What is leadership? LO22188

HJRobles@aol.com
Sat, 10 Jul 1999 23:40:55 EDT

Replying to LO22108 --

In a message dated 7/6/99 6:57:13 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
Rebecca.Bell@PSS.Boeing.com writes:

>I also see the connection here to fear, often unquestioned fear, which
>could be part of a brake system to change within organizations. Although
>I agree that brakes form a useful service in the change process, it's the
>unquestioned part of it that disturbs me and has frustrated me in the
>past. I have been challenged with how to raise the awareness and
>acceptance of the fear to the surface, even if just within the
>individual. I would be interested in others' reactions to these thoughts.

I imagine there are volumes written on this subject -- fear. Its
productive side and its nonproductive side. It will be yet another huge
subject I have to add to the list of things I wish I had time to explore.
As it is, I take little bits and pieces of information as I come across
them -- like in your e-mail -- and apply them to what I do and know. It
amounts to a little learning, anyway. I think fear is one of those things
that one must manage and rather precisely. A bit too much, and one is
paralyzed. Too little, and one makes serious mistakes. Everybody seems
to have to find their own dose, their own "IV drip" rate, if you will.
That seems to work in that you get a range of abilities -- usually not
everyone gets completely paralyzed or runs completely amock at the same
time. A certain amount of fear keeps me working at peak level -- in grad
school, it was the "cheap thrill" of leaving all one's work until the last
possible moment. (Leaving things until the last moment in one's JOB does
not qualify as a "cheap" thrill.) A certain amount of fear keeps things
interesting. Maybe the important thing is that people have some sense of
what their optimum dose of fear is and can manage it more often than not.
Harriett.

-- 

HJRobles@aol.com

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