The Anxious Achiever
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© Copyright 2021 Morra Aarons-Mele
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Host Morra Aarons-Mele is on a mission to reframe how we think about anxiety and mental health in the workplace. Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S. We desperately need better models for leadership and a more holistic view of mental health. Our culture tells those of us who suffer from anxiety and depression that we can’t succeed, but we tell a different story — without sugarcoating the tough stuff. We feature stories from people who’ve been there and experts who can help you thrive.
Listen in your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1480904163
214 Episodes
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Sanyin Siang is an advisor, coach, and adjunct professor at Duke University where she leads the Fuqua/Coach K Leadership and Ethics Center or COLE. She’s also someone who believes in being your own best friend, and that starts with the self-talk we have going on in our heads all day long. In this episode, she walks host Morra Aarons-Mele through her superpowers framework, her own quest to find her strengths, and how high-achievers can zero in on our gifts instead of what we need to improve.
The Superpowers with Sanyin Substack: https://leadershipplaybook.substack.com/
Tim Shriver is a filmmaker, chairman of the Special Olympics, and host of the podcast Need a Lift. He’s also a member of the Kennedy clan, and has spent much of his life’s work helping to increase emotional awareness and improve the discourse around things like mental health, faith, disabilities, and more. He speaks with host Morra Aarons-Mele about the most important conversations we need to be having now, how children and adults alike can improve their mental health and emotional flexibility, and what drives him in his work.
Listen to the podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/need-a-lift-with-tim-shriver/id1765227660
The Dignity Index: https://www.dignity.us/
Yowei Shaw was the host of the NPR podcast Invisibilia before layoffs hit the organization. In the aftermath, she struggled with how her identity and sense of self shifted in unexpected ways. Now, she hosts the podcast Proxy with Yowei Shaw. We’ll talk about the process she went through following her layoff, how she’s recovered, and advice she’d share with others in the same situation.
Listen to her podcast: https://open.spotify.com/show/0VkDE8LAXf5COW4tqhhy1B
Learn more about Yowei’s layoff story: https://the.ink/p/yowei-shaw-proxy-layoffs-emotions
Check out a new show we love: LinkedIn's Let's Talk Offline. Co-hosted by Gianna Prudente, LinkedIn's early career development editor, and Jamé Jackson, a LinkedIn community manager, this show seeks to answer unfiltered questions about work life, covering topics like: Setting workplace boundaries, building your personal brand, scoring your dream job, and navigating office friendships. The show aims to help Gen Z and young millennial professionals advocate for themselves, stand out, and make positive changes in their work lives - all without sacrificing their values, sanity, or sleep. In this episode, they dive deep into social anxiety.
Envy can drive us - but it can also drive us into a wall. It can motivate us at work, but it can make us - and the teams around us - miserable. And sometimes, envy is trying to tell us we might want a change in our own life. In this episode, we revisit a conversation with executive coach and president of PartnerExec, Nihar Chhaya, about how to recognize and reframe envy before it gets the best of us at work.
The Upside of Career Envy: https://hbr.org/2020/06/the-upside-of-career-envy
Laurie Ruettimann is a former human resources leader and current author and speaker on work place culture. She looks at how the overall system of capitalism is hurting us, what is broken about work, and what can be done. She shares her own journey through corporate America, despite her anti-establishment roots; how living a corporate lifestyle led to unhealthy habits and an impulsive and risky weight loss surgery. Plus, what she’s learned in the years since and her advice for workers and leaders of companies going forward.
Learn more about Laurie: https://laurieruettimann.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/laurieruettimann_fixwork-selfleadership-wellbeing-activity-7051595498406768640-ieCi/
A lot of us have a basic understanding of how attachment styles - secure, anxious and avoidant - affect human beings in their relationships. But we don’t often think about what they mean for work. In this episode Morra Aarons-Mele speaks with Jack Hinman, who expands the definition and understanding of attachment styles and explains how they can be a superpower. Hinman is Founder and Executive Director of Engage Transitions.
