**1. Fear of failure is, mostly, good for us.**
Let's start with the heretical bit. On the whole, fear is a powerful motivator, and a small amount of fear is what keeps standards high.
There's a reason I have never auditioned for Britain's Got Talent. Fear of failure is, in that case, very accurately protecting me from a public humiliation neither I nor Simon Cowell are quite ready for.
But that same fear has also stopped me applying for jobs I should have applied for, registering for half marathons I'd have been fine in, and asking for pay rises I'd genuinely earned. The balance, on the whole, shows that the people on your team who are afraid to fail mostly just don't start in the first place. So they don't fail- but they don't do much else either.
Fear is a useful filter. It is a terrible decision-maker.
**2. Miranda Priestly gets shit done.**
There is a manager on my team at the moment, and her team absolutely adore her. They sing her praises in 1:1s. They follow her around like ducklings.
And honestly? It makes me nervous.
If you know and like someone that much, can you be scared enough of them to get a good job done?
I'm not advocating for everyone quaking in their boots. I'm not Miranda Priestly. But a healthy level of trepidation- I really don't want to let her down- is, in my experience, what tips a good output into a great one.
The opposite extreme is the manager who is everyone's mate, where the work is fine, the vibes are great, and nothing is ever quite as good as it could have been.
**3. Blame it on Dad.**
If you want fear as a motivator but don't want to wear the fear yourself- share it with your team.
"If you don't brush your teeth, I'm getting your father".
A common enemy can raise the bar without sacrificing trust. The end-of-quarter board meeting. The competitor that just launched. The client we cannot afford to lose. A shared, external thing-to-be-afraid-of is one of the most underused tools in management, because it lets everyone get sharp together, instead of you having to be the bad guy.
It also doesn't have to be an enemy. It can be a deadline, a Christmas, a launch date. The point is that the fear is in the room with all of you- not radiating from you onto them.
**4. What are you actually afraid of?**
If you can define it, you can address it.
I once worked with a boss who was, unbeknownst to me, navigating a series of grievances. Not his fault- but it had made him absolutely terrified of saying anything to anyone, in case it was used against him.
Until he told me, I had no idea. I just thought he'd gone weirdly quiet. Once he told me, the dynamic was immediately easier. I could ask the questions he was afraid to ask. I could share opinions on his behalf. We could move.
The fear was the same- but unnamed, it paralysed him. Named, it became something both of us could work around.
Which brings me back to the situation with my current boss. If I sit on this fear, the most likely outcome is that I keep over-editing, keep delaying, and he eventually sacks me for inaction. If I name it- "I've noticed your recent feedback has made me really nervous to send you anything; can we talk about what good looks like?"- at worst, I get clarity. At best, I get my confidence back.
I'd rather name it.
**5. A bit of fear is healthy.**
Some fears are not problems to be solved. They are warnings to be listened to.
Being afraid of making the wrong hire is what keeps our hiring bar high.
Being afraid my kids will burn is what makes me lather them in sunscreen.
Being afraid of getting sued is what makes our company contracts rock solid.
Some fear is your operating system telling you something matters. The trick isn't to eliminate fear at work- it's to work out which fears are signal, and which are noise.