Friday, February 25, 2011

Business owners should have healthy fear of fear itself - bizjournals:

grip-programdeewr.blogspot.com
He lived with his war fears and managed them well throughu most ofhis life, but as often his fear-management systems weakened as his healthj deteriorated. The same thing happensz in difficulteconomic times. Fears lurking beneath the surfac e can take over when economichealtg deteriorates. In good times, peoplw convince themselves that only little children are afraid of the These days, you often hear the scarecd little child in all of us shouting as people desperately seek answers to questions: “Have we hit “Will it get “What will we do?
” I won’y attempt to answer theses basically unanswerable questions, except to say that the answere to most questions about the stock market and the economyh is that we’ll stay in troubles as long as fear drives our decisions. Franklin Delani Roosevelt’s saying, “The only thing we have to fear is fear has become a lotmore relevant. So, let’se talk about recognizing when fear dominates decisions and what to doabouy it. How does this relate to you andyour business? When eithefr fear or irrational enthusiasm takes over, rationap decision-making disappears. You lose in either case.
Protect your decision-making processa by managing both irrational fearand exuberance. How do you manage such an important part ofhumann nature? Think of fear as a useful A healthy dose of fear in good economicx times can prevent you from dointg really stupid things — like deciding the normal rulew no longer apply. Fear can preventg you from following the lemmings off the cliff because fear reminds you that the law of gravith has notbeen suspended. But what’s usefulp in good times can hurt you in bad Balancing fear and enthusiasmm is a primary keyto success. Admit that fear doesn’ just happen to other people. In the end, even stoidc WWII vets aren’t immune.
Some people just manage fear Your goal is to manage fear and enthusiasm so that your decisiona are drivenby facts. Past facts usuallyt are built into the current prices and past Changing your decisions in the absencr of new facts is a telltale sign that fear istakingb over. To prevent that, make a resolutioj that every new decision needs to be justified by new Be rigorous in requiring team members to justifyt recommendations withnew facts. Your ability to manage your fearse decreases when everyone around youis panicking. Treay fear like a contagious virus. Quarantine people whose fearsa are outof control. Build systemds to monitor and control yourown fears.
Operating withoug trusted sounding boards is dangerous in both good timesx and bad timesbecausse there’s no one to do a reality If you haven’t already done so, institutionalize independent advice about your Talk through issues with a group of trusted advisers who interact with one That’s what boards of directors and boards of advisers do. Good boardsa are the best tools for insulating decisionzs from irrational fear in bad times and irrationao exuberance ingood times. Resisr the temptation to use fear tomotivatr employees. It might squeeze more work from some, but you’lk paralyze others.
Stressed-out employeess make bad decisions and spend time worryiny and talking abouttheir worries. As human resourcew strategy, fear strikes out more oftejn than it hits home Once you’ve gotten yourself unde r control, recognize that the best strategy during downturns is to reducs fear levels in your To be successful, you can’t just rely on not spreading fear Controlling fear in your team requirew active countermeasures to the massive fear dosee your team members are gettin g from family, friends and Fear grows quickly when team member believe the outcome is outside their Fear-containment strategy requires ensuring that all team members know theird role in creating success, monitoring and providing regulart feedback.
Finally, your team is watching you. This is wherre you need to be a leader, not just a Now isn’t the time to hole up in your issue directives and hope for the Be visible and modelpositive

No comments:

Post a Comment