Dealing With Fearful Workers?

3 techniques that put fear to good use

Are you dealing with fearful workers who are too afraid to do things differently and deliver results?

You might think that reducing these fears should be your number one priority, but research reveals you’d be better off focusing on building their confidence than reducing their fear. Because when you reduce people’s fears, you stand the chance of reducing their intensity as well. 

It turns out that in the brain, there isn’t much difference between intense feelings of fear and intense feelings of excitement. They are known to be neurological correlates. Think, for example, about what happens to you when you’re really afraid. Your palms sweat, your heart races, your breath gets short, and your stomach teems with butterflies. Well, guess what? These same things happen when you’re going to have sex! Or ride on a roller coaster, or watch a scary movie, or splash through rapids in a kayak. As far as scientists can tell, human beings are the only creatures to purposely seek out dangerous situations just for fun. But that fun and excitement are contingent upon having a strong enough internal constitution to withstand fear’s intensity.
 
When a person’s constitution—or their confidence—exceeds his or her fears, the feelings prompted by the situation start to skew toward pleasure. A worker who has built up confidence (by doing such things as gathering all the facts, practicing and rehearsing, or seeking out coaching) will view a challenge far more positively than someone who hasn’t. The worker converts fear into excitement. More importantly, when challenges are experienced as pleasurable, workers will start seeking them out instead of avoiding them. 

When you harness fear, you put its energy to good use. Fear, like electricity, can stun you into paralysis. But when it’s properly harnessed, it can provide workers with the energy they’ll need to push through challenging situations.
 
Here are three techniques that will help you get the most out of workers’ fears:
 
Normalize fear. What’s worse than fear? Its emotional corollary, shame. Many workers, particularly men, are embarrassed to admit when they feel fearful. They compare themselves to more confident coworkers and categorize themselves as inadequate, wondering, “Am I a wimp? What’s wrong with me?” When shame enters the room, confidence walks out the door.
 
In dealing with fearful workers, it’s tempting to discount their feelings by telling them, “Don’t be afraid.” But doing so is ineffective and, frankly, it’s just silly. They are afraid. Instead, acknowledge it. Acknowledging fear lessens workers’ shame and casts fear as expected and ordinary. “Of course you’re afraid,” you might say, “why wouldn’t you be?”
 
Link fear to courage. Many people (wrongly) define courage as “the absence of fear.” The reality, though, is that courage and fear are intractably linked. When we are acting courageously, we are, most typically, very afraid. Surprisingly, courage is not fearlessness. Courage is fearful. What makes courage courage is that we don’t allow fear to stop us. Instead, we press on.
 
When fear is incorporated in the definition of courage, fearful situations turn into opportunities to demonstrate courage. The worker whose voice quivers when giving a presentation to the board, but who pushes forward despite being afraid, is being courageous. So is the nervous worker who knocks on your door to let you know about a mistake. As is the worker who risks his or her job by giving you feedback that nobody else had the guts to say.
 
This is exactly the type of behavior you want to acknowledge and reinforce. Few things stiffen the spine with pride as much as hearing your boss say, “I’m impressed with how courageous you are” or “Thanks for being so courageous.”
 
Tap into fear’s energy. One of the best ways to deal with fear is to use it against itself. Fear has energy; it’s not inert. And when properly harnessed, this energy provides the momentum to face challenging situations.
 
As a senior executive once told me: “The most important thing people need to know is that leadership depends on having sweaty palms. Our managers need to regularly be doing things that are so scary for them that it causes their palms to sweat. Fear comes with challenges, and having sweaty palms shows you, physiologically, that fear is energizing the body.”
 
For workers, having sweaty palms means learning to carry fear when facing challenges. Again, courage is not about being fearless. It’s about taking your fear with you. Part of your job is to help people to stop fearing fear. Fear is a business reality. However, harnessing fear helps workers capitalize on its energy so that they can do challenging and courageous things.    

Bill Treasurer is a workplace expert, courage pioneer, and author of Courage Goes to Work: How to Build Backbones, Boost Performance, and Get Results. Founder of Giant Leap Consulting, a consulting and training company specializing in courage-building, he advises organizations—including NASA, eBay, Lenovo, Saks Fifth Avenue, Spanx, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Pittsburgh Pirates—on teaching workers the kind of courage that strengthens businesses and careers.  Visit GiantLeapConsulting.com Follow @btreasurer Connect Bill Treasurer