We all bring our personal history to our workplace relationships. In many workplaces, an unfortunate pattern starts when employees are afraid to ask questions or take a position. These faces will help you get familiar with the complex and often intangible sources of fear, and thereby invite new options for getting free of it. Though it may yield short-term gains, it always has a downside, is manipulative and disruptive, and often backfires. On the other hand, fear that comes from within you such as a concern that you might not meet a deadline you voluntarily agreed to produces discomfort or anxiety and if it doesn t cause overwhelm, will inspire action.
Manageable fear acts as the fuel for improvement.
It propels us forward and helps us move through stuck points or shy away from hazards. But if I m concerned about being judged or penalized or fired I m not going to learn, and I might not even hang around, let alone perform well. So if we can fully commit to building a workplace culture where externally-imposed fear is headed for extinction, we ll all win. Fear s cause can be recognized in one of three faces or masks. The Face of Judgment A judging, critical face, sometimes angry, out to make us wrong, confronts us by getting right in our face.