Leadership After Lockdown - ‘Leading the Way 3’: The Fear Factor

Note and Quotes on Leadership

Fear … probably a key factor in preventing a return to a more normal way of living after lockdown. Fear of returning to office work rather than home working, fear of travelling on public transport etc with of course the underlying fear of contracting Covid-19.

Leading teams through this period of heightened stress will be a challenge for many leaders. They will firstly have to deal with their own fears and, through understanding what fear really is, be able to help their colleagues deal with theirs.

Fear manifests itself in many ways – in worry, stress and anxiety, all of which - including fear itself - are emotions. We feel fear, we feel anxiety, we feel stress and we feel worry. As all emotions emanate from our thoughts - it is neurologically impossible to feel an emotion without firstly having a thought - thoughts are the source and emotions are the outcomes from our thoughts. By understanding the source of their own fears, leaders will be better able to appreciate their colleagues’ challenges and help them to deal with them successfully.

I know, for example, that many leaders deal with a ‘neurotic imposter’ syndrome - fear of being ‘found out’ for not being up to the job. Other fears they may have include fear of presenting to an audience, pitching for new business and having difficult conversations with colleagues.

Dr Roger Mills in the book Modello* explains why we think something else other than our self is responsible for our emotions.

“As soon as your thoughts change, your feelings (emotions) change. The common denominator behind all this is thought. As soon as people see a certain interpretation as valid, they may get angry, fearful or have some other feeling. The angry or fearful feeling is produced in the moment because of their thinking. The problem is that most of us are thinking so fast that we’re literally caught up in the EFFECT of our thoughts AFTER the fact of our thinking – so it SEEMS like the emotions come from someplace else. That’s the illusion.”

And David Bohm, the famous physicist wrote … “Thought runs you. Thought, however, gives false info that you are running it; that you are the one who controls thought. Whereas actually, thought is the one which controls each one of us.”

When we are able to quieten our mind and our habitual thoughts (the ‘brass band’ in our head) and remain centred and grounded, we can gain access to our wisdom and insights. This understanding, which is available to all of us, will assist us to escape from our fears, worries and anxieties and help create an inspirational and productive working environment.

And to finish …

In an article about John Keats in the Independent newspaper a couple of years ago, Bob Geldof wrote … “Like many today, Keats’ aim was to awaken in people their higher spiritual nature. The politics of cruel reason could only ever be overcome by working on the inner nature of the emotions and achieve the immortality of the ‘timeless realm of beauty’. In truth it is only love that makes transcendent the otherwise pedestrian condition of being human.”

* Modello: An Inside-Out Model of Prevention and Resiliency in Action, Jack Pransky 2011

Charlie Jackson
May 2021