Every leader knows this moment: a decision that carries weight sits in front of you. Yet somehow, your focus drifts toward reviewing numbers, reshaping strategy, or mentoring someone on a side project. It all looks like progress — but it’s the brain’s way of escaping tension while rewarding control.
You didn’t consciously choose the switch. Your brain did. It gave you a small hit of relief for escaping discomfort — and that’s why certain critical tasks keep getting pushed to “tomorrow,” even while everything else moves forward.
Today, I’d like you to spot your own reward system in action — the specific activities that give you a hit of dopamine and help you switch off from the discomfort caused by cortisol release. These are the subtle patterns that reward you when you face an uncomfortable task, challenging data, or a situation that creates resistance.
There’s nothing wrong with these activities in themselves. The problem arises when we choose them as a subconscious escape from discomfort. Once that happens, the brain records the relief as a reward, and starts pulling you toward it again and again — even when it moves you away from what truly matters.
Your Reward–Escape Patterns
When something feels uncomfortable — a tough conversation, a stalled project, a piece of data that doesn’t align — notice where your focus goes instead.
For high-performing leaders, avoidance rarely looks lazy. It often looks productive. Here are a few examples of sophisticated reward–escape loops:
- Analytical comfort: Diving into sales reports or financial forecasts for hours instead of having a direct conversation with the sales team.
- Strategic reassurance: Refining a strategy deck or vision statement when uncertainty about execution is what truly needs attention.
- Empathetic avoidance: Focusing on an underperforming employee’s strengths instead of addressing the hard truth.
- Control substitution: Reorganising structures, dashboards, or priorities when the real discomfort lies in delegation or accountability.
- Information sedation: Seeking another round of research, opinions, or meetings to mute the anxiety of decision-making.
Each of these activities can feel responsible and even admirable. Yet in those moments, your brain isn’t seeking progress — it’s seeking 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, recovery, and rest.
Your Task Today
Pay close attention throughout the day. Each time you switch tasks, ask yourself
“Did I just move toward progress — or toward comfort?”
The distinction matters. The first strengthens execution. The second train avoidance. Simply noticing the pattern weakens its hold. That awareness is the first step to rewiring your reward system — to experience dopamine not from escape, but from progress itself.
Summary
When you observe these loops clearly, you begin to see your escape routes — the moments where your brain shifts from cortisol (tension, unease) into dopamine (relief, reward). That’s what makes avoidance feel so natural — and so invisible.
The goal isn’t to force yourself through discipline. It’s to rewire the neural pathways so that progress on high-impact tasks becomes naturally rewarding. When that happens, execution lightens, focus sharpens, and leadership decisions stop drifting.
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 under pressure.
My academic development now includes targeted programs at Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford, and the University of California, Berkeley. I am pursuing a Master’s and — fingers crossed — a PhD in Applied Neuroscience, specialising in decision-making.
I’m also the author of three forthcoming books exploring the neurochemistry of leadership, including Breaking Patterns (September 2026), Neuroscience of CEO Decision-Making (January 2027), and Choosing the Right People (March 2027).