Harnessing Anxiety for Growth: Find Your Fierce with Dr. Jacqueline Sperling
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In this episode of Do Good to Lead Well, I welcome Dr. Jacqueline Sperling, a clinical psychologist, assistant professor in psychology at Harvard Medical School, and the co-founder and co-program director of the McLean Anxiety Mastery Program at McLean Hospital to discuss her latest book, “Find Your Fierce: How to Put Social Anxiety in Its Place.”
Motivated by long waitlists at treatment centers and the slow path many face toward accessing help for social anxiety, Jacqueline Sperling shares her mission: to offer practical, evidence-based tools that anyone can use, regardless of clinical diagnosis or age. She grounds her message in empowerment, emphasizing that anxiety is a universal emotion—sometimes adaptive, sometimes disruptive—but always manageable with the right approach.
Major themes include:
• Understanding Anxiety: Dr. Sperling defines anxiety as a forward-looking form of fear and reframes it as a resource that can help us prepare for life’s challenges, provided we don’t let it dominate our decision-making.
• The Thoughts-Feelings-Behaviors Model: Our discussion breaks down how our internal dialogue, emotions, and actions interconnect. Techniques like “stop, drop, and roll” and identification of unhelpful thought categories (catastrophizing, shoulds, overgeneralizing) are brought to life through questions from the live audience.
• Leadership and Team Dynamics: We explore how leaders can compassionately address anxiety in their teams, foster psychological safety, and model healthy boundaries, which are especially during disruptive times and organizational uncertainty.
Check out this episode for an honest, caring invitation for how we can create lasting mental health hygiene: a daily, mindful practice to care for ourselves, as we pursue meaningful work and lead with compassion.
What You’ll Learn
- How to flip the script when you always expect the worst.
- How leaders can compassionately support team members stuck in negative thought cycles.
- Strategies for dealing with imposter syndrome and perfectionism.
- Practical tips for receiving feedback without defensiveness.
- Ways to maintain resilience in uncertain, disruptive times.
- The power of mental health hygiene.
Podcast Timestamps
02:15 Dr. Jacqueline Sperling's background
04:07 Origin story of "Find Your Fierce" book
05:48 Understanding anxiety vs. fear
07:49 The three-component model (thoughts, feelings, behaviors)
10:04 Stop, drop, and roll technique
14:23 Managing catastrophizing in team members
18:54 Addressing imposter syndrome
23:01 Overcoming fear of speaking up in meetings
28:08 Values-based anxiety management
31:53 The "shoulds" and "musts" trap
33:51 Receiving feedback effectively
38:03 Managing team anxiety during disruption
40:06 Addressing perfectionism
44:40 Delegation and leadership anxiety
48:33 Overgeneralizing dangers
52:07 Mental health hygiene practices
KEYWORDS
Positive Leadership, Managing Anxiety, Social Anxiety, Thought-Feeling-Behavior Model, Catastrophizing, Mindfulness, Imposter Syndrome, Perfectionism, Exposure Therapy, Behavioral Experiments, Self-insight, Mental Health Hygiene, Resilience, Stress Management, Reframing, Team Dynamics, Sleep Hygiene, Self-care, CEO Success
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