How anxious are your leaders?

Especially when management says they don’t have anxiety…..

Wreckage

Anxiety is a known killer of creativity, problem solving, trust, and empathy. One can argue that it’s also a killer of humility, and it wrecks “leadership”.

D-K effect

People with anxiety are regularly promoted to positions of higher authority and can arguably believe they are doing a better job than they actually are.

People who think they are performing better at work than they actually are suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect.

In a conversation about imposter syndrome, a recruiter friend commented that “at least they don’t have Dunning-Kruger”. In the moment, we both missed the possibility that anxiety is causing problems for new hires as well as for management and execs.

The dreaded Imposters

One of the most common workplace anxieties is called “imposter syndrome”.

Sufferers are afraid that they got their job from luck and are afraid of being “found out” and fired. Repeated studies have shown that men with imposter syndrome tend to stop reporting that they have imposter syndrome when they get a promotion — but this doesn’t mean their anxiety has actually decreased or that their performance has improved. Women tend to retain their anxiety and imposter syndrome if they don’t seek help.

A very clever 2018 study of CxO level leaders in England found that while 40% reported feeling imposter syndrome in the prior year — a full 100% answered “yes” to symptomatic questions about imposter syndrome.

Yes — everyone in the study had symptoms of imposter syndrome even if they weren’t aware of their own anxieties.

These are the people running those companies — what could possibly go wrong??

What does go wrong

When well meaning management and execs are operating from a place of anxiety, they can’t see how that anxiety gets in the way of their performance and how they should be working to support the people who report to them.

When we are stuck in anxiety, we don’t feel safe so we make decisions from a scarcity mindset. This leads to avoiding tactics which can help a company (ie; generous education budgets) and doubling down on tactics which aren’t good for overall morale (ie; exec bonuses despite poor revenues). Anxious people are convinced everyone thinks like they do, they don’t take risks, ignore divergent data, and focus less on customer needs. This is not a happy place for a company. This is not a place where servant leadership can flourish. This is not a place where companies grow.

Winning

When people can break through their anxiety, they realize the benefits of building up their teams, of improving the quality of all the players, and these people can lead with humility.

Breaking through is simple (but not easy).

You need to make a habit of self exploration and asking why we avoid the strategies others use with success.

You need a support system for education, illumination, and accountability.

Yes, you can do this.