I’ve been out of commission for a while which I’ll let you in on soon, but figured it would be good to re-post an early blog from back in the day when no one was reading 🙂 So here’s a post from 4 years ago (Sept 2007) on anxiety in systems, which I’ve been thinking about since that’s what the Systems & Power Leadership Community is discussing this month. So here’s some thoughts from Peter Steinke on the role of anxiety in systems and in ministry and in families.
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Peter Steinke writes in Congregational Leadership in Anxious Times,
“Anxiety affects human functioning by tightening thinking or restraining behavior. Look at what anxiety does to repress a person:
- decreases our capacity to learn
- replaces curiosity with a demand for certainty
- stiffens our position over against another’s
- interrupts concentration
- floods the nervous system, so that we cannot hear what is said without distortion or cannot respond with clarity
- simplifies ways of thinking (yes/no; either/or)
- prompts a desire for a quick fix
- arouses feelings of helplessness and self-doubt
- leads to an array of defensive behaviors
- diminishes flexibility in response to life’s challenges
- creates imaginative gridlock (not being able to think of alternatives, options, or new perspectives)”
Steinke writes, “How anxiety is addressed will determine outcome more than anything. your responsible and enlightened behavior will influence the situation more than any other action.”
The first third of Steinke’s book is focused on the Leader’s “Presence” as one of the key components to leadership. He identifies the primary enemy to healthy group life as anxiety. This has impacted me a lot over the past few months as I’ve continued to reflect on the dynamics that anxiety sets in motion in any group system. Recognizing this is key for the leader because the leader has more influence over the environment of a group system than anyone else.
Some leaders complain that they end up the object of the systems “anxiety,” but a wise leader recognizes that this is par for the course and is able to inject a calm and non-anxious presence into the community. This is easier said than done, but the first step is the leader taking responsibility for the reality that the way he or she responds to anxiety is one of the primary keys to creating a healthy team or community culture. Leaders who just blame others for having too high of expectations or whatever else may be the expression of anxiety only perpetuate the cycle of reactivity as opposed to leading towards healthy group life.
