Unfear: Transform Your Organization to Create Breakthrough Performance and Employee Well-Being

Introduction

Fear is taboo in most organizations. To admit fear is to admit weakness, failure, or that you can’t handle the demands of your job. Everybody ignores its existence. At the same time, organizations use fear to drive short-term performance. They ratchet up the pressure while pretending it’s not part of the calculus.

The twenty-first century is off to a fear-inducing start. The number of people with anxiety disorders has exploded. Everything from the climate to the economy, the social fabric, political institutions, and even public health seems less stable than it was in the 1980s and 1990s. The business landscape is no different. It features a networked, hyperconnected, and hypertransparent knowledge economy with ever-diminishing ...