One characteristic of the world’s top leaders is that they are not afraid. And that is characteristic that many other leaders need to work on. In this Expert Insight Interview, Alan Weiss discusses his book Fearless leadership. Alan Weiss is a well-recognized entrepreneur, consultant, speaker, and author.
This Expert Insight Interview discusses:
- Real vs Fraudulent Fear
- Manifestation of Fear
- Changing your Metrics
Real Fear vs. Fraudulent Fear
There are two types of fear, real and false one. The real fear would be if you see a bear, or if somebody points a gun at you. The false fear would be if a seller goes into a prospective buyer’s office and gets scared, or if a speaker gets afraid when steps up in front of the audience. Since nobody will hurt us while doing our job, we create a false fear. The best way to overcome that false fear is to ask ourselves what is the worst thing that can happen to us. For example, the worst thing that can happen to a seller is that a buyer says no, or that somebody from the audience corrects a speaker. Those scenarios seem way more catastrophic in our heads than how they really are.
Manifestation of Fear
Our fears manifest in our everyday lives. People who procrastinate are afraid. They are less afraid of being late because their actual fear is of people criticizing them for not doing the job right. On the other hand, perfectionists are afraid as well. They are afraid of not doing the job perfectly. And that fear stops both from moving forward and finishing the job. What we can see now during the coronavirus pandemic is that people who excel are the ones who are not afraid to leave their safe options and go for it. That is a simple risk-reward ratio. When you weigh your best- and worst-case scenarios, people who are not afraid tend to choose a best-case scenario.
We all have fears from the past that are still with us. But at some point, we must find the origin of that fear and ask ourselves whether that fear is still legitimate today. Because if not, we might experience the situation of losing great opportunity because of some old superstition or some exaggerated story from the past.
Change Your Metrics
Finding your own metrics in life means creating your own meaning in life. Nowadays, people are obsessed with measuring their lives in comparison to other people’s lives. But what is good for others might not be good for you. So, the important thing is to start participating in your own race instead of racing with other people. In the business world as well, especially in sales, a good sales coach would advise you to find a way that works for you instead of copying his old method. By taking control of our lives, we will become less fearful because we will refrain from reckless things that can destroy us and we will be able to find and create our own meaning in life.
Our Host
John is the Amazon bestselling author of Winning the Battle for Sales: Lessons on Closing Every Deal from the World’s Greatest Military Victories and Social Upheaval: How to Win at Social Selling. A globally acknowledged Sales & Marketing thought leader, speaker, and strategist, he has conducted over 1500 video interviews of thought leaders for Sales POP! online sales magazine & YouTube Channel and for audio podcast channels where Sales POP! is rated in the top 2% of most popular shows out of 3,320,580 podcasts globally, ranked by Listen Score. He is CSMO at Pipeliner CRM. In his spare time, John is an avid Martial Artist.
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