Overcoming Leadership Fears
"The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear." - Nelson Mandela
A company or team can face innumerable threats: a volatile economy, politics, cost overruns, competition and disruptive technology, among others. But there’s a particular internal threat that can dwarf them: fear at the leadership level.
Leadership fears can destroy a company in many ways, including:
Indecisiveness, leading to missed opportunities
Emotional deception, which prompts bad decisions
Suppression of people, forcing a high turnover
Insecurity that manifests as self-centeredness
Confusion that causes leaders to miss threats at the doorstep
Fearful leaders often struggle to deal with difficult issues or critical conversations, so moderate troubles balloon into real crises. They also resist taking risks necessary to move their companies forward.
Fears can take many forms: discomfort, incapacity, negative feelings, failure and self-criticism. Each carries numerous side effects, most of which are rooted in fear of rejection. These fears make a leader ineffective and paralysed. Plans are often forfeited, as is success.
We often forget that fears are part of the universal human experience. They’re normal, even healthy to some degree. The goal is to avoid compensating for them and, instead, identify and overcome them. In my coaching this is a topic that repeatedly comes up. It can prove invaluable, as it can be difficult to recognise your own fears, be curious about them, and work with the resistance that your feel in order to reach better results. Leaders who can successfully dial-down their fears , and learn from them, make the most significant strides.
So, how can this be achieved?
"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.' - Marie Curie
The fear-reduction process has four fundamental pillars, as outlined by Peter Bregmen in his book Leading with Emotional Courage: How to Have Hard Conversations, Create Accountability, and Inspire Action on Your Most Important Work (Bregman, 2018):
Fears are greatly influenced by a lack of self-confidence. Leaders who boost their confidence address the most challenging of the four pillars.
Strengthen your relationships and support structure.
Practising intentionality moves leaders farther away from fear through focus and an effective game plan.
Facing fears directly and exposing them puts them behind you for good.
This last point is critical. High performing leaders possess the ability to accept the reality that is present, without false interpretation, and then are able to be compassionate with self in order to move forward with a growth mindset.
Just asking the simple question “What needs to happen?” can help to reframe a fear towards action and resolution.
What do you think? I’d love to hear from you. I can be reached here and on LinkedIn.
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Photo by Kunal Goswami on Unsplash
