Fear is a natural reaction to risks associated with the unknown. Business leaders are faced with the unknown quite often. Some allow their fear to drive them to the dark corner of leading by fear. Better leaders lead by activating encouragement when fear creeps in.
Some business leaders are masquerading as experts and fear their own insecurities, unable to admit when they don’t know something. When a leader fears being discovered as a fraud in their domain they intentionally or unintentionally project their fears into a weapon that gets used on their team and their peers. They use their weapon of mass fear to get things done and assure accountability and it works, at least in the short term. These leaders have blindly adopted a leadership style that uses fear to drive their team.
Activate an encouraging leadership style instead of fear when leading your team. To do this, set the target without the added threat. Cultivate a culture where employees strive to achieve the target because that is what is expected, not because if they don’t do it they will be in trouble. Don’t allow your fears of the target or the unknown spread through your team. Instead spread a positive can-do attitude where your employees want to rise up to the challenge to feel a sense of accomplishment.
You and your team are in it together, you can learn it together and get through it together. Your team doesn’t expect you to know it all. Your team doesn’t think you are invincible to fear. There is no need to pretend with them. Learn and grow with your team when you are in areas of uncertainty. Leaders who do this without fear have an adaptive leadership style. An adaptive leadership style flexes based on the situation, the people and your own knowledge or experience.
By keeping your fears of the unknown from your team and leading through encouragement you will provide real motivation and the drive to build something lasting.
Last updated on March 4th, 2018 at 07:06 pm
