29/01/2026
Red Mode - Blue Mode (Copy of my Linkedin Newsletter today)
Why Pressure Changes Everything.
Pressure changes how we think, decide and act. Understanding this is what separates reaction from response.
I have been here myself. In sport. In business. If I’m honest, it didn’t stay contained, it spilled into my personal life as well.
For a long time, I believed this was a flaw in me. A character issue. A resilience issue. If I could just be tougher, more disciplined, more in control, it would stop happening.
It didn’t.
It’s not who you are - it's how you are showing up under pressure. The way you operate when pressure hits, the patterns that takes over in the moment.
Under pressure, we do not rise to our best thinking. We tend to revert to familiar patterns, to how we have learned to protect ourselves, stay in control, or simply get through the moment.
That is where the Red and Blue come in - a framework that shows how these patterns emerge and why we behave the way we do. This framework helped give me clarity on the instinctive behaviours that surface in high pressure situations.
Red mode is fast, emotional, protective and reactive. It’s invaluable in genuine danger, but in business, leadership, or sport under performance pressure, it often narrows perspective, fuels urgency over judgement and pushes certainty over curiosity.
Blue mode is calm, reflective and strategic. It allows space for details, for different perspectives, better communication and better decisions. High performance is not about intensity, it’s about access to Blue when it matters most.
Reading Dr. Ceri Evans 'Perform Under Pessure' brought this home to me. It's not enough to understand the Red - Blue framework, the real shift happens when you notice in the moment how you are reacting and choose to act differently. It's a simple recognition, but it can transform the way you navigate pressure, decision-making and leadership.
Paying attention in that way is a practice, one that can quietly reshape how you respond to pressure, over and over again. That awareness gradually changes how you lead, decide and show up in every area of your life.
