This article explains why physiology, HRV, and emotional regulation are not soft concepts, but the biological foundation of strategic decision making and sustained high performance.
By: Per Imer, CEO, Homerunner
Contains: 880 words
For more than three decades, I have worked with performance across sport, academia, and business. The greatest insight has been this: under pressure, we do not lose talent or intelligence. We lose regulation.
I have worked with people of extraordinary intelligence, talent, and drive. I have seen them perform at the highest level. And I have seen them lose their performance under pressure. Not because they were incapable.
But because their system collapsed. It took me years to fully understand that performance does not start with strategy. It starts with physiology.We can talk about plans, structures, and execution. We can optimize KPIs and invest in systems. But if the body is in alarm, thinking narrows. When thinking narrows, behavior becomes reactive. And when behavior becomes reactive, the quality of results declines.
Results as we know them...
→ come from behavior
→ which comes from thoughts
→ which come from feelings
→ which come from emotional signals
→ which come from physiology
This means that the quality of your results ultimately depends on the quality of your biological state. You cannot think your way out of a physiological condition.
An emotion is not drama. It is data.
The body constantly sends signals to the brain through heart rate variability, breathing patterns, muscle tension, hormonal shifts, and electrical activity. These signals flow in every second, whether we consciously notice them or not.
That is why someone can say they feel calm while their pulse is elevated, their breathing is shallow, and their nervous system is in a state of alarm. They may not feel it clearly, but it influences their thinking.
This is where HRV, heart rate variability, becomes central. HRV measures the variation between heartbeats and reflects the flexibility of the nervous system. Higher HRV is associated with stronger regulation capacity and greater access to complex thinking. Lower HRV indicates a system under pressure and reduced adaptability.
This is biology. Not motivation.
Under pressure, the survival system activates. The heart rhythm changes. Stress hormones are released. HRV* drops. At the same time, activity in the prefrontal cortex, the area responsible for planning, perspective, and nuanced thinking, is reduced. This is often referred to as frontal shutdown.
It feels like going blank, losing overview, becoming defensive, or freezing in key decision moments. You do not become less intelligent. You lose access to your intelligence.
In complex organizations, this is not just an individual issue. It is a structural risk. When key people lose access to their full cognitive capacity under pressure, decision quality declines precisely when it needs to be at its highest.
If emotions influence thinking, and thinking influences behavior, and behavior influences results, then regulation is not a soft skill. It is a strategic decision.
The quality of decisions depends on the state of the nervous system. The quality of relationships depends on the ability to stay regulated during disagreement. The quality of innovation depends on whether people feel safe enough to think broadly rather than defensively.
Over time, the difference between mediocrity and sustained high performance often comes down to regulation capacity.
Self regulation starts at the individual level. It involves recognizing your stress signals, noticing when you are moving toward shutdown, and being able to stabilize breathing and heart rhythm. Simple rhythmic breathing can increase HRV and restore stability in the system. But technique is secondary. Awareness is primary. Your emotional state is part of your strategy.
Humans do not only regulate themselves. They regulate each other.
A leadership environment marked by implicit threat, unpredictability, or constant criticism lowers collective HRV. When that happens, overall cognitive capacity drops. Innovation declines. Courage declines. Openness declines. The organization becomes more political and less creative.
Psychological safety is therefore not a cultural luxury. It is a biological prerequisite for high performance. A leader who can regulate themselves can stabilize the room. A leader who cannot risks creating chronic shutdown within the organization.
When the emotional dimension is ignored, meetings become defensive. Strategies become short term. Talent burns out, Conflicts become personal and the issue rarely starts with a flawed strategy. It starts with unregulated nervous systems.
The good news is that regulation can be trained. HRV can improve. Conscious breathing can stabilize the system. But more importantly, we must understand that biological stability precedes strategic clarity.
If you want to elevate the quality of your decisions, do not start with PowerPoint. Start with regulation. If you want to build teams that perform under pressure, do not start with more KPIs. Start with psychological safety. If you want strategic clarity in complexity, create physiological stability first.
The emotional is not the opposite of the rational. It is the foundation of the rational.
When we begin to see self regulation as a strategic discipline, performance changes character. It becomes less sporadic. More stable.
And that stability is where sustained high performance lives. Every single day.
