Managing Leadership Anxiety: Yours and Theirs with Steve Cuss

Anxiety is something every leader deals with. The best leaders learn to recognize and manage it before it becomes contagious and spreads in their organization. In this episode, Andy Stanley and Steve Cuss explore why many leaders don’t recognize anxiety in themselves until it begins shaping their teams and culture. You’ll discover how false needs like control, perfectionism, and people-pleasing fuel reactivity—and why unmanaged anxiety is contagious. This conversation equips leaders with practical tools to respond with clarity, create emotionally healthy environments, and lead without transferring their anxiety to others.

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Here is what they cover in this episode:

• Anxiety in the room is real (2:51)

• “I’m not anxious”… until you see it as reactivity (6:27)

• Two reactive moves: “bigger than human” or “smaller than human” (8:08)

• The Big Five false needs that drive (and spread) anxiety. (13:18)

• How to interrupt stuck patterns. (19:45)

Special thanks to our sponsor BELAY for offering a free download of their ebook, 10 Tactics to Boost Productivity. This resource is full of helpful tips to make your workdays more sustainable, productive, and fulfilling. Just text the word ANDY to 55123 to claim your free ebook now.

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