Fear is bad for business. It lowers morale, engagement, and ultimately performance. Despite the overwhelming evidence about fear’s debilitating impacts on performance, many leaders still resort to stoking people’s fears to get work done.
Margaret Wheatley, author of Leadership & The New Science, says, “Fear has become the primary motivator at work.”
Consider These Facts
- Incivility and rudeness are costing productivity: According to the Society for Human Resource Management Civility Index, U.S. workplaces collectively suffer approximately $2.06 billion per day in lost productivity and absenteeism due to uncivil behaviour such as rudeness or disrespect among employees and managers.
- Workplace incivility is widespread: SHRM’s research also shows that most U.S. workers personally experience or witness workplace incivility regularly, with acts occurring frequently enough to depress morale and engagement across organizations.
- Bullying remains a major issue: According to the 2024 Workplace Bullying Institute survey, more than 32% of American workers (over 52 million) reported being directly bullied at work, and nearly 75 million workers were affected when indirect experiences (witnessing bullying) are included.
- Toxic cultures drive turnover: A 2025 survey reported that over 53% of employees said they quit a job because of a toxic work environment, and many would accept lower pay just to escape a hostile workplace.
- Stress and burnout remain rampant: Nearly half of U.S. workers report experiencing work‑related stress daily, and over 80% are at risk of burnout, which contributes to disengagement, absenteeism, and lost productivity.
Given how damaging fear is in the workplace, it is useful to know whether the organization you work for might be in need of more courage. In my courage-building facilitator guide, Courageous Leadership, I offer five telltale signs that you can use to assess whether your organization is working under fear’s grip.
Signs Courage Building is Needed
- CYA Rules The Day – Workers spend an inordinate amount of time covering their tails and generating proof that they are doing their jobs. CYA often shows up in how many people are cc’d on email exchanges, when even mundane emails include a long list of cc’d recipients.
- The Emperors Are Naked – Leaders are insulated from employee feedback and dangerously blind to themselves. Often, the higher you go up the organizational food chain, the less performance feedback is given. Feedback almost always flows downward, keeping leaders blithely and dangerously oblivious.
- Bean-Counters Rule – Financial acumen is valued more than creativity or innovation, causing decisions to be driven solely by the numbers versus what is in the long-term best interests of the organization. In fear-based organizations, the educational backgrounds of senior executives often disproportionately favor accounting or finance, often causing the organization to be hyper-analytical, rationalistic, and risk-averse.
- People Are Hung For Making Smart Mistakes – Mistakes are punished swiftly and harshly, creating a play it safe at all costs environment. Workers end up hiding mistakes or, worse, blaming others for their own mistakes. When mistakes are made, the first question isn’t how did this happen, but who caused this to happen?
- Everything Is Perpetually Urgent – The work environment in fear-based organizations is fraught with urgency and anxiety. In such places, regardless of their roles, everyone seems to have the same job: firefighter! With no relative sense of prioritization, the organization loses focus, and performance suffers.
Fortunately, fear, for all its badness, does have one redeeming quality. Fear is an invitation to courage. As such, fear, or more precisely the courage that fear often prompts, can help you encounter your better self.
Courage Building and Fear
Fear might be a powerful trigger, but it’s a terrible long-term strategy. Courage, on the other hand, is what fuels trust, innovation, and real performance. The leaders who make the biggest difference aren’t the ones who eliminate fear; they’re the ones who acknowledge it and choose to act anyway. They create environments where people feel safe enough to speak up, take smart risks, and do their best work. So if you recognize any of these signs in your organization, don’t ignore them. See them for what they are: a call to lead more courageously. Because in the end, it’s not fear that drives sustainable success, it’s the willingness to face it and lead through it that sets great leaders apart.
What would your organization look like if courage, not fear, were the guiding force in every decision and interaction?
Want to learn more about leading your organization on a path of personal growth and development? Check out these related posts:
- The Impact of Organizational Culture
- Workplace Courage Pays Dividends for the Individual and the Organization
Image by Leszek Stępień from Pixabay
