Great Leaders Have Anxiety– And They Know How To Manage It

The Anxious Achiever

Morra Aarons-Mele

Business, Careers, Management, Health & Fitness, Mental Health

4.7 • 599 Ratings

🗓️ 2 October 2025

⏱️ 52 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Anxiety isn’t a flaw you have to hide or a weakness you need to fix, it’s information you can use. In this special cross-post from The Next Big Idea podcast, I sit down with host Rufus Griscom to talk about what 17 years of research, leadership interviews, and lived experience have taught me about navigating anxiety, depression, and neurodivergence. I share how reframing anxiety as data can help you show up with courage, why over-functioning often comes from childhood systems, and the surprising science linking mental health challenges with leadership excellence. Plus, I also share tools to work with self-criticism, break free from procrastination, and even “bank joy” so you have reserves to call on when life feels heavy. Get ready to turn your anxious brain into an ally instead of an enemy. In this Episode, You Will Learn 00:00 Why anxiety is a data not an excuse. 05:30 How common anxiety and depression really are in leaders. 09:15 Family systems theory and the roots of over-functioning. 16:45 What is the Yerkes-Dodson curve? 20:45 Ways to manage anxiety. 22:30 How to stop cruel self-talk with tools like self-compassion. 27:45 How do you sustain focus when a project is no longer exciting? 34:00 What can companies do to better support neurodiverse employees? 36:15 Grounding techniques to reset anxiety at work. 41:00 Visualization practices to comfort your inner child. 46:00 The ‘banana trick’ from ACT therapy to stop catastrophic thoughts. Resources + Links Listen to The Next Big Idea Podcast HERE Get a copy of my book - The Anxious Achiever Watch the podcast on YouTube Find more resources on our website morraam.com Follow Follow me: on LinkedIn @morraaronsmele + Instagram @morraam Follow Rufus on LinkedIn: @rufusgriscom

Transcript

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0:00.0	You know, I get feedback from people sometimes who say, you know, more you want us to live in our feelings, right?
0:10.6	Like, why do you talk so much about emotions and especially feeling anxiety?
0:15.3	Like, aren't people going to use their anxiety as an excuse not to do things?
0:26.6	Absolutely not. Your anxiety is not an excuse. Your feelings are not an excuse to choose not to show up, to choose not to act with courage, to choose not
0:36.5	to push yourself or be good to other people.
0:41.0	Your anxiety is data.
0:43.2	It's a signal.
0:44.8	And it's something that you need to learn to listen to and sort of co-pilot with.
0:51.4	So today I'm going to offer you a sort of crosspost from an interview that I did
0:58.7	on the next big idea. It's a great podcast hosted by Rufus Griscom and we go deep into the anxious
1:09.5	achiever and the scholarship and experience from my 17 years of researching leaders who manage anxiety, depression, neurodivergence, and other brain challenges.
1:26.2	Rufus is an interviewer who really does his homework. And so I think that you as
1:30.9	listeners of the show are really, really going to enjoy this episode.
1:38.9	Maura Aaron's Mealy, welcome to the next big idea. Hello.
1:45.1	That's good to be with you.
1:52.7	Maura, you've written two books, hiding in the bathroom and the anxious achiever, which is also the name of your podcast.
2:01.9	You're a role model in my mind when it comes to demonstrating the power of candor and vulnerability in the workspace and the public sphere more broadly. You say in the first paragraph of the anxious achiever, I had agoraphobia when I was three.
2:09.7	I wouldn't leave the house. I clung to my mom. Hypervigilance, the state of extreme high alertness
2:16.1	began in my turbulent childhood, and it's
2:18.6	something I still managed today.
2:20.7	You tell us you had a panic attack when you were 19.
2:23.9	You were later diagnosed with generalized anxiety and bipolar disorders and found yourself
	...

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