Rob Dobi’s article is based on a four-year ethnographic study of a professional services firm that attempted a major transformation to reverse declining performance but ultimately failed. The research involved extensive observation, interviews, and document analysis. It reveals how leadership anxiety, if unacknowledged and unmanaged, paralyzes organizations and leads to defensive behaviors that sustain the status quo rather than change. Anxiety among leaders manifests as fear about their competence and social expectations, creating a cycle of idealizing comforting visions, blaming others, engaging in empty rituals, and ultimately scapegoating. The study emphasizes that successful transformation requires leaders to recognize, share, and manage anxiety by cultivating courage to face worries, curiosity to seek feedback, and care to support others. The article counters the traditional view of leadership as flawless confidence and calls for a culture that humanizes anxiety and channels it toward adaptive change.
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