Leadership Stress: The Challenge of Growing with Integrity
- Brittany Clausen
- Oct 22
- 4 min read
Every mission-driven leader faces this crossroad—the choice between reacting from fear or responding from faith in the mission.
Growth feels good — until it doesn’t.
When you start seeing the fruits of your labor—new contracts, more clients, expanding teams—it’s easy to believe you’ve finally “made it.” But what many leaders don’t talk about is how success can quietly activate stress, fear, impatience, and self-doubt.
It’s the paradox of scaling: the bigger your mission grows, the more stressful it can become to stay true to it.
The Tension Between Expansion and Alignment
Since its inception, Envision Greatness has been very personal. Every client call, every workshop, every message was deeply connected to our mission: helping people and organizations lead with empathy, bravery, and emotional intelligence.
But as our team grows, processes multiply, and demands stretch beyond capacity, I found myself shifting the focus from “heart” to “hustle.” My work became all about performance metrics, deadlines, and survival. I started reacting instead of leading. Kind of contradictory to our message, right?
I've seen myself get short-tempered. Overanalyze the heck out of cash flow. Go down the rabbit hold of questioning my ability to sustain it all. Stress was my middle name.
That shift—subtle yet powerful—is what psychologists often describe as the scarcity mindset: the belief that there isn’t enough time, money, talent, or opportunity to go around. And that mindset doesn’t just affect us as leaders—it ripples through our teams, breaking down trust and alignment in the process.
The Psychology Behind the Scarcity Mindset
From a psychoeducational lens, scarcity isn’t just a mindset; it’s a nervous system response.
When we experience high levels of pressure or uncertainty, our brain’s amygdala (the center for threat detection) becomes more active. That triggers the fight-flight-freeze response—an evolutionary mechanism meant to protect us from danger.
The reality is our brain doesn’t differentiate between a lion chasing us and a cash flow dip or a missed client deadline. It interprets them all as threats. How fun is that?!
So, when we get short-tempered, reactive, or controlling, it’s often not a lack of professionalism—it’s a sign of overactivation. That's your chronic stress narrowing in on your cognitive bandwidth. We lose access to the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for empathy, reasoning, and long-term decision-making. Essentially, we're hijacked into survival mode...
That’s why turning any vision into reality isn’t just about fancy systems or hiring more people—it’s about regulating your nervous system and emotional self-awareness. You've got to have hard conversations with yourself to understand the "threats" you tell yourself are real.
Staying true to the mission starts with recognizing when your body is leading the meeting instead of your values.
Signs You’re Moving Away from the Mission:
You’re leading from reaction instead of reflection. You start making quick decisions to reduce anxiety rather than to advance strategy.
You’re more critical than curious. The same people you once empowered now feel micromanaged or misunderstood.
Your team mirrors your state. When the leader’s nervous system is activated, the team’s culture reflects that energy—tension, avoidance, or burnout.
You lose sight of your “why.” Meetings feel transactional. The spark that started your business begins to dim under the weight of responsibility.
How to Recenter: Returning to the Heart of Your Work
Pause before you push. When frustration arises, take a literal pause. Name what you feel (“I’m overwhelmed,” “I’m afraid we’re falling behind”). Awareness interrupts reactivity.
Revisit your mission in moments of scarcity. When stress peaks, reconnect to your why. Read your original vision statement. Reflect on client transformations. Ground yourself in purpose, not panic.
Practice nervous system leadership. Build daily rituals to regulate your stress—breathing exercises, mindful walks, journaling, or reflective silence before meetings. These practices shift your brain back to a state of connection and clarity.
Normalize vulnerability as a leadership strength. Admit when you’re stretched thin. Encourage your team to speak up when alignment feels off. Transparency builds trust, and trust builds sustainability.
Anchor decisions in values, not validation. Growth often invites external noise—expectations, competition, and comparison. Returning to your core values ensures your expansion aligns with who you are, not just what’s profitable.
Scale Without Losing Yourself
Every leader on a mission faces this crossroad—the choice between reacting from fear or responding from faith in the mission.
Staying true doesn’t mean you never waver; it means you notice when you do and come back home to what matters most.
Growth without grounding is just expansion. But growth anchored in purpose—that’s transformation. And transformation, both personally and organizationally, always starts within.
Leadership That Stays Human
At Envision Greatness, we help leaders and organizations navigate growth without losing their heart.If you’re scaling a mission-driven organization and finding it hard to stay grounded in your values, let’s work together.
Book a Leadership Coaching Session or Subscribe to EG Weekly for insights on emotional intelligence, organizational growth, and inclusive leadership that works.
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