Helping Leaders Understand How Stress Influences Their Behaviour

Over the past few years, workplace wellbeing has become a boardroom priority. Organisations have invested heavily in employee support programmes, flexible working arrangements, and mental health initiatives. Yet one group often receives far less attention: senior leaders themselves.

The irony is that leaders are expected to navigate uncertainty, drive performance, support employee wellbeing, manage stakeholders, and make critical decisions under pressure. When leaders are struggling, the impact rarely stops with them. It ripples through teams, cultures, and ultimately business performance.

The Hidden Cost of Executive Stress

The conversation around stress is often framed as a personal wellbeing issue. However, evidence suggests it should also be viewed as a business risk.

Research cited in Hogan Assessments’ report Pressure Under Stress: Stress in the C-Suite highlights the significant organisational impact of workplace stress, including lost productivity, increased absenteeism, and poorer decision-making. The report also notes that almost 70% of C-suite executives have considered leaving their roles, while 96% feel responsible for employee wellbeing in addition to their existing leadership responsibilities.

For organisations already facing talent shortages and succession challenges, this creates a significant vulnerability. Executive burnout doesn’t just affect individual leaders, it can influence retention, organisational stability, and long-term performance.

Why Stress Changes Leadership Behaviour

One of the most interesting findings from personality research is that stress does not simply make people perform worse. It often amplifies behaviours that are already present.

Under pressure, leaders tend to rely more heavily on their natural coping mechanisms. Qualities that may be strengths in normal circumstances can become liabilities when overused.

For example:

• A highly confident leader may begin to appear dismissive or overly certain.

• A detail-oriented leader may drift into micromanagement.

• A cautious leader may become indecisive.

• A charismatic leader may seek attention rather than collaboration.

These behavioural shifts are often difficult for leaders to recognise in themselves but highly visible to those around them.

The Reputation Gap

One of the most valuable concepts in leadership development is the difference between identity and reputation.

Identity is how we see ourselves.

Reputation is how others experience us.

Research suggests that many senior leaders have limited awareness of how their behaviour is perceived by colleagues and employees. This gap can widen significantly during periods of stress. Leaders may believe they are being decisive, supportive, or demanding high standards, while others experience them as controlling, unpredictable, or disconnected.

This is often where leadership derailment begins.

Why Self-Awareness Matters More Than Ever

The solution is not to eliminate stress. Leadership roles will always involve pressure, uncertainty, and difficult decisions.

Instead, organisations should focus on helping leaders develop greater self-awareness.

The most effective leaders understand their behavioural patterns, recognise their stress triggers, and actively manage how they respond under pressure. They seek feedback, remain open to challenge, and understand the impact their behaviour has on others.

This is where evidence-based personality assessment and leadership development can play an important role. Rather than focusing solely on competencies, these approaches help leaders understand how they are likely to behave when circumstances become challenging, and how those behaviours affect their teams and organisations.

A Leadership Imperative

As organisations continue to navigate economic uncertainty, technological disruption, and changing workforce expectations, leadership resilience is becoming a strategic capability rather than a personal attribute.

Supporting executive wellbeing is important. But helping leaders understand how stress influences their behaviour may be even more valuable.

Because when leaders are under pressure, it is not the stress itself that creates risk.

It is what happens when they are unaware of how that pressure is showing up in their leadership.

About the Research

This article draws on findings from Hogan Assessments’ report Pressure Under Stress: Stress in the C-Suite. Hogan is widely recognised for its evidence-based personality assessments and has spent more than four decades researching the relationship between personality, leadership effectiveness, and workplace performance. The report combines findings from organisational psychology research, executive wellbeing studies, and leadership derailment data to examine how stress influences leadership behaviour and organisational outcomes.