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I recently read one of the strangest books I've come across on leadership. The book is entitled, A First Rate Madness: Uncovering the Links Between Leadership and Mental Illness," written by Dr. Nassir Ghaemi, a professor of psychiatry at Tufts University School of Medicine.
The book interestingly links, for example, depression with the realistic thinking that leaders need to have in order to assess challenges accurately, and it connects melancholy to creativity. Dr. Ghaemi uses a number of well-known historical leaders to back his arguments. His conclusions are a mixed bag to me (his take on Hitler was pedestrian, common...and wrong).
But his take on trauma...and the benefit trauma can have on leadership...now that was worth every penny I spent on the book, and every moment reading it.
(I want to be really careful here. I don't want to minimize any trauma that any reader has suffered. Nor do I believe we should go looking for trauma or be insensitive to the struggle some have had with it.)
Let's begin with the fact that trauma does not affect everyone the same. Trauma can be defined as what soldiers experience in war, or people experience from sexual abuse as a child, physical abuse, crime, major car accidents, etc. There is the prevailing public view that all trauma is devastating, and that everyone is hurt immeasurably by it. We've watched too much TV. The facts are clear that most people are not.
About half of the population of the United States experiences trauma at least once in their lives, but only about 10% suffer from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). And for those who suffer from PTSD, most find its effects soften over time. For example, after the September 11th attacks, 7.5% of New Yorkers experienced full blown PTSD, but only 1.7% still had it after four months, and only 0.6% after six months.
"Similarly, in Gulf War veterans with initial PTSD," reports Dr. Ghaemi, "62.5 percent no longer had any symptoms a year after their initial trauma."
So it's important to note that most people are not permanently psychologically and emotionally damaged by trauma, and that out of those who suffer from PTSD, most heal reasonably well over time (sometimes with help to be sure).
Here's the paradox: Not only can trauma from time to time make one psychologically ill, it can also make people psychologically healthier. It's what Dr. Ghaemi calls "post-traumatic growth."
It has been proven that trauma acts as a kind of vaccine against the psychological and emotional impact of future traumas. This is the very definition of resilience.
If one experiences a childhood trauma, for example, he or she is better equipped to handle trauma later in life. If one suffers from PTSD once, one is less likely to suffer from it a second time.
The point is that trauma does not have to destroy us (it seldom does), and it can ultimately be of great benefit.
This flies in the face of the popular victimization of America, and undercuts those who exploit their own trauma and that of others to sell books and TV shows (not to mention the fact that it makes illegitimate much of the millions of dollars levied as punitive damages in frivolous lawsuits). We quite simply are better suited to deal with trauma than many "experts" give us credit for. Maybe this gives us a healthier way to view our traumas-that they can ultimately play to our good.
I think I'm a pretty compassionate guy. And for those of us who suffer lingering debilitating effects from trauma, I wish you healing and courage. Please find an expert who can help you. With no intention of trivializing the difficulty you've been through, it might help you to know that even trauma has the potential to make us better.
Noah Webster's dictionary defines resilience as "the ability to recover readily from adversity." Few characteristics are more fundamentally important to great leadership.
Our character patterns are born of practice...and, in this case, resilience is born of failure, setbacks, suffering...and trauma.
It seems there's truth to the idiom that, "what doesn't kill us, makes us stronger."
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