How are your fears hindering you at work or life?
I cannot even think of how many times I have read that fear is going to stop you from growing. As I recall in 2017, I was able to attend a Tony Robbins’ event, “Unleash the Power Within”, overcoming our fears was the big step to achieving something grand. We literally walked over hot coals! In doing so we had to first push back the fear of burning our feet. This event was life changing. I was able to walk away from this experience and implement some changes in my life. I share this because over time, like many things we forget to refocus ourselves to push down fears that stop us from moving forward. If we are leading others, fear can stop us from making decisions that best help our organizations and people.
At some point in our lives, we faced a decision that was scary, and then later regrated it. For me, I regret not joining the military. I contemplated joining before I left high school but changed my mind out of fear. I hold our men and women in uniform in the highest regard, and my own dad served in the Air Force. I am not saying I dislike how my life turned out, because I am very happy with life as it is. What I am saying is, what would life have been if we made our decisions without fear? We are but one decision away from another path. Fear keeps us guarded and we fail to make decisions freely.
Leaders make several decisions in a day. There are times, especially when a leader is new that our decisions will alienate our people. People will disagree with some decisions of leaders, and this is difficult to accept when the intension is meant to be positive. Assume for a moment you are new to an organization, and you have been asked to lead after the previous leaders left the organization’s moral low. Decision making in this situation could be tricky. Fear of offending followers and only compounding the poor moral is a real factor. However, this is a trap we must avoid. Fear of how decisions are perceived, stop us from make good decisions too. To combat these leaders, first should be confident in their decisions. Secondly, involve the people of the organization in much of the decisions needed in some way. Third have clear reason for the decision made. Finally, leaders must accept that they will never make everyone happy all the time. No leader goes out to offend the people in their organization. What should always be part of all decisions is whether it brings some benefits to the people and the organization. Adding value is the goal and fearing the decision-making stops progress.
What fears are you experiencing that are stopping your progress?
Are you adding value to your organization, without fear?
What are you doing to acknowledge your fears and consciously interrupt this mindset?
Fear has stopped many people in their tracks, and leaders are no different. Fear will make us over cautious and stop us from making sound decisions. We must get into our heads and knock-down this mindset. I hope you all have a great week, fear free and please leave your comments below.
Steven C. Bucks-Leading Conversations
