When Overthinking Turns a Slump Into a Shutdown

What a Friday afternoon meeting taught me about leadership, brain science, and trust

There we were, another late-night working session. That Friday, the invite had landed in our inboxes at noon for a 3:00 PM meeting. Our VP, new to her role and eager to make a difference, wanted to improve both the speed and quality of our orders. The slowdown had been frustrating for everyone, and she was determined to fix it.

We picked apart the process step-by-step, looking for every inefficiency. After weeks of late nights and missed dinners, we finally had our solution. The team launched the new process, hopeful it would deliver the results she envisioned.

But after just one week, she scrapped the whole thing. Another process was rolled out. Then another. The cycle continued for months.

I do not remember all the late nights, but I do remember overhearing her tell someone she was missing her child’s graduation. Not only was she missing the milestones, she was missing the everyday moments that matter. Not long after, the company closed its doors. It was a temporary technology in a fast-paced world, but what stayed with me was not the product’s short life. It was the cost of fear-driven leadership, both to her and to the business.

The Brain Mistake We Both Made

Looking back, I realize she was making the leadership equivalent of a hitter in a slump.

In baseball, when players start to overanalyze their swing mid-game, they shift from their automatic system, fast, practiced, instinctive, to their executive system, slow, analytical, conscious. Neuroscience research shows that when skilled performers focus too much on mechanics in the moment, performance drops.

That is what our VP did. She did not trust the natural learning curve. She kept changing the process before the team could adapt and build speed, unintentionally disrupting the very improvement she wanted.

The Cost of Leadership Slumps

The parallels to workplace engagement are striking. According to Gallup, only 31% of U.S. employees are engaged. The rest are either sitting on the bench or playing distracted. In environments where leaders panic, overcontrol, or constantly shift direction, engagement plummets even further.

This is not just about morale. Disengagement costs the global economy $8.8 trillion annually in lost productivity. In baseball terms, it is like playing with most of your roster on the bench and expecting to win the pennant.

Neuroscience Lessons for Leaders

From Dr. David Rock’s SCARF model to Gallup’s engagement data, the science is clear: performance peaks when leaders create environments of trust, clarity, and autonomy. That means:

• Trust the learning curve – Just as hitters need time to regain rhythm, teams need time to master a new process before results appear.

• Avoid mid-swing corrections – Save deep analysis for practice, not live execution.

• Protect milestones and moments – Missing personal milestones erodes not only relationships but also perspective.

The Lesson I’ll Never Forget

That VP did not fail because she lacked intelligence or commitment. She failed because fear of failure kept her from trusting her team and herself. She thought she was solving the slump. Instead, she was making it permanent.

Leadership, like hitting, is about knowing when to think and when to trust your swing. The more you understand your brain, the better you can lead your team out of a slump and into the win column.

To learn more about the research behind these findings, refer to our white paper on The Neuroscience of Performance: What Batting Slumps Teach Us About Leadership Under Pressure

Quote from 2x World Series champion Johnny Bench (Cincinnati Reds)