Learn more about attachment and Hinman’s work: https://engagelifenow.com/attachment/
When it comes to managing our mental health as AI takes over the workplace, there’s a lot on our plate. But in a world that is also driven by systems, it’s important to think about what organizations can be, should be, and are doing to remember worker mental health in the coming years.
To wrap up our month long series on AI, mental health, and work, host Morra Aarons-Mele speaks with Susan Quain, an expert in digital employee experience, about the best ways that leaders and companies can help workers adapt and thrive as AI becomes a more frequent collaborator.
Learn more: Seven ways digital workplace teams support the rollout of generative AI
When it comes to anxiety, the best thing we can do is figure out what is in our control and shift our energy away from the what ifs and the negative thinking. This applies when it comes to anxiety around GenAI taking our jobs as well.
In this episode, Morra Aarons-Mele speaks to two people sharing real tools to navigate today’s work landscape. We hear from author and disruptive leadership expert Charlene Li, who shares the real ways she’s currently using AI, how it can actually make us better workers and leaders, and how to think proactively about this new technology. Then, Morra speaks with Scott Barry Kaufman, psychology professor at Columbia University, about how we can use AI as an opportunity to self-actualize.
Sometimes, you have to look scary change in the eye and approach it with flexibility instead of fear. Dr. Diana Hill is a clinical psychologist and leadership coach who specializes in ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), and we speak to her this week as part of our month-long series on artificial intelligence and work.
GenAI and how it is impacting your job might be stirring up all kinds of emotions for you - including anger - and Hill explains techniques you can use to change your frame of mind and improve your relationship with all this change. We discuss the importance of values when navigating uncertainty and anxiety.
More about Diana Hill: https://drdianahill.com/about
Our episode on AI and work with Nilay Patel: https://morraam.com/blog/9ojwos1lawqrhhgmcxl87f2343km01
Host Morra Aarons-Mele recently spoke with Rufus Griscom on LinkedIn’s The Next Big Idea to talk about leadership. She speaks about how anxiety is an asset, resource and motivator - if you can learn to harness it the right way. And she offers up practical advice - with help from a pen, a banana, and science-baked research - on how exactly you can do that and take your leadership to the next level.
The Next Big Idea is a weekly series of in-depth interviews with the world’s leading thinkers. Listen to more of The Next Big Idea here: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/anxious-achiever-how-you-can-turn-anxiety-into-a-superpower/id1482067226?i=1000666224026
Like anxiety or depression, AI is now a constant companion for millions of people around the world. We might be benefitting from the use of AI at work, but also truly worried about what it means for our future. For the next few weeks, host Morra Aarons-Mele is exploring what AI means for our work and our mental health, from what tech giants are planning to tactics for managing uncertainty to how the best companies are mentally preparing their work force for a new age.
In this episode, she speaks with Editor-in-Chief of The Verge, Nilay Patel, who also hosts The Decoder podcast. Nilay talks about what it is like to run an organization in this time of uncertainty, how the media is or isn’t helping the narrative around AI, what’s going on behind the scenes at tech companies, and what about human creativity truly is at risk in the next few years.
There’s often a direct connection between how much you achieve at work, and how high you climb, and how much passion you have for your work. It’s a huge motivator, but it has a downside for those especially geared towards overachievement: burnout. Jon Jachimowicz is an assistant professor at Harvard Business School and he shares what he’s learned from his study of passion, work, career longevity, and more.
More on Jon’s work: https://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/profile.aspx?facId=1175257
We humans need hope! A lack of hope contributes to much to mental health struggles across the board, and that’s why it’s important to learn more about the science behind hope and how it impacts us. Hope is a skill we can all learn. In this episode, Kathryn Goetzke, founder and chairman at The Shine Hope Company, explains what she’s learned about negative thought patterns, control, depression and more. She also shares her own story of anxiety, PTSD, and addiction and how better understanding hope helps her impact workplaces today.
