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Welcome to the HBR Idea Caste from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beard. The global pandemic did a lot of damage, physically, economically, socially, but at least one positive change that has come out of it is greater awareness of and more public discussion about the importance of mental health. Big name athletes, Michael Phelps, Simone Biles, Naomi Osaka, have pushed the conversation forward by talking about their own struggles, and we've seen an explosion of corporate wellness programs as well as businesses focused on therapy, meditation, or mindfulness.
Today's guest welcomes that progress but says we still have more work to do, especially when it comes to our professional lives. She wants to see us do a better job of normalizing things like anxiety and depression, and says that leaders in organizations should not only talk more openly about mental ill health, but also acknowledge the ways that people grow and learn from these challenges, if they figure out how to manage them correctly.
Moira Aaron's Mealy is a consultant, podcaster, and the author of the new book, The Anxious Achiever, turn your biggest fears into your leadership superpower. Hi, Moira.
Hi, Allison. So as I said, although there's a lot more awareness about the prevalence of mental ill health, there's still stigma around it.
嗨,艾莉森。就像我说的那样,虽然对心理健康问题的普遍性有更多认识,但仍然存在污名化。
Why are you turning that on its head and calling it a superpower?
你为什么要把它颠倒过来,称之为超能力呢?
Moira Aaron's Mealy is a superpower. I think it's time to reframe anxiety, depression's tougher. So let's just focus on anxiety. Sometimes anxiety is a superpower because anxiety activates us, right? It can give us tremendous energy, it can give us focus. We all know that feeling of being about to walk onto a stage or about to give a presentation or do something we really care about, and we feel anxious. And this is good. This means that we bring a level of energy and purpose to the work. On the other hand, anxiety can be awful. It can be debilitating, it can be painful. It can cause you to lose focus, lose joy, and worry all the time. That's not a superpower.
Right. But when you stop burying, ignoring, or acting out anxiety and take the time to learn from what it's telling you, it's data, you become so much stronger and more resilient in many different ways. And I believe that's when you get the leadership superpower. And I think that people can understand this concept of anxious achiever never thinking you're good enough, always planning for worst-case scenarios. All of these things can turn you into a terrific performer because you're terrified of failing, right? So you're going to do everything you can to not.
And you are a self-described anxious achiever. How do you start to find the right balance, embracing that good anxiety, but making sure you don't let it get to the debilitating side?
That's the life's work. And I interview lots of high achievers who often say that for them, the anxiety is like their oxygen, right? And that for as long as they can remember the sense of, I have to do more, I have to be the best. I can't stop now. If I fail, I'm not worth it. The high stakes they put on themselves, they often credit for a lot of their achievements, as you said. On the other hand, this takes a toll. It takes a toll on their mental health. It takes a toll on their joy, on their relationships, on all the good things, right? Our physical health. And so that's the challenge, right? Is how do you develop a relationship with your anxiety? Such that you can say, all right, I need you now. Let's do this. We're on a deadline. And then when anxiety shows up in a place that is not helpful, like when you flood a number in your presentation and you instantly think, oh, that's it, I'm going to get fired, you have the muscles built and the skills to say, go away right now. Not helpful. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So talk a little bit about your own experience in recognizing that you were suffering from anxiety and needed to do something about it, you know, that it was helping you in certain areas, but you needed to tame it in others.
Yeah, I mean, I would say that for me, my anxiety disorder has been with me my entire adult life. I first was clinically diagnosed with anxiety at age 19. I was also very depressed at the time. And often on since then, it's been a defining factor of my career and my life.
So I had no choice but to not ignore it. It was in my way. I was in therapy. I took different meds. I tried lots of different jobs. It was only until my thirties that I realized I had to make peace with my anxiety at some level.
I'm wired this way. I would get up every morning and I'm like wired for a 12. And that's who I am. And I like that. But at the same time, when I'm tipping over into dysfunctional category or I'm limiting what I can do because of my anxiety, that's when I need to look at it. And I need to take care of myself.
And you are not a trained psychologist, but I'd love to ask you how does someone make the decision that they can handle this on their own or they really do need professional help?
Yeah, I mean, I'll say right now, my bias is that therapy is a life skill and I wish everyone had access to it. I think that anything that leads you to greater self-awareness is such a gift.
And we know that from leadership's study that self-aware leaders are the kind of people we want to work for. And so when you examine your mental health, you gain tremendous self-awareness.
But we can't always access that. I think the key and anxiety exists along a spectrum. All of mental health does, right? At one level, you might have anxiety that is debilitating, right? That is, I can't leave my bed. I'm having panic attacks. I can't even go to work because I'm so anxious. I can't function. You definitely need professional help and a lot of support.
