When Leadership Feels Like Anxiety: What Are You Carrying?

This morning, I felt anxious.

There was not one major crisis in front of me. There were simply too many things competing for my attention: responsibilities, deadlines, decisions, people I wanted to help, work that needed to be completed, and questions I could not immediately answer. Everything felt important, and my mind was trying to hold all of it at the same time.

The more I thought about it, the more I wondered whether I was labeling the feeling correctly but missing its source.

Maybe it felt like anxiety, but perhaps what I was experiencing was the weight of responsibility without order. It was the pressure of knowing that things needed to be done while not knowing what needed my attention first.

Leaders Are Carrying More Than Ever

New research suggests that leaders are not imagining this pressure. Korn Ferry’s Workforce 2026: Growing Nowhere report surveyed more than 16,000 professionals across 11 countries and found that more than half of managers are exhausted.

Managers are expected to lead, coach, strategize, support the well-being of their employees, solve problems, produce results, and help everyone else navigate change. Many are doing this with fewer resources and less time. The same study found that motivation across the workforce dropped nine percentage points in one year.

The report describes managers as being caught in the middle. Pressure comes from above, while the needs of employees come from below. The manager absorbs both.

That matters because we cannot continue treating every overwhelmed leader as though they simply need to become more organized, productive, or resilient. Sometimes the leader does not need another planner. Sometimes the responsibilities themselves need to be examined.

When Your Day Is No Longer Yours

I saw this playing out in my own day.

I had set aside part of my day off to help someone and provide a treatment. The treatment canceled, and the person I planned to meet was running late. Suddenly, I was sitting in the middle of an undefined day. I still wanted to help, but I did not know when that help would be needed or what the rest of the day would look like.

Nothing terrible had happened, but my mind had gone into a holding pattern.

Sometimes pressure does not come from everything we have to do. It comes from keeping ourselves available for things that have not been clearly scheduled, defined, or assigned. We begin mentally carrying the possibility of what might happen, and that possibility occupies the space we need for what is actually in front of us.

This is especially common for leaders. We want to help. We want to be dependable. We see what needs to be done, and we know we have the ability to do it. But having the ability to carry something does not automatically mean it belongs to us.

Put It All on Paper

So I began writing down everything that was in my head.

I wrote down the responsibilities, the concerns, the unfinished tasks, and the things I was afraid I might forget. It did not have to be pretty or perfectly organized. It simply had to be honest.

Writing everything down created room between me and the pressure. Instead of allowing every thought to circle inside my mind, I could see each one in front of me.

But this is where I believe we often make a mistake. We get everything onto paper and immediately begin trying to organize, prioritize, and control it. We make a plan and ask God to bless it.

This time, I needed to put the pen down.

The goal was not to get everything on paper so I could figure it out. The goal was to get everything on paper so I could place it before God.

Proverbs 3:5–6 teaches us to trust the Lord rather than depending entirely on our own understanding. When we acknowledge Him, He directs our path. That includes the path through our responsibilities.

I do not want God merely involved in my plan. I want to be involved in His plan.

Conduct a Responsibility Audit

Once everything is on paper, look at each responsibility honestly. I often use three simple categories:

All Me

These are the things that truly require your attention, authority, voice, or decision. They may involve your calling, your leadership position, or a commitment you personally made. They belong to you, even if they are difficult.

Better If It Is Me

These are things you may do particularly well, but that does not mean you must always do them. Someone else might be able to handle part of the work with guidance, training, or support.

Can Be Done by Someone Else

These are the responsibilities you have continued carrying because it feels faster, easier, or safer to do them yourself. They may also include problems you are trying to solve for people who need to take responsibility for themselves.

Then bring those categories before God and ask:

1. What is actually mine to carry?
2. What am I carrying because I am afraid it will not be done correctly without me?
3. What needs to be delegated, delayed, renegotiated, or removed?
4. Where do I need to establish a clearer boundary?
5. What are You asking me to begin with today?

The answer may not be where you would choose to start. I have written things down before and immediately sensed that finances were where I needed to begin. My honest response was, “Lord, I do not want to do that.”

But that moment revealed something important. I was not asking God to lead me. I was asking Him to approve the order I had already chosen.

Responsibility Needs Order

This does not mean that every experience of anxiety is caused by poor organization or excessive responsibility. Anxiety is real, and there are times when professional mental-health support is both appropriate and necessary.

But leaders should also be willing to ask whether some of what they are feeling is coming from responsibilities that have never been examined. Is everything truly urgent? Does it all belong to you? Have you given other people the opportunity to carry what belongs to them? Have you left room for God to redirect your day?

You may not need to work faster. You may need to stop holding the entire list in your head.

Write it down. Put the pen down. Place the page before God. Then allow Him to show you what is yours, what can wait, what can be shared, and what was never yours to carry in the first place.

Sometimes peace does not come because every responsibility disappears. Sometimes peace comes because the responsibilities finally have an order.

Source: Read the Korn Ferry Workforce 2026: Growing Nowhere report.