The topic of conversation this week has been fear. Fear of the future, fear of making “wrong” decisions, fear of not having answers, fear that someone above won’t realize how badly their own brain is hijacked before all things start tumbling downhill, and fear that whatever happens won’t be as Maria Forleo says “figureoutable”. Yes, sometimes the fear is obvious, but many times it’s hidden behind all the noise. So, let’s look at three areas where fear is commonly hiding, lurking in the shadows when you don’t even know it.
Fear of making a wrong decision
The first area can be easily identified when the running soundtrack of “I don’t know’s” show up:
- I don’t know what we should do.
- They didn’t take my first suggestion and now everything is a mess, I don’t even know where to start now.
- I have never done this before, therefore I don’t know.
Behind all of this lies a fear that whatever you do say might be the wrong choice, as if there was a book that identified right and wrong, you just haven’t been given a copy. Whether you are making decisions about a client’s welfare or trying to work your way out of a financial crisis, you don’t want to be exploring options from a place of fear. “I don’t know” is a clear indicator that your brain is not in the best position to be creating and exploring the multitude of options out there.
Fear of not being able to handle an outcome
The second area is marked by tunnel vision and the unwillingness to explore feedback or information about what might be dragging your company down. Maybe it’s a flaw in production, an underperforming leader causing high turnover, or an unwillingness to let go of work that could best be done by someone on your team. As a leader, you can’t always chase every problem that is coming to you, but ignoring obstacles based on a fear that you wouldn’t be able to handle the outcome if it were true is not an option. Managing the challenges and finding a way through is at the very essence of leadership.
Fear that your team members won’t be able to handle the struggle
The third area is the fear involved with watching people struggle or fail. Any parent will understand the challenge of watching your kids struggle in life, whether it’s with schoolwork, sports or relationships, it’s a natural tendency to want to swoop in and solve the perceived problem. Just like kids need to sharpen their teeth on challenges to develop life skills, employees need to face challenges in order to grow and develop. Sometimes that means trying and failing, sometimes it means receiving feedback that is direct in nature, and sometimes it means going through something that may be perceived as hard like a reduction in workforce or re-organization in order to build mental resilience. Don’t rob your employees of that life experience by trying to control their environment or protect them from the truth. There is a difference between providing air cover when it’s done with a full belief in their capabilities versus shielding them from struggle when it’s coming from a place of fear that they wouldn’t be able to handle the outcomes or deal with their own negative emotions as a result.
The bottom line with leadership is that we all have fears. The key is being able to uncover them quickly and adjust so we can make decisions from a cleaner place. Where do you find fear lurking behind your leadership decisions and what do you have in place to help you unmask any blind spots?
By the way, no blog post next week, I’ll be taking a much anticipated vacation. See you again in two weeks!