How might you be contributing to the anxiety in your organization?

Strategic leaders don’t lose their shape in a crisis.

THINK ON IT: How might you be contributing to the anxiety in your organization? 

No organization is anxiety-free. 

That was a point I made when I asked you to consider: Is anxiety driving your organization?

It’s an important question because highly anxious organizations make lazy decisions. Those lazy decisions reduce their personal anxiety, but may not be in the best interest of the organization.

Yet, as important as that previous question is, the present one is even more so: How might you be contributing to the anxiety in your organization? 

Answering that question takes a lot of self-awareness… and courage.

Before you rush away or gloss over that question, consider what you gain by taking time to lean into it. Here are three benefits:

1. Peace of mind. Your own. Naming what keeps you up at night brings clarity to what needs to be solved. It may not be only one thing, and that fact can add to your anxiety. But writing them down and deciding which actions are most important for your business can give you greater peace of mind — and an action plan to move forward.

2. Reduced team stress. When your team sees how you face a crisis (or any other anxiety-producing event) with a level head and a calm demeanor, they begin to relax, too. It’s neuroscience: we tend to mimic the behavior we see in others. That’s why smiles are so infectious, as are yawns.

3. Better decisions. As I mentioned in the previous post, anxious people are motivated to reduce their fears. Their sympathetic nervous system kicks in — commonly referred to as a fight, flight, or freeze response — to protect them from the threat. While under threat, the priority is to return to safety. Since everyone may have a different fear they are trying to neutralize, the likelihood that a good decision will be made in favor of your business is severely degraded.

What leader doesn’t want greater peace of mind, less team stress, and better decisions for their business?

In what ways are you contributing to the anxiety in your organization?

Consider this an invitation to your own private intervention. 

“People rarely can rise above the level of maturity of their leaders or mentors.” 

– Edwin H. Friedman

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