3 Leadership Hacks To Manage Fear and Maintain Your Zen

Coaching In Chaos?

Doing business today? Get comfortable with change. Mergers, acquisitions, corporate restructuring, and the constant evolution of technology are commonplace. In today’s fast-moving corporate environment, change is the one thing you can count on.

Change Happens

Why? One Word: FEAR

Change: A Losing Battle?According to Harvard Business Review,

more than 70% of transformation e�orts fail.

70%FAIL

The Change Reaction

There are a wide variety of fear-based reactions to change. For every “eager beaver” that is

comfortable with shifts, there are 10 people who “act out.”

1. ANGER:This is a stupid idea

2. REJECTION:I’m not going along with this

3. AVOIDANCE:I’m going to pretend this isn’t happening

4. POLITICKING: I’m going over my manager’s head

5. GOSSIPING: I am going to whisper about this to my colleagues

:

As humans, it’s natural to fear change, particularly at work. However, if fear takes hold, it causes tremendous interference, or “interfearance,” which are the negative thoughts, feelings, or mental clutter that block productivity.

Managing Change

=Reducing

“Interfearance”

In times of chaos and change, your #1 job is to lead—and you lead by reducing interfearance. Here’s how…

Hack #1: Speak Often No matter what, communication is key.

“The brain doesn’t like uncertainty.

Anything uncertain is potentially a threat.”

Dean Burnett, neuroscientist*

*https://www.unstuck.com/advice/afraid-change-science-uncertainty

• Make things clear

• Be available and communicate frequently

• Practice SAYDOCO—Say what you’ll do, do what you’ll say, and communicate when you can’t

In the midst of change it’s critical for leaders to ask lots of questions and listen closely to gauge how change is affecting the employee. The answers to those questions will put the manager in the position to:

1 Create a safe space 2 Maintain the context

of possibility 3 O�er the security of

failing forward

Hack #2: Listen More

In other words, REDUCE

INTERFEARANCE

“When we don’t know, or can’t say, what’s happening, our tendency is to say nothing at all. Good leaders do the opposite; they seek out opportunities to have conversations. Rather than focusing on what’s happening on your level, ask about how things are working on theirs. Addressing the interference that comes with uncertainty reveals a path forward.” – Alan Fine

Why Communication Is Key

Hack #3: Focus ForwardDwelling on the past and obsessing about the future is a surefire way to stay stuck.

When people feel like they have a plan, they not only focus, but they move forward more easily and make progress every day.

What’s a good leader to do? Help employees Make a PLAN.

Prompting the Plan To help an employee make a plan that reduces interfearance, start by asking the following four questions:

1. What’s your goal?2. What have you

tried so far?3. If anything were

possible, what would you do?

4. What’s the next step?

Discover how WORKPLACE coaching

can take the FEAR out of organizational change.

Coaching that works.

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