Fear Is a Leadership Choice

"You challenge my direction too much. You do more than I ask you to do."

Those sentences were part of a performance review a senior manager at a Fortune 500 company received from her supervisor. Both statements, in case it isn't obvious, were delivered as negatives. Sadly, they look similar to sentences in many performance reviews I have seen.

The irony is almost painful. This person, like so many of the people whose reviews I saw, was hired because she would do those things. The company had started an initiative to bring in talent that challenged the status quo. She not only did that, she tried to go above and beyond what she was told.

And she got smacked down in her review for doing exactly that. That person will never tell her boss what she really thinks again.

The Contradiction Leaders Don't See

Organizations say they want innovation, initiative and fresh thinking. Then leaders penalize the people who deliver it. The contradiction is rarely intentional. It happens because leaders become defensive when their authority is questioned. A challenge to their direction feels like a challenge to their competence, so they push back, and the message spreads quickly.

People are paying attention. When one person is criticized for speaking up, everyone else learns the lesson without receiving the review. They self-censor. They stop volunteering ideas. They adopt a survival mentality: I'll just do what they want and collect my paycheck.

The result is a workplace filled with a lot of well-paid and incredibly tired people. They show up. They comply. But they have stopped offering the potential they were hired for.

One Reaction Travels Far

Fear thrives in uncertainty, and people are living with plenty of it. Many employees are quietly wondering whether their jobs will exist next year. In that climate, a leader's reaction to one challenging question can determine whether a team keeps thinking out loud or goes silent.

Perceptyx's 2025 benchmark data found that nearly one in three employees do not feel psychologically safe at work. Engagement doesn't disappear on its own. It erodes every time someone takes a risk and gets punished for it, and every time a leader treats a question as a threat. Fear is expensive, even when it never shows up as a line item.

What Inclusive Leadership Really Solves For

I once led a corporate training with a group of senior leaders and asked them what inclusive leadership solves for. Then I rephrased the question: think beyond the obvious, what do you really want inclusive leadership to solve for?

I told the leaders we need to stop thinking with a template mindset and realize what inclusive leadership really solves for: satisfying people. Not just recruiting different people, but making every individual feel valued and safe enough to contribute who they really are.

That is the difference between an organization that hires for individuality and one that actually uses it. If people can't challenge your thinking without paying a price, you haven't included them. You have simply added them to the headcount. People can tell the difference within weeks, and so can the customers they serve. As I often remind leaders, people are not commodities.

How Leaders Can Replace Fear With Trust

• Reward the challenge, not just the outcome. When someone questions your direction, thank them publicly, even if you ultimately stay the course. People need to see that speaking up is safe.
• Audit your performance reviews. Look for language that criticizes initiative, questioning or going beyond the job description. Those words teach people to shrink.
• Separate your ego from your direction. A challenge to a plan is not a challenge to your worth. The more secure you are in your own identity, the less threatened you will feel.
• Make the unspoken rules visible. Ask your team directly: what do you believe gets people in trouble here? Their answers will tell you where fear is living.
• Hold other leaders accountable. If a manager on your team is punishing initiative, that is your problem too. Culture is shaped by what leaders tolerate.

Then take the question into your next one-on-one, and ask it plainly. When was the last time you held back an idea because you worried how I would react? What would you do differently if you knew you wouldn't be penalized for trying? Where are you doing less than you are capable of, and why? Be ready for silence the first time. The answers come once people believe you really want them.

Fear in the workplace is the accumulation of small leadership choices, not an accident. That also means it can be reversed by small leadership choices, made consistently. When leaders embrace an innovation mentality that rewards initiative and welcomes different perspectives, people stop surviving and start contributing again. It is how you enable the full potential of the people you already have.

Want to explore these ideas further? Learn more about my work on leadership, identity and conviction at www.theglennllopis.com.