The Concealed Anxiety No One Mentions in Leadership

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1:13There's not a through line of joy exactly because we have these tasks we have to deliver. How do we get out of that particular perception trap? You know, the truth of the matter is that most people don't feel a lot of anxiety in their jobs. They don't. What people, it depends on the performance, the kind of job that you find yourself. And so people in leadership jobs have a lot of anxiety. The more leadership responsibility that you have, the more anxiety in general you're going to have. And that's something that's actually chosen. And that's a big surprise to a lot of CEOs. The number one and two emotions in the first 24 months of an average CEO's tenure, the number one and two emotions are loneliness and anger.

1:53Loneliness and anger, not joy and contentment, not joy and lovely surprise. No, that's not how it works. The only surprise is you get a CEO is like the general counsel called. That's bad. Or, you know, whatever it happens to be. And a lot of them are really caught by surprise because, once again, your ancient limbic system says, climb, man, the brass ring. That's where it's at. It's going to be so great. And they get there, and they don't like it. The number one predictor of CEO demise, by the way, is not liking the job of CEO. And there are CEOs all over this country. There are managers all over this country and all over the world who want to be CEO but don't want to do CEO because the negative emotionality is so intense and so high.

2:37And one of the things that I recommend leaders do a lot is actually step into more creative roles, step into more contemplative roles, step into more supporting roles, and they can actually be happy. You have to be really, really suited to bear up under a lot of anxiety. Anxiety is nothing more than unfocused fear. That's the definition of anxiety, unfocused fear, which is usually a maladaptation of the amygdala in the limbic system of the brain. You need to know how it works and be incredibly self-managing. Thank you.