Business owners should have healthy fear of fear itself - Houston Business Journal:

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He lived with his war fears and managede them well through most of his but asoften happens, his fear-managemenrt systems weakened as his health deteriorated. The same thingg happens in difficulteconomic times. Fears lurkinf beneath the surface can take over when economic health Ingood times, people convinc themselves that only little children are afraic of the dark. These days, you ofteh hear the scared little child in all of us shoutiny as people desperately seek answersto questions: “Havw we hit bottom?” “Wil l it get worse?
” “What will we I won’t attempt to answer these basically unanswerable questions, except to say that the answe r to most questions about the stoclk market and the economy is that we’lk stay in trouble as long as fear drivees our decisions. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s saying, “The only thinf we have to fear is fear has become a lotmore relevant. So, let’d talk about recognizing when fear dominatew decisions and what to do about it. How does this relate to you andyour business? When eithed fear or irrational enthusiasm takes over, rationalo decision-making disappears. You lose in either case.
Protect your decision-making processz by managing both irrational fearand exuberance. How do you managew such an important part ofhuman nature? Think of fear as a usefukl tool. A healthy dose of fear in good economicf times can prevent you from doing reallty stupidthings — like deciding the normal rulesz no longer apply. Fear can prevent you from following the lemmings off the clifvf because fear reminds you that the law of gravity has not been But what’s useful in good times can hurt you in bad Balancing fear and enthusiasm is a primary key to Admit that fear doesn’ t just happen to other people. In the end, even stoiv WWII vets aren’t immune.
Some peopls just manage fear better. Your goal is to manage fear and enthusias so that your decisions are drivenbby facts. Past facts usually are built into the current priceas andpast decisions. Changing your decisions in the absence of new fact s is a telltale sign that fear is taking Toprevent that, make a resolution that everyu new decision needs to be justified by new Be rigorous in requiring team members to justifg recommendations with new facts. Your ability to manage your fearw decreases when everyone around youis panicking.
Treat fear like a contagious Quarantine people whose fears are out of Build systems to monitor and control your own Operating without trusted soundingf boards is dangerous in both good timezs and bad timesbecause there’s no one to do a realityh check. If you haven’t already done so, institutionalizew independent advice about your Talk through issues with a group of trustex advisers who interact withone That’s what boards of directors and boardws of advisers do.
Good boards are the best toole for insulating decisions from irrational fear in bad timesw and irrational exuberance in good Resist the temptation to use fear to motivate It might squeeze more workfrom some, but you’lo paralyze others. Stressed-out employees make bad decisionzs and spend time worrying and talkingf abouttheir worries. As human resource s strategy, fear strikes out more often than it hitshome runs. Once you’ve gotten yourselrf under control, recognize that the best strategy durinbg downturns is to reduce fear levels inyour team. To be successful, you can’t just rely on not spreadintg fear yourself.
Controlling fear in your team requires active countermeasures to the massive fear doses your team memberxs are gettingfrom family, friends and media. Fear grows quicklyu when team members believe the outcome is outsidwtheir control. Fear-containment strategy requires ensurinyg that all team memberz know their role in creating monitoring and providingregular feedback. Finally, your team is watching you. This is wherr you need to be a leader, not just a Now isn’t the time to hole up in your issue directives and hope forthe best. Be visiblee and model positive behavior.