5 Ways for Your Managers to Conquer Fear

by Edward G. Brown
In yesterday’s Advisor, Edward G. Brown discussed the importance of training managers to overcome their fear by using courage as a third-space skill in the workplace. Today, Brown shares five ways to do just that.

Brown is the author of The Time Bandit Solution: Recovering Stolen Time You Never Knew You Had and cofounder of the number one firm in culture change management, consulting, and training for the financial services industry, Cohen Brown Management Group.
There are five key ways to teach courage as a vital third-space skill:

1. First, as the twelve-steppers know, you can’t fix it until you admit it. Courage comes from the French word for “heart.” People trapped by their fears are discouraged and need to be encouraged, given heart. So, what gives them heart? Realizing that they are not alone—that the brashest, boldest-appearing colleague they know carries fears, too—that sets them on a path to admitting their own fears.
2. Next, people need to realize that courage is learnable. Just as there are steps to learning math, or engineering, or French, there are steps to learning courage. It comes in increments, but it comes.
3. People quail in the face of big risks but can be coaxed to take lesser risks. We call that the “Off-Broadway Principle.” Stage your show where a failure won’t hurt. Correct mistakes before going big. Have your managers take these small risks within 48 hours of learning the skill so that they immediately build confidence and experience. Lag time creates space for fear to reassert itself.
4. Understand peoples’ objections as something to be welcomed, not feared. When was the last time you were being sold something, or told to do something, and you immediately responded with “Yes, sir!”? That’s not how people work. We question, we clarify, we offer concerns, we negotiate. Those may sound like objections, but as we like to say, “Objections are the royal road to closing the deal!”
5. Fears are often revealed through nervous behaviors. Shaky voice and hands. Rushed words. Monotone. Shrinking posture. Don’t let that happen to your managers. Instead, take them offline and feed them confidence in the form of communications, arts, and skills. Tell them, “Here’s the tone you want, and the tempo—practice using them. Here are what your hands should be doing, and your eyes, and your arms. Here are words to use for this occasion, and others for that. Where’s the smile? Here’s how to listen. How do you show that you’re sincere?” Change the physical and the mental will follow.

Success is not for the faint of heart. Like luck, success favors the brave. If your managers are letting fear hold them back, whether they know it or not, there’s only one solution: Teach them courage so that they can let go of their fears and leap forward to reach their full potential.