Get rid of Your Leadership Anxiety
Illusion of control and 3 other tips
Things are getting out of control.
Breathe. Stand straight. Pretend everything is okay.
Being in charge is deceiving. You may radiate confidence and strength but when the door is closed, you battle your panic attacks and anxiety.
“Did I decide well?”
“They might have been right. Damn.”
Working with people is tough. Leading people is sometimes a job you hate. No wonder some suffer from anxiety.
Four tips on reducing it and getting back in control with yourself.
1. Illusion of control
You live with the weird feeling that you can control your life, family, education, and time. Thank you, self-help books, for encouraging you to take control of your life.
But the truth is, you can control something and can’t control other things. Stephen Covey’s chapter in his 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:
Example of what it could be at work:
Accept: Decision made by upper management (layoffs, budget cuts, strategy changes)
Yeah, it’s bothering you, acknowledge your feelings but stop wasting energy on feeling anxiety about them. Focus on what you can control.
Influence: Team morale (by managing your anxiety, you can help them with theirs)
Score things that give you anxiety 1-10. If your influence is below a 5, move it to “Accept”. If it is above a 5 (e.g., team morale, process improvements, develop an action plan)
Control (=take action): How you communicate changes to your team (prepare clear and transparent updates, so your team feels comfortable)
Always invest time into preparation. Prepare what you want to say and how. Schedule enough time, set your mindset, etc.
Focus on actions you can take. This helps reduce leadership anxiety and makes your team more confident as well.
2. Make reasonable decisions
Leaders often feel anxious about making the “right” decision. So, instead of spinning your head about what’s good or bad, use some framework, data, and discussions.
You are not alone.
Imagine you are a manager and need to promote one team member to a senior role. You feel anxious about it since more team members are interested and pressing you for information.
Maybe you can use this framework to guide you:
Define job role clearly (e.g., leadership potential, skills, tenure, team morale)
Gather data (e.g., job requirements, performance data, job attitude, team fit, etc.)
Weight pros and cons (you can even use a scoring system if you wish)
Trust yourself, relevant data, and discussions
Confirm your choice with someone else, to see if it is reasonable.
Communicate your decision thoughtfully. Explain why someone was successful in inspiring another’s growth.
So, yes, data-driven and structured decisions can help reduce your anxiety.
3. Get to know yourself
Leadership anxiety often comes in unexpected situations. The changes, surprising situations, or conflicts.
When you have never experienced it before, you may drag yourself down. It is exhausting to face your stress and emotions.
And guess what anxiety is fed when you’re mentally and physically exhausted. So, the only fix is to know when you have enough.
Then, prioritize a bit of self-care and mindset hygiene. It could be as simple as getting some sugar in or taking a walk.
Anxiety can make you irritable and prevent you from focusing or making clear decisions.
Realize when it’s coming and get out for a moment.
4. Prepare well, but don’t overthink
I’ve worked with managers who loved being prepared for literally anything. The trouble is you will never achieve that.
Every day is a special day.
Overpreparing, overthinking, and overdeciding lead to one thing - anxiety. Because you will never be ready enough.
To avoid being too diligent (yes, I know!), how about keeping it sleek? Have your big picture in mind and then:
Schedule time for your prep (do not waste days endlessly researching, reading, and discussing one thing)
Link your prep to the main goal.
Prepare a few likely scenarios.
Take an action. You may need to pivot at some point, but the big step has been done.
Imagine this:
You’re giving an important presentation to your boss. You are likely to obsess over every single slide.
“Is it visual enough?”
“Do I have a typo there?”
“Is the template good?”
You’re wasting your time. Rather prepare a structure and key points. Make them eye-catching. Then, reherse your presentation 2-3 times, so you know what you want to say where.
Prepare for answers for most likely questions. Then, tell yourself: “I can handle what they ask, I know my stuff.”
Taraaaaaa. Go there tiger.
Prepared but not overwhelmed that is your goal.
TL;DR
Leadership anxiety is a real problem. The news anxiety does not control you. Read back to the article.
Accept things you cannot control and focus on what you can.
For instance, your mental health, your preparation, and your structured decision-making.
Have a good one, Ivona
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