A Holiday Message for the Leaders Who Keep Going
As I post this on December 23rd, many of you are still working—checking emails between family gatherings, reviewing Q4 numbers, planning 2026 strategy. That relentless commitment got you here. But particularly this time of year, I need to talk to you about something rarely discussed in boardrooms: the mental health crisis quietly undermining personal lives and professional leadership.
The Mask of Success
Here’s a sobering statistic: 49% of entrepreneurs struggle with at least one mental health condition, with depression affecting 30% compared to just 15% of the general population (Freeman et al., 2015). Among business leaders, depression rates are roughly double those in other professions (Pillay, 2019).
Therapist Terrence Real (1997) identified “covert depression”—hidden depression particularly common in men that manifests not as sadness, but as workaholism, irritability, and emotional withdrawal. The behaviors our culture rewards—extreme hours, appearing invulnerable, pushing through pain—often mask serious struggles. As Real notes, “the very forces that help create [men’s depression] keep us from seeing it” (Real, 1997, p. 22).
When Your Brain Betrays Your Business
Depression fundamentally alters thinking and decision-making. Depressed leaders experience impaired concentration, slower thinking, and compromised judgment (Raeburn, n.d.).
Consider how cognitive biases interact with depression. Confirmation bias—seeking information that confirms existing beliefs—gets amplified by depression’s tendency toward “negative self-referent processing” (Dainer-Best et al., 2018). Your quarterly review becomes a catalog of failures rather than balanced assessment.
The optimism bias that helps entrepreneurs take risks inverts into pessimism bias under depression (Sharot et al., 2012). Depressed individuals exhibit “depressive realism”—overly pessimistic expectations that lead to paralysis (Kahneman, 2011). You stop pursuing profitable ventures convinced they’ll fail.
Depression also creates an availability heuristic problem. Your readily available negative feelings get unconsciously projected onto your team, market, and opportunities. Everything looks like a threat.
The Ripple Effect
Dr. Srini Pillay’s research reveals that depression impairs leaders’ empathy—making it harder to “walk in anyone else’s shoes” (Pillay, 2019). This explains tone-deaf decisions: unrealistic deadlines, benefit cuts without considering impact, failure to recognize team burnout.
More concerning: emotions are contagious. Mirror neurons cause us to unconsciously attune to others’ emotional states (Pillay, 2019). When a CEO struggles with unacknowledged depression, that mood “trickles down” through the organization. Result? Higher turnover, increased absenteeism, decreased creativity, declining performance (Pillay, 2019).
Studies of 12,000+ people across 11 countries found C-Suite executives experience mental health issues at higher rates than employees (Bupa, 2020). When leaders respond by doubling down on work as an escape mechanism, they create a self-reinforcing cycle of deteriorating mental health and increasingly poor decisions.
The Business Case
When entrepreneurs ignore mental health, they sabotage their ventures. The World Economic Forum reports that founders who neglect emotional well-being see performance and ventures suffer, while those prioritizing mental health achieve more enduring success (Muenster & Hokemeyer, 2019).
Depression impairs concentration, causing errors and oversights (Raeburn, n.d.). Strategic decisions get delayed or botched. Innovation stalls. “Too much depression and anxiety can shut down creativity” (Caldac Clinic, 2023)—starting at the top.
Poor decisions made under untreated depression include: alienating investors through erratic behavior, turning down opportunities due to low self-worth, making grandiose moves to compensate for inner emptiness. Real argues that “hidden depression drives several of the problems we think of as typically male,” including career self-sabotage (Real, 1997).
Yet 75% of entrepreneurs worry about mental health, while only 23% see professionals (Small Biz Silver Lining, 2024). Barriers? Cost (73%) and time (52%). But what is it costing you not to address it?
Your Holiday Gift to Yourself
Give yourself permission to be human. That’s not weakness—seeking help is what strong leaders do when recognizing problems outside their expertise.
Five practical steps:
- Acknowledge reality. Working 70-hour weeks, snapping at your team, feeling numb, or making erratic decisions aren’t badges of honor—they’re warning signs.
- Build support. Research shows 71% of female entrepreneurs have mental health support systems, compared to only 52.5% of male entrepreneurs (Founder Reports, 2024). Men, close this gap.
- Schedule it. Put mental health maintenance on your calendar with the same priority as investor meetings.
- Set boundaries. Exercise, sleep, and time off aren’t luxuries—they’re the foundation of sustainable performance.
- Lead by example. When you prioritize mental wellness, you give your organization permission to do the same, transforming culture and preventing crises (Getchell, 2025).
The Bottom Line
Your business strategy is only as sound as the mind creating it. Depression isn’t a character flaw—it’s a treatable condition that, unaddressed, will undermine every other investment you make.
The most successful leaders aren’t those who never struggle; they’re those with the courage to acknowledge struggles and take action. That self-awareness? That’s the real competitive advantage.
This holiday season, give yourself honest self-assessment. Your business, team, and loved ones are counting on you—not to be invincible, but to be healthy enough to lead effectively.
Here’s to a year of clear-minded leadership and sustainable success.
About Rich Smith: Rich Smith is an executive advisor, behavioral marketing strategist, investor, and CMO known for helping leaders finally understand not only what strategies work, but why. With three decades of experience leading growth across financial services, healthcare, technology, and consumer brands, Rich has guided companies through crises, rebuilt brands from the ground up, and helped position organizations for nine-figure exits. Connect with him on LinkedIn, at RichSmith’s.blog, and The Revenue Science Podcast.
References
Bupa. (2020, November 19). Business leaders self-medicating to cope with COVID-19 pressure [Press release].
Caldac Clinic. (2023). CEO mental health: Understanding stress and burnout at the top. https://caldaclinic.com/the-truth-about-the-mental-health-of-ceos/
Dainer-Best, J., Lee, H. Y., Shumake, J. D., Yeager, D. S., & Beevers, C. G. (2018). Determining optimal parameters of the self-referent encoding task: A large-scale examination of self-referent cognition and depression. Psychological Assessment, 30(11), 1527–1540.
Founder Reports. (2024). 17 mental health statistics for entrepreneurs. https://founderreports.com/entrepreneur-mental-health-statistics/
Freeman, M. A., Johnson, S. L., Staudenmaier, P. J., & Zisser, M. R. (2015). Are entrepreneurs “touched with fire”? Academy of Management Perspectives. https://doi.org/10.5465/amp.2017.0001
Getchell, E. (2025, January 3). Covert depression: The silent killer of men [LinkedIn post]. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ethangetchell_not-all-depressed-men-look-sad-activity-7366439441214705665-tXHt
Kahneman, D. (2011). Thinking, fast and slow. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Muenster, M., & Hokemeyer, P. (2019, March 19). There is a mental health crisis in entrepreneurship. Here’s how to tackle it. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/stories/2019/03/how-to-tackle-the-mental-health-crisis-in-entrepreneurship/
Pillay, S. (2019, June 17). When CEO depression and anxiety trickle down into a company. Chief Executive. https://chiefexecutive.net/when-ceo-depression-and-anxiety-trickle-down-into-a-company/
Raeburn, C. (n.d.). Addressing depression among CEOs: Balancing leadership and mental health. Dr. Carolina Raeburn Psychology Blog. https://carolinaraeburn.com/addressing-depression-among-ceos/
Real, T. (1997). I don’t want to talk about it: Overcoming the secret legacy of male depression. Scribner. https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/I-Dont-Want-to-Talk-About-It/Terrence-Real/9780684835396
Sharot, T., Guitart-Masip, M., Korn, C. W., Chowdhury, R., & Dolan, R. J. (2012). How dopamine enhances an optimism bias in humans. Current Biology, 22(16), 1477–1481. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2012.05.053
Small Biz Silver Lining. (2024). Entrepreneur mental health and burnout statistics. https://lifehackmethod.com/blog/entrepreneur-mental-health-statistics/
