| 03 June 2010
I recently came upon someone asking the question: "If you were fearless, what would you be doing with your life?" Perhaps a better question might be... "if you had 'courage', what would you be doing with your life?" Courage is not the absence of fear, but the ability to do something in spite of fear...
Fearless? Only clueless people are fearless.
If one doesn't feel an element of fear every day, it is easy to become complacent, lazy, and frankly, imperiled. From experience I know that nothing gets a person out of bed each day better than living without a net (aka being an entrepreneur.) From experience, I also know that nothing breeds complacency and entitlement better than a big fat corporate job with a regular paycheck every two-weeks.
I'm convinced, that if everyone had to 'kill what they eat', the alarm clock people would quickly go out of business. Nothing motivates better than healthy fear. When the hard work I put in makes the difference between providing for my family, or not, I need very little other incentive. Since launching WOLF HR Solutions, my alarm clock is most underused appliance I own. (With the exception of my microwave oven... but that's another story.)
If you are a small business owner, you know all this and don't need convincing. However, if you are a leader in a non-profit or corporate setting, this is a critical concept to understand. Your challenge is to create an entrepreneurial culture where complacency and under achievement are not possible. Whether you have five employees or 5,000, this is critical.
As a student of corporate culture for 20 years, I have observed the need for practical and effective internal processes, programs, and tools to ensure that employees are engaged, meeting expectations, and delivering real results. I've also witnessed (and lived through) an assortment of productivity-killing, committee-designed, counter-productive HR efforts that failed to deliver the organizational impacts intended.
As an advisor, I help organizations create an "ownership" environment by focusing on the following elements:
- Vision Sharing
- Expectation Setting
- Performance Evaluation
- Communication Processes
- Empowerment
- Reward/Risk Sharing
Even a small organization that works to create an environment wherein all employees feel a healthy, motivating fear will improve its chances for success. If your employees are "fearless", you should worry. Employees should know what is expected, like what they do, and be motivated to work hard to reach the goals you have set.
Contact WOLF for more information on infusing your organization with a little healthy fear. Remember... controlled panic is the mother of organizational heroism!
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