Fear

by Don Harkey

The news hasn’t exactly been uplifting lately. Government bailouts. Financial crises. Layoffs. It’s enough to make people want to crawl into a hole and wait until the sun comes out again. While it may be overcast and dark outside, it is a lot darker inside that hole.

What is the impact of fear on a person? To put it simply, fear clouds vision. When Allied troops landed in Normandy, their mission was clear. Storm the beaches and take out the German defenses. As the troops unloaded from their boats, many of them faced fierce resistance. Surrounded by noise, bullets, explosions and death, many of the troops found a small barricade or hole and hunkered down. The fear, albeit very real and understandable, clouded their vision. Fortunately, leaders emerged and through tremendous courage, the vision was regained and the beaches were taken. To paraphrase one famous quote from the beach, “if I’m going to die, I’m not going to die here”.

While not a matter of life and death, business leaders who face an uncertain future face a very real fear with very real outcomes. Compassionate leaders know that their decisions not only impact their future, but also the future of their employees, clients, suppliers, and even family members. While uncertainty is always present, turbulent times remind us that our best-laid plans do not always match the real future.

So what is a leader to do?

Crawl into the hole and wait until times get better. Ban negative discussions within the organization in an effort to control morale. Stop all training and strategic planning in an effort to “circle the wagons”. Wait and see what will happen next.

Maybe there is another approach.

Explore new markets. Develop new relationships with clients, suppliers, or potential partners. Communicate the situation with your employees and get their ideas. Take the extra time to develop new skills or new strategies for dealing with the future.


These are times where many good organizations fail. These are also times where many good organizations become great. As Jim Collins says, “good is the enemy of great”. Organizations who are succeeding and have a bright future have no reason to change, even when the world around them is silently and consistently changing. Darker times don’t change the reality of our future, just our perception of it. Perhaps these challenging times offer an opportunity.

Seize on this opportunity!

The greatest leaders during times of trial offer clarity to their people. That means facing the current situation with both eyes open and confronting the challenges ahead. People are a horribly underutilized resource in most organizations. Don’t attempt to carry the burden alone. Collect ideas and new perspectives of how your organization cannot just continue to exist, but actually thrive. Develop a clear organizational vision to help you navigate through an uncertain future.

At the end of the day, if the organization is not successful, the great leader knows that they have done the best they could. If the organization is successful, they will have succeeded in transforming their organization with a clear vision for handling an unclear world!