Do you enjoy talking about your fears?
Anxiety is a part of the leadership journey for me and every leader who understands the importance of what we do. Learning to master anxiety helps us to push forward in our leadership rather than to let it hinder us. What is causing you leadership anxiety?
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The next couple of podcast episodes are on a topic that I hear about from leaders regularly but only when we really know each other. Fear.
Fear is not something that leaders like to talk about and yet, the deeper that I come to know leaders the more I realise this is a regular emotion for leaders.
I have had to deal with my own fears and anxieties as a leader and see that any leadership role comes with pressure which leads to fear or anxiety. The questions that go through a leader’s mind are endless. And when we let them, they can overwhelm us and that is when the anxiety starts controlling our lives. If we are being controlled by anxiety, we don’t move forward, we stay put where we are. We don’t reach for our aspirations.
However when we master our fears, when we can face our anxieties then we can move beyond them, we can continue leading with confidence even if we don’t feel ready. We can recognise our trigger points and find ways to work around them.
If this is a topic that you want to explore more, I want to point you to an excellent podcast led by Steve Cuss. Check out stevecusswords.com. Steve has spent the last 16 years considering how to Manage Leadership Anxiety, largely because he realised how much he had to deal with it himself.
Steve’s research has found that leaders are confronted with between 30 to 70 triggers that lead to anxiety. Triggers like the need to be appreciated, concern for how our work is affecting our health, or avoiding difficult team members, fear of burning out, fear of something happening to children or loved ones.
Now coming to understand that many of us deal with such trigger points is liberating for me. I realise I am not alone. I am not the only one who feels fear. So today I am going to offer a single suggestion to help you deal with your fears.
I keep a note on my computer and every time I feel anxiety, I write the thought or question which is causing me fear. Why and how does this work? It is effectively the same concept as journalling which many psychologists recommend. It enables you to name the fear and then gives you capacity to understand it is there without it becoming a debilitating force within your emotional capacity. Now that I have named it and thought it through, it no longer has a binding hold on me.
I hope you are enjoying a season in which you are not dealing with anxiety. But if you are, understand that you are not alone in what you are experiencing, and as you face your anxieties and work through them you are becoming a more authentic, effective leader. What you provide to others and your organisation as a leader who empowers is vital to a strong and healthy workplace.