What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a normal and adaptive response in times of uncertainty. Human attentional systems have evolved to notice and focus on novelty i.e. unknowns or unexpected changes and threats.
There is a difference between fear and anxiety:
- Fear is a response to a direct threat
- Anxiety is a response to a perceived threat
As a leader, you need to know that any significant life change (organisational, economic or personal) will cause anxiety at work for some members of your team. Each person’s response to change and threats is individual.
Humans respond to both threat and anxiety in the same way, as the brain focuses on survival, reacting before allowing time to understand the nature of the threat. You may see:
- Increased anger or irritability (fight)
- Avoidance or reactivity (flight)
- Withdrawal, indecision or an incapability to act (freeze)
Physiological symptoms can include:
- Insomnia
- Headaches
- Stomach upsets,
- Fatigue
Long-term impacts include depression and heart disease.
Anxiety is exhausting. The sufferer’s focus is on the threat. There are proven negative impacts on cognitive function, concentration and memory. People literally cannot ‘think straight’, and their work performance will likely be error-prone and not to their usual standard.
Anxiety is also contagious. It spreads via body language (including smell), and increased emotional reactivity as well as directly through conversation. It impacts the entire team.
Who is Likely to be Anxious?
You may not always recognise the source of someone’s anxiety. People at higher risk of being anxious include:
- People whose jobs or other forms of income are uncertain or under threat
- People with pre-existing anxiety conditions, such as Depression or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or OCD.
- People who find uncertainty and change hard to tolerate, such as those with autism and those with trauma.
- Parents – particularly of teenagers, those with kids with SEN and new parents.
- People going through significant life changes, such as divorce, changing jobs, and those supporting significant illness or disability in family members.
- Gen Y (millennials) who may lack experience of loss, hardship or failure when the work or sector environment, or national economic environment changes.
- Gen Z teens and early 20s who were isolated during COVID.
- Individuals who lack social support.
The above list is not exhaustive: hopefully, it gives a starting point for what managers and leaders should notice.
How to Respond?
Look After Yourself First
Always look after yourself first. Without doing so, you will not have the capacity to help or support others in your team. Consider the use of a professional coach, such as Ann Todd to support you AND definitely:
- Actively manage your time with very anxious people. Their anxiety is contagious and managing your responses appropriately to them is an active form of work. Pace your exposure.
- Use exercise to burn off the adrenaline that builds up when dealing with distress and stress.
- Get out in nature, even briefly at lunch time, to regulate your system.
- Build life-affirming, positive activities out of work – escape into music, art, theatre, reading and other forms of mindfulness.
- Control your use of alcohol and other substances – being hungover usually doesn’t help the situation.
- Eat healthily to support your physical health.
- Make time for supportive personal relationships.
- Try not to share your own anxiety with the team at work. Perhaps temporarily limit how much time you spend with needy others away from work.
- Avoid algorithm-driven social media ‘news’ that thrives on clickbait alarms and negativity. Stop the doom scrolling by using apps (there are many digital wellbeing apps).
These practices allow you to lead from a grounded and resourced place.
As a Leader:
As a leader, it’s important not to ignore anxiety in the team. Acknowledging both its presence, that it’s a normal and healthy response to change, is helpful and will allow you to call out performance difficulties empathically rather than blaming and shaming.
Sympathy is not often helpful either to the sufferer or to you
Remember:
- Your relationships at work are those of ‘manager/subordinate/colleague’, not ‘best friends’. Be thoughtful about who you confide in.
- Be clear about what is and isn’t in your remit as a leader
- Update yourself on your organisation’s policies around hybrid working, part-time working, compassionate leave (etc.) and how to access any support available, so you are prepared.
- When dealing with particular individuals, know that you cannot ‘fix’ everyone.
- If appropriate, encourage the use of professional therapeutic services via health insurance, including counselling. If not available through your organisation, encourage the use of their GP (UK) or other health provider. Don’t become their go-to ‘offload’.
Communication Matters
Accurate, timely communication can help reduce uncertainty and therefore reduces anxiety at work.
- Offer clarity whenever possible.
- Don’t keep people in the dark if you don’t have to.
- Never gossip.
Be accurate in the information you provide:
- Avoid over- or under-promising.
- May need to balance communication with the potential loss of team members.
