I have heard this same comment, using various terms to describe it, from many CEO s and their employees over the years. The one commonality is that it causes the boss a vague, nagging guilt. Without a score, there are no rules. Without rules, there are no facts. No purpose other than to show up to survive.
Fear is a survival mechanism.
That fact alone makes the bank Chairman wrong. Good people running scared is the result of a job half-done. It may be the cruelest of all worlds because it eschews passion in the interest of fear. Opportunity in the interest of survival. Fear is not motivating, it is paralyzing.