Every leader recognises this moment. A decision that carries real weight sits in front of you, yet your attention drifts elsewhere — into numbers, strategy refinement, mentoring, or operational detail. It all looks like progress. It often is progress. But in that moment, something more subtle is happening beneath the surface.
Your brain is not choosing based on importance. It is chosen based on chemistry.
When a task creates discomfort — uncertainty, resistance, or tension — the cortisol loop activates. That discomfort is not experienced as a clear signal to investigate; it feels like something to move past. Almost immediately, your attention shifts toward something more familiar.
That shift brings relief. And that relief is rewarded.
This is where the dopamine loop takes over. The moment you move away from discomfort and into something that feels manageable or rewarding, your brain releases dopamine. You feel better. More in control. More productive. The brain records the pattern: “this worked.”
Over time, this becomes automatic.
You are no longer consciously choosing to avoid the difficult task. Your system is simply repeating what has been rewarded before. The activities themselves are not the problem — they are often valuable, intelligent, and necessary. The problem is when and why they are chosen.
Your Reward–Avoidance Patterns
To understand how this shows up in your own work, start by observing where your attention goes when something feels uncomfortable.
Avoidance at the executive level rarely looks like avoidance. It looks like leadership. It looks like responsibility. It looks like progress. But the underlying pattern is the same: tension → shift → relief → reward.
You might recognise it in moments like these:
- Diving deep into reports, forecasts, or financial models because the numbers feel controllable, while a direct conversation with your Sales Director remains unaddressed.
- Investing time in developing others because it feels meaningful, while delaying a difficult decision that carries risk.
- Getting involved in operational detail, reviewing processes, or solving team-level issues because it feels productive, while avoiding a strategic shift that lacks clarity.
- Creating new frameworks, KPIs, or structures because it feels like forward motion, while the underlying issue remains unchanged.
- Revisiting strategy, vision, or long-term direction because it feels expansive, while short-term execution challenges remain unresolved.
- Rechecking numbers or financials not because they changed, but because certainty feels rewarding, while volatility feels uncomfortable.
- Moving toward new opportunities because novelty is stimulating, while unresolved problems in the current business remain in place.
- Running multiple scenarios, models, or “what-ifs” because thinking feels safe — instead of committing to a direction that carries risk.
Each of these actions can be justified. Each can be valuable. But in the moment they are chosen, the driver is often not progressing — it is relief.
Related article: Read how this loop fits within the broader Neurochemical Decision Cycle — the three-stage model that explains how chemistry shapes decision-making, daily execution, and recovery and rest.
Awareness Changes the Pattern
The objective is not to force different behaviour. It is to see the pattern clearly.
Start noticing where your attention goes when something feels uncomfortable. That moment — the shift toward something easier and more rewarding — is the loop in action.
Once you see it, the dynamic changes. You stop interpreting the behaviour as preference or priority, and recognise it as a reward system at work.
From there, the shift is natural. The brain can begin attaching reward not to relief, but to awareness and progress. Execution becomes more aligned, not through discipline, but because what feels rewarding starts to change.
If you’d like to see how your current decision-making patterns perform under pressure — and whether logic or chemistry has the stronger hand — take our 5-minute free assessment, Decision Excelence Score, to establish your personal baseline.
Tomasz Drybala – Author, Researcher, Coach, and Director of the Neuro-Based Leadership Centre
My work is grounded in lived experience, research, and ongoing studies with more than 100 CEOs and senior executives — examining how dopamine–cortisol dynamics influence decision-making, execution, and recovery and rest. My academic development now includes targeted programs at Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, and the University of California, Berkeley.
I’m also the author of three forthcoming books exploring the neurochemistry of leadership, including Breaking Patterns (December 2026), Neuroscience of CEO Decision-Making (March 2027), and Choosing the Right People (January 2028).