I’m an Executive…and I’m Scared!

I’m an executive…and I’m scared!  These aren’t words you’re going to hear uttered by executives in the C-Suite, or anyone in leadership for that matter, yet according to Roger Jones, CEO of Vantage Hill Partners, they are common words you would hear if you could peer into the inner thoughts and emotions of those occupying Corporate America’s corner offices.  Jones says, “While few executives talk about them, deep and uncontrolled private fears can spur defensive behaviors that undermine how they and their colleagues set and execute company strategy.”

Fear is here to stay, deal with it!  The question is, how?  For some help on the subject, let me direct you to The Stockdale Paradox, something made popular by Jim Collins in his book “Good to Great”.  Admiral James Stockdale, was shot down over Vietnam in 1967, captured and beaten severely to the point of permanent damage to one of his legs, and thrown into the “Hanoi Hilton”.  Brutally tortured over twenty times during his captivity, spending four years in solitary confinement in total darkness, he was finally released in 1973.  He went on to serve as the President of the Naval War College, work as a Senior Research Fellow at Stanford and became Vice-Presidential candidate on an independent ticket with Ross Perot in the early 90’s.

Was he scared when he was a POW?  You bet!  But it was how he handled his fear that made the difference.  He was a student of the Ancient Stoic Philosophers and defined courage as “endurance of the soul”, stating that courage is “the measure of a man’s ability to handle fear”, and it must “be exercised in the presence of fear.”

Since we can’t eliminate fear, we must increase courage.  If courage is our ability to handle fear – something that can only emerge in the presence of fear – what fear do we need the most courage for?

Roger Jones surveyed 116 CEOs and other executives (73% male; 27% female; 91% U.S. based) in 2014 and found the #1 fear.  Jones reports, “The biggest fear is being found to be incompetent, also known as the “imposter syndrome.” This fear diminishes [executives] confidence and undermines relationships with other executives.”  This syndrome leads to the following:

• Poor decision-making
• Focusing on survival rather than growth
• Inducing bad behavior at the next level down
• Failing to act unless there’s a crisis

Here’s the question: As an executive, how are you dealing with your #1 fear?

“You have to realize that I never got depressed because I never, ever wavered in my faith that not only I would get out, but I would turn being in the camp into the defining event of my life, that in retrospect I would not trade.  This is what I’ve learned.  When you’re in-prisoned by great calamity, by great difficulty, by great uncertainty, you have to never confuse the need for unwavering faith that you will find a way to prevail in the end, with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts we actually face – that we’re not getting out of here by Christmas.”  

When asked by Collins, “Who didn’t make it out as strong as you?”, Stockale replied, “It was the optimists.  They always thought we’d be out by Christmas.  Christmas would come and then it would go.  Then they said we’d be out by Easter and then Thanksgiving, then Christmas would come and go again.  And they died of a broken heart.”

Key Questions for Self-Reflection: