The fundamental insight underneath the reminder to stay connected is that we can only influence a system to which we are connected. The emotional field that a leader projects is extremely contagious, which is another way of saying that the leader’s functioning exerts an influence on others throughout the system that is hard to overstate. But it is not just the fact that a leader stays connected that matters; it is the way the leader connects that is most important. What is crucial is for the leader's connection to be a calming, less anxious presence.

The image of an electrical transformer serves as a helpful metaphor for how a leader should be present to the organization he or she leads. A transformer can either step down the current of the electricity flowing through the power grid; or, it can step up the current. If one thinks of the chronic anxiety that pulses through every relationship system as a form of energy, then the metaphor speaks directly to the role of a leader as the one whose job it is to keep stepping down the “charged” anxiety within the “grid” that is the organization’s emotional system. The leader’s responsibility is to be the step-down transformer for the anxiety that threatens to impede the healthy, creative functioning of the entire system.

How is this accomplished? Since the anxiety of the system flows, in a sense, through the leader, he or she must focus on managing his or her own anxiety in order to remain a step-down transformer. This does not mean the leader is expected to be totally non-anxious. Such an expectation is never going to be met. Rather, it is sufficient if the leader is less anxious than others in order to help lower the overall anxiety in the system.