At the other end, you have very little anxiety. Maybe you're just lying on the couch watching Netflix. Or maybe you have that good anxiety, that activating anxiety. I think a lot of us right now are in the middle. We have moderate anxiety that we walk around with. We notice it's getting in our way a lot. And it's also pushing us forward. And we're trying to figure out what is my relationship with this going to be.
And where I see the need to understand this from a corporate level, from a business level, is that so many people act out their anxieties mindlessly at work. And we take it out on each other in its contagious. And that's why it's imperative that we start talking about anxiety in the context of work because we bring our whole selves to work. And sometimes that whole self is really anxious. And sometimes it's a jerk.
So as someone who wants to do better myself at work or lead a team, how do I diagnose that anxiety is becoming a problem needs to be talked about more, needs to be better harnessed?
I think for yourself as a leader, becoming really tuned in and open to when you get anxious, what it feels like in your body and in your brain. And the specific situations that might trigger you is hugely valuable. Anxiety is normal. We all feel it. It's part of leadership. It's part of taking risks and doing new things.
And I think the key is being a little bit willing to sit in the discomfort and say, this is making me really anxious. Why am I avoiding calling this person back? Why do I get nauseous when I see this person's name pop up in my email inbox? We've all had that experience.
And sometimes we might slam the laptop and say, that's it. I'm going out. I'm ignoring this. Sometimes we might get perfectionistic and we might spend an hour crafting a response to this person because we're so anxious about it. The magic is in being able to say, wow, this is making me really anxious. I'm reacting in this certain way. Am I reacting in a way that helps me? That's adaptive for me.
We can't control who's going to make us anxious. We can't control life's stressors. Every morning when I look at the news, when I hear of layoffs, when I see what's happening with the banks and the climate, I'm beset with a sense of anticipatory anxiety of, oh my god, I have no control. Everything is so uncertain. We can't control that.
What we can do is say, this is making me anxious. Instead of slamming that inbox, shot, or grabbing a snickers, or reaching for the vodka, or going and running 10 miles, or calling my assistant and screaming at my assistant, I'm going to take a beat and choose how I respond.
So what is a more adaptive response? What's a better way to respond to that feeling of dread? I mean, the better way is what works for you. It's all personal, right? And we're all human. And our brain is actually trying to help us when we reach for that snickers bar. Our brain senses that we're anxious, we're uncomfortable, and it has learned over time, oh, that if she eats something sweet, she feels better.
So let's go reach for that snickers bar, and then she'll feel better and I'll have done my job. And that's great. We all need some snickers sometimes. But if that becomes your pattern, instead of actually dealing with what's making you anxious, that can be not adaptive. And so I think the question is to ask, am I eating the snickers consciously? Is this a reflexive reaction that I've been doing for years?
A lot of us, we launched into perfectionism because that's what we've been doing for years when we feel anxious. And it's rewarded us. It's rewarded us. So it's a cycle. We learn that when we perform, we're good. And so the next time we're anxious that we're not going to be good, what do we do? We overperform. And so that's the question of sort of breaking that reflexive reaction and saying, what would be actually good for me right now? And also good for my team.
And so we've talked about self-awareness, but what about being aware that this is happening to people you work with, people you manage? How do you get inside their heads and try to help them? I'll never forget I had a guest on my podcast, Steve Koss, who's a pastor, and he said, man's plating is anxiety. Tell me how. And he said, well, you know, a lot of men feel they need to be the smartest person in the room and they get very anxious when they feel that being challenged. And so what do they do? They man's blame. And so my point here is that it's always helpful for leaders to start with that self-awareness. How am I acting out my own anxiety? Because it is contagious.
So it could be really helpful. And again, this takes a lot of practice and awareness to say, what's my anxiety doing to other people? I knew for years that I had a problem with my team when I would get anxious about whether a client was happy or not. I would get all up in my team's inboxes. How's it coming? Can I see a draft? Are we going to make that deadline? Micro-managing, classic anxiety reaction. That was not serving my team.
I think the next piece is having productive conversations in a team. There's a third piece. And this is about understanding and acknowledging the system that you work in. Mental health is very intersectional. Those of us who work in organizations, work in organizations that probably have long held biases, inequality, racism, patriarchy, you name it. And when you are perhaps an other in the organization or you're an only or you don't have much status, you face anxiety for real.
And when you work in an organization where customer service is the number one value, and that means that you're not allowed to go to the bathroom and take breaks, you're probably anxious. And so our organizations and the systems we work in have a big piece of it too. And so the leader who really wants to tackle this looks at their own actions. They help their team have helpful conversations. And they also take account of the system and culture in which they work and how that affects people's mental health because it really does. Yeah.
