Mitigating Anxiety During Critical Incidents for Leaders

You’re at your desk, finally tackling the stack of administrative work you’ve been putting off all week when a tone alert blares across the radio. Dispatch reports a shooting at a crowded nightclub nearby, and your heart rate spikes.  You know you’ll be leading your team through this crisis. Despite all your training, anxiety sets in.

This reaction is completely normal, even expected, among leaders in high-stress situations. As officers, we’re often taught to suppress difficult emotions, and admitting fear or anxiety still carries a stigma. If we want to overcome these challenges, honest discussion is essential.

So, what exactly is anxiety?

According to the American Psychological Association, anxiety is an emotion marked by tension, worried thoughts, and physical changes such as elevated blood pressure, increased heart rate, and muscle tension.

When you feel anxious during a critical incident, your body reacts almost instantly: adrenaline and cortisol surge, breathing becomes shallow, and fine-motor skills may suffer. Instead of calmly issuing clear direction, you might find it hard to focus as “what-if” scenarios run through your mind. What if your plan fails? What if you’ve overlooked something vital? This thought pattern slows your decision-making and makes it harder to adapt to any given situation.

Allowing anxiety to gain the upper hand impairs your judgment and ultimately undermines your team’s effectiveness. Spotting these physical, mental, and behavioral warning signs early is the first step toward managing anxiety and leading your officers safely through even the most stressful incidents.

I know this feeling, because I have been there.  I was working in my office when an active shooter incident came out at a university in my area.  I was the captain and knew that I needed to step up and make sure our response was smooth and efficient.  My heartrate spiked (which I tracked on my smartwatch) as I ran to my car.  I could feel adrenaline flowing through my veins, even though I knew my role as a captain would most likely prevent me from making entry and taking action.

Brave officers entered the school and engaged the suspect, ultimately neutralizing the threat and clearing the building of any additional suspects.

In the aftermath, I reflected on my own emotional response. Although I was never in actual danger, I experienced an intense physiological reaction to anxiety. As the incident commander, I had to make hundreds of critical decisions to keep both my officers and the community safe.

So how can a leader mitigate anxiety in the moment and ensure the right decisions are made under pressure? Here are a few key strategies:

• Training - Confidence is the antidote to anxiety. Realistic, scenario-based training is just as essential for leaders as it is for front-line officers.

• Breathwork - Deep, intentional breathing lowers your heart rate and sharpens focus. Simple exercises, like inhaling for four counts, holding for two, then exhaling for six, can be done anywhere.

• Therapy - A trained mental-health professional can teach you personalized tools for emotional regulation. Regular sessions help you build a toolkit you can use when it matters most.

  
  

As leaders, our officers rely on us to help direct their response and provide them with resources to get the job done.  If we freeze because we are not prepared for the difficult emotions involved in critical incidents, people can die.  The tragic school shooting in Uvalde, Texas is a perfect example of a leader freezing under pressure. 

My new online class provides students with the tools to mitigate the difficult but natural emotions involved in critical incident response.  You can get more information about the online class here.