When I see my coworkers’ anxiety spike, I no longer treat that as a problem to resolve at the symptoms level. Instead, I respect that the intelligent people I’m working with have life experiences and knowledge that is leading them to be stressed about the current situation. Anxiety is high, which means we need to sort through the situation.

Sometimes this just means they are lacking necessary information. Incomplete context can generate stress. But sometimes it means that the situation is bad, and we need to intervene in whatever ways are possible to modify the situation. Addressing the symptoms will not work, it is only by identifying the root causes and changing them that we can actually resolve the anxiety.

To do that, you have to trust that anxiety is a useful signal, and be curious about it.