Breaking the Fear Barrier

A company’s worst enemy is not always the competition. Sometimes it’s the fear that lives within its own walls.

In companies, fear can take many forms: fear of not meeting a goal, of not getting a bonus, of losing decision rights and respect. Fear compels employees and managers to protect themselves by creating seemingly impenetrable barriers fortified by rules and practices that benefit one group while harming others.

Sound familiar?

If so, then you know that left unchecked, fear-driven barriers can spread at an alarming rate in a company. Workgroups start to define success not by reaching the company’s overall goal, but by fulfilling their part of the process. Restrictive policies pile up until managers start to exert extreme control over headcount and resources. Other managers feel compelled to build empires — taking over other departments’ functions to regain or enhance their self-sufficiency. In the midst of these counterproductive activities, employees suffer, success deteriorates and efficiency dies.

While these barriers might seem insurmountable, they are not. They were built internally, and they can be destroyed internally.

By learning from the real-world lessons in this book, leaders, managers and employees can overcome the barriers that plague their company. It takes courageous leadership, and it can be difficult, but the result will be nothing less than transformational.

Tom Rieger is a former Gallup employee. He is an expert in identifying and correcting barriers to success, both for companies and societies. Rieger has built a number of frameworks that apply behavioral economic principles to a variety of complex problems, across boardrooms and battlefields. Tom received an MS in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon in 1986.