How to Find Out if Your Company Practices a Culture of Fear

As an employer, would you prefer to be loved or feared by your employees? Although many companies prefer to be "loved", other employers still practice the culture of fear. The issue is that some leaders either don't recognise or refuse to see it affecting their organisations.

Fear is a motivating factor in human behaviour, but it always leads to bad decisions and creates obstacles to success in companies. 

 

Three questions to identify if your company has a culture of fear

These are the three critical questions to ask your employees and the cures (if the answers are not favourable). If you already think your organisation has a culture of fear, you can ask these questions on an anonymous survey website such as SurveyMonkey.

 

1. Are you afraid of presenting to leaders in the company?

If your employees spend days or weeks preparing for a half-hour meeting with your or top management, or if they ask numerous others to evaluate their work, your company might have two issues: 

• A culture of fear, and 

• A productivity problem. 

Preparation is good, but too much time spent on preparing usually stems from a fear of saying the wrong words or not having an answer to every question is not productive to your company. 

Your workers should feel comfortable speaking and presenting to the top management. If they constantly feel stressed because they are busy anticipating negative feedback, they will not be able to produce their best work.

They will also end up wasting too much time and resources on small details that do not matter in the end. 

 

2. Are you worried about getting fired?

Many people have heard of advice such as "Keep your head down and do your job". For many organisations, it is a slogan for self-preservation. 

As an employee, as long as you show your face, do what is minimall expected and don't challenge the management, you have a job for life. Organisations with this mentality are not fun places, and they don't make their workers feel they're doing meaningful work. 

Many workers feel exhausted and demeaned because they spend their workweek trying to avoid losing their jobs. 

Companies that practice this kind of culture have a high risk of going out of business and put everyone back on unemployment. 

 

3. Do you feel you can challenge the top management in the organisation?

In Malcolm Gladwell's book Outliers: The Story of Success, it can be highly detrimental for organisations to have people afraid to challenge one another. 

Subordinates who are scared to speak out may end up letting the boss and the company fail with a poor product or terrible decision because they think the personal risk of voicing a challenge is too big. 

Losing their job is detrimental to them and their families. They might as well stay quiet and go about their day. This behaviour also stifles open communication and breeds insecurities within the company. 

An environment in which intelligent workers are afraid to voice their opinions and challenges is headed for inevitable disaster. 

There is no point to spend a lot of money, time and resources to hire the best people and end up not listening to them. The point of hiring good employees is to listen to new ideas and perspectives they bring to the table. 

 

How to fight a culture of fear 

If you find out that your company is practising a culture of fear, you must take the following steps:

1. Set expectations. Let your workers know that you want and need to hear the pros and cons to help you make better decisions for the company. 

2. Reassure them. Assure your workers that they will not receive any backlash for speaking the truth or sharing their opinion, making or admitting an honest mistake or constructively challenging colleagues.

3. Listen and close the loop. Listen to your employees and close the loop. Let them know you are implementing a suggestion (or not). This part is crucial and often a missing link when it comes to making sure your employees feel heard rather than ignored. 

4. Reward and recognise your employees. Consistently and publicly reward your employees for speaking up appropriately, even if you disagree with their idea. 

5. Discipline. Take strict and public disciplinary action against leaders who violate the culture of trust and openness. 

6. Walk the talk. Don't discourage your employees from sharing their professional views, ideas or challenges. Instead, consistently thank them and reward such behaviour. The more others see leadership setting the example, the more they will progress toward positive cultural change. 

 

A culture of fear is not healthy nor sustainable. In that environment, employees do little work, are not 100% engaged, look for new jobs and finally leave, spreading negative views about your employer brand. 

By just asking your employees the right questions and getting honest answers, you will be able to expose critical opportunities for cultural, organisational, people and business growth. 

 

Source: Forbes/Louis Efron

 

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