An important management lesson was written over 2600 years ago.
It’s a story about a shepherd boy who gives fake warnings about a wolf attacking his sheep to get attention from the villagers. Unfortunately his fake reports prove fatal later when an actual wolf attacks him and the villagers don’t respond because they no longer trust him.
Unfortunately this story is widely misunderstood to be just a moral lesson about always telling the truth. That is not the most important lesson in the story for Leaders.
The important leadership lesson is that Fear is a great motivator, so needs to be used carefully.
Humans have evolved over millennia to pay more attention to threats than opportunities. That’s a good thing. For our ancestors seeing a movement in the grass – if it’s a rabbit it might result in a meal, but if it’s a Lion it might result in you being the meal.
Caution is pre-programmed in our DNA because those who are cautious survive.
The shepherd boy knew that shouting wolf would get a strong response, and the villagers didn’t disappoint. At least not for the first few times, until they didn’t trust him any more. Fear sends us running better than almost anything else.
Because it is so powerful, Fear has to be carefully managed.
When we are afraid, our brains revert to a different mode from “normal” thinking. Our eyes dilate, our hearing becomes acute, adrenaline surges through our blood stream, circulation shifts to vital organs and our arms and legs are tensed for action. “Fight or Flight” is a real thing. Importantly, parts of our brain actually shut down – especially the reasoning part. Thinking is too slow in a life or death crisis, reflexes are fast.
Prolonged fear leads to physiological effects including depression, heart and stomach disorders. We call it Stress.
Whilst the personal effects of stress rightly get a lot of attention, for a team seeking results it’s this partial shutting down of our brains that creates long term problems.
When we are afraid, we seek easy answers. In Post 5 I called these the easy Left turn.
Fear stops us exploring, it stops us experimenting. It stops progress.
In a group, when we are afraid we follow the crowd, and the loudest voice. We follow the leader blindly, but often are led to the the wrong place..
For the insecure or controlling leader who values compliance first, this works well – its the reason that Fear is a common leadership trait.
For the malevolent leader who wants to take you where you don’t want to go, or shouldn’t go, Fear is often the only motivator that works. This isn’t confined to political leaders.
Fear is the enemy of Knowledge.
“Fear is a great motivator, so needs to be used carefully…”
Fear plays a big part in the Culture of your Team, whether you like it or not.
As a leader you have a responsibility to minimize Fear in your team. You have to seek it out and deal with it quickly or it will control your team’s decisions in invisible ways. As a member of a team, you have an equal responsibility to not succumb easily to Fear, and to keep a clear head in a crisis.
Fear takes many forms.
Fear of making mistakes is widespread, and requires a lot of trust building to overcome.
Fear of being different is an ancient pre-programmed response which can be worse in some cultures but always inhibits creativity.
Fear of criticism is also deeply ingrained, and it’s why as a leader you need to be very careful in your response to mistakes.
Without some Fear we don’t survive or thrive either. Wandering into the unknown is no better a business strategy today than it was a survival strategy for our ancestors. Balance is the key, not elimination.
When you get to know your team members closely you might be surprised what they’ve been conditioned by family or society (or previous leaders) to be afraid of. Once you know what triggers fear you can better balance it by your own behaviors. You will better understand their behaviors too.
As a leader, are you building a creative environment or a reactive one?
Have you created the right balance between Fear and Knowledge?
Over-using Fear led the shepherd boy to a bad ending, after all.
Photo credits:
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