#8 The Leadership Choice: Fear or Care
Rumination
Leadership that uses fear as a tool casts a shadow over the spirit of its people. It's an ugly type of control that measures success in narrow, soulless gains, often at the cost of wellbeing and morale. True leadership isn't a power to be wielded but a responsibility to uplift. Do the short-term gains of fear-driven leadership outweigh the long-term costs to human spirit and employee wellbeing?
Invitation
Recognise the True Cost of Fear-Based Leadership
Fear can suppress voices, stifle innovation, and erode the pillars of trust and engagement that are essential for a flourishing work environment. A workplace infiltrated by unnecessary fear can lead to resentment, drive burnout, increase turnover, and suppress the full potential of its people.
Build a Culture of Courage
To counteract this, leaders must create environments where challenges are met with collective resolve, not individual blame. Encouraging open communication, showing vulnerability as a leader, and treating mistakes and failure as opportunities to learn and grow are essential in cultivating courage over fear.
Respect the Human Being
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Leadership is a privilege that comes with the duty to protect and promote the wellbeing of those we lead. It is not an inherent right to sacrifice either for personal or organisational gain. When leaders respect the humanity of their teams, they unlock a loyalty and productivity that fear could never achieve.
Inspiration
As leaders, we can show up in ways that take us down a well-worn path of command and control or follow a more enlightened approach that honours our shared humanity. The choice is clear: we can either lead by intimidation, reaping hollow victories that wither the soul, or we can cultivate a climate of mutual respect and collaboration, yielding sustainable achievements that elevate our collective spirit.
Check out last week's post on Self-Doubt here.
And if you're keen to check out Tom Daley, Dr Pixie McKenna, Reggie Yates and others chat with me about the human experience, you can watch or listen to the first season of my podcast, Flourish.
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10 个月This is so important - "Leadership is a privilege that comes with the duty to protect and promote the wellbeing of those we lead." Leaders who use fear, will never know what is really happening in their teams, where things are going wrong, will never deliver innovative solutions and will never build trust - it baffles me that we still see these characteristics/styles in the workplace.
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1 年Whenever I see hierarchical or fear based leadership, it makes me cringe. It’s outdated and generally driven by those who want to keep all the control. Still happens in business but more so in sports, from what I see and hear. It’s how we lead and build safety that matters.