Leaders who hold the baseline between panic and dismissive indifference find themselves in the most precarious place. Some people will find their steadiness a comforting guide. Those are usually the ones who don’t swing too far from the baseline. They’re the reasonable folks who are looking for reason. Unfortunately, there are unreasonable folks who are, by definition, not actually looking for reason. This is why leaders are often second-guessed and villified. These people exist at all times but they get exposed more than ever in times of crisis. Those who panic wonder why others don’t and resent those who tell everybody not to. Those who are dismissive of a threat like to think of themselves as the smartest and coolest person in the room because they can’t be bothered by what “the idiot masses” get worked up about and therefore, see everyone more cautious than themselves in a category that is slightly less smart and cool as them. Leaders who are optimistically grounded while cautious take arrows from both sides. People tend to get pulled to panic or indifference by others. We need people to be leaders in their group, family, or team who are willing to take all the arrows in order to hold the baseline so they can pull people toward reason and safety.