How Introverts Can Use Workplace Anxiety as a Leadership Strength
David Rosmarin on why introverts feel workplace anxiety most acutely — and what it looks like to stop fighting it and start using it.
Most of us have been taught that anxiety is something to manage — and some of us spend years trying to control it, distract ourselves, and hide it from other people.
For introverted professionals especially, that advice can compound the problem. You’re already navigating workplace cultures that pressure you to perform extroversion. Add the pressure to suppress your overactive nervous system, and it can quickly spiral into overwhelm or panic.
David Rosmarin is a clinical psychologist, professor, and researcher at Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital, and one of his central findings challenges the common assumption that anxiety is a problem that can simply be eliminated:
The goal isn’t necessarily to eliminate anxiety. The goal is to learn how to use it.
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Rosmarin’s framework, outlined in his book Thriving with Anxiety, begins with a simple but powerful reframe: anxious people often perform at their highest levels not despite anxiety, but because of it.
In many situations, some anxiety is a sign that the stakes matter to you.
The anxiety you feel before a difficult conversation, a presentation to senior leadership, or a moment where you need to speak up in a room full of louder voices — that’s your nervous system signaling that something matters to you.
I’ve personally lived David’s second key recommendation: to be vulnerable in front of another person is one of the most powerful things you can do to relieve your anxiety. I talk about it in the episode — and how that was the most transformational method I’ve ever used. For someone who’s spent decades hiding their nerves, this is saying something.
If anxiety at work has ever felt like a personal flaw, give this a listen.
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