It’s ok to be scared.

There is a prevailing sentiment out there that fear is a sign of weakness, but the truth is, fear can be a productive thing. Understanding our fears and engaging with them is the healthy way to move forward.

Cancerland taught me a lot about fear: about my own, which was abject and all-consuming at first; about that of others who shared their experiences with me. Working through my fears showed me where I needed more support (medical or otherwise) and also helped me re-shape the way I thought about my disease. I still have fears, because I’m not completely insane, but I know how to manage and respond to them now, and I have built a support network that helps immensely.

A lot of what I talk about in Not Dead Yet is to do with change, and change is also scary. This is *normal*. A lot of consultants seem to want to sweep those fears under the rug and ignore them, but that’s not the path to success. When we engage with our fears, we can uncover ways of moving forward that work better for us than one-size-fits-all advice. 

This is because where there’s fear, there’s likely to be some complexity that needs attention. Maybe there’s a fear that doing things differently will put people out of a job – that can be addressed through transparency and supportive learning and development. Or maybe the old way of doing things had given some groups undue influence over others, and there are power balances that need to be recalibrated and restored. Sometimes it’s most visible as a stubborn morale problem; other times we see little conflicts and fiefdoms forming around particular people or ideas. Engaging with these symptoms can go a long way in preventing a bigger, badder set of problems down the line.

When we barrel ahead, ignoring or denying our fears, that’s really just recklessness, and it can have some pretty dire consequences. We might miss the real challenges and consequences of our decisions; we could undermine those decisions and set ourselves up for failure rather than success. There’s certainly a whole lot of corporate recklessness out there, and it’s expensive.

Changing the way you think about what you do so that you can do that thing better is one of the most powerful ways to improve your business’ efficacy and success. This is Lesson 4 of Not Dead Yet: Be brave, not fearless. 

Most workplaces today need ingenuity and teamwork to drive innovation and progress in a complex, uncertain environment. Fear can inhibit both. Fortunately, we are capable of pausing to challenge and re-frame our spontaneous reactions to unexpected stimuli. To override prepared fears, all of us must learn how to challenge our initial responses and identify more productive responses.

Amy Edmonson

For more on productive fear, see this excellent article by Amy Edmonson of Duke University.