I am privileged to be able to work with many senior leaders in different parts of the world as a coach and mentor. Leaders of small to Fortune sized organizations. Leaders with outstanding CV’s and education from the best schools. Leaders of all shapes, sizes, genders, religions and ethic backgrounds. Leaders that are able to command attention just by their presence in a room.
And when we sit down and talk, guess what the one thing is they all have in common… fear.
Fear of failure. Fear of success (believe it or not). Fear of being found out for being not as good as other people think (which is actually called ‘Imposter Syndrome’). Fear of not being taken seriously. The list goes on and on.
Some of you reading this may think it wildly impossible for the CEO of a Fortune sized company to be afraid of anything. Here’s the thing though… We are all humans. Everyone puts their pants on the same way as everyone else. Executives, like everyone else, grow up in functional and dysfunctional family environments. We all experienced social stigma’s in school and were trying to fit in like everyone else…
We are all emotional beings and make our decisions based on emotions. So it is perfectly normal that we feel fear of some sort from time to time. I have even seen the hardest, toughest leaders in tears when the right emotion was triggered.
I believe that those that say they are not afraid of anything will lie about other things as well.
The key though is to recognize any fear, feel it and… move on.
