How to harness anxiety into a positive force
Economic shocks, geopolitical tensions, and the rise of AI are fueling uncertainty in finance. How can finance professionals navigate these anxious times?
Finance professionals today are navigating a volatile and fast-evolving environment full of uncertainty. Geopolitical rivalries, policy shifts and the threat of automation have real implications for their work. For example, four out of 10 US workers worry that AI will eventually make some or all of their job duties obsolete in the future. Geopolitical risk has been linked to lower equity returns and heightened market volatility over the past 30 years. Their clients are fearful too: a recent survey found that nearly half of US investors are too nervous to invest.
“Our brain is an organ that's designed to protect us by predicting the future. When there's uncertainty, the brain doesn't know how to predict. Often our fear networks get activated and our brain goes on fight, flight or freeze mode. When it's a real threat, for example, if a vehicle is about to hit you, it makes sense. But right now, we have uncertainty as a perceived threat,” explained Luana Marques, Associate Professor in Psychology at Harvard Medical School and former President of the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
This sense of uncertainty can drive up anxiety or the feeling of fear or apprehension of looming danger. It’s a natural human response, in which the brain’s limbic system is activated, triggering the release of stress hormones that impact alertness, mood, sleep, appetite and other functions. This is why anxious people experience rapid heart rates, irritability, trouble sleeping, gastrointestinal issues, among others. However, sometimes the magnitude of the threat is misinterpreted by the brain as worse than it really is.
“Anxiety is not the problem. The problem is what we do when we feel anxious. Most people avoid. They start to not look at the numbers as often. They may not go and check their portfolio as often. Some people are just frozen. I've seen a lot more of this in the current climate. They just don't know what to do anymore,” said Marques.
Upskilling leaders for anxious times
Employees naturally look to organization leaders for reassurance. But leaders themselves are not immune to anxiety. Over half (58%) of CEOs are feeling pessimistic about the global economy, up 40 percentage points from 18% in fall 2024, according to a Fortune/Deloitte CEO survey conducted in April 2025.
While leaders are traditionally expected to be visionary and inspiring, those may not be the qualities that an anxious workforce needs the most today.
“Leaders sometimes can recognize anxiety, but they say, ‘Well, don't worry, because in a couple of years we're going to be great. We have a vision and strategy.’ No one cares about your vision and your strategy in moments of anxiety. What they care about is your presence and your actions,” said Gianpiero Petriglieri, Associate Professor of Organizational Behavior at INSEAD in France.
Petriglieri, who is also a psychiatrist by training, adds much of today’s workplace anxiety is existential. Employees are worried about their identity, impact, and future relevance. “People aren't just worried about performance. They are asking, ‘Can I still be the person I was hoping to be? Will I continue to make a difference, or will I be replaced?”
In these moments, he explains, the leader’s ability to “hold” their own fears as well as others becomes an important skill. This means working through distress rather than avoiding it, paying attention and having conversations about people’s fears.
Acknowledging challenges without minimizing or catastrophizing them is also another important skill.
As Marques puts it: “When I'm talking to leaders nowadays, I'm talking about, first, their role in creating certainty. Leading with clarity right now is very helpful for your employees because they want to know what to expect. Any kind of ambiguity is very likely, for the anxious brain, being misinterpreted as something bad. Clarity allows people to be able to regulate their brains.”
Leaders must also be transparent about their limitations, even when it's difficult to admit they don’t have all the answers. What matters most, says Petriglieri, is what leaders and employees can do together.
“Everyone prefers to say, ‘We are going to harness the advent of AI in order to become a much more agile and impactful financial firm.’ It's much more exciting to say that than to say, ‘I have no idea what this is going to mean for us and how things are going to shake out. But we are here with each other and this is the stuff that matters for the next week and this is the stuff that doesn't matter. Let's do it. What do you need?’” he added. “I think anxiety requires that we focus on the present and the work.”
This, he says, will allow people to channel their anxiety into something more positive.
Channeling anxiety into action
Neuroscientists credit anxiety with helping humans survive for centuries by alerting us to dangers, such as predators, that threatened our safety. In the workplace, these signals can also be harnessed into something useful.
A University of Toronto study found that moderate levels of anxiety can enhance performance by helping employees focus and regulate their behavior. The research showed that people who are emotionally intelligent are able to recognize their anxiety and use it to focus on performing tasks. In today’s challenging work environment, that energy can be redirected toward studying, reskilling, or working on high-potential business areas.
Making this shift can start small. “The first strategy for everyone is to control what you can control, not what you wish you could to control,” said Marques. She says this can be as simple as laying out your schedule for the day.
She also recommends a “shift, approach and align” strategy to managing anxiety: “You can start by being careful about predictions in the brain and then shifting up thinking and approaching instead of avoiding. If you're afraid of the markets, collect data. If you're afraid of your client being upset about their investments, meet with your client. The key is to move toward the discomfort, and finally, align with your values by making sure that you’re doing things that are meaningful.” These values could include respect, integrity, religion, or financial security.
Petriglieri reminds investment professionals that it’s possible to manage anxiety by tapping into the principles of professional investing. For example, in volatile markets, seasoned investors are trained not to panic; some take advantage of downturns to invest more while valuations are low.
“Investment professionals are used to lots of anxious people. They know how to deal with them when they are clients. But the principle does not change. It’s just that instead of seeing financial portfolios, they’re seeing their own identity portfolio collapsing,” he said. “In this dip, what you need to do is to invest in this moment so you can come out wealthier on the other side.”
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