Common Fears of New Leaders

Why are people afraid of a leadership role?

 

I have been in a leadership role since I was twenty-three years old. I am now fifty-seven.  I have experienced fear in leadership over the years in varying degrees and have learned to overcome each fear.  I have been developing leaders almost as long as I have been a leader.  Each time I invite a new leader into a mentoring relationship I see a set of common fears that effect these individuals.  Today I relate to many leaders who are already functioning well, but I still encounter occasionally some of these same fears in them also.  I have pinpointed a couple of fears that seems to be common to leaders.  Not all of these are true for every leader, but surely we find at least one of them affecting a leader.

Inadequate training or education

Leaders often feel that they are inadequately trained for the task given to them.  The lack of education can create a block in our thinking about the work to be done.  We may immediately write ourselves off the list of potential people for the position or task available to us.  The obvious answer is that we can get the training or education needed.  We may need to register for a couple of courses at a university to raise our level of education or we may need to sign up for some refresher courses offered by the institute we serve.  The Forbes Coaches Council wrote a good article on this called “10 Ways For New Leaders To Develop Their Leadership Skills” They write, “Being a leader doesn’t mean you know everything there is to know about leadership. In fact, the best leaders are the ones who pursue their own education. Leadership, after all, is not about being an expert in your industry — it’s about being an expert in people management. Making time to improve your leadership skills helps everyone on your team do their jobs better. Find a way to weave in time for learning into your day, whether it’s by soliciting feedback, reading a book focused on leadership on your commute, or asking your company to hire a coach.” The good news is that training can always be found.  The best solution for this lack is when the organization offers a program to train the leader into the new position.  There is another side of education that we should not minimize.  A good mentoring program or internship can be as productive as a couple of years in university.  Though I have studied myself in university I cannot underestimate the power of on the job training.  If you are being asked to consider a new level of leadership and feel inadequately trained, you can bring this need to the discussion and ask for allowances to better prepare you.

Inadequate skills

While training or education tends to focus on knowledge, this fear is more directed towards our abilities.  Sometimes when we look into the future to consider a position of leadership we may immediately look at our skill level.  We ask, “does my skill level adequately provide what I will need for what is required”.  It is a good question to ask.  It may be true that our skill has not been developed to the point of enabling us to do what is needed if we take that task.  However, we need also to be fair in evaluating ourselves.  Are we afraid of leadership because we don’t have all the skills needed or because we don’t have some of the skills?  If the leadership position is self-initiated it is important to understand what skills are needed but then make the commitment to grow and gain those skills or take our present skill level to the next level.  What is important here is not to let some lack become a canceling factor in our mind.  If you are being invited into a leadership role by a superior, then you should trust their judgement of your skill and know that they probably will provide a way to develop your skills. If they don’t offer it, then I say ask for it.

Rejection

Though I cannot prove this, but I think this may be the greatest fear among new leaders.  It certainly was true in my beginning steps of leadership.  I remember thinking that if I don’t lead the way a person wants they will not like me.  I suppose that fear was overcome in one situation.  I was confronted by a board member who was also a personal friend of mine.  He came to me privately and ask why I did not support him and his proposal on a decision for a project.  I was really taken back when he added, “I thought you were my friend?”  This statement made me cringe inside.  For a couple of minutes, I felt fear rising up inside me. If I didn’t agree with him, I could be rejected.  Then another thought came to me, “I am a leader with a choice. I may loose a friend, but I will gain respect of others for the results I know we will have if I go forward with what the rest agreed to.”  At that moment I was not afraid of rejection and I can’t remember feeling that again in my leadership.

Failure

Failing is not pleasant.  It shakes us up and tempts us to create a set of protective barriers.  We think, “I will never do something that is not guaranteed to succeed.”  The truth is that there is very few guarantees that are one hundred percent guaranteed.  I think every leader has faced this fear in their life and maybe more than once.  One failure does not equal two or three more later.  A new leader may hesitate to take on a higher role of leadership because they believe they will fail.  A leader may not take a new task on because they think they may fail.  I want to say here that failing at one task or one responsibility is not really failing.  As long as there is movement or progress in some percentage you are not failing.  Even the learning factor from failure suggests it is not failure. I have told many people including my children that if we learn from a mistake we have not failed.  John Maxwell in his book, “Failing Forward” says, “In life, the question is not if you will have problems, but how you are going to deal with your problems. If the possibility of failure were erased, what would you attempt to achieve?” Sometimes our fear of failure is based on the delusion that we are succeeding by doing nothing.

Low self-image; “I’m not good enough”

Though we may think that the idea that a person may think they are not good enough is not relevant to leadership, it is true for some.  We wonder how would someone have stepped into leadership in the beginning with that thought?  I agree that usually when you step into leadership you feel confident that you have something to offer an organization and the world.  Yet, I do come across leaders who still have a hint of this underlying their leadership.  To someone who was belittled in their early years and given strong negative feedback from others, this can be a lingering fear in their life. The self-image can be damaged during our formative years.  In this case a leader needs to rebuild their self-image.  The emotion and psyche needs healing.  However, I believe a leader can lead while they are developing a positive self-image.

There are professionals and groups that can help a great deal with overcoming this fear. The danger is to build the self-image upon achievements or the power of their position.  This fear is best tackled by discovering one’s own worth apart from achievements and productivity.  For me, knowing my creator made me as I am, is an affirming factor in my life and leadership.

I have mentioned five common fears that new leaders have spoken about with me.  These are fears that can be overcome.  Each one has its own impact on our leadership and manifestation.  Each one must be dealt with specifically and independently.  Yet fear has a common thread in it no matter what branch of it we may experience.  Fear hinders our productivity and growth and paralyzes us from moving an organization forward.  The bottom line is we must confront fears and overcome them for our own health and the health of the people we lead.

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