Know your fears to act without fear!

Yeah, all our actions are driven by fear (or the absence of fear). While this statement can be generalized, I would restrict this discussion to corporate work place – CORPORATE FEAR!
When your boss doesn’t approve your leave, you fume “Can’t I decide my leave? After all, it is my leave and I’m entitled to it!”  As a matter of fact, you need to pity your boss.  It’s nothing but his fear of dealing with uncertain tasks that you are good at, which he may not be able to manage.

The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear!

It is believed in Indian mythology that the demigod of fear appears in front of infants every now and then to induce fear in them.  He conditions their mind from early days.  Whether there is truth in this story or not, it is certainly true that all of us teach our children to stay safe and thus condition their mind to be fearful of snakes, fire, etc.

To amplify this, the human brain is an intelligent self-learning program. It trains itself on something that it is has experienced once or a couple of times.  Thus from our early days we are programmed to react in fear.

We also learn to mask our fear. But other animals usually don’t do so. A dog will not wag its tail when it wants to bite you… it will mostly charge or bark. But we conceal our true emotions. A common example at workplace is ‘faked’ smile!

Fear is at the core and it manifests itself in the form of anger, greed & lust! Anger and greed are very relevant emotions at work place.

“Only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” said Franklin D. Roosevelt in his inaugural address in 1933 when the economic depression was at its peak. The situation is very pertinent to us today.

So next time when someone at work shows these emotions – anger, greed or lust – you need to understand the core issue, i.e., his FEAR.

-    If your boss micro manages, it is because of his fear of your slackness or poor efficiency.

-    If your boss watches you by the clock, it is because of his fear of your poor productivity and insincerity.

-    If your boss doesn’t recognize your efforts, it is because of his fear of his disability.

-    We pay taxes for the fear of being caught by law, rarely to help run the government.

-    We dress up well for the fear of avoiding embarrassment by peers rather than looking good!

-    We drive an expensive car for the fear of social status rather than comfort.

Satyam’s recent debacle leading to Raju’s resignation is another example of corporate fear. He has confessed in his resignation letter that due to poor performance of the organization and low promoter stake, he FEARED take-over by institutional stakeholders. Thus the books were written to show good performance.

Solution to the above situation is to act without fear. Easier said than done, but there is no short-cut to this. Unlearn what you learned since your infant days.

Some simple steps that you follow:

- Before you react, think if it’s a result of someone’s fear. It surely is! Find out who that person is and give him the comfort to overcome the fear.  In the above example of the boss not approving your leave, give him the comfort of a back-up resource, make your commitment to be available in case of emergency, etc.

- Plan proactively. For example, if you fear job loss, look out for a job from today and don’t wait for pink slip, equip yourself with new skills constantly, etc.

- Get yourself a coach. It is always better get some valuable advice from someone who has trod the path. Believe me…it helps.

- Set yourself on a path of transformation to free be from fear, lust, greed and anger! It is not easy, but even a small step forward will show positive results.

- Identify a role model. It motivates you to see someone who has achieved it. It’s a confidence building measure. Two of my role models are Buddha and Gandhi!

So all it takes to ACT WITHOUT FEAR is to know what those fears are!

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Nilakanta Srinivasan aka Neil serves as Senior Vice President in a multinational firm. His expertise is in Operations Management, Process, Customer Service, Organizational Development & Leadership Development. He can be reached at nilakantasrinivasan@yahoo.com.