Book Review: Managing Leadership Anxiety

This month’s featured book is Managing Leadership Anxiety: Yours and Theirs by Steve Cuss.

Once again, I was listening to a podcast when I first heard of this book. The title definitely intrigued me because I’m familiar with the overflowing shelves of books about leadership as well as the increasing number of books about anxiety. Putting those two together and talking about Leadership Anxiety seemed slightly unusual though. I like to think of myself as a leader and I know that I definitely have moments of anxiety, but is Leadership Anxiety actually a thing and if so what exactly is it and how in the world do I manage mine and others when I don’t know what it is. That thought alone can start bringing in a little bit of anxiety.

Thankfully in this book, Steve Cuss uses a his years of hospital chaplaincy and pastoring along with tools like Family Systems Theory to tackle the topic of anxiety from a spiritual perspective.  While this book is focused on anxiety in leadership situations, so much of it is applicable to all aspects in life. He begins the book with some explanations and tangible examples of anxiety and understanding it through the perspective of God’s grace. As he talks about the importance of recognizing and examining our areas of anxiety he says: “By paying attention to what was bubbling underneath and managing it, I discovered new levels of freedom and a profound encounter with God’s grace. I experienced genuine spiritual breakthroughs of patterns that had previously kept me stuck.”

Not only does Steve Cuss discuss the importance of identifying anxiety and give hope for the work God can do in our lives as we get to the roots of those anxieties, but he gives tangible tips and tools for how to recognize the causes of your anxiety in leadership and recognizing signs of anxiety in those you are leading. He speaks to causes of both internal anxiety and relational anxiety like the people we feel we need to live up to or not disappoint, blind spots, feeling judged, doubt, dealing with mixed messages, feeling like you’re in a lose-lose situation, stepping on unseen relational land-mines, and so many more. As he spends multiple chapters unpacking and explaining these many sources of anxiety for leaders, I could see situations that I or other leaders I know have found ourselves in.

After spending time unpacking these realities that leaders face, along with the impacts and anxiety that it causes for those around us as well, the author begins to share numerous strategies and tools to for how to manage or deescalate that anxiety. Many of these tools I was familiar with, but was reminded that they are in my toolbox and I should probably be using them a little more often. I was also blessed to be able to have several other new tools to manage relational and leadership issues that can easily cause anxiety for me and others. Tools like learning to pay closer attention to not just content, but to the process of how people are relating and behaving because that is where things tend to get stuck. I was also reminded of the importance of trying to see how I am personally contributing to stuck systems so I can help get us unstuck. Even more importantly than the great tools themselves though, was this reminder:

“The goal of managing anxiety is not simply for relief, it is to connect more fully with God and to raise awareness of what God is doing. Anxiety blocks our awareness of God because it takes our subconscious attention. This means that anxiety can be an early detection system that we’re depending on something other than God for our well-being.”

I found Managing Leadership Anxiety: Yours and Theirs by Steve Cuss to be a very helpful and insightful read. It was full of encouragement, tools, helpful explanations, and challenges to better equip the reader not just for leadership but for life. One of the closing reminders in the book was a quote from a group facilitator that the author works with who said: “This is hard work, but staying the same and not doing this work is hard too. It is just that you are familiar with the ‘hard’ you’re in now. You’ve become so accustomed to the anxiety you carry every day that you don’t realize how hard it is.”

If you’ve not read this book, I would encourage you to give it a read so you can gain some insight, encouragement and tools to hopefully make your life as leader just a little less hard in the future.

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