This document provides 3 leadership hacks for managing fear and maintaining composure during times of change. The first hack is to speak often through clear and frequent communication. The second is to listen more to understand employees' perspectives and reduce uncertainty. The third hack is to focus employees forward by helping them make a plan with goals, prior efforts, potential options, and next steps. Regular communication, active listening, and forward planning are presented as key strategies for leaders to reduce interference caused by fears of change.

1. 3 Leadership Hacks
To Manage Fear and
Maintain Your Zen
Coaching
In Chaos?

2. Doing business today?
Get comfortable
with change.
Mergers, acquisitions,
corporate restructuring,
and the constant evolution
of technology are
commonplace. In today’s
fast-moving corporate
environment, change is
the one thing you can
count on.
Change
Happens

3. Why? One Word: FEAR
Change: A Losing Battle?
According to Harvard
Business Review,
more than 70%
of transformation
efforts fail.
70%
FAIL

4. The Change
Reaction
There are a wide variety of
fear-based reactions to change.
For every “eager beaver” that is
comfortable with shifts, there are
10 people who “act out.”
1. ANGER:
This is a stupid idea
2. REJECTION:
I’m not going along with this
3. AVOIDANCE:
I’m going to pretend this isn’t
happening
4. POLITICKING:
I’m going over my manager’s head
5. GOSSIPING:
I am going to whisper about this
to my colleagues
:

5. As humans, it’s natural to
fear change, particularly at
work. However, if fear takes
hold, it causes tremendous
interference, or
“interfearance,” which are
the negative thoughts,
feelings, or mental clutter
that block productivity.
Managing
Change
=
Reducing
“Interfearance”
In times of chaos and change, your
#1 job is to lead—and you lead by
reducing interfearance. Here’s how…

6. Hack #1: Speak Often
No matter what, communication is key.
“The brain doesn’t
like uncertainty.
Anything uncertain is
potentially a threat.”
Dean Burnett, neuroscientist*
*https://www.unstuck.com/advice/
afraid-change-science-uncertainty
• Make things clear
• Be available and
communicate frequently
• Practice SAYDOCO—
Say what you’ll do,
do what you’ll say,
and communicate
when you can’t

7. In the midst of change it’s critical for
leaders to ask lots of questions and
listen closely to gauge how change is
affecting the employee. The answers
to those questions will put the
manager in the position to:
1 Create a safe space
2 Maintain the context
of possibility
3 Offer the security of
failing forward
Hack #2: Listen More
In other words,
REDUCE
INTERFEARANCE

8. “When we don’t know, or can’t say, what’s happening,
our tendency is to say nothing at all. Good
leaders do the opposite; they seek out
opportunities to have conversations.
Rather than focusing on what’s
happening on your level, ask about
how things are working on theirs.
Addressing the interference that comes
with uncertainty reveals a path forward.”
– Alan Fine
Why Communication Is Key

9. Hack #3: Focus Forward
Dwelling on the past and obsessing about
the future is a surefire way to stay stuck.
When people feel like they have
a plan, they not only focus, but
they move forward more easily
and make progress every day.
What’s a good leader to do?
Help employees Make a PLAN.

10. Prompting
the Plan
To help an employee
make a plan that
reduces interfearance,
start by asking the
following four
questions:
1. What’s your goal?
2. What have you
tried so far?
3. If anything were
possible, what
would you do?
4. What’s the
next step?

11. Discover how
WORKPLACE coaching
can take the FEAR out of
organizational change.
Coaching that works.
insideoutdev.com