Insight
Fight, Flight, or Freeze – Leadership in Times of Disruption
Leaders under pressure reveal their instincts. Some fight, some flee, and some freeze, but unlike a true fear reflex, a leader’s response to disruption is a choice that defines their effectiveness.
- AI startups
- decision making
- disruption
- leadership
- organizational behavior
The past year in leadership at an AI healthcare startup has given me a fresh perspective on navigating disruption and a new framework for spotting the real leaders in the room.
First, the framework: psychologists describe the human response to a snarling bear in the woods as fight, flight, or freeze/fawn. This automatic reflex kicks in when we perceive a threat and dictates our immediate reaction before we have time to think. It is a good thing, because in moments of sheer terror, our lizard brains take over and send our legs running before we even realize what is happening.
But what do bears have to do with the boardroom? Glad you asked. I have seen that same autonomic fight, flight, or freeze response not just in sudden, high-emotion moments, like a heated boardroom clash after an executive overpromised and underdelivered, or when the neighbor’s 50-pound dog sprinted toward my 30-pound toddler, but also stretched across weeks or months of market turmoil.
That is where it gets interesting. While fight, flight, or freeze is an instinctive, trauma-tied reflex in life-or-death moments, the same pattern in business leadership is something different. When leaders respond to disruption with fight, flight, or freeze, that is not biology. It is a choice.