First Factory COO Writes for thought LEADERS on The Hidden Cost of Stress

The Hidden Cost of Stress: How It Undermines Your Leadership Authority

Writing for thoughtLEADERS, First Factory COO Don Gregori shares a personal story about how stress affected his own presentation to employees, then unpacks the research behind it.

He explains how leaders’ nonverbal cues, not their words, shape how much their teams trust them, and argues that leaders build more trust by naming uncertainty openly than by projecting false composure.

Don leads operations at First Factory, a nearshore software development company in Costa Rica and a Select partner in Anthropic's Claude Partner Network.