Tuesday, September 23, 2014
My first brush with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and business began as a humorous incident. In my neighborhood a friend?s husband, a senior executive in a regional company, had served a tour of duty in Iraq. She said that like many war veterans, he suffers from PTSD, and during the night occasionally re-lives that horrific past in his dreams. During several of his nightmares his family has been seriously frightened.
But their other worry is that he might fall asleep in a public place, such as church, and suddenly spring to life thinking he was in the middle of battle and spewing four-letter words. Apparently they?d been extra nervous the day he?d been asked to speak in church, as the family observed him nodding off in his chair at the front of the chapel as he waited for his turn to speak.
Disaster was avoided and the story has now become an oft-told family joke.
But for millions of American executives and workers, PTSD is no laughing matter. According to the National Center For PTSD (a division of the U.S. government), an estimated 7.8% of Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives, with women (10.4%) twice as likely as men (5%) to experience the condition. And approximately 3.6% of U.S. adults aged 18 to 54 (5.2 million people) have PTSD during the course of a given year.
Statistically, PTSD is perhaps more prevalent than anyone thinks. For some extremely unfortunate souls the stress that spurred the PTSD condition actually occurred during work. War veterans are particularly susceptible (sadly, with a portion of the trauma being related to mistreatment or harassment while in the military, in addition to the horrors of combat experienced at war).
HR publications provide education on the ways to support employees who deal with PTSD as well as insight on the legalities involved. However, where PTSD and the workplace is concerned, it is clear that misperceptions abound.
Managers and leaders (coworkers, too) generally assume that a person who?s experienced trauma must be coddled and watched out for?in essence, that they should be handled with kid gloves.
But research shows just the opposite, particularly where leadership and entrepreneurship are concerned. You see, business, in and of itself, is traumatic. In an article that won a 2014 award in the Society of Professional Journalists, Inc. columnist Jessica Bruder talks about
The Psychological Impact of Business. She refers to it, in fact, as one of business?s best kept secrets?that entrepreneurs (and especially founders) experience far more anxiety than employees, not only due to the demands of their roles, but also due to the very traits in their personalities (driven, resilient, never taking ?no? for an answer) that have contributed to their desire to lead. Here?s an interesting concept (and an interesting read): In a blog by peak performance coach
Sunil Bali he tells the story of psychologist Stephen Joseph. For the past twenty years, Joseph has worked with survivors of trauma. His studies have yielded a startling discovery, Bali says that a wide range of traumatic events, ranging from illness, divorce, separation, assault, and bereavement to accidents, natural disasters, and terrorism can actually act as catalysts for positive change. In his research and book
What Doesn?t Kill us: The New Psychology of Post Traumatic Growth, Joseph demonstrates that rather than ruining one?s life, a traumatic event can actually improve it.
So where leadership and accomplishments of great work
are concerned, severe trauma?and even PTSD?can actually make many executives more resilient and stronger as the result of the trials they?ve lived.
Joseph draws on the wisdom of ancient philosophers, the insights of evolutionary biologists, and the optimism of positive psychologists to talk about the ways all of us, in leadership roles or not, can navigate change and adversity, traumatic or otherwise. I have reached out to Joseph and connected and will interview him directly for a future column. But in the meantime, here?s a challenge to each of us to borrow a page in the playbook from the greatest leaders and entrepreneurs we?ve worked with and strive to use our anxiety?and even our deepest traumas?to find new meaning, purpose, and direction in life.
