Lead In 30 Podcast

Stop Breaking Glass - How Effective Leaders Stay Calm

• Russ Hill

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Ever feel like your team is living inside a 24-hour breaking news cycle? We’ve been there—where every email, rumor, or policy tweak turns into a fire drill and the loudest voice sets the tone. Today we unpack a simple shift that changes everything: stop breaking glass, and start to breathe and elevate. It’s not about dialing down ambition; it’s about dialing down drama so urgency becomes productive, not performative.

We talk through how media-style panic hijacks leadership judgment and why a smaller, saner information diet actually boosts performance. Then we get practical. Breathe means pause on purpose—step away, regulate, and buy time so your brain can think instead of react. Elevate means zoom out—expand the time horizon, define the real problem, and map options you can’t see when you’re nose-to-glass with the issue. With that reset, you can run two clocks: stabilize quickly on the surface while you work the root under the hood.

Along the way, we share how calm leaders set culture by how they react. Label levels of urgency so not everything becomes a five-alarm. Swap gossip loops for clear ownership and timelines. Use simple, steady language—what changed, what we know, what’s next—to lower heart rates and raise signal. If your org values constant alarms, it might cap your growth; the market increasingly rewards leaders who deliver under pressure without turning every update into a spectacle.

If you’re ready to build trust, retain talent, and make sharper calls when things go sideways, this conversation will be your toolkit. Share it with a colleague who keeps the figurative hammer within reach, and try the breathe and elevate practice on your next “emergency.” Subscribe, leave a quick review, and tell us: what helps you zoom out when the heat rises?

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About the podcast:
The Lead In 30 Podcast with Russ Hill is for leaders of teams who want to grow and accelerate their results. In each episode, Russ Hill shares what he's learned consulting executives. Subscribe to get two new episodes every week. To connect with Russ message him on LinkedIn!



SPEAKER_02:

Stop breaking glass. And instead, I want you to breathe and elevate. What am I talking about? I'm talking about how sometimes, okay, maybe a lot, a lot of times, leaders overreact. You know how cable news says breaking news now. The world's gonna end in three seconds. That's not, maybe that works for cable news. It doesn't work for people in your organization. Let's talk about it.

SPEAKER_01:

This is the Lead in 30 podcast with Russell. Strengthen your ability to lead in less than 30 minutes.

SPEAKER_00:

