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In
The Lead
More CEOs Seek Therapy
Seeing Shrink Helped Their Career, Executives
Say
By CAROL HYMOWITZ
Published on June 22, 2004
CEOs who have spent their careers beating out
rivals, proving they can get results and masking their vulnerabilities,
may not appear to be the type to seek psychotherapy. They seem
too focused on achieving external goals and proving their prowess
as unflappable leaders.
But more top executives are seeing therapists these days.
The stigma about mental illness persists, so most keep their
sessions secret. But unlike earlier generations of executives,
today's CEOs know they don't have to be falling apart to
seek help. "CEOs
have the same relationship problems and life-stage issues as
the rest of us," says Robert Michels, a psychiatrist and
psychoanalyst at Cornell University's Weill Medical College in
New York who has treated top executives in financial services
and other industries.
The CEO of a New York technology company didn't realize he was
depressed when he started skipping meetings and not returning
phone calls. But he did know that his remoteness was detrimental
to his employees and his business, and he asked a close friend
to recommend a therapist.
Just talking about his difficulties helped, and he began
communicating more regularly with his staff. But then, suddenly,
after a crisis at work, he withdrew all over again. "He may have instigated
that crisis, but it's forced him to think about whether he really
wants to be the boss who always has to be in front of people," says
Kenneth Eisold, the executive's psychotherapist. "He's under
pressure to do it or get out—but he sees that he has choices."
Once they reach the top, CEOs often find themselves isolated,
with hardly anyone to confide in, yet pressured to measure up
to an image. "They think others expect them to be visionary
or always in control," says Thomas Saporito, senior vice
president of RHR International, a Chicago-based consulting firm
that works with executives on management development and succession
planning. Add to this the difficulty that high-achieving executives
have in allotting time for their families or pursuits outside
of work and "you have a lot of CEOs saying, 'Oh my God,
what am I up against, and who can I talk to?' " he says.
"Psychological change doesn't always happen quickly," adds
Kerry Sulkowicz, a New York psychiatrist, psychoanalyst and founder
of Boswell Group, a management consulting firm. "But executives
are used to getting results quickly, which can make them very
motivated patients."
Scott Flanders, the chairman and CEO of Columbia House, a New
York marketer of entertainment products, says he's glad he had
therapy when he was still in his 30s and climbing through middle
management. At the time, he got along well enough with superiors
and subordinates, but he had intense rivalries with peers. A
human-resources executive at the publishing company where he
worked encouraged him to attend a week-long seminar in human
behavior at the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kan.
Soon after, he began weekly psychotherapy with a Menninger-trained
psychiatrist and stuck to the process for five years. He says
therapy helped him realize that much as he craved success, he
also felt unworthy of it. "My therapist once said, 'Scott,
you'd be happier if you lost everything and could start over,'
and that's when he got my attention."
As Mr. Flanders talked about his rivalries with his siblings,
it became easier for him to start forming alliances with peers "who
really wanted me to succeed," he says, noting that "I
was complicit before in encouraging them to hate me." One
of his fiercest former rivals is now a close friend and golf
partner.
If it weren't for psychotherapy, "I wouldn't be married
today, wouldn't be happy" and might not have become a CEO,
Mr. Flanders says. "Once you get in touch with yourself,
it's a lot easier to get in touch with others." Now, when
subordinates seem stuck at a certain level because they don't
get along well with others, he offers frank feedback. "I
don't want to avoid the issue by simply saying 'You're not ready
for a promotion,' " which a lot of managers do, he says.
Some executives worry that therapy will make them soft or
weak or cause them to lose their competitive edge. But Mr.
Flanders says therapy didn't change his ambition, just made
him more effective. "It
didn't change who I am fundamentally," he says.
Executives whose relatives or close friends have suffered
mental illnesses are particularly receptive to therapy. Jim
Arneson, president of Professional Instruments, a Minneapolis
engineering firm, was still in high school when his dad,
Theodore John "Ted" Arneson,
the company's founder, suffered his first bout of clinical depression.
The father, who is now 80, was later hospitalized for depression,
which he has suffered intermittently throughout his life.
"My dad taught us all to be proactive" about mental
health, says Mr. Arneson, who has done family therapy. His company
has a more liberal mental-health treatment policy than many businesses,
but he worries that there is a shortage of effective therapists. "My
family is very aware of how debilitating depression can be," he
says.
Michael Leven, chairman and CEO of US Franchise Systems,
Atlanta, which owns three hotel brands, says several months
of therapy earlier in his career enabled him to bounce back
from feeling depressed and angry after he uncovered accounting
irregularities at Days Inn and quit a job he loved there.
He sought therapy after he took a new job at Holiday Inn
but realized he was withdrawn and less productive than usual. "As a leader, you have to
jump on ideas and provide an environment where employees can
be creative and take risks," he says. "It's difficult
to do that if you're not in good psychological shape."
Can therapists who know little about finance or manufacturing
operations help executives in those fields who are floundering?
Dr. Eisold says that when he first began treating finance executives
and commodities traders he felt insecure. "They'd use all
this jargon as if I understood it, and I didn't know anything
about trading," he says. But he soon concluded that the
best thing he could do was not bother to understand the specifics
of trading.
"What I can help them think about is what is going on in
their minds when they have a good day or a bad day," he
says. Some lose money when they get caught up in rivalries. "They
see someone else trading big and don't want to be put down," he
says, "so they also trade big regardless of what the market
is doing."
But CEOs, who are used to giving orders, may be less likely than
other patients to be deferential to their therapists. Roger Brunswick,
a New York psychiatrist and co-founder of consultant Hayes Brunswick,
treated one CEO who lit up cigars without inquiring whether the
smoke was a problem.
Several sessions later, the CEO began talking about how he
rarely sought his directors' viewpoints, didn't pick up their
cues and might appear insensitive to them. "How do you think I feel
about your smoking cigars here?" Dr. Brunswick asked the
man. "Suddenly it dawned on him that I might not like cigar
smoke, and he realized that he acted the same with me as he did
in his company."
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