I'm Maura Aronsmeli, and this is The Anxious Achiever.

We look at stories from business leaders who have dealt with anxiety, depression, or other mental health challenges,

how they fell down, how they picked themselves up, and how they hope workplaces can change in the future.

Your colleagues at work aren't just a bunch of individuals acting on their own free will and whim. They're a family, seriously, a family system.

Dysfunctional, of course, but they're yours. Social

creatures that we are, humans are constantly reacting to each other. As today's guest notes, we're

sensitive to each other. We're allergic to each other. To each other's passions and enthusiasm,

sure, but also to bad habits, acting out, controlling

behaviors, and of course, we're allergic to each other's anxiety. If you've ever felt like

you're the person on the team who does too much, or if you're managed by a person who does too

much, I'd love you to think about the concepts of the

overfunctioning and underfunctioning leader. A classic overfunctioner takes care of everything,

assumes all the team's anxiety so they don't have to feel discomfort. Micromanages. Some might say

that the overfunctioning leader is the parent in the office family. And that's not

necessarily a great place to be. Because if someone's a workplace parent, someone else has to be the

child. And who wants that? Or maybe you've been in a work relationship that's difficult. Maybe

your whole office decides that someone on the team is a problem child, someone else is the golden child.

Some people are bad and some people are good.

Kind of a childish way of thinking, but something we family systems do all the time.

Much of mental health is focused on the individual, but today we're talking family systems theory

and how it applies to both

leadership and everyday office dynamics. Our guide is Kathleen Smith, Ph.D., student of Bowen Family

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