A company develops a personality based on the combined personalities of its leaders. There’s one aspect of our personalities that keeps us and our companies from moving forward and that’s our fears of loss.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.” Those words are just as true now as they were when President Roosevelt spoke them in his 1933 inaugural address. They’re not just true for us collectively as a nation, but for our organizations as well.

Our fears around loss of status, respect, or positive regard by those at every level around us lead us to make decisions designed to protect that status we enjoy, whether those decisions are right for the company or not. We fear looking foolish so we take a very safe course of action, which may include no action at all.

Fear of various types of loss can lead us to take credit for the good ideas of others (so we don’t lose status as a smart person in the eyes of others), to not moving into a new market segment (so we don’t lose status as a leader in the industry, etc.).

Fear of failure is tied to fear of loss. We resist giving a staff member a project because we’re afraid she won’t perform well and will make us look bad for assigning her the task. We’re afraid to volunteer for a project because we don’t want to run the risk of embarrassment if we make a mistake.

Fear of losing control of our brand – or at least our department – will cause us to make all kinds of bad decisions. This prevents others from learning and traps us in the very set of circumstances we keep saying we don’t want – having no one willing to step up and lead. It also acts to encourage the best staffers to look for jobs with employers who aren’t afraid to give them those opportunities. Our real fear is that the organization may not really need us.

Fear of loss is also tied to procrastination and perfection. We want so much to be perfect that we make ourselves and those around us crazy in our obsession. This can lead to “Ready, Aim, Aim” syndrome, where we resist starting a project because we’re not ready, think we don’t know enough, or we feel conditions just aren’t perfect yet. We’re really afraid of losing our image as the top performer we see ourselves as.

We say we want the success we see others achieving but we become terrified of making mistakes along the way. What we never see are the big mistakes those famous people have made in their rise to the top. We fail to realize they’ve managed to learn from and move beyond those mistakes and momentary setbacks.

Retired baseball player Reggie Jackson has the dubious distinction of being the #1 strikeout leader in Major League Baseball. At 2597 strikeouts, his first place position is very secure. But he’s not known for that statistic. He’s known as “Mr. October;” the man who, in the 1970s, produced the home runs and big hits when his team needed him most.

Athletes understand the power of thoughts and beliefs. They understand the biggest competitor they’ll face is the one they see in the mirror every day.

The brain is an amazing instrument that allows man to produce beautiful art and travel to distant planets. It’s also the instrument that can paralyze us with terror and beat us up over the smallest of mistakes.

Your next step: Next time you are faced with a decision, depend on God to help you through. Make the decision that He would be happy with. Focusing on His approval is better then focusing on the approval of others.

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