In Tension, Great Leaders Thrive.Are You One of Them?
Your response to tension could be driving—or sabotaging—your leadership. The Rawlins Fully Present Index (RFPI) is the first tool designed to uncover your instinctive patterns and equip you with proven strategies to transform tension into your greatest advantage.
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Try the free preview instead4 in 5 Executives Are Burnt Out—Are You at Risk?
Deloitte, 2021
Most leaders struggle with tension. They see it as a signal that something is wrong and set out to 'fix' it. They want the tension to go away. But tension itself isn't the issue—it's how we respond that shapes our leadership, our teams, and our organization. When unmanaged, tension leads to stress, conflict, and ultimately, burnout. The consequences are far-reaching:
Higher Turnover Rate
High-burnout companies see 15% higher turnover, costing businesses $125B - $190B annually.
Alavi, 2024
Innovation Drop
Leadership stress leads to a significant drop in innovation and 17% decline in productivity.
Yulianti & Jakštienė, 2025
Increased Conflicts
Stressed leaders trigger 52% more workplace conflicts, severely eroding team trust.
Kazemi Malekmahmoudi et al., 2024
Employee Disengagement
35% of employees under stressed leadership are disengaged or planning to leave.
Zhang et al., 2024
Tension is inevitable in leadership. It defines your decisions long before stress, conflict, or burnout appear. The question isn't whether you experience it—but how you manage it.
Turn Tension into Your Competitive Advantage
The RFPI Tension Challenge reveals your natural response to tension—showing whether it strengthens or hinders your leadership. More importantly, it provides clear, actionable strategies to help you bridge the gap, so you can turn tension into a tool for clarity and resilience. Through a comprehensive, science- backed report, you'll gain:
Personalized Insights
The best 'instrument' any leader has is the self they bring to the tension. Gain insight into your level of Personal Mastery and learn to be clear about the self you bring to the tension.
Action Framework
Learn where you might get into trouble when there is tension and some strategies for being more effective.
Relationships & Interpersonal Dynamics
Learn to leverage tension as a catalyst for growth and innovation in your key relationships. Understand how people react differently to tension and the importance of slowing down and talking about it.
Resilient Leadership
Being fully present is very personal, but the core capacities are common to all humans. Learn how to build quality relationships and, through them, more effective leadership in an uncertain world.
Sample Profile
What Others Experience When I Am in Tension
Whether you're leading a small team or a global organization, RFPI equips you with the tools to lead confidently in today's high-pressure environments.
Tips for Managing Tension Effectively
Here are three key insights to help you transform tension into a powerful tool for growth and effective leadership.
Levels of Tension Are Important
Each person responds to tensions in different ways. What is normal and healthy for one person may stress out another person.
Too little tension can lead to apathy and too much tension can cause stress.
Learn to work with the individual expressions of tension by managing the competencies all people must develop.
Differences Create Tension
We need diversity to maximize our ability to work in a changing world. It is the differences, creating tension, that will enable a team or organization to grow stronger in the midst of uncertainty.
Reality Check
Use tension as a feedback loop to stay grounded in reality. If you can talk about it, you can change it. Use the tension as a starting point for dialogue to clarify issues, address confusion and bridge the gap between the current state and expectations.
Ready to Transform Your Leadership?
Leadership isn't about avoiding tension—it's about embracing and leveraging it.
Take the first step
towards becoming a more present and effective leader today.