How hypnotherapy helps leaders and managers experiencing anxiety

Leaders and managers are often seen as the most confident and capable in any workplace, but appearances can be deceptive. Research suggests that the pressures and demands of senior roles mean many experience debilitating and deeply held fears even when they are outwardly competent and successful.

Left unchecked, these can lead to unhelpful coping mechanisms, health issues, chronic stress and burnout. Fortunately, hypnotherapy offers a wide range of tools and techniques that can help overcome many of these work-based anxieties.

Imposter syndrome

Imposter syndrome is one of the most common fears for leaders and managers, with most of us experiencing it at some point in our careers. It’s a feeling that somehow we are not worthy of our role, that sooner or later we will be ‘found out’ and exposed as being incompetent.

Even when the evidence shows we are successful, we often dismiss achievements, don’t believe positive feedback or criticise ourselves unfairly. We might also feel a need to overcompensate for our self-perceived inadequacies by working long hours, causing us to become increasingly exhausted and further justifying our belief that we are not up to the job.  

Hypnotherapy techniques can help you to:

• challenge your inner critic and reinforce more balanced, evidence-based perspectives
• embed positive affirmations and motivational phrases
• anchor feelings of confidence
• reduce destructive rumination and self-doubt
• access the mindset we associate with our past successes

Fear of failure 

In some jobs, failure can be very visible. Many of us worry that any mistake will damage our reputation or even cause us to lose our jobs. Failure can also be linked with feelings of shame and humiliation. In order to avoid these unpleasant feelings and anxieties, we sometimes adopt unhealthy coping strategies such as becoming increasingly risk-averse and pursuing a level of perfectionism that is simply unachievable.

We may also find ourselves in ‘analysis-paralysis,’ where we get caught in overthinking decisions and avoiding them completely for fear of making the wrong one. 

Hypnotherapy can help you to:

• replace the pursuit of perfection with a commitment to always doing your best
• address procrastination
• prevent catastrophising and ‘all or nothing’ thinking
• accept that everyone makes mistakes 
• adopt a growth mindset

This can help you get more comfortable with setbacks and see them as valuable information to learn from and develop greater competence.

Fear of public speaking

Career progression often comes with the added pressure of expectations around contributing to or chairing meetings, addressing large audiences, or appearing in the media. Fear of public speaking, or social anxiety, typically stems from a fear of being judged critically. We can become very self-conscious, worry about or experience blushing, stammering, freezing or get fixated on how we look or sound.

We may start sweating excessively or feel an urgent need to use the toilet. Public speaking can be so terrifying for some of us that we go to great lengths to duck having to do it at all, sometimes even avoiding taking jobs where it is a requirement. Alternatively, we may spend excessive amounts of time preparing and still be left with the sense of not being ready, or use alcohol, illegal drugs or medication as a means of coping. 

Hypnotherapy can give you the skills to:

• reframe anxiety as excitement and curiosity 
• shift attention from yourself to your audience or your surroundings 
• use relaxation and breathing exercises at key moments
• vividly imagine every aspect of an important event to become more familiar and comfortable with it, and visualise a successful outcome
• stop unwanted involuntary behaviours like blushing and stammering

Overwhelm and burnout 

Leadership and management positions bring greater responsibilities and constant, prolonged demands. The pressure of thinking that the buck stops with you, and more and more is expected of you, can become overwhelming. As a result, we find it harder to make decisions or solve problems – what psychologists term task-overload – where the demands placed on us exceed our cognitive capacity to deal with them at any particular moment.

We can become irritable, short-tempered or believe we are trapped by an unrelenting workload, leaving us struggling to switch off from work. These thoughts can be exacerbated if you are in a role where you already feel isolated and unable to talk with colleagues or family because you fear being perceived negatively, or you see no choice other than to keep going to be able to pay the bills. All this long-term stress can lead to physical, emotional and mental exhaustion, commonly known as burnout.

Hypnotherapy can help you by:

• providing a confidential, safe and non-judgemental space with a qualified professional who can support you
• helping you to regain control, identify issues and take action to address them in a structured way
• replacing long-held beliefs that may no longer serve you with new ones that support improved work-life balance
• calming the nervous system to reduce overall stress and anxiety and supporting good quality sleep, rest and recovery

In summary, hypnotherapy offers a range of evidence-based tactics and techniques that can alleviate many common fears and anxieties experienced by leaders and managers. If you want to reduce work-based anxiety and stress, have greater confidence in your abilities, perform better at work and improve work-life balance, achieving lasting change is absolutely possible.