🧠 Fight, Flight, or…Freeze in the Meeting? Don’t just react — Pre-Vent™ it.
- May 2
- 7 min read
Because regulated leadership starts before the pressure hits.
Why Your Brain Might Be the Real One Running the Agenda (Not You)
🧯 Pre-Vent™: Because Real Leadership Starts Before the Fire
Stress doesn’t always kick down the door.
It often whispers — in overcommitment, in the rising urgency you don’t question, in the “I’ll just handle it” spiral that starts small… and ends in burnout.
That’s why we don’t just talk about stress management here.We talk about Pre-Vention™ — recognizing the build-up before it hijacks your decisions, your mood, or your meeting.
🔥 Pre-Vent™ is a proactive leadership ritual.
It helps you check your state before you check your Slack.
It helps your team regulate before the tension spreads.
Because when you know what sets your system off — and build buffer, clarity, and intention beforehand —you don’t just lead reactively.
You lead resiliently.
⚡ This Isn’t About Drama. It’s About Neuroscience.
When pressure hits, your nervous system takes over — often before you consciously choose your next move.
Welcome to the original human software:
Stress Response | Typical Behavior | Leadership Example |
🥊 Fight | Confront, control, push | Barking orders, jumping in to "fix" everything |
🏃 Flight | Avoid, distract, escape | Ghosting hard convos, staying "too busy" |
😶 Freeze | Shut down, fog out | Zoning out in meetings, blank screen paralysis |
🤡 Fawn (Bonus) | Please, appease, avoid tension | Saying yes to everything, avoiding disagreement |
🔍 Why It Matters in Leadership
Stress responses don’t just change your mood — they change your:
Tone in meetings
Delegation style
Decision-making
Feedback tolerance
Team trust levels
In other words: your nervous system sets the room’s tone — not your to-do list.
And the worst part? Teams mirror your state before they mirror your strategy.
🎯 TL;DR:If you want to lead clearly, you need to respond consciously — not react automatically.
🎬 Imagine this:
You walk into a high-stakes meeting. The client is tense. Your team’s energy is scattered. You feel the pressure rise before a word is spoken.
Suddenly…
You start overexplaining (Fight).
Someone goes silent, eyes glued to their notepad (Freeze).
Another teammate casually “checks something urgent” on Slack (Flight).
And just like that, the nervous systems in the room are running the meeting.
💡 Now imagine if you had a tool that helped you catch these moments before they derailed trust, performance, or clarity.
👉 That’s exactly what the Pre- Vent™ was built for.
🔍 Why Pre-Vent™ Beats Damage Control
Regulation isn’t a reaction. It’s a ritual.
We tend to wait until stress happens before we try to deal with it. But by that point, it’s already steering the ship.
Pre-Vent™ flips that script.
It’s not about coping after you’ve snapped, spiraled, or shut down. It’s about stepping in before your nervous system hits the red zone — so you don’t bring panic to the planning meeting, sarcasm to the feedback session, or urgency to the wrong problem.
“You don’t regulate because you’re triggered —you regulate so the trigger doesn’t run the meeting.” AR
Pre-Vent™ is the leadership equivalent of brushing your nervous system's teeth.You don’t do it because there’s a cavity —You do it so you don’t get one.
When you prepare your state in advance,you don’t just show up more grounded —your team mirrors that calm back to you.
Want to try it today?
📥 Download the Pre-Vent™ Pocket Card — a printable, post-it sized reminder to prep your state before pressure takes over.Coming soon in our Leadership Reset Toolkit.
Stick it on your desk, your laptop, or your mind. Whatever works. Just use it before pressure walks in first.
🔄 The 3-Step Pre-Vent™ Flow
Because leadership under pressure needs more than a deep breath.
This isn’t just theory. It’s your nervous system’s daily warm-up.
Here’s how to Pre-Vent™ like a pro — in less than 2 minutes:
✅ Step 1: Spot the Pressure Point
What’s the moment you’re about to enter that might spike tension?→ A tough 1:1?→ A high-stakes pitch?→ A feedback convo you’ve been avoiding?
Name it. Own it. Prepare for it.
✅ Step 2: Set Your Nervous System
Take a beat before you walk in.→ Use an anchor (touch, breath, visual cue)→ Choose your state (“I want to lead with calm / clarity / focus”)→ Breathe like it matters — because it does.
✅ Step 3: Signal Safety to the Room
Your team is reading you before you speak.→ Lead with calm tone, slower pace, grounded body language→ Invite openness — don’t bulldoze your way through tension
🧠 “The way you enter the room sets the room.”
Even 60 seconds of Pre-Vent™ can shift the entire vibe of a meeting.
Prevent the vent. Lead ahead of the trigger.
Use this worksheet before tough conversations, team meetings, high-pressure pitches, or emotionally loaded situations.
It’s your proactive reset—so your nervous system doesn’t hijack your leadership.
🛡️ Pre-Vent™ Worksheet
🔍 1. Spot the Risk
What might activate you? For example (and there can be hundreds more...)
☐ A person’s tone or energy
☐ Micromanagement
☐ Lack of clarity or structure
☐ Uncertainty or rapid change
☐ Public criticism
☐ Being interrupted or ignored
☐ Disrespect or dismissal
☐ Something else: _______________
🧠 2. Ask the Pre-Vent Questions
Reflect silently or journal your answers:
What situation am I walking into?
What usually throws me off here?
What story am I already telling myself?
What would “activated me” likely do?
What would the leader I’m becoming do instead?
🌬 3. Choose a Regulation Ritual
Pick 1–2 pre-regulation tools to anchor your nervous system:
☐ 4-7-8 breathing (2 cycles)
☐ Power posture + grounding for 60 seconds
☐ Mantra: “I choose calm over control.”
☐ Visualization: my future self leading with clarity
☐ Quick journaling: “What matters most here?”
☐ Walk/stretch/shake out tension
☐ “This isn’t personal.” (mantra)
☐ Other: _______________________
🗣 4. Prep a Grounded Statement (Optional)
If something does activate you, what could you say instead of reacting?
Write a sentence starter or calming script to have in your pocket:
“I want to respond thoughtfully—can I take a moment?”
“That landed harder than expected—can we slow down?”
Your version:📝 ________________________________________________________
🎯 Final Intentions
Before stepping in, finish these:
I want to stay connected to... (value or outcome): _______________
If I feel heat rise, I’ll... (anchor ritual or phrase): _______________
Success here looks like... (not perfection—just presence): _______________
✅ Reminder: Pre-Vent™ is not about avoiding discomfort. It’s about choosing clarity over chaos—before the storm hits.
“Reactivity feels urgent. But pause is power.”
“Return as the leader—not the wounded child.”
🧠 From Emotional Hangover to Clarity
Here’s what unprocessed triggers often leave behind:
😵💫 Mental fog
🙈 Avoidant behavior
🤐 Unspoken tension
🔁 Recurring self-blame or blame of others
Here’s what happens when you process and reflect:
🧭 Regained clarity
🔍 Better pattern recognition
🤝 Stronger relationships
💪 Long-term emotional resilience
🛠 Trigger Recovery Toolkit
📝 Post-Trigger Debrief Sheet (Print or Notion-ready)
Use these prompts after any emotionally charged moment:
What happened?
What story did I tell myself in that moment?
What emotion lingered afterward?
Did I communicate what I needed?
Was there a boundary crossed—or not held?
What can I do differently next time?
🧠 Reframe Prompts:
What belief got poked—and is it still serving me?
What value felt threatened—and how can I live it more clearly?
What part of me was trying to protect me?
Curious why you keep reacting the way you do under pressure?
Want to understand your personal trigger blueprint — and what to do with it?
👉 Dive into our full blog post:
“Triggered? Good. Now Lead From There.”
🔥 It’s not about avoiding stress — it’s about decoding it.
Packed with real-life leadership tools, emotional insights, and a new way to see your stress as strategy.
👉 Read the full blog here — and bring your nervous system with you.
📍 Pre-Vent™ in Action: A Real-World Mini Case
Meet Sara.
She’s a brilliant team lead — and she also has ADHD.
In fast-paced team calls, she used to unintentionally fuel chaos. Quick tone. Fast speech. Frantic problem-solving.
Now?Before every call, she takes 60 seconds to Pre-Vent™.
She grounds herself. Softens her voice. Breathes into clarity.
Her team noticed.
They stopped mirroring her anxiety —and started contributing with more clarity, ideas, and trust.
🧯 4. Pre-Vent™ = Burnout Prevention in Real Time
Let’s be honest: burnout rarely comes out of nowhere.
It creeps in through a thousand micro-moments where your nervous system wasn’t ready — but still had to perform.
Pre-Vent™ isn’t a nice-to-have ritual. It’s your burnout firewall.
When you prepare your system before the pressure hits:
You reduce cortisol buildup
You avoid emotional leakage
You make better decisions, faster
You preserve your energy for what actually matters
💡Think of Pre-Vent™ as brushing your leadership teeth.
You don’t wait for the root canal. You prevent it.
🔍 5. Pre-Vent™ Moments You’re Probably Ignoring
You don’t need a crisis to use this tool.
Here are 5 subtle but high-stakes moments where Pre-Vent™ belongs in your calendar:
🗣️ Before giving feedback — Set the tone or you’ll set the defense mechanisms.
💬 Before replying to a “WTF?” Slack — Calm thumbs = less damage control.
👋 Before onboarding a new hire — Nervous systems mirror from day one.
🎥 Before joining back-to-back Zooms — Otherwise, your fatigue will get louder than your words.
🙃 Before saying yes (again) — If your jaw tightens, that’s your cue.
“If you can Pre-Vent before the damage control is needed, you're already 3 moves ahead.”
Ready to Lead Before the Storm Hits?
Pre-Vent™ isn’t another self-help trend.
It’s a strategic advantage — especially if you lead under pressure, manage teams, or simply want to stop sacrificing your nervous system for performance.
Download your [Pre-Vent™ Pocket Prompt] and start showing up regulated, ready, and 3 steps ahead.
💬 Want to go deeper?
Explore our full Gentle Leading™ program — built for real-world leadership, rooted in neuroscience, and trusted by neurodivergent and high-performing teams alike.
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