On the outside, it looks like you’ve got it handled. Your meetings are booked, your product presentation is ready, your brand looks sharp, and your clients are happy.
But on the inside? You’re overthinking that one email. You’re wondering if you made the right decision last week, or this morning. You’re carrying the weight of leadership, performance, and unpredictability, all while trying not to let anyone see the cracks.
This is anxiety in business. And if you feel it, you’re not alone. I’m right there with you, and a recent survey by Founders Reports1 uncovered that 50.2% of entrepreneurs struggle with anxiety.
The Unspoken Pressure to “Keep It Together”
Business owners, executives, and professionals often feel the pressure to appear confident, in control, and composed, especially in front of clients, teams, and stakeholders. There’s a silent assumption in many workplaces and leadership spaces that emotions like anxiety should be kept out of sight. But emotional suppression doesn’t make anxiety disappear, it makes it harder to manage.
Research in Human Relations shows that leaders who habitually suppress emotions tend to foster climates where team members also feel they must suppress their feelings. That suppression leads to higher levels of emotional exhaustion and lower team performance2
Anxiety Isn’t the Problem, Avoiding It Is
Anxiety is a natural emotional response to uncertainty, risk, or perceived threat. In business, that might look like:
- Feeling overwhelmed by constant decision-making
- Fearing failure or judgement from others
- Struggling with imposter feelings despite your track record
- Trying to juggle high expectations with limited resources
The problem isn’t feeling anxious—it’s what we do with that anxiety. Do we push it down, distract ourselves, or deny it entirely? Or do we learn to work with it?
Emotional Intelligence: Working With Anxiety, Not Against It
Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to recognize, understand, and manage our own emotions, and the emotions of others. It offers a way to navigate anxiety without needing to suppress it.
In fact, research from the Journal of Organizational Behavior found that leaders with high emotional intelligence are better able to handle stress and foster resilience within their teams3.
Real Solutions for Real Pressure
But really, all the research doesn’t do you much good when you are experiencing anxiety. Because you’re in it. So here are some practical and research-backed tips you can use to do it differently:
1. Acknowledge and Name It
Acknowledging and labeling your emotion; “I’m feeling anxious right now” can activate your brain’s language centres and calm your nervous system4. It’s a small step with powerful impact.
2. The Power of the Pause
Productivity culture often tells us to “just push through,” but emotional intelligence asks us to pause and notice. What’s really driving your anxiety? Fear of failure? Perfectionism? Uncertainty? Creating space to reflect helps us regain agency over how we respond.
3. Create a Micro-Moment of Support
Whether it’s a trusted colleague, coach, or mentor, talking to someone who gets it can reduce the mental load. Emotional support doesn’t have to be heavy, but it requires a willingness to be honest. It can be a simple “this is what I’m navigating right now” conversation.
4. Practice Values-Aligned Decision Making
When anxiety shows up, it often pulls us into worst-case scenarios. Returning to your values, what matters most, can help ground your decisions in clarity, not fear.
5. Reframe the Narrative
Instead of trying to get rid of anxiety, ask: “What is this trying to tell me?” Anxiety often shows us where we care deeply, or where something feels out of alignment.
Final Thoughts
Feeling anxiety in business doesn’t mean you’re weak, unprofessional, or in the wrong field. It means you’re human. It took me a long time to learn this.
You don’t need to pretend everything’s fine. In fact, acknowledging and understanding your emotional experience is what equips you to lead, relate, and respond more effectively.
Anxiety thrives in silence. Emotional intelligence shines a light on it so you can understand it, worked with it, and eventually transform it.
You got this,
Alexandra
- Andre, D.D. (2025) 17 Mental Health Statistics For Entrepreneurs. Founder Reports. https://founderreports.com/entrepreneur-mental-health-statistics/ ↩︎
- Chiang, J.T.-J. et al. (2020). ‘We have emotions but can’t show them! Authoritarian leadership, emotion suppression climate, and team performance,’ Human Relations, 74(7) pp. 1082–1111. https://doi.org/10.1177/0018726720908649 ↩︎
- Wong, C.-S. and Law, K.S. (2002). ‘The effects of leader and follower emotional intelligence on performance and attitude: An exploratory study’. The Leadership Quarterly, 13(3) pp.243–274. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1048-9843(02)00099-1 ↩︎
- Lieberman, M.D., Eisenberger, N.I., Crockett, M.J., Tom, S.M., Pfeifer, J.H. and Way, B.M. (2007). ‘Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity in response to affective stimuli’. Psychological Science, 18(5) pp.421–428. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01916.x ↩︎