I received quite a response from my column a while ago that dealt with effective teams. My article emphasized that teams thrive in an atmosphere of support; that team members are responsible for creating a safe feeling among the group so that everyone would feel confident to do their best work. An atmosphere of fear creates a situation in which employees will only do what they know works; they take fewer chances, which inhibits individual growth and an ultimate flat-lining of productivity.

Most of the comments I received were in agreement, but a couple of e-mails touted the old school rules of management. One guy as much as told me I was an idiot and didn't know anything about managing people because, "Fear is a great motivator." As much as I believe that everyone has a right to their opinion, that guy is dead wrong. Sadly, however, he is not alone in his assumption. It is an assumption that fear is a motivator; not a fact. To be clear, we are talking about fear, not urgency. And the difference between those two is all the difference in the world.

All mammals live in one of two mental states; comfort or nervousness. A state of comfort leads to acceptance, working smoothly, and good communication. A state of nervousness leads to arguing, disorganization, and a communication nightmare. Humans have a third state; extreme comfort. Extreme comfort leads to complacency. Humans need a moderate amount of stress in order to get off our hind ends. Healthy stress provides urgency, and urgency produces results.

The moment that urgency becomes fear, however, productivity diminishes. Fear causes the a shift of thinking from the creative centers of the brain to the memory centers. Instead of thinking, "What would be a great thing to try?" we think "How did I handle this crisis before?" The only time such thinking is appropriate is when the ship is sinking. You certainly don't want to be standing knee deep in water with someone saying, "Let's invent a cool new type of life boat."

There are two reasons some managers still believe that fear is a motivator: ego, and misinformation. The only person who feels good in an atmosphere of fear is the person who created it. These people have bought into the notion that employees should have a healthy fear of their boss. There is no such thing as health fear. If fear diminishes innovation, productivity, and longevity what good is it? Employees should have a healthy respect for their boss. They should want to do their best work so that respect is reciprocated. Fear and respect do not complement each other, they cancel each other out.

The misinformation about fear as a motivator comes from generations of managers who saw fear exist within a productive workplace and assumed a cause-and-effect relationship. Because America chugged along beautifully for generations, few people thought to ask, "Would things be even better if we changed management styles?" Until recently, few thought to compare fear-based practices against the outcomes of a collaborative work environment. It took the Great Recession to make us challenge what was long considered fact.

In The Harvard Business Review, Robert Kegan, Lisa Lahey, Andy Fleming, and Matthew Miller compared companies that fostered individual development (deliberately developmental organizations) against those that simply managed policies. Those that took fear out of the equation discovered that the urgency to continually improve exists in all people. Fostering urgency instead of instilling fear resulted in the deliberately developmental organizations consistently outperforming their competition.

The shift away from fear is not easy for many organizations. Those that have relied on the tactic for years have difficulty believing their bottom line will improve without it. That is because they haven't seen what their bottom line could be without it. We all suffer from the tendency to stick with a bad system we are familiar with instead of venturing into the unknown. It is also very difficult to wrest power away from those who crave it. Power-hungry people convince themselves that as long as people fear them they maintain control; challenging this fallacy is a threat to their ego.

It takes work to see which is driving your company; fear or urgency. Look at the faces in the room during staff meetings. See what kind of eye contact people give each other and how much interaction takes place. If you have a manager who uses fear as a motivator, replace their misinformation with facts and conduct an ego check. See how much more your employees can produce when the obstacle of fear is removed.

 

Stevie Ray is a nationally recognized corporate speaker and trainer, helping companies improve communication skills, customer service, leadership, and team management.  He can be reached at www.stevierays.org or stevie@stevierays.org.

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