Bernadette Boas explains how fear of failure and judgment drives leaders to over-analyze, micromanage, and demand constant output. This kills innovation and silences teams. She shows how to break the pattern and build a healthier relationship with risk and feedback.
Inner bitch number 2 is the failure avoider. Raise your hand if you might fall into this by just hearing the title of this one. This is when someone is terrified of getting it wrong and equally terrified of being criticized for it. So they play it safe. They overanalyze, they micromanage, they avoid taking risks that really could expose those fears and insecurities and create risk of that judgment, of that criticism. So if they're ever given feedback, they take it as a personal indictment, a personal attack on who they are and what their worth is. And in— and how they project that is that they just start task doing. They just start producing. They just start trying to check off everything that's on their task list. Because that volume, that production, that output will make them feel as if they have proven themselves, that they're worthy, that they are a massive producer. And yet what will happen, what will ultimately happen is they stagnate. They're very indecisive. And their teams really stop bringing new ideas, stop raising up issues, stop creating new innovations because they know that leader is afraid of failure, afraid of risk, afraid of judgment, and therefore they just don't bother doing it, and your team goes quiet.
From Stuck to Leading, Episode 2 — Meet the 5 Inner Fears Destroying Your Leadership
