FEAR IN THE MAKING OF A LEADER

The world has provided an acronym for the English word FEAR: 

F─ False/Fake

E─ Experience

A─ Appearing

R─ Real

The question is: does fear exist? Scholars and Psychologists have put up answers to cub the world’s quest for a solution, but yet fear still grips strong in the nerves of the society. In answer to this question, I go with the supposed acronym of fear.  

When you’re afraid, whether at sea or standing in front of your co-workers leading them to the next corporate challenge, you have three choices:

• Ignore your fears and hope they go away. In fact they don’t go away, but often come back stronger than before because you haven’t dealt with them. You must address your fears in your personal or leadership life or they will gnaw away at you until you do something about them.
• Face your fears and stand up to them—stare them down and struggle as to who will win. You can try that in 30-foot seas in the middle of a storm, but fear will quite possibly win. How many times have you sat in the lobby of a prospect waiting for your chance to give your presentation? Did your fears go away just because you wanted them to? No, because you have to do more than face your fears.
• Use fear to your advantage. Embrace your fears. First, you must recognize the fear. Don’t deny it. Know you’re afraid. You know what it feels like—that “on your toes” feeling, adrenalin pumping, palms sweating, heartbeat increasing…It’s at this point you must stop and have a little chat with yourself. You have to decide who is going to win here: Fear or you. Then comes the hard part: accepting the fear, letting it in and embracing it.

Leadership can never be effected where fear rules the leader. A man was asked why he never achieved what he should have achieved and he replied, “things that never happened.” We struggle with the fear of trying, and in the greater sense, the fear of failing. And until the uncertainty in trying and winning is conquered, it seems that fear is the king. Leadership is about overcoming doubts which is the mother of fear, and to achieve this we must develop an extra-ordinary believe system that is immune against shortcomings, against faults and against failure─ this is the making of a leader!