Last week we talked about the fact that leading others means you will be under pressure. Leaders respond to pressure in different ways but there are more and less productive ways to respond to that pressure. The goal is not to eliminate pressure but to condition ourselves to react to it in positive ways. Here are some positive ways to respond to pressure preceded by their negative counterpart (taken from Dan Reiland)

Withdraw and hope it goes away VS. Mastering the art of ignoring
Withdrawing to pray and get a heavenly plan of action is biblical & wise but withdrawing to escape is not good leadership – however, knowing what to ignore and what to confront is part of the art of leading that each of us have to figure out for ourselves.

Get aggressive and conquer VS. Powering up with purpose
By doing the former you may win the battle but you’ll lose the war. Even powering up with purpose has to be used in the right doses so know when to use emotion and when not to.

Construct political alliances VS. Develop team alignment
Political alliances require surrounding yourself with those who agree with you to counter any resistance to your agenda. This solution brings  short term relief at the cost of long term effectiveness because ultimately you attract followers and repel leaders. You are better off leading leaders who create healthy tension on the way to developing team alignment – it takes longer but produces better results in the long run.

Think of a time when you responded negatively to pressure. How did that turn out? What might have happened is you would have responded positively?