Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, anxiety already permeated our day-to-day lives in the form of terrorism, mass shootings, environmental degradation and political instability. Individually, we find ourselves anxious competing against others at work and for jobs and social status to maintain a sense of self-worth. Our phones, apps and social media are designed to increase our cortisol levels to keep us in a near-constant state of anxiety with the only way to relieve this anxiety being to constantly check in with our mobile devices. This destroys our ability to focus on things such as our relationships with others that are an effective source of reducing our anxiety.
Now, on top of all this, we now receive conflicting messages from our politicians and news media about COVID-19, our circumstances and how we should act. We don’t know what to believe. Individuals speaking up to share their safety concerns for their and others’ health in private industry, government and the military are being reprimanded and even fired. We are anxious about our employment and financial situations. We are anxious that we might run out of food and even toilet paper. Even friends and family are seen as potential threats to us.
The pandemic provokes the three basic types of existential anxiety: death, meaninglessness and condemnation. Anxiety has a purpose and that purpose is to alert us that something we value is threatened and to demand us to respond to ensure its survival. To be anxious is to be human. To be anxious is to be alive. To be anxious is to care.
Although anxiety has a purpose, our response to anxiety can lead to desirable or undesirable consequences. Most of the time, our response to anxiety is unconscious and reactive. Thus, it allows us to survive but not thrive.
We can … develop our ability to not get lost in our anxiety.
Unhealthy and counterproductive responses to anxiety include strategies such as suppression (alcohol or drugs), control (effective only in the short-term), distraction (binge-watching TV shows, sports and social media), and living within a safe-zone in which our anxiety is not provoked, which limits our realm of potential being. As a leader, anxiety draws our attention away and has us engage in behaviors that inhibit us from fulfilling our leadership purpose.
Paradoxically, the increased levels of anxiety we are experiencing because of COVID-19 afford us an opportunity for our leadership development, if we learn to pay attention to and be with our anxiety to allow us to discern what we value as a leader – that which we feel is threatened when we are anxious. We can then develop our ability to not get lost in our anxiety and redirect our attention away from it to allow us to act consistently with our values to fulfill our leadership purpose that positively impacts others and our organization.
Such a self-developmental relationship with anxiety requires our acceptance and an in-the-moment awareness; acceptance is not believing the thought. Next, we must defuse ourselves from the anxiety. It then requires the ability to be open, curious and nonjudgmental of the anxiety as it naturally emerges and dissipates. Finally, we must shift our attention to and act upon our values and self-transcendent leadership purpose.
Of course, there will still be times, despite our resolve, when we will respond to our anxiety in ways that result in negative outcomes. This is when we must practice self-compassion. We must take this as an opportunity to determine what we can do differently to improve outcomes in the future.
There are many things you can do as a leader to support your ability to direct your attention and choose responses to your anxiety that result in positive outcomes. They include engaging in mindfulness practices, prayer, getting enough sleep, exercise, being self-compassionate, developing healthy eating habits, and developing meaningful and supportive relationships.
Matthew Eriksen is a professor of management and chair of the management department at Providence College’s School of Business.