Check out Snyder’s Hope scale: https://ospi.k12.wa.us/sites/default/files/2023-11/hopescale_hys.pdf
We’ve come a long way in the last five years, but there’s so much still to be done when it comes to our working lives and our mental health. In this episode, host Morra Aarons-Mele revisits our very first episode, where she speaks with Scott Stossel. He’s a National Editor of the Atlantic magazine and author of the New York Times Best seller “My Age of Anxiety: Fear, Hope, Dread, and the Search for Peace of Mind.” He shares his story of anxiety, and why it’s more important now than ever for leaders to recognize and work around the mental health challenges of their teams.
Read Scott’s book: https://www.amazon.com/My-Age-Anxiety-Dread-Search/dp/0307269876
What if all your assumptions about people with neurodivergent conditions… were all wrong? In this episode, host Morra Aarons-Mele speaks to two people living very different lives, but who have a Tourette Syndrome diagnosis in common. First, TV presenter Aidy Smith shares how he became the only person to host a show in the UK who has Tourette Syndrome, and how he overcame obstacles to get there. Then, we’ll hear from Tara Lerman, a listener who reached out to share her own journey in media and advocacy.
Learn more about Aidy Smith: https://www.aidysmith.com/
Why We Need to Change the Conversation Around Tourette’s Syndrome: https://www.madeofmillions.com/articles/why-we-need-to-change-the-conversation-around-tourette-s-syndrome
The news is overwhelming, and thinking about the upcoming election makes many of us anxious. Political veterans know how to get things done in a never-ending 24 hour news cycle, and somehow stay on course when the world is spinning too fast - but it isn’t always easy.
In this episode, host Morra Aarons-Mele speaks with Shaniqua McClendon, Vice President of Politics for the media company Crooked. She talks about her previous roles and experiences, toxic bosses and work environments, and how she tries to maintain some balance in a hectic election cycle.
Check out more of Crooked Media’s podcasts: https://crooked.com/podcasts/
Vote Save America: https://www.votesaveamerica.com/
In 2012, Michael DiSanto graduated from a prestigious university. But instead of following the path of his peers, he set out to achieve a lofty goal: make the 2016 Olympic rowing team. It was a tough decision and even tougher training process; at times he was bored, at times he wanted to give up. di Santo used anxiety and anger as powerful motivators to drive his performance as an Olympic rower. Host Morra Aarons-Mele speaks to DiSanto about his journey to the games, how he ended his career, how he manages his mental health, and what lessons he’s taken into his career in finance today.
More on mental health and Olympic athletes: https://apnews.com/article/paris-olympics-2024-mental-health-biles-osaka-891c2dc08b59a3ccb0b15ffeca239089
Dr. Ned Hallowell has ADHD himself, and is a well-respected doctor who focuses on counseling people of all ages with similar disorders. But he’s quick to point out that the phrase deficit disorder isn’t quite right. Dr. Hallowell’s life’s work is freeing people from the stigma associated with these kinds of conditions. He explains how he thinks about this kind of neurodiversity differently (a Ferrari brain with bicycle brakes), how it has helped his work and career, and why he became a TikTok influencer in his 70s.
Learn more about Dr. Hallowell’s work here: https://drhallowell.com/
Follow Dr. Hallowell on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@drhallowell?lang=en
1Dan Ariely is a famed behavioral economist who looks at the irrational, upside-down ways that humans think and act. His recent interests include resilience - something he’s had to build up in his own life after a serious burn accident in his teens. Ariely is a professor at Duke University and the author of bestselling books like “The Upside of Irrationality.” Host Morra Aarons-Mele speaks to him about mental health, human behavior, and overcoming challenges.
Watch Dan’s Ted Talks: https://www.ted.com/speakers/dan_ariely
How a Terrible Accident Inspired Dan Ariely’s Career Path
How an Injury Led Me to Irrationality
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Great podcast. Feels honest and relatable. Helps me be thoughtful about my process and path.
Hello! I love this podcast so much. Truly. It struck a nerve the instant I heard it and I have recommended it to many since. When will the 2nd season start?
New to podcast, already hooked!
Great episode, thanks for your work!
Great podcast, we are going to be following your progress! 🎙
Too bad that there is this annoying music in the background, not stopping and making it very difficult to listen to what you are saying 🙄😔 Could you please look into this?