Why worry about the wellbeing of winners?

Success in business is normally an energizer, but everything changed in this era of pandemic fatigue, writes Merete Wedell-Wedellsborg 

The pandemic has created winners and losers. For obvious reasons, we tend to give attention to the wellbeing of those who have suffered the hard blows and think about how we can help them to recover.  

But speaking with leaders from more than 25 global companies who have seen their businesses flourish and bloom reveals a striking pattern: leaders at winning companies report having deeply mixed emotions, feeling just as exhausted as their more unfortunate peers, and on top of that being puzzled by their reactions to their own flourishing during a period of great uncertainty.  

The usual psychological laws of winning seem to have been disrupted. Why are winning leaders not feeling grateful, accomplished and fired up right now?  

First, there is survivors’ guilt: many leaders have a nagging feeling that their success is not earned, but…