Expert in high-pressure environments, Heidi Horne, reveals the fastest way EAs can defuse C-suite stress before it hijacks the whole room.
EAs see stress before anyone else does. You notice it when a meeting starts tense, when emails are sharper than necessary or when decisions feel rushed and reactive. Stress rarely announces itself. It simply spreads from one nervous system to the next.
Most people think stress needs motivation, mindset shifts or long-term programs to fix. But in reality, stress needs an interrupt. Fast. That’s where one-minute matters.
Why stress spreads
One dysregulated nervous system can subtly influence an entire room. A leader walks into a meeting carrying pressure from the previous call. The tone shifts, people brace, conversations tighten and decisions are made faster – but not necessarily better.
As an EA, you often become the stabiliser in this dynamic. You manage diaries, prepare meetings and sense when something’s off before it’s said out loud. You also know that telling someone to “calm down” never works.
What does work is interrupting the stress response before it hijacks the next moment.
The science behind the reset
The nervous system responds to simple physical cues. Slow breathing, even for short periods, signals safety. When safety returns, clarity follows.
Research consistently shows that chronic stress reduces cognitive flexibility, memory and emotional regulation. Deloitte research suggests that for every dollar invested in mental wellbeing, organisations can see up to five dollars returned in productivity and reduced absenteeism.
Yet many workplace approaches still rely on tools that are difficult to access when stress actually hits.
Introducing the one-minute technique
One of the simplest resets is this:
- Pause
- Exhale slowly for six seconds
- Name what actually matters in the next 60 seconds.
That longer exhale activates the parasympathetic nervous system; the part responsible for calm, focus and regulation. Just a few rounds can shift the body out of stress mode and back into balance.
This can be done before a meeting starts, between back-to-back calls or before sending an email written under pressure. It doesn’t require privacy, silence or time away from the desk.
Why it works for EAs
You’re often the first to adopt these tools because you feel the ripple effects of stress immediately. When one person in a team starts resetting in real time, the atmosphere changes. Meetings soften, communication improves and decisions become clearer – one regulated nervous system can stabilise many others.
We underestimate how powerful small resets are because they feel almost too simple. But simplicity is what makes them usable; meeting people where they are, in the middle of pressure, in real time.
When stress becomes the default state, burnout isn’t a surprise. It’s an outcome. That’s why one-minute matters.
