Absorbing pressure without spreading it.

One person's stress can change the feel of a whole room in seconds. The people we trust most in a tense moment aren't the ones who feel nothing. They're the ones who can carry the weight without passing it on to everyone else.

You can see this on a rugby field. One player carries the ball into contact so others have room to work. Another holds steady where the pressure is greatest. Someone at the back clears the danger so the team can regroup. The roles differ, but the skill is the same: absorb the pressure instead of spreading it.

This calm is earned in the heat of the moment, when everyone is watching. It keeps a hard conversation, or a hard week, from spiralling out of control.