When everything’s going wrong, the calmest person sets the pace for the room.

Panic is contagious and so is steadiness, and whichever one arrives with more conviction tends to win. In a bad moment people look around for a model of how worried to be, and they copy whoever seems to know. You do not have to feel calm in order to supply it.

In the next thing that goes sideways, slow your voice down on purpose and say what happens next. Short sentences, one instruction, nothing dramatic. It works at a job, in a group project, with a younger sibling who has just broken something. The room follows whoever sounds like they have a next step.