Dealing with fear in an organization

I was sitting in the meeting with a few senior managers. I could not take away my mind from the high pressure to deliver on our customer expectations, as we were lacking behind on them. At the same time, as a manager, I needed to bring up the delicate subject of people’s health. I had noticed many of the “overload” symptoms in my team, especially during the last few months.And to be honest, I also observed these symptoms with myself. There were simply too many things at the same time, we were feeling overwhelmed and not able to become in control. I also noticed difficulties in the coordination and communication with my colleagues, irritations popped-up easily and sometimes I even noticed severe concentration problems.

I remembered from some years ago, working as an operations manager in the transport industry, that fear to speak-up can lead to highly undesired situations. It actually came to a point where people felt being bullied, treated totally unfair and became disconnected from work, the organization and even from themselves. People just showed-up, did what they were told to do, but the ‘spirit’ was never there. Needless to say the performance went down the drain, managers were pressured to fix the performance and started pushing even harder. A dead spiral.

What I learned from those experiences? A lot, especially about myself. First of all I learned how important it is to stick to the values that are important to me. I experienced what positive impact that has for connecting with others. If you want to take fear out of the organisation, it starts with leaders being aware of themselves and what’s important for being trustworthy, to be highly predictable and consistent in your behaviour. It creates trust, the fundament for all connections and relations. Also the fundament for a healthy organization where people can thrive and will perform because they want to.

How to recognize symptoms of fear in an organization?

If you find more than 3 of the symptoms below in an organization, you most likely are dealing with fear.

• Micro-management, simple decisions not allowed to be taken at appropriate levels in the organization.
• Time measurement instead  of measuring output, people being hesitating to leave when the boss still is at work
• A unhealthy competitive atmosphere, up-to the level of stealing ideas from each other
• People’s first response is based on distrust, they always consider potential impact first
• Resistance to new ideas, as well as a lack of new ideas being put forward
• Performance numbers rule how people are being judged
• Often a “us” verses “them” culture
• Most discussions take place outside of the meeting room (were taken before the meeting starts)
• Political behavior is seen at all layers of the organization
• Performance and quality can only be gained through direct supervision
• Reluctant to admit mistakes, hiding mistakes, lying about mistakes, blaming others
• Playing down or complete denial on issues brought forward
• A “we know it all” atmosphere, often based on successes in the past (we know how to do this)

Dealing with