about taking your shoes and socks off and walking in the grass (although I do enjoy connecting to the earth). But grounding is the process of tuning in. It’s the skill of bringing your attention back to the present moment when pressure, chaos, or anxiety threatens to hijack your thinking. In simple terms, it helps reset your nervous system when stress begins to build.
It’s important to understand what happens inside the brain when we feel threatened (physically, emotionally, or socially). The brain’s fear center (the amygdala) fires up. This triggers a stress response, flooding the body with cortisol and adrenaline. When this happens, breathing becomes shallow, and thinking becomes narrow. In this state, one might feel defensive or overwhelmed, which is called an amygdala hijack, and it shuts down the brain’s decision-making center: the prefrontal cortex (Arnsten, 2009).
Grounding flips the switch back. By activating the parasympathetic nervous system (the body’s “calm mode”), grounding helps bring the prefrontal cortex back online (Jerath et al., 2006). When we cool off the amygdala hijack and get back into the prefrontal cortex, we are then accessing clarity, empathy, memory, and reason, all essential for leading well (Goleman, 1995).
The Cost of Ungrounded Leadership
Across industries, ungrounded leaders damage team trust and performance. They react instead of responding to organizational problems and challenges. They escalate conflict instead of calming it. Their stress becomes contagious, creating a tense, unstable environment for everyone. This is dysregulated leadership, where leaders react rather than respond due to a layer of emotional fog pushing one into an amygdala response (Arnsten, 2009). Being ungrounded erodes psychological safety, sabotages culture, and distorts decision-making. In contrast, grounded leaders create a steady presence. They think clearly under pressure. They model emotional stability. And they give their teams a reason to trust, not just their words, but their state of mind. Grounding, then, can be seen as the bridge between adrenaline and intentionality. It becomes clear that grounding is a leadership amplifier.
Where Grounding Surfaces
It’s essential for us to recognize when grounding or the lack thereof becomes apparent, as it may be impractical to initiate every meeting with a grounding practice. Grounding acumen is important in meetings, performance reviews, and any environment where team culture, emotional tone, and command influence are present. It’s not something reserved for when you’re overwhelmed. It’s something you do to make sure you don’t get overwhelmed.
How to Recognize and Reset
Being grounded starts with self-awareness. Can you notice when your system is slipping into stress? Common signs of dysregulation include:
· Clenched fists
· Shallow breathing
· Tight jaw or stiff posture
· Fast talking or defensive reactions
· All-or-nothing thinking
When you spot these signs, take immediate action. Grounding interventions are quick tools that reset your system. These include:
· Anchoring: press your feet into the floor, soften your shoulders, or scan your body for tension and release it.
· Breathwork: try box breathing (inhale 4 seconds, hold 4, exhale 4, hold 4) or the 4-7-8 method to calm your body (Jerath et al., 2006).
· Mental cues: repeat short internal phrases like “I am here, I am clear,” or “Calm is control.” Simple self-talk techniques have been shown to help rewire thinking and emotional patterns (Helmstetter, 2000).
These tools are used by elite athletes, trauma surgeons, and military units. Why? Because they work. They enable leaders to remain steady in the midst of chaos and make decisions from a place of presence, rather than panic.
Grounding Helps You and Shapes Your Team
Here’s an important consideration: your nervous system doesn’t just regulate you. It influences everyone around you. Just like stress spreads, so does calm. When leaders stay grounded, the whole room shifts. Meetings run smoothly. Teams feel safer. Conflict cools faster. That presence isn’t magic; it’s biology (Goleman, 1995). A calm nervous system signals safety, and others naturally sync to it. The real power of grounded leadership is emotional transference.
Make Grounding a Daily Habit
If you want grounding to be sticky, you must ritualize it. As athletes warm up before games, leaders can warm up their nervous system before high-stakes moments, meetings, or crucial conversations with team members.
A few ideas include
· Before starting a meeting, take three slow and deep breaths, and use a reset phrase.
· Check your breath and posture before tough conversations.
· Use a 60-second reset between back-to-back calls or tasks.
You can also create your own grounding protocols for your workday:
· Start of shift: take a deep breath and set your intention.
· Mid-shift: feet-to-floor anchor and soft jaw check after tense interactions.
· End of shift: take a short walk, breathe intentionally, and mentally “shift out” before going home.
These simple actions reduce mental fatigue, sharpen focus, and increase resilience throughout the day.
Calm is a Trained Skill
We need to drop the myth that staying calm is just part of someone’s personality. It’s not. It’s biology, and it’s trainable (Goleman, 1995). Grounded leaders don’t suppress stress; they’re learning how to work with it, intercept it early, use it as a data point, and recover fast. Grounding is not about checking out. It’s about showing up present and composed. In a world full of noise, speed, and complexity, grounded leadership is essential and the starting line. Because when your nervous system is in survival mode, your leadership is offline.
References
Arnsten, A. F. (2009). Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 410–422.
Jerath, R., Edry, J. W., Barnes, V. A., & Jerath, V. (2006). Physiology of long pranayamic breathing. Medical Hypotheses, 67(3), 566–571.
Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence. Bantam Books.
Helmstetter, S. (2000). What to Say When You Talk to Your Self. Simon & Schuster.