The Anxious Achiever: Turn Your Biggest Fears Into Your Leadership Superpower

A timely and compelling guide to managing the anxiety that comes with succeeding and leading--from entrepreneur, mental health advocate, and top-rated podcaster Morra Aarons-Mele.

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental illnesses in the world. But in our workplaces, anxiety has been a hidden problem--there in plain sight but ignored. Until now.

The Anxious Achiever is a book with a mission: to normalize anxiety and leadership. As leadership expert and self-proclaimed anxious achiever Morra Aarons-Mele argues, anxiety is built into the very nature of leadership. It can--and should--be harnessed into a force for good.

Inspired by the popular podcast of the same name, The Anxious Achiever is filled with personal stories, research-based insights into mental health, and lots of practical advice. You’ll learn how to:

• Figure out your own anxiety profile so that you can recognize and avoid common thought traps and triggers
• Confront bad habits and unhealthy coping mechanisms
• Resist perfectionism, manage social anxiety, and set boundaries to prevent burnout
• Deal with feedback, criticism, and impostor syndrome
• Model--and communicate--healthy behavior as a leader

Whether you’re experiencing anxiety for the first time or have been battling it for years, The Anxious Achiever will help you turn your stress and worries into a source of strength for yourself, your career, and the people you lead.

Morra Aarons-Mele is the host of The Anxious Achiever, a top-50 business podcast and top-10 management podcast. The show, which was a 2020 Webby Award honoree in business podcasts, helps people rethink the relationship between their mental health and their leadership. In 2010 Morra founded the award-winning digital-consulting firm Women Online and The Mission List, an influencer marketing company devoted to social change. She helped Hillary Clinton log on for her first internet chat and has launched digital campaigns for President Obama, Malala Yousafzai, the United Nations, AARP, the CDC, and many other leading figures and organizations. She sold her business in 2021.

Connect with Morra Aarons-Mele at: theanxiousachiever.com