There is a quiet truth many senior leaders in advertising and marketing rarely articulate: the industry isn’t just changing fast - it is now changing faster than our nervous systems were designed to cope with.
Markets shift. Technology rewrites rules. Budgets tighten. Timelines compress. Leadership grows more complex, and often lonelier. And yet, opportunity is everywhere. Rapid adoption creates first-mover advantage. Early trend-spotting opens new categories. Niche specialisation becomes viable. But, when the pace of external change consistently exceeds our internal capacity to process, regulate, and make meaning, the cost shows up not just in strategy but in the leader. Decision quality declines, creativity narrows, relationships become transactional and often, confidence diminishes. This is no longer only a question of how we lead, it is a question of how we stay internally stable enough to lead it all.
Three Familiar Responses to Pressure
In times of sustained volatility leaders default to one of three patterns
Push Harder
For high-performers, effort feels like the most reliable lever. So they work longer, optimise more aggressively and tighten control. In the short term, this works. Over time exhaustion shrinks perspective, creativity becomes reactive, relationships become more transactional. What once felt like strong and strategic leadership turns operational.
Revert to Old Patterns
Regression - under prolonged pressure, even experienced leaders can become more defensive, political or reactive. Blame replaces curiosity, certainty crowds out exploration. Neuroscience explains why: when the brain perceives threat, it prioritises protection over possibility. Many leadership frameworks describe this as operating 'below the line', when survival instincts quietly override higher-order thinking.
Lay Low
Subtler and perhaps more common, rather than escalate or regress, some leaders simply go quiet. They maintain baseline performance but withdraw emotionally and strategically. They minimise visibility, defer bold moves, and wait for clarity from somewhere else. In an industry built on influence and ideas, this quiet disengagement may feel safe but it erodes relevance.
The Case for Anchoring Before Accelerating
So how do leaders adapt to relentless change without losing coherence? The answer begins not with acceleration, but with anchoring. On a flight, passengers are instructed to secure their own oxygen masks before assisting others. It is not selfish advice. it is practical. Without stability, there is no capacity to lead and the same applies to leadership. If the game is accelerating, steadiness is no longer optional, it's is differentiator. Anchoring is not about retreat or introspection for its own sake, it's about developing an internal reference point that is not entirely dependent on external validation.
Three Anchors for Leadership in Uncertain Times
Identity Anchor: Know What You Actually Bring
Are you able to articulate what value you actually bring and do you have self-clarity and awareness? These could include your core strengths, your accumulative experience, and your leadership style and values. It is about strategic self-awareness as unique individuals, and not to be mistaken for personal branding. Leaders without this anchor chase relevance. Leaders with it create coherence and attraction. They know where they are most useful, and where they are not.
Anchor Your Nervous System
Much leadership development focuses on mindset, but mindset is closely linked to physiology. When leaders are chronically stressed, their capacity for nuanced thinking collapses. Practices that stabilise the nervous system like breath regulation, embodied awareness, moments of stillness are not indulgences, they help bring calm, balance and steadiness. Leaders who can regulate their internal state under pressure will have the ability to hold a broader perspective, have sharper judgement, emotional intelligence and strategic patience. In an industry driven by urgency, the ability to slow down internally becomes a competitive advantage.
Anchor to Meaning, not Metrics
Metrics matter, they just cannot be the only source of identity. When worth is tied mainly to outcomes, visibility, or external validation, sense of self becomes volatile. A deeper anchor comes from meaning. Does what you are doing matter to you and have you thought about what kind of impact you want to leave behind. Finding this meaning needs deliberate practice. Start by creating space for reflection and ask your yourself what energises you versus what just keeps you busy. Notice the moments when your work felt genuinely worthwhile, not just successful. Consider what you'd want said about your leadership legacy, not in a press release, but by someone you mentored ten years from now. These are ongoing conversations with yourself about what makes the hard days’ worth it, are a way to build resilience and meaning rather than cynicism.
From Fast Leadership to Steady Leadership
The future of marketing leadership will not be defined by who moves fastest. It will be defined by who can remain internally stable while navigating external volatility. In an industry where everything is in motion, it is calm, steady, perceptive and coherent leadership that can sustain.
