Leadership Lessons From The Great Books

“Existential frustration in and of itself is neither pathological nor pathogenic. A man’s concern over the worthwhileness of his life is an existential distress but it is by no means a mental illness.” -Viktor Frankl

I agree.

There’s been an increase in the amount of diagnosed anxiety in the last ten years, and more people in the United States are diagnosed with some form of anxiety than ever before.

We are also seeing a concomitant rise in identity struggles as the social contagion of identity struggles is spread from youth to youth via the tender mercies of social media algorithms designed to make the user afraid that they are missing out.

But, “missing out” of what exactly.

Then there’s the changes in workplaces, where the rise in a lack of resiliency corresponds to calls for more acknowledgement of historically based struggles in the larger American culture.

And yet.

There are still people who ignore all of this and just go about their daily lives: delivering food, shipping items, giving medicines, teaching children, building houses, engaging with volunteering in their communities, going to church, and in general just living their lives, free of existential distress.

Free of social contagion.

Free of mental health diagnoses.

Free of trying to “game” the algorithms.

The loud voices would like leaders to lead in a perceived maelstrom of distress, anxiety, struggle, and despair.

But the loudest voices are most often the most incorrect voices. Just because those loud voices assert a statement about reality, that doesn’t make such a statement true.

But there are leaders who have figured this out already.

Find them. And follow them.