Fear paralyzes groups, leaders, decisions, and success 

Fearful decisions by corporate leaders and executives have a way of replicating more poor decisions and creating fearful leaders.

Decisions Made In Fear Are Stifling . . .   

Over the past few weeks I’ve been getting notices of individuals that are being laid off from their positions after many dedicated years of service.

It seems to me that corporate leaders of the world not only have a business responsibility, but also a social responsibility. They must determine if they are operating out of fear when making these critical decisions, (or perhaps due to mandates), and understand the far reaching impacts to individuals, and to their organization.

I am not saying these layoffs are wrong; I’m suggesting a need to determine if the changes are based on fear, or for the benefit of their companies future.

If a leader operates out of fear, they will not make proper short or long term decisions. Fears and insecurities of those around them will increase, creating a paralyzed group of decision makers and leaders.  It then propagates itself, damages trust, and breaks down innovation. In other words, accomplishing the exact opposite of what’s intended (to excel and thrive). Once a leader creates that fear based environment, it is very difficult to recover; we’ve coached many.

Interesting enough these decisions are said to be made to improve business conditions. The idea is to get rid of poor performance and/or improve the bottom line in case there are poor future business conditions.

We don’t want short term fearful behavior at any level if we are ever to get the world economies back on track to prosperity.

Who is responsible for all of this and who owns this? Please read John Miller’s book The Question Behind The Question ISBN 0-9665832-9-9 and 12 Steps For Courageous Leadership ISBN 978-1-4567-1937-1 to help remain on track.

On our next segment we will talk about the “fear of losing control”. I would appreciate any and all comments.