So let's talk more about those conversations. If I'm someone who is struggling with anxiety and I want to talk to my manager, how do I do that? And then we'll do the flip and talk about how a manager should talk to their team. Yeah. And there's definitely no one size fits all. And I think that this is in the field of workplace mental health. I mean, all of this is evolving so quickly.
Managers have had to skill up so quickly in this area. And it's very challenging. You know, but I think if you're an employee and you are really struggling with anxiety or your mental health in general, such that it is impacting your ability to deliver great work. Pick a time one on one and you can talk to your manager and you can say, I'm struggling. I've been having a hard time. You don't need to give them the details. A lot of us myself included feel like we need to over explain. Mm-hmm. Very good at that.
Yeah, you don't understand. I feel this way and then I went to my psychiatrist and it says, you don't need to do that. I'm struggling. I'm having a hard time. I think I need to adjust my schedule. Get more time on a deadline. Take a couple days off. If you don't feel like your manager is someone safe, you can go to HR. That's their job. Or you can, if you have a sort of a trusted ally who can help you, you can do that.
I think the conversation gets scary for managers when they think that they're going to be in a staff meeting and everyone is just going to start talking about their anxiety in the meeting and it's going to feel out of control and there's no boundaries and oh my gosh, I feel like this is group therapy, but I'm not therapist. Nobody wants that. So I think really doing it in the appropriate setting and from a framework of this is what I need without giving away too many details is powerful. If you're leading a business today, one thing certain, tech is fast moving and sometimes confusing.
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Now let's talk about managers who, as you said, have had to become therapists over the past couple of years and I think there's a greater realization that that's part of your job is to care about the emotional lives of your employees, but it can feel overwhelming. How have you seen people figure out a way to have these conversations with their team members but then not be doing what you said, you know, in psychoanalysis for everyone on one meeting?
Yeah. And a manager should not be their team's therapist. That's not appropriate. It's not what they're trained for. You know, they're not that's not the job and so, you know, one of the things that I like is that at the team level, I am seeing more training for this stuff. Like literal conversation training because a lot of this stuff is about powerful communication and that's what's awesome about it because when you have better communication, you have better teamwork, you have more psychological safety, you have all the good things. So I think that companies are being proactive and trying to give managers tools that said it's really a difficult conversation and it takes practice. And, you know, I think what managers may not be being given as time, to actually fit this in. But I think that what all the literature says is that modeling mentally healthy practices is the first step. And so so much of this, like psychological safety happens at the team level.
So a manager comes in and they're like, oh man, I didn't sleep so well last night. What they're really saying is they're being vulnerable. They're opening the door to a conversation about how other people are feeling and signaling that it's okay. We can share now, you know, that's a simple way to do it. A lot of managers now are putting their therapy appointments on their schedules. That's a bold move. Yeah. But if you're not ready to do that, you could put your workout on your schedule showing that you take time. And so there are lots of ways that don't scream therapy and psychoanalysis for managers to show that they value mental health and they value mentally healthy practices.
So you mentioned organizational systems. What can HR or even the C-suite do to ensure a more mentally healthy workforce? HR is sort of whether rubber meets the road. Right. In terms of making sure there are benefits in place, making sure that people are aware of systems. You know, so many companies for years have had employee assistance programs, but the utilization rate on them is so low. How can we actually get people using this? And I think that's something that's really changed. And certainly the innovation of corporate subscriptions to things like talk space and Lyra Health, you know, and services that are at the enterprise level is really good.
So HR should be responsible in a larger organization for making sure mentally healthy benefits are in place and then employees know about them. The other thing, and I've talked to a lot of HR leaders about this very topic, the other thing that HR can be really helpful for. And it can be challenging because in a lot of organizations, there's not a lot of trust in HR. But when it comes to mental health, HR exists for a manager to facilitate sort of a safe transition of an employee over to HR. And so if you're a manager and you have a team member who is in crisis, who people are saying this person's not okay or who comes to you and says, I'm not okay, it's okay for you as the manager to call your HR partner and they're meant to come step in and facilitate.
So how should a manager make a decision about whether it's time to hand off to HR? I think that if it's a problem, the manager can't solve or that feels needs more you know, urgent attention than they are able to give. That's when HR can play a really valuable role. When I interviewed Daisy Oje Dominguez, she said something really great, which is you know, you don't want the employee to feel like you're just wiping your hands of them, especially if they're struggling. And so you could say, can I walk you to HR? Can we set up a meeting together? Whatever you feel is appropriate so that the employee knows that you as the manager aren't just trying to get rid of them, but that you really want to facilitate them getting help. And that you also want a professional to advise on you know what the appropriate response is to this particular need?
Absolutely. And then at the C-suite, and this is where my total passion lies, is where we start talking and we break the stigma and the stereotypes.
当然。然后在高管层,这也是我的绝对热情所在,我们开始交谈并打破成见和刻板印象。
I still have a really hard time after all these years I've been doing the anxious achiever getting people in charge of publicly traded companies or people with big jobs to come on my show and say, I have an anxiety disorder. I've been depressed. Why?
It's conflated with weakness. Right. They're worried the stocks going to tank or the board won't be confident in them. Nothing is really going to change about workplace mental health until that story changes.
Yeah, but you have seen as I mentioned in the intro some really high profile athletes take time off. You've seen John Fetterman, the US Senator from Pennsylvania right after being elected, post-suffering a stroke, check himself in to Walter Reed for treatment for depression. So why do you think that it's been so hard for the stigma to fall away in business when it's clearly falling away in these other fields?
I had an executive on my podcast just recently Jimmy Horowitz who's the vice chairman of business affairs at NBC Universal. Big job. Yeah. Big job. 20, 47 billion market cap. He does all the deals.
And Jimmy suffered from clinical depression in silence at work for almost a year. And he said to me, the creatives are allowed to talk about mental health, but I'm a business guy. I'm a charge of our balance sheet. If I say that I'm depressed, will people trust me? And then one day he realized, I can't hide this anymore. I have to tell people. And he told people and it was fine.
And so again, it's about breaking long held stereotypes of what a leader is that has to change. And so I really encourage people who have status within an organization who have influence, who have power to tell their stories.
And they don't have to say again, I checked into a hospital, but they can say, you know, it's a really difficult time right now. The markets all over the place layoffs are happening. Like we don't know what's going on. Like uncertainty is the number one cause of anxiety for many people. Address uncertainty and how it's impacting you.
It's obviously harder when you're from a minority group in an organization as to be vulnerable in that way. So what advice do you give to people in those categories about sharing their own stories?
I think it's a really personal choice. I mean, if you feel that sharing your story, even if there's a price to pay, is what you want to do if it's within your value system, I think that's great. I also think you don't have to.
I think that there are a lot of ERG groups, employee resource groups, and safe spaces increasingly at companies, where people can come together. And I think that if you feel comfortable sharing your story with your manager, that's great too.
But I think that, you know, I just spoke with the Stanford Sociologist Marian Cooper about this. She looks at status with an organization and how that affects equity and promotion and leadership and all this stuff.
And she said to me, you know, our society's unfair and corporations are biased. And if you are from a group that traditionally has less status or for whatever reason, you are holding less status. It's not your job to disclose. Unless you want to.
You talked about layoffs, market dynamics. So when the anxiety is coming from the building, so to speak, you know, the organization itself is causing the anxiety. How should managers deal with that?
I just had this great visual of the whole organization, like the building, wincing. You know, I think this is a time for real leadership. It's an opportunity to say, these are really tough times.
I have a great example in my book of a leader Avallera during the pandemic when it first started. And everyone was wondering, am I going to lose my job? Am I ever come back to work like, you know, all the questions, so much uncertainty, so much anxiety.
And she had a staff meeting for her team and she said, look, I cannot tell you what's happening six months from now. I don't have a crystal ball. I'm anxious too. But I've got this half hour with you. We're going to put it all in the table.
I'm going to take it away and I'm going to make a plan. We can only control what we can. A lot of anxious leaders try to control everything. But the powerful leadership lesson of right now is, how can I control what I can show that I'm vulnerable to, but have that competency that makes people trust me?
Yeah, it is a really difficult time. And I think of everyone's responses to the pandemic. And to some degree, it was very much an anxious achiever response in that we all really threw ourselves into work because we didn't quite know what else to do. But you can only sustain that for a certain amount of time.
So for organizations who are dealing with sort of crisis upon crisis, upon crisis, what are you seeing the best managers and leaders do to make people feel better and protect people's mental health?
One of my guests said we're not just burnt out or burnt crispy. Yeah, exactly. No. And I think for a lot of sectors, it's never, it's just never let up. And I think we've also come to the place where we realize that inbox zero is not the cure.
And so I think companies need to take a step back and refocus expectations. So much of anxiety is driven by expectations. Either the expectations we feel are placed on us because that's how we were raised, the expectations other people put on us. And when we modulate expectations, people can breathe a little bit. And so I think it really comes down to setting boundaries, setting clear goals, defining what's successes.
So people really know what's successes and aren't anxiously overworking to try to get there and reigning things in a little bit. Wonderful.
所以人们真正了解成功的含义,并不会焦虑地过度工作以尝试达到它,而是适当地控制一下情况。太好了。
Well, thank you so much. It's been a pleasure talking to you. I hope that we've helped some other anxious achievers out there. Thank you so much. That's Mora Arons-Mili, a podcast host, consultant, and author of the new book, The Anxious Achiever. Turn your biggest fears into your leadership superpower.
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