Nick Jonsson
#1 Global Thought Leader on Executive Loneliness, International Bestselling Author and TEDx Speaker
Nick Jonsson Podcast Episodes
Resilience Unravelled
Nick Jonsson - Executive loneliness. Overcoming isolation in the business world.
April 3, 2023
About this episode
Nick wanted to know if he was the only one suffering from the feelings of isolation so he sent out a survey to other senior executives to find out how lonely they were in their roles. His first finding in 2019 was before the pandemic and showed that 30% of the senior executives he surveyed actually admitted they were suffering from loneliness in the workplace. He went back to the same group in 2020 during the pandemic and the figure had gone up to 59%. The next question he asked then was whether this was something they would talk to HR or their boss to. The answer was that 84% wouldn't. The type of role they were in meant they were the people who needed to be seen as being the strongest and stereotypically not able to ask for help.
Some people have external executive coaches but many people find it hard to trust internal bosses or HR so who did they turn to? When asked do you seek professional help 75% said no they were coping by themselves. Nick feels that one of the few good things that came out of the pandemic was that psychologists and therapists could be seen online so people could start to reach out without being seen in a waiting room somewhere. Anonymity is there now so there has been some progress but people are still reluctant to talk about it and seem to deny it because the stigma is still there.
In this podcast:
How leaders can find themselves in the isolation trap
Why leaders find it difficult to ask for help
How negative feelings can build up and take a mental and physical toll
