Fear. It’s something every leader deals with, but rarely admits. We immediately point out one of the fears in leading, but there are actually two fears in leading people. A leader who fears is a leader who asks great questions. But which fear you focus on will change the outlook of questions like these:
Are we going to do it well?
Can I take people further than they could take themselves?
Am I going to be able to overcome the pressure or find strength amongst my weakness?
If you’re in a leadership position, you’ve probably already had these thoughts cross your mind before. When you look at the bigger picture everyone of these questions tackles the fear of failure.
The fear of failure is the most public of our fears in leadership, it’s what drives a lot of great leaders I know today. However it has a pitfall. It points the fear on your weaknesses. In the fear we walk with day in and day out, it paralyzes our ability to look at opportunity, because we’re so afraid of letting people down.
But there’s another fear we rarely talk about in leadership: the fear of success.
So often, we leverage all we have for one idea that we really believe in. We work hard to prepare for a launch, we then make the big announcement and in the end people not only like it, they’re in love with your idea. YOUR idea.
This is a fear of ours, but we rarely think about it. What if we see success early, will we be able to sustain the good ideas or the business success?
What do you do when all the eyes are on you, and you realize you have influence with people. They’re now expecting you to bring the next great idea to the table. Here’s one thing I’ve learned. When you wake up and realize you have influence, leverage it for those who don’t have influence.
[bctt tweet=”When you wake up and realize you have influence, leverage it for those who don’t have influence. #influence”]
The benefit of overcoming the second fear is it’s ability to render the first fear useless, it doesn’t allow it to rear it’s head, because you’ve already accomplished that fear. Accurately harnessing the fear of success can allow our fear of failure to move us to creating, move us to leading and move us to make a difference.
Which of the two fears in leading is holding you back?
