January 28, 2025
Being Worried Makes You a Less Effective Leader
Recently, I delved into the study of neuroscience and its findings regarding performance and optimal function to deepen the work I provide for my clients.
I’ve been fascinated by the wealth of knowledge we already have and how closely it relates to agent maps of consciousness and the study of the mind.
As I was reading through a book on how different brain functions work, the book shared some findings on stress.
In one study, they compared the performance of participants before and after being stressed and found a decrease in the executive function of the brain, particularly the prefrontal cortex.
The prefrontal cortex is responsible for many important brain functions, especially the ones we rely on in our roles as leaders, parents, and human beings in general:
- Emotional regulation
- Planning
- Sticking to the plan
- Delayed gratification
- Conscious attention
- Complex contemplation
- Focus
And stress (which is caused by worry) significantly impacts these functions.
As a leader, it’s crucial to understand this. Inducing stress is great if you’re running from a tiger, but not so helpful when your tasks are mentally demanding (which, for most people, they are).
The common approach to reducing stress is to find the trigger—whether it’s a project, a person, a deadline—and see if it can be removed.
Most people will try to make their environment less stressful.
Although there’s nothing wrong with this approach, it is limited and often leaves people stressed about creating a less stressful environment.
After all, if you’ve noticed, life doesn’t really care about what you want. It certainly won’t wait until you’ve found the perfect team, conditions, or environment. Life will change, and it will do so with no regard for your personal story about how it should be not to stress you out.
Wait—this brings us to something important.
A Story About How Life Should Be?
And here’s where I see a much more effective way to deal with stress: Understanding how we create it.
Without personal narratives, we don’t really get stressed. Changing the narrative is far more effective than trying to control your environment.
What stresses one person won’t necessarily stress another. What scares one person might not have the same effect on someone else.
It all depends on how the brain processes the information, and this is greatly influenced by the narratives, stories, and opinions we hold.
It’s like wearing glasses with different degrees of amplification. One person sees an ant, while another magnifies it to a degree where it looks like a monster from another galaxy.
If you look into your own experience, you’ll find that whatever is stressing you out right now is accompanied by some sort of worrisome prediction.
And as we established earlier, worry doesn’t help you solve the problem.
Instead, worry gets your brain into a less functional space. The parts responsible for processing complex problems receive less energy flow, while the parts that move your limbs quickly get more.
So, what can we do about it?
Test it.
Instead of letting your mind wander into fearful, worrisome thoughts, notice when it happens. Tell yourself that just for today, you want to see what happens when you relax. Let it go (for now—you can pick up your worries again tomorrow). See how it goes.
Be in the meeting without worry. Look at the numbers without worry. Every time your brain serves you another batch of worry, remind yourself that you’re running a test and you can revisit them tomorrow.
What I’ve found in my life is that worrying never made a difference. Being relaxed, open, and present on the other hand, made all the difference.