Fear and Self-Loathing at the Top

Fear and Self-Loathing at the Top

There is a lot of pressure on today’s leaders.  Just glancing through articles by some of today’s top leadership coaches is enough to get my calf and jaw muscles tightening.   “All great speeches…. captivate their audiences, for whom time momentarily stands still.”
“The only reason to give a speech is to change the world.”  When you consider we’re talking  about delivering a speech live without an edit,  it’s a lot of pressure.  On the up side this is when I can get called in to help by coaching in vocal inter-active technique easing the pressure of delivery and heightening the ability of the speaker to come through without force – vocally or physically.
Roger Jones of Vantage Hill found out through research, that leaders’ unconscious personal fears affect their performance and that of their team.  Listed below are a few of those fears.
Imposter Syndrome:  The thought of being found out as incompetent or having been promoted above their talents.
Underacheiving:  Fear of not making the grade and underperforming.
Appearing Vulnerable or Foolish:  This limits people’s ability to be open.
Political Attacks by Colleagues:  Leaders who fear this can be excessively cautious.
Dying:  In a professional sense.
All great leaders are after all human or as in Roman times ‘mortal’.  When Casar entered Rome after a great victory he would have a slave beside him whispering in his ear “”Remember that thou art mortal.”

Taken from an article originally written by Carly Chynoweth

Lyndon Rive CEO SolarCity
Lyndon Rive CEO SolarCity