"Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration"—Frank Herbert
What stops progress, change, creativity and innovation in your organisation?...
Fear.
One little word, and yet oh so obstructive.
It's not even obvious, because for most of us we don't go around shaking in fear throughout our working days.
No, it's a more subtle form of fear that shows up as pressure, discomfort, or sometimes even as anxiety. And yet nonetheless, manifestations of fear these are.
Fear shuts down our higher order thinking. It takes us back to fight, flight, freeze or freak out. Which was fine and helpful in the ancient jungles and savannahs of our many millennia of evolution. But there are no Tigers in the boardroom.
Fear leads to catastrophisation, overwhelm, and finally overreaction (or underreaction).
Fear leads to inauthenticity, masks, coverups, micromanagement and just about every other toxic workplace behaviour you can think of.
This gets exhausting fast, and without transparency, an organisation cannot be managed.
The solution is simple: Get Fearless!
A fearless culture is one based on a foundation of psychological safety, belonging and mutual respect.
A fearless culture favours truth and transparency over being right, correct, looking good or holding onto comforting lies.
A fearless culture allows for humanity, silliness, fun, mistakes, and even failures!
Being fearless isn't about suppressing fear, or pretending we don't experience it. It's not about feeling the fear and doing it anyway...
Being fearless means you know what to do with the fear when it shows up, and the foundations to put in place beforehand.
Being fearless means pressure and uncertainty doesn't become stress, and controversy doesn't escalate into conflict.
Being fearless is a choice to own and feel your emotions, appreciate them, then let them go and come back with an open heart.
Ultimately, you can't create a high-performing team or will high-performance from yourself. But you can create the environment from which high-performance reliably emerges.
This is what a fearless culture can do for you and your organisation.
Comentários