Why Leadership Horror Stories Don’t Work
Oct 29th, 2008 by admin
They say that some animals, like dogs and horses, can smell fear. If that’s true, those poor animals must be gagging on the fear pheromones being emitted around the country today as people mindlessly react to headlines, polls, blogs and news casts.
Fortunately for the animals, they don’t so much smell fear as much as they pick up the changes in human behavior. They can see and feel the characteristic nuances of human anxiety and fright - things like shallow breaths, rigidity, tension, hesitation and cringing.
Dog trainers say that we transmit our anxiety right down the leash to our dogs. My wife Patsy noticed it years ago when her yellow lab was just about 6 months old. As a pup, he used to bark and excitedly pull on the leash whenever he encountered another dog, almost pulling Patsy over in his rush to size up the other dog.
She began to dread running into other dogs on her morning walks, and it wasn’t long before this gentle lab started reacting very aggressively towards other dogs. He picked up her anxiety through the tension in the leash and the slowing of her steps as other dogs approached her, and he soon became equally anxious around other dogs.
Leaders do the same thing when they attempt to influence or induce action through fear. I noticed it several days ago when I visited a new client and met with the CEO and CFO. After ushering me into their conference room, the CFO asked, “So Jim, what do you think about the market?”
That’s a loaded question, isn’t it? If someone wants to know about the market, they’ll ask Warren Buffet, not me. What he wanted to know is if I was scared as he was. The truth is that I seldom if ever think about the market.
When this so called crisis began, I made adjustments in my savings and other investments, and that was about it. I still get up in the morning and live my life each day, doing what I love to do no matter what my bank balance is.
I designed my life this way with great intent and purposeful sacrifice over the course of the last eight years in order to have life the way I choose it. Economic conditions will not change that. I will continue to serve in the way that I do no matter if I wake up on a park bench or in a mansion.
That’s not the kind of reasoning most CFOs want to hear, much less understand. Just as I was about to share those thoughts, he launched into a catastrophic doomsday scenario. It was an impressive display of financial acumen, market knowledge, inside information and tight logic. I have to admit that for a minute or two I allowed it to suck me in. I had mindlessly reacted to his rant.
I could feel my anxiety rise and my spirits start to sag. My thoughts ran with him as he painted a dismal future, and then I caught myself. Nothing had changed. I was still living my life as I intended. Just then I glanced over at the CEO and caught his eye.
I can only guess, but I suspect we were thinking the same thing. How many employees, customers or other stakeholders had heard those toxic thoughts? And what were the unintended consequences?
What ever he intended, it wasn’t leadership. You can’t produce long term positive action through scare tactics. Why? Because if you scare people enough, they will move into a self-preservation mode. It becomes all about survival – theirs, not yours. Employees can “smell” your fear, and that’s not their problem, it’s yours.