With coming to Atlanta, if you're an HR, LD leader, or a leader of leaders, join us in November for our executive breakfast. Spend three hours with the experts at Lone Rock Leadership. And learn how to build personal accountability, accelerate decision making, lead through change, and create clarity, alignment, and movement. Reserve your free thought before seats fill up at Lone Rock.io.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah, at the time that we're pushing this episode out, you've got like a matter of a couple of days, just a few days, to be able to register to still attend our event in Atlanta. This is for uh HR leaders and leaders of leaders, LD, learning and development uh experts, or people at organizations. Go to uh lone rock.io for more on that and uh just find a contact form. I think it's at the bottom of the main page and ask for some information. We'll get you registered. It's free. By the way, we were just having some team meetings and uh we're locking down the uh the locations. We're coming to at least 10 cities in 2026. And on the list is Phoenix, Chicago, Nashville, Boston, New Jersey, New York area. We're going to the Philly area, we're going to Atlanta again, we're going to Dallas, we're going to Jacksonville or North Florida. We're going to a bunch of different places. It's going to be awesome. Where we we we take part of our team at Lone Rock Leadership and we meet, we put on a breakfast, and then we spend a few hours giving you an overview. Anybody that works in HR, anybody that works in LND, developing leaders, training leaders and organizations, uh, and typically it's 500 employees plus is really what we work with. We do we do some work with smaller organizations than that, and a lot of work with organizations way bigger than that that have you know tens of thousands, if not over a hundred thousand employees. But um, so we'll get all that information out to you, but but um Atlanta is our next one at the time this episode is coming out in November of 2025, is when we'll be in Atlanta. Okay, so here's the topic. Oh, by the way, welcome in to the Lead in 30 podcast. In less than 30 minutes, we give you a framework, a model, a practice, a best uh best a best practice or uh uh an experience to to to for you to consider in your effort to upgrade your ability to lead others. My name's Russ Hill. I am one of the co-founders and part of the team at Lone Rock Leadership. We're an executive consulting team uh practice. We consult with senior executive teams as well as um we train mid-level managers and organizations across all industries. LoneRockio is where you find out more. Okay, so um here's the issue. One of the greatest compliment compliments, this could not have been said of me um a while back. I don't know how many years ago this changed, and there are days when it would not be accurate, but hopefully there are more days where it is accurate now. But um, we were dealing with uh with a particular client issue. This is uh uh a little while ago, and um and and and and something that just had the potential to be that that that could have that could have blown up. And uh and and and and and and yet as uh members of our leadership team at our firm were watching me uh react to react to this situation that was developing, one of them said to me, one of the members of our leadership team said, Russ, I can't believe how calm you are. Like if if if I was the one leading our reaction to this issue, this this situation, man, I would I would just be really emotional and really aggressive. And you're just calm as can be. Again, that could not have been said of me a few years ago. And there are certainly days, there are moments when that is not on um display in my behavior, but I've made an effort on it. And some of you, like your natural state is just so chill that you actually, it's actually a weakness of yours. Like you aren't driven enough, you aren't intense enough, you aren't um, you you're not you're on enough urgency. Like that's something you need to work on because it's affecting the growth of your organization, it's affecting your career growth, it's affecting your lifestyle. Like, come on, you could you could be doing a lot better. You could have more of an impact, you could have a greater lifestyle, you could be growing and learning it more, um, but you're a little too chill, if you know what I mean. And maybe you're okay with that. And that's okay. If you're just kind of cool with the the growth curve and all aspects of your life, financially, from a wisdom standpoint, from all these different areas, you're pretty cool with it just being kind of a flat line, then you be you. You keep doing that. I don't know why you're listening to podcasts like this, except maybe to help you go to sleep or or listen to those weird, those weird people over there that are really driven and really ambitious and trying to whatever. So, but for the rest of us, for the rest of us, this is an issue. And so I just I I I I want to talk about this as it pertains to um as it pertains to the way that you lead. And and to to kind of give you a visual on this, I would go to cable news networks. And many of you know that I spent the first part of my career, and when I say part, I'm talking 15 years. So I've spent a big chunk of my life working in the media business, street reporting, working as an anchor, being in newsrooms in multiple cities. Um, and and so I'm all about that. And and and and yet the industry changed changed in so many ways. Like the news industry today is especially well, all over the world, but especially in in the United States, is almost completely it's foreign to me. What I was trained on in, you know what's crazy? Like in in the first newsroom that I worked in, if you were registered to vote in a particular party, so like you're a registered Democrat or you were a registered Republican, you were fired. You were literally terminated as an employee. You were not to be affiliated, registered as a as a as a member of any political party. If in the newsroom, this is crazy, you all, and it's not our topic, but you'll get the point in a minute. Let me just go on this aside because it's interesting, at least to me. Um, and maybe you'll find interest in it too. If you in the newsroom you engaged in a political debate, you were terminated. So, in other words, you come to work and you're covering this story, and it's the governor says this, or the senator is doing this from your state, and and you're in the newsroom and you're getting in a in a kind of a you know an off-the-air discussion with your colleagues, other reporters, or a photographer, or you know, an editor or producer or whomever, and you're like, no, I think that the Democrats are crazy on this, or I think the Republicans are that governor or this senator, and you're advocating a position terminated without discussion. That was taught to us in journalism school. You are to be as unbiased as possible. You can have political views, you can have personal views, you are never to advocate them, you're never to bring it up. Um, isn't that wild how far the pendulum is swung? It's exact, like, oh my gosh. Oh, can you imagine tuning in to? Like, where's that cable news channel? Where's that website? Where's that media outlet? Like, I would pay to subscribe. What's your monthly rate? I'd be paying for it. Take a look at the world and just report on what's going on and don't have a position. Yeah, it doesn't exist anymore. Anyway, so as you tune in, if you do, and if you, and by the way, if you do, why do you tune in to any cable news outlet right now? Anyway, if I I shouldn't even say that. If you're into it, go for it. Fox News, MSNBC, whatever. Like go, go, go, go feed it. That's awesome. Um, I I I don't do that. I I just not it just doesn't it isn't for me anymore. But but if you do consume any of that, what you'll notice is that the world is constantly on fire. Literally, what what the politicians are doing today, what's happening in the world, everyone's being shot, every place is on fire, the end is near, all policies and decisions are gonna bring about doom. Like it's it's everybody's evil on all sides, and and and the economy is gonna crash at any moment, and it's like everything bad possible is going to happen. And by the way, they aren't just saying that now, they've been saying it for years. And guess what? We're still breathing. Did you notice? Like, and are you making decent money? I'm making more money and I'm more successful than I've ever been. And I'm feeling great about life. And my family has got opportunity and things are going good. And yeah, is it ideal out there? No. Are there things happening that aren't terrific? Of course. But I've advocated in other episodes too, that the smaller you make your world, the the healthier you are mentally and emotionally. I'm just a huge believer in that. If you're consuming all this content, the point is that that's that's the revenue model for the media business. Because if you if we can get you to tune in, because you have this negativity bias, we all do, where we we we we we look at the accident on the side of the road. We're really curious about that dumpster fire over there. Where's that smoke coming from? We're naturally our brains look for that stuff, any kind of threat of anything. And so what the media has decided, their job is to generate revenue. Generate tons of revenue, which comes from ratings. And how do you get people to tune in? Well, you you know that if you are boring and say, well, today actually was kind of a mellow day in the world, and everything appeared to be okay. You're gonna have no ratings. Instead, you have to be like, breaking news, you're about to die, the world is about to fail. And everybody, you know, you know what I mean? Some of you lead that way. Some of you, the culture of your organization and your team is breaking news. The world's gonna end. In other words, a customer cancels something. In other words, that department sends an email over. In other words, you hear a rumor or somebody comes out of a meeting and they're kind of emotional. Or in other words, there's a new policy that's announced, or in other words, somebody quits, or somebody's promoted, or something happens, and you go into breaking news, doom and gloom mode. You are the very thing that I'm describing. And now, okay, maybe you're not that way all the way, all the time. But some of you, some of us, we need to calm down. And so uh the phrase that I like to use is break glass. Some of you are constantly, you know, you know, like the in in in a building, you know, you got to break glass to get to the fire extinguisher or to get to the fire alarm. You break the glass and then you pull the alarm. Some of you break glass constantly. Like, oh, I heard this. Break glass, pull the alarm, sound the alarm. The organization's about to sink. Break glass. The organization that department is about to destroy all of us. You know what I mean? And it's not helping. And if you're in an organization that craves that, and that's kind of how it is, aren't you tired? Isn't it kind of exhausting you? Or are you kind of a drama addict? And if you are, uh if you're really into the thick plot, that's not an effective way to lead people in most organizations that are growing. Instead of breaking glass, I want you to breathe and elevate. Well, what does that mean, Russ? Well, here's the phrase. What I mean by it take a deep breath, close your email program, turn off your phone, log out of Teams, walk away from your desk, go touch grass, get out and breathe, go drink something, smoke something, and I'm just kidding, sort of, but for some of you, that's a habit that helps you relax. And this is not a health podcast, so I got no judgment on that. You do whatever you need to do, whether that's a diet soda or something different or inhale air. You know what I mean? Go to the mountains, go to the beach, drive home, get go to the gym, breathe. And then elevate. And by the way, when I say breathe, how long? Like, how long should you? What I mean is like just get away. And for some for some of you, in other words, something's just happened. A customer is just canceled, they just told you no. The deal fell through. A new policy was announced. That leader announced this thing. She said this in a meeting. He did that, whatever it is. You breathe. Breathe. And and you can't be breathing at a calm rate if you're all worked up and like calling somebody and spreading the drama. And so don't be the 14-year-old in middle school. Be like the older, mature, successful person that just breathes. And so, how long does that like how long do you need? Well, it depends. Like, this is a minor thing that's kind of working you up. You need may need to get get out for like five, ten minutes. Shut that down. For other times, it's a big deal. Like you're really worked up about it. It might be the the next 24 hours, it might be eight hours. You need to go to bed. You need to you need to get some sleep. You're not in the mindset to process this right now. You need some distance. And so that's where I go to elevate. What do I mean by elevate? So breathe and elevate instead of break glass. Elevate is zoom out. Zoom out. If I'm standing right in front of a mountain and I look up, I like there's no way we're gonna scale that. This is an insurmountable problem, an obstacle. If I elevate and zoom out, you're like, oh, there's a road through the canyon over there that actually goes up and you can get over the mountain. Or, oh, there are ropes that you can scale this. And look over there, those you know what I mean? So when you elevate, you zoom out, that mountain isn't quite as enormous as it looks when you're standing right in front of it or closer to it. That boulder, well, there's a path around it, but you can't see the path around it when you're literally brushed up against it. So we're gonna breathe and elevate. We're gonna get and look at the horizon. You can see the trails, you can see the paths, the obstacles become smaller. So the the most effective leaders that we interact with who actually scale organizations and where people love to work for them, they think she's the greatest executive. He's got the best culture over there, are the ones that very infrequently break glass. That does not mean that there's less drama around them, that there's less bad news, that they don't have the same sort of conditions you have, that they aren't seeing deals be canceled or fall through, that they aren't dealing with headquarters or a board or with an executive team or a system that's frustrating them. It's not that they don't have tariffs or external market conditions that are presenting some challenges, or that their competitors aren't getting super aggressive, or somebody on their team didn't just exit unexpectedly, or that controversy didn't just get they didn't just get an email too. Like that's all happening to them too. They just don't break glass, they breathe, they elevate. They escalate like everything, they make it worse. And so one of your jobs, whether you're a mid-level manager, you're a frontline supervisor, you're a senior executive, is just to be calm. It doesn't mean you're not driven, it doesn't mean you don't have urgency, it doesn't mean you don't have high demands and and high expectations, it doesn't mean that you're not addicted to growth and committed to doing whatever is necessary, just you're doing it with a lower blood pressure. You're strategic, not reactive, you're not impulsive, and you're the kind of leader that people want to work for, and it gets promoted. And if you're in an organization where you can't thrive because the culture is break glass, maybe look around and consider your options. That is what's on my mind in this episode of the Lead in Thirty podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

Share this episode with a colleague, your team, or a friend. Tap on the share button and text the link. Thanks for listening to the Lead in 30 podcast with Russell.