LinkedIn Presents

I'm Maura Aronsmeli and this is the Anxious Achiever.

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

how they fell down, how they pick themselves up,

and how they hope work will change in the future.

Today's guest is Nancy Kane, the historian and professor at Harvard Business School.

I was excited to speak with her because of her work on everyone from Abraham Lincoln to John

Lewis to Winston Churchill, the greatest leaders of our time, and the lessons she draws out of

them, not just about their success, but how they led through crisis, through anxiety, through depression, and through

despair. Kane has had her own ups and downs in life, which we'll get to, but she offers up

valuable lessons in how these leaders push through their mental struggles to achieve greatness.

She's the author of many books, including Forged in Crisis, The Power of Courageous Leadership in Turbulent Times.

Here's our conversation.

Let's talk about mental health, even if it wasn't called mental health, and how it affects or has affected some of our

greatest leaders in their toughest moments. I mean, it feels like the idea that we sort of

bring our issues to work as a pretty modern concept. Like, I'm still fighting people to be

open about it. A lot of people fighting people to be open about it.

A lot of people don't want to talk about it.

You've studied a lot of really incredible leaders through time.

What's your sense of how many of them have dealt with anxiety and depression,

even if it was called something else at the time?

The vast majority.

...