“F-E-A-R has two meanings: ‘Forget Everything And Run’ or ‘Face Everything And Rise.’ The choice is yours.”― Zig Ziglar
In any Organization one of the most important things for a better functioning of it is communication across the Teams and for the smooth communication to take place one thing which has to be understood in a deeper way is the F.E.A.R of the employees. Everyone has different way to deal with fear and it comes in a different way to different people and they react in a different way depending on how one has been programmed throughout their past life and if it is understood properly about how other reacts to this emotion, communication becomes lot better and smoother thus helps in improving health of any Organization. It has been my personal experience and I am sure most of you would agree about most people being dual personality types when they are in workplace and when they are outside of the work as they always fear about being judged by people around and it goes throughout the life. When people feel safe psychologically in a organization about being misunderstood sharing the ideas, feedback and also constructive criticism, it helps to foster innovative ideas and may also improves employee engagement. Even a long term Job responsibility can programme a person in way which triggers the FEAR response. For ex “If reporter does not have all the facts, they feel they are screwed and this look for facts always before going ahead”.
To understand Fear we need to also understand a little anatomy of Brain and how it evolved. It is also called Triune brain which is a model given by Paul McLean around 1960 which says there are 3 layers of Human brain- Brain 1-Reptilian brain (It ensures survival like Breathing , hunger, thirst and others to regulate our body) & Brain 2-Limbic or Primate Brain(it is responsible for emotion, behavior, motivation, memory) are impulsive and reactive and send bottom up impulses and Brain 3- Neocortex(This brain performs functions like complex social interactions, advance planning, decision making , and speaking language). Fear is related to an almond shaped cluster of interconnected structures called Amygdala( one on each side)perched above the Brain 1- Reptilian Brain near the bottom of Brain 2 – Limbic brain. While Amygdala helps coordinating responses to things in environment, especially those that trigger emotional response but it plays a vital role in case of Fear. Its main role is to provide safety and as soon as one encounters fear, amygdala activates and triggers the nervous system, which sets the body’s response into motion. It was true for our ancestors when amygdala automatically used to activate the fight-or-flight response by sending out signals to release stress hormones that prepare your body to fight or run away. It has been beautifully explained by Daniel Goleman in his bestseller book Emotional Intelligence .Today, there are far fewer physical threats, but there are a lot of psychological threats caused by the pressures and stresses of modern life and most of it are happening in our professional life and if we know this basics of FEAR , it will become lot easier to manage the threat in our daily life.
There are different kind of Fears in the Organizational Environment which we come across. Few are mentioned below which are not the exhaustive list ..
- Fear of getting Judged
- Fear of asking questions
- Fear of Growth
- Fear of Rejection
- Fear of communication with Leadership
- Fear of Performance
Karin Bellantoni very interestingly discusses the four types of fear responses and how to navigate them in a professional setting with others and with yourself which can help others once they are triggered with this emotion. When FEAR comes to you it comes in a different format and if you are not aware of the format you manifest or it is manifested for others, it leads to judgements and wrong beliefs about others behavior. Karin mentions that there are 4 FEAR responses majorly which people gets triggered with are fight, flight, freeze and fawn. Lets understand each of them.
Fight Behavior – Fighter seems to be an extreme ego centric person , dominating and do not listen to others. They may cut the meeting thinking they are providing solution and interrupt people to go the bottom line directly. For fighters being safe means to be in control and take control. They scare people with their concern.
- How to Manage– If the fight mode is triggered and amygdala highjacks the response, everything should stop and there should be no resistance as there is no point of any discussion rather it becomes very important to understand this trigger and and behave in a different way to calm the fighter.
Flight Behavior – Flighters are completely different and pick up everything and go somewhere else without discussing anything to get the things done. They feel safe only when the work is done .They generally say nothing and feels better to wait until work gets completed without any mistake and work incredibly for it.
- How to Manage – They feel safe when they are productive so one should give space and time to Flighters to come back for response. it is important to empathize and communicate in a better way to these people
Fawn Behavior – These are perfectionist responses and don’t like to say no to anything but have no idea how to process all while agreeing to it . They are not sure about their bandwidth saying yes to everything. They feel they are safe when everything is agreeable and believe they are nice and pleasers. Initially everyone likes them but then since they say yes to everything , they tend to breakdown. They feel they are doing good thinking about everyone but it gives wrong picture to the colleagues . In Todays situation it seems that many young employees are in this category , overthinking and overstressed and not able to say no to anything.
- How to Manage – They should be given confidence to speak up about their bandwidth and learn to set boundaries with them. Ask more probing question to ensure they are not taking too much . Fawners should be guided to say “lets look at my list and see what we can take off to make space for this job”.
Freeze Behavior – They are the people, really hard to coach and is a bit rare response if compared with other three responses. They always overthink about everything to make any decision and so they don’t participate in any decision making and paralyses themselves . They are Good in spreadsheet and get the job x done and shut down .
- How to Manage – Don’t integrate them with anyone and go slow to take one step towards the door together and they should be expected to move inch by inch. They are little harder to coach so take baby steps with them.
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