From Axios "Be like Oprah" - this is an oldie but goodie piece of advice I give when I coach introverted leaders who HATE networking events. It means asking someone lots of questions- and following up with empathy, curiosity, and maybe even another question. NOT responding instantly with your own story. People love to talk about themselves, and so asking questions with intention makes others feel good!

When we're insecure, we can feel vulnerable and threatened. We can get anxious, worrying about what’s next. Our first inclination might be to look inward, to protect what's ours. To view everything as a zero-sum game where there's a winner and a loser, and we'll do everything we can not to be the loser. However, Columbia Business School Professor Adam Galinsky’s research shows that we should actually do just the opposite. I talked to Galinsky about what he calls "the vicious cycle of insecurity," and how to break it.

This summer, I went on a forest walk at Camp Pemigewassett in New Hampshire to see mushrooms growing in the wild, and to observe their ancient structures. We went after a day of rain and I saw what felt like a vibrant coral reef full of mushrooms. I’ve spent many hours walking through New England woods, but I never saw mushrooms before. One of our incredible wildlife guides, Riley McCue, said that when you're doing something like a safari or you're out in nature, you have to turn on your “seeing eyes.” Now I see mushrooms all the time.

It’s the New Year, which means our social media feeds transform into a parade of achievements. Friends and colleagues share carefully curated highlight reels of their past year—promotions earned, books published, stages graced, and destinations conquered. These posts are engaging, heartwarming, and a smart professional choice, yet each scroll might bring a familiar jealous twinge: that persistent whisper asking, "Why not me?"

Jason Miller had always driven himself very hard—the first in his family to go to college, an excellent student, a senior executive at a global company—until he ended up in the ER at the age of 40, convinced he was having a heart attack.

When sports psychologists Adam Wright and Nick Holton work with elite athletes, they want athletes to know: performance anxiety isn't your enemy—it's energy waiting to be channeled. As Wright explains, "What we initially see as a threat we need to switch and look at as a challenge or an opportunity." This isn't just positive thinking; it's backed by science.

We anxious achievers don't need to wage war against our workplace impostor thoughts. In multiple studies, MIT Professor Basima Tewfik found that people experiencing impostor thoughts were rated as more “interpersonally effective” by their supervisors and colleagues. Think about it: when we're worried others might be overestimating us, we tend to become more other-oriented. We listen more carefully, make better eye contact, and generally work harder to connect.

A few years ago, I was in contract negotiations with someone who triggered my anxiety very easily. They had a way of firing off a barrage of questions that made me feel defensive, ashamed, and like I hadn't done my homework. How did I respond? I literally lost the ability to speak. Words could not come out of my mouth.

Imagine there is something that you’re amazing at, and it’s valuable to others. This thing is so energizing for you to do, you can’t not do it. And the more you do it, the happier you feel and the more valuable people find your contributions!

I was invited to guest lecture at the Harvard Divinity School course, “Preaching as Public Leadership,” taught by my own Unitarian Universalist Congregation Leader, Reverend Claire Feingold-Thoryn. And I decided I wanted to offer some hard-won advice from my experience giving hundreds of talks about mental health and neurodivergence to audiences all over the world.

Meredith Arthur has been researching practical ways to manage anxiety and overthinking since before it was cool- she uses evidence based methods to cure pain and stress. Morra and Meredith share their daily routines - from polyvagal tools, clinical somatics, self-regulation and breathing. This post includes links to all the resources we share of our favorite routines for managing anxiety and stress.

Maybe you feel like crumpling into a ball and hiding under the covers. Maybe you feel like getting drunk. Maybe you’re so angry you’re yelling at the dog. Maybe you are so anxious you can’t focus or even breathe right. And you have to go to work. Even worse, you have to be a leader.

When National Public Radio announced they would cut 10% of staff with a month's notice, Yowei Shaw, who hosted a popular NPR podcast, found herself in a state of limbo. The uncertainty manifested physically - she discovered she was grinding her teeth at night, as confirmed by both her dentist and husband.

Morra Aarons-Mele, author and host of The Anxious Achiever podcast, hosted a discussion on practices that help create menopause-friendly workplaces (watch the session recording here).

I grew up in a time when people had to “look the part” to claim authority. "Looking the part" is rooted in so much bias and many negative stereotypes and I'm heartened by how much has changed about how we dress for work. But tons of us are still masking to get ahead.  Masking is “a defensive behavior in which an individual conceals their natural personality or behavior in response to social pressure, abuse, or harassment.”

Your boss might be a menopausal woman. And she might want to talk about it. Nearly every woman of an age I ask is dying to talk about how their changing hormones affect their work lives… and yet it's something we rarely do in the open. It can feel like an "unsayable."

Since 2006 I’ve had a singular vision for my work: I want to look forward to Monday mornings.

For many people, achieving a long-term goal is more important than being happy every day. That is a wonderful quality and I’m sure characteristic of many people who are tremendous leaders and who work to change the world. It’s okay if you’re not one of those people. I certainly am not. And I must tell you, my vision has worked.

“It’s never too late to have a happy childhood,” my therapist once said. No matter how we grew up, as adults we have the power to learn new patterns, and even to heal at work.

My guest Jack Hinman, Psy.D , says, “We're all emotional beings, and knowing your attachment style is a great place to start developing insight into your anxiety, what overwhelms you, or what triggers you. Work is such an interpersonal process that it's going to pull out your patterns.” Understanding attachment styles becomes even more important in times of change, says Hinman, because uncertainty often sends us backwards. Uncertainty is going to trigger your attachment style and influence how you deal with it.

Anxiety can get in the way of our efforts to be the empathetic, thoughtful leaders we want to be. When we're in an anxious state, it's really tough to take a beat, explore the feeling, and react with empathy to another person. We can get impulsive; we worry about getting to the next thing because our threat response is up. We talk too much or over-explain or micromanage. It happens to the best of us.