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| We are talking about control management here. Organizations and managers who use fear to manage the company...of being fired, of appraisals and of losing status. |
Employee and team motivation require risk-taking and speaking up. These characteristics are rare in a fear-based environment.
If fear exist in a team or organization, employees start playing politics and cover up mistakes…not good for employee motivation.
Rational And Irrational Fears
| There are two types of fear. There is the rational ones, like when I am walking across a street and there is a truck coming my way. If I walk in front of the truck I will surely get hurt or die. That is a real danger and I should avoid it. Then there are irrational ones. It is the things that we make up in our minds, like making a speech in front of a thousand people. |
If I go to a game park and I am taking a walk and all of a sudden I see a lion running towards me, how will my body react? My heart will beat faster. My hands will become sweaty. I will feel nervous.
This is my brain telling my body that it is in danger and that I should get ready to flee or fight (In this instance I hope I will flee).
Now, just before I am about to make that speech in front of a thousand people, how does my body react? My heart starts to beat very fast. My hands get sweaty and I am nervous...exactly like as if I had seen a lion running towards me.
In this instance it is my brain telling my body that I am in physical danger and my body gets ready to flee or flight again. Only, this time, my brain was lying to my body. I am not in physical danger.
The Role Of Awareness
Every time we are scared, we should ask ourselves, “Is it because of a real danger or is it my brain lying to me”. Most of the time we act on automatic and we naturally avoid things that scares us.That’s sometimes a good thing. If walking down a dark ally in the middle of the night in a gangster neighborhood scares me, I should avoid it. I might get killed.
The problem is that it becomes a habit and we avoid scary things that can’t kill us and in the process we miss out on so much growth and learning.
In his book “Play to Win”, Larry Wilson refers to the four fatal fears. We naturally tend to avoid them, but they are not caused by real dangers.
They also stop us from getting what we really want. It will have a direct impact on employee motivation.
Larry Wilson were talking about rejection, failure, being wrong and being emotionally uncomfortable. Let's have a look at them.
1. Rejection
Evolutionary psychologists study how human psychology has evolved. They have found that in the early years of human existence, there were lots of dangerous wild animals and people survived by sticking together in tribes.Being kicked out of the tribe, to be rejected, was basically a death sentence. You would be eaten by a wild animal within half an hour.
Rejection by the clan, was a real, rational danger in those early years of human existence and it got ingrained in our way of thinking.
Fortunately, we don’t have to worry about being killed by wild animals if we get rejected by people today. (Try to tell that to my teenage kids). We live in different times where rejection is actually caused by a perceived danger.
| The sad thing is that we still act on rejection. That is why group pressure in our teenage years are so big and don’t think that it goes away when we get older. When we get older it’s just more subtle, like the old saying of “keeping up with the Jones'”. |
The bottom-line is that we avoid rejection most of the time and it stops us from getting what we really want. We keep quiet when we should speak up. We don’t want to resign and start that new venture. What will the people say?
How does this impact employee motivation?
- People won’t speak up when they are unhappy.
- They will not risk asking for help.
- They will not open up to one another.
2. Failure
When my son was in grade one, he was looking forward to the annual school athletics event for days on end. He was particularly looking forward to the 80m event.On the day of the event, he came to me about an hour before the race and told me that he don’t want to take part anymore. I asked him why. His answer was that he is scared of coming last.
| Adults are usually not that honest, but what my son was expressing was an age-old human fear. What was his strategy? If I don’t take part, I cannot lose. There is absolutely no risk of losing if he doesn’t take part. Most of us do the same. We avoid situations where we might fail. If we are not 100% sure that we will succeed, we do not want to risk it. |
Somebody once said that it is hard to learn out of mistakes you’ve never made. We are suppose to risk and fail and learn out of our mistakes and grow wiser in the process. If we avoid all possible failures, we will never learn.
3. Being Wrong
Have you ever been in an argument with your husband, wife, significant other or fellow employee and halfway through the argument you realize that you are also wrong?What do we do?
“Sorry, I am wrong and you are right” No! We keep on defending our point of view. Later it’s not even about the issue anymore. It’s about winning the argument. This is that fear of being wrong.
Some people take this to the extreme where they become dictators in their work or family lives. These people surround themselves with others that they perceived to be weaker or less intelligent than they are.
If somebody challenges them, they work them out. That’s why there is usually a leadership crisis when a dictator isn’t there anymore.
How does this stop us from getting what we want? We miss out on getting a fresh perspective on things. We miss out on changing our ways of thinking and ultimately our thinking habits.
4. Emotional Discomfort
Avoiding conflict falls in this category. Conflict makes us feel emotionally uncomfortable.During some of my sessions, I sometimes challenge people to do stupid things as an energizer. It is fascinating to see how many corporate executives, simply cannot do it. They simply can’t. It makes them feel emotionally uncomfortable.
Talking about sex usually makes people feel emotionally uncomfortable as well. This sometimes stop people from discussing their sex lives with there partners.
It's what stops people from acknowledging one another and telling one another that they appreciate them.
Fear Cannot Motivate People
Some people say that they have done amazing things when they were scared. I had an experience like this myself in my younger years. I’ve jumped over a 1½ m fence while running away from an ostrich.I believe it wasn’t my fear of the ostrich that made me do that. It was my NEED to stay alive.
With every fear there is a need.
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When the need is stronger than the fear, you get action. When it is the other way around, you get NO action – you get avoidance.
It is this avoidance game that stops us from getting what we want.
Now, the big question is, where is it stopping you to get what you want. Where is it limiting employee motivation? Where is it stronger than your need? Ask yourself the following:
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Ask your employees to answer these same questions. It will improve employee motivation.
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Return from The Four Fatal Fears to Team Motivation
Return from The Four Fatal Fears to Sustainable Employee Motivation
FREE EBOOK: Inspirational Goal Setting For Teams! A Step-By-Step Process  |
FREE EBOOK: A Guide To Inspirational Goal Setting! A Step-By-Step Process  |
Wondering Who I am?
I like to describe myself as an energetic, purpose driven, educated, present moment, emotionally aware, fun loving professional life coach, group coach, motivator, father and marathon runner.
My life purpose is to help people, groups and companies to find their energy and zest for life.
If you want to make use of my services for employee motivation, you can contact me here.
If you want to know more about self motivation, you might want to read about The 9 Keys To Energize Your Life Purpose
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