Leading Through Anxiety

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Building a Support System

建立一个支撑你的体系

The final step in leading through anxiety is making sure you have ongoing support. This means not only surrounding yourself with the right people but also developing routines that help you deal with bouts (发作) of anxiety and lay the groundwork for maintaining your mental health.

SCHEDULE, STRUCTURE, AND SCENARIO PLAN

规划，片段化，针对不同情境的计划

When you have anxiety, you need to be intentional about what your days look like, as I discussed earlier. The methods are basic: making lists, prioritizing, and breaking work into manageable chunks. Chop (剁碎，砍) tasks that make you extremely anxious into bearable (可忍受的) pieces. I learned this trick from my own psychiatrist, Carol Birnbaum.

Also use the detective work you did about your triggers to prepare for situations or events you know will cause you anxiety. If public speaking stresses you out, make sure you leave plenty of time to rehearse presentations. If you’re afraid of flying, mentally rehearse a business trip from “I’m going to pack” to “I’m going to order a cab and call my friend while I’m on my way to the airport” to “I’ll buy M&M’s when I get there because they make me happy.” And finally, once on the plane: “I’m going to take a Xanax, do a calming meditation, and survive.”

I get anxious when I’m working far from home and haven’t heard from my nanny (保姆) or husband. I worry something bad has happened and get distracted from what I’m supposed to be doing. To counter this I ask my husband or the babysitter (保姆，临时照顾幼儿者) to text me with an update every three hours. That way I don’t pester (纠缠,烦扰) them when they might be driving with the kids in the car, for example. And knowing that they will keep me updated allows me to sink into (陷入) my work.

KNOW WHO YOUR “SAFE TEAM” IS

你可以信任的，可以袒露心声的“safe team”

Since you want to spare (不伤害；不毁坏；使避免) your employees the messy details of your anxiety, you need a place for those emotions to go. Make sure you have a “safe team” of people to whom you can confess (承认，坦白) scary thoughts. They can include a therapist, a coach, a mentor, a spouse or partner, and friends. It could be an intimate group of fellow leaders, online or off-line, who commit to sharing in confidence (信任，秘密) and making space for one another’s difficult emotions.

See you tomorrow