Better Under Pressure

"What I'm hearing in this, Paula, is you've always had some way of switching off the day." 

Try to track down Paula Fry, Global Head of Fixed Income and FX Trading Liquidity at Bloomberg LP, and she is as likely to be in New York, Singapore, Dubai or Paris as she is in her London office. A 30-year veteran of the financial sector (with a sabbatical running her own vintage fashion business along the way), Paula has built a deep skill in handling pressure. Case in point: her ability to switch off at the end of the day. In many of the conversations I have with clients, that is one of the hardest things for them to do. Paula shares two rituals that travel the world with her. "It's like taking a bit of home away with me," she says.

It makes sense. As I've said before, rituals, however small, are a way of staying in devotion to what matters to you, and harnessing your energy in a way that works for you, wherever you are in the world.

There's a lot more wisdom and advice in our conversation, including Paula’s passion for what I'd describe as her legacy: supporting women to talk openly about perimenopause and menopause in the workplace.

Legacy releases the pressure of uncertainty by grounding you in your personal purpose. It's a way to explore the next phase of impact, allowing leaders to expand, try new things, and unleash bold ideas. This shone out of Paula throughout our conversation and I was left feeling she has more to cause! I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

Each month, Better Under Pressure explores how leaders really experience pressure, respond to it, and lead others through it, for positive impact.

Save, share, and follow me, Sara Milne Rowe, for more on leadership, performance and impact for good.

It's role reversal time at Better Under Pressure.

This month, leadership coach Nicky Brown puts me in the hot seat, asking me what I've learnt from my 60+ conversations with leaders around the world on the Better Under Pressure podcast, and from two decades of coaching at Coaching Impact.

This conversation gave me the time and the context to reflect on what I see and hear when I'm with leaders, and to explore how pressure shows up in our lives — the positives and the negatives, and what people do when they're deep in it.

Over 50 minutes, we got into:
- Why people interpret pressure differently, and why that matters for teams
- Why, for me, pressure is an action-oriented energy
- The role of Spirit and Discipline in managing stress
- Short-term vs. long-term pressure, and why the long-term becomes toxic without the tools to manage it
- The difference between performance and a performative act
- My own pressure point: a love of control. (Yes, I'm outing myself!)

Over the years, a lot of people have asked me for more of my take on it all, and Nicky gave me the chance, so thank you.

Each month, Better Under Pressure explores how leaders really experience pressure, respond to it, and lead others through it — for positive outcomes.

Outline 📍
00:00 Intro

01:45 Sarah steps into the hot seat

02:37 How would you describe pressure?

07:01 What does long-term pressure feel like?

10:46 How do you still perform under pressure?

11:43 The classroom moment that shaped Sara’s leadership

21:08 Spirit, discipline & self-belief under pressure

23:41 Insight 1: Lessons learned

26:15 How do you stop pressure becoming toxic?

29:43 How do you prepare for pressure before it arrives?

34:45 How do you turn pressure into fuel?

36:36 What practices help you become better under pressure?
40:08 Insight 2: Lessons learned

44:51 What will pressure look like in the future of work?

47:30 How do leaders handle uncertainty?

49:00 Two things Sara would pass forward for performing under pressure

51:34 Why learning to shut down matters

52:54 AI, leadership & the future

54:20 Final reflections

55:15 Outro

Why slow is smooth, and smooth is fast.

"I love to work at pace. I talk at pace. I am all like go, go, go," says @Caroline Frankum, the former Global CEO of Kantar's Profiles division, "but sometimes you really need to slow down to go faster – and in times of pressure, slowing down the process is really important."

"Pressure is always going to be there. It is really about how you deal with it in a structured way," she adds, "and that sometimes means pausing – which is the thing I had to learn."

Caroline's approach to pressure has been shaped by personal experience  (more on that in our conversation) and senior leadership roles at Kantar, Hall & Partners, the Mirror Group, ITV, UKTV, Disney and Sky.

"You have to find the thing that works for you to get your mind into a calmer state. Then you are in a place where you can make a confident decision. Until you get there, you will react rather than respond."

I loved talking to Caroline, she really is a powerhouse and there is a lot more to our conversation. Listen here. 

Each month the Better Under Pressure podcast explores how leaders really experience pressure, respond to it and lead others through it for positive outcomes.

Please save, share and follow me, Sara Milne Rowe, for more on leadership, performance and impact for good.

Outline 📍
00:00 Intro
02:55 Do you need pressure to be better?
05:40 How to Slow Down When Everyone Around You Wants Speed?
09:53 How great leaders share self-regulation with their teams?
11:42 How childhood silence shaped powerful leadership awareness?
18:22 How do leaders recognise when pressure becomes stress?
19:59 Insight 1: Lessons learned
23:13 What is the very worst pressure that you have been under?
29:24 The biggest future pressures for leaders & how does purpose help navigate them?
36:18 What two things can help you become better under pressure?
39:00 Insight 2: Lessons learned
42:48 Did the doctors ever hear the impact their words had years later?
47:13 Outro

"As long as my values system and my integrity are reconciled at the end of each day, I'm OK."

So says the extraordinary Dr Bijna Kotak Dasani MBE, investment banker, entrepreneur, investor and venture capitalist, in conversation with me on my Better Under Pressure podcast.

Bijna has appeared in many top 50 and top 100 lists, from the World's Top 100 Women Executives to Top 50 Women to Watch. In 2025, she was named Venture Capitalist of the Year in India. Yet she sees awards differently from most: "It is nice to be appreciated, but it is a bigger responsibility to honour that."

Throughout her career, Bijna has focused on her personal impact and what she can contribute to make a better world, and she does it her way: "I am very clear on who I am, what I represent, and what works for me and what doesn't."

For me, this conversation is about clarity, ownership, accountability, and how to achieve it. I hope you enjoy.

Follow Dr Bijna on:

- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/bijna

- Insta: https://www.instagram.com/thedrbijna

- X: https://x.com/drbijna 

Outline 📍
00:00 Intro

02:30 What pressure comes with growing recognition and a rising reputation?
10:00 Spirit & Discipline: A No is a Full Sentence
13:17 How do high performers decide what deserves their energy and what gets a no?
16:46 Insight 1: Lessons learned
20:04 What are the biggest pressures facing women in business today?

24:00 How can women build allyship, shift the system, and claim their own agency?
28:42 How do you manage your emotions?
30:54 What is the first sign you need to go into airplane mode?

34:15 Insight 2: Lessons learned

36:34 What's the worst pressure you've ever been under?
39:22 Was there a moment you realised enough was enough?

43:00 What 2 pieces of advice would you pass forward to people listening?

45:43 Outro

 

‘I’m at my best when the pressure is high. And I need to be prepared for it, I tend to approach it as a positive rather than a negative’, says my guest on this month’s Better Under Pressure podcast, Thomas Dubaere, CEO, AccorHotels Americas.  Thomas’s approach to pressure has been honed over a 20-year career in the hospitality industry with Accor, working in multi-layered, highly networked stakeholder environments across multiple countries and cultures. 

In this conversation, Thomas talks about his relationship with pressure: from why confidence plays such an important role, to how he distinguishes when pressure turns into  stress, and how he works with his teams to plan for high-pressure meetings. I found this such a refreshingly open conversation and hope you do too! 

 

Outline 📍 
00:00 Intro
02:14 How would you describe your relationship with Pressure?
04:30 How have you evolved your relationship with Pressure?
11:21 Can you share an example of how you notice and manage pressure?
19:43 What are your go-to habits that help you stay physically fuelled under pressure?
24:05 How do you set boundaries with your team when work and travel blur together?
25:28 Insight 1: Lessons learned
29:08 What’s the number one thing that pulls you into unhelpful pressure?
32:30 How do you balance family life and leisure alongside work?
38:01 Where do you get your biggest energy from? 
39:50 What advice would you give for keeping pressure positive during long-term goals?
44:55 Insight 2: Lessons learned
48:37 What part of your SHED practice is most important for keeping pressure positive?
54:21 What 2 pieces of advice would you pass forward to be better under pressure?

 

What a Purpose-led CEO Can Teach Us About Managing Pressure

This week’s Better Under Pressure conversation is with an inspirational leader who has been, at times, so immersed in her role that she felt she had merged with it. Does that sound familiar? That feeling when you become what you do… your identity slides into your role and before you know it, the boundary between you and the work has dissolved?

Clare Reddington, CEO of Watershed – the Bristol-based organisation focused on cultural cinema, talent development and creative technology – knows this feeling well.

In this episode we explore how purpose drives Clare’s leadership style and carries her through pressure, how she recognises her personal signs of overwhelm, and what she does about it (hint: nature plays a big role).

 

Outline 📍 
00:00 Intro
02:37 How do you experience pressure?
04:55 How do you tap into that sense of stewardship and purpose in your own leadership?
10:03 What’s the practice that helps you hold and lead all of this?
14:00 How do you meaningfully track balance and belonging in your organisation?
17:16 How do people respond to having unlimited time off and that level of flexibility?
22:59 Insight 1: Lessons learned
25:53 What are the first signs you notice that indicate you need to take a rest?
33:25 Insight 2: Lessons learned
36:07 What was the worst pressure you have ever felt?
40:00 How do you support a team member caught in extreme pressure in the moment?
42:18 What 2 pieces of advice would you pass forward to be better under pressure?
46:21 Outro