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Managing Employee Fear: Running An Unstoppable Business

March 8th, 2008

No other emotion has the same stopping power as fear. Everyone, across all countries and cultures, has at one time felt this powerful emotion. When introduced into the workplace, nothing else saps the efficiency from you or your workers faster than fear.

How then can you make your business an effective and unstoppable force? Gayle Gregory, motivational coach, leadership consultant, and co-author of the book “The Grand Experiment: An Expedition of Self-Discovery”, feels that the key to an unstoppable business is identifying and eliminating the fears present in the minds of its employees. “The source of innovation is a place of fearlessness where we are not trying to force things to happen,” says Gregory.

There are seven fears fundamental to the human psyche that Gregory has identified. These fears show up everywhere from personal choices to business activities. Although a person might not be aware of a fear are on a conscious level, it still has a marked effect upon the worker’s ability to innovate, communicate, and be efficient. Everyone in the workplace, from executives and managers to entry-level interns, can find some aspect of each of the seven fears within themselves. “The seven fears are universal,” Gregory observes.

Gregory believes that the world is not a scary place, but rather, an individual’s own perspective determines their fear. In fact, it is rare for two different people to feel the exact same about any given situation. Gregory challenges people to be aware of the choices they make when they’re deciding how to react. To dismantle the fear of the world, be proactive by making a conscious decision to react positively to a challenge rather than in a negative manner. “The world just is,” advises Gregory, “You give it meaning.”

Your workplace has an “Unstoppability Factor”. You can determine what that is by first identifying the fears that are present within it. So, where do these fears lurk? “Go out into the workplace and find out what prevents people from doing their work,” Gregory says, “Why are they standing around vending machines having conversations? What are those conversations about? Its all fear based.” Basically when fear is present, morale is low and employees are dissatisfied with their jobs and lose passion for the work they do.

Once you have identified the fears of your company, you must dismantle them. At first the process is difficult, as open discussion and admission of individual fears is necessary. However, by taking the initiative and laying the fears out to be discussed, you transform an uncomfortable necessity into a proactive game. “The only thing that holds fear in place is our unwillingness to look at it,” Gregory shares, “As soon as you place your fear out on the table, it begins to dissolve and lose it’s power.”

Gregory, who once held a lucrative position in a Fortune 500 company, left to explore the human condition by sailing to Mexico. Through her own introspection and spirituality, while sailing the Sea of Cortez, she realized what she learned about human fears realized had held her back. Knowing how costly fear can be in a work environment, Gayle now enjoys motivating and energizing the business world by purging their workplace fears, which she sees keeping all companies from reaching their fullest potentials.

To gain a competitive edge, your business needs to be perceived as bold and innovative. Fear prevents companies and their employees from reaching their full potential. In an enterprise where fear is present, internal conflict often diminishes a workplace or department’s ability to function smoothly as one contiguous unit.

Obviously a business that is fighting itself cannot also effectively fight its competition as well. “We’re so busy competing with each other that we forget to compete with competitors in the marketplace,” warns Gregory. Fears such as thinking that there is not enough resources, time, favor, and other commodities for all tend to breed individualistic attitudes rather than team spirit. To stop this, encourage an attitude of cooperation among your employees and share rewards among many rather than granting one first prize. Employees that are afraid to share their ideas or work together cripple the overall productivity of the workplace with their fears.

In the end, the unstoppability of your business lies with your decision to expose fears rather than let them rest. A fear no matter how small or well-hidden, decreases your company’s performance. Even if your business achieves its goal for the future, you are settling for far less than your maximum potential by not managing the fears within the organization and its workers. The morale of a work enviornment expands exponentially the vision of what you and your enterprise can do. “When you take the fear away, the automatic outcome is you energize your performance,” says Gregory.

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