This document discusses 8 common fears that can derail performance and development: feeling helpless, ignorant, shame, invisible, abandoned, assimilated, trapped, and anxious. It explains how fears are driven by psychological needs and how the brain learns through experience. When development programs address these fears and needs, people are better able to learn and improve performance. An effective approach considers the whole person by engaging all parts of the brain and providing experiences that build skills while ensuring emotional security and connection.

1. 8 Fears
~ That Derail Performance & Development ~
by Anne Dranitsaris, Ph.D.
Creator, Striving Styles®
Personality System

2. About the Speaker
• Personality & behavioural change expert
with over 35 years’ experience working with
individuals, teams, leaders and organizations to
eliminate dysfunction and maximize potential
• Creator, Striving Styles®
Personality System, a
neuro-psychological framework for development &
behavioural change
• Author, Who Are You Meant To Be?
A Groundbreaking, Step-by-Step Approach to
Discovering and Fulfilling Your True Potential
AnneDranitsaris, Ph.D.

3. Objectives
• The eight fears that derail performance and development
• How the brain learns
• Role of fear in the learning experience
• Implications for Performance & Development
• How to take a whole brain approach to dealing with fears

4. Role of Emotions
• Emotions are critical to successful
performance and development
• Drive our attention and behaviour
– Enhance the experience: curiosity
& exploration, increased
retention
OR
– Shut down development:
fight or flight response

5. Emotional Drivers of Behavior
• Fear is the strongest emotional motivator
we have; if it comes down to what do we
want vs. what do we fear, fear wins out.
• Everyone has fears, just like everyone has needs.
• They are instinctual, biochemical, and occur in the
brain whether we want to them to or not!
• Our psychological fears are based on our strongest
motivations and associated psychological needs.

6. Emotional Drivers of Behavior
• By understanding the motivation and
need attached to the fear, we can stop
acting out of the fear.
• Conditioned to judge our fears rather than to examine them
and ask ourselves the purpose of the feeling.
• Focus on controlling, denying, rationalizing or overcoming our
fears.
• Fear those things that we have experienced that have caused
us pain and suffering in the past.

7. Emotional Drivers of Behavior
• Brains are designed to develop and improve performance
over time
– experience, practice, process, mastery
• New neural pathways are created through repeated and
frequent positive experiences
• Fear, anxiety, negative emotional
memories interfere with growth
• Fear shuts down curiosity, initiative,
& experimentation

8. • Driven by powerful innate psychological needs
• Our behaviour seeks to get these
needs met
• Hard-wired at birth
• Source of all motivation and
social interaction
Importance of Needs

9. Our Needs and Associated Fears

10. Our Needs and Associated Fears
Predominant Need Associated Fear
To Be In Control Feeling helpless or powerless
To Be Knowledgeable Feeling ignorant or uninformed
To Be Recognized Feeling shame or embarrassment
To Be Perceptive Feeling invisible or disengaged
To Be Connected Feeling abandoned or socially exiled
To Be Creative Feeling invisible or assimilated
To Be Spontaneous Feeling trapped or restricted
To Be Secure Feeling anxious or insecure
Whenwedon’tknowtheneeds, wecannotaddress the
associatedfears thatgettriggeredduringlearning

11. Leader: Need to be in Control
Fear of feeling helpless or powerless
• IMPACT:
– react defensively when told they have to attend
training if not expecting it
– disagree or argue with manager re
performance & development needs
– create power struggles (with boss or trainer);
interrupt with challenging questions
– refuse to participate; show up & don’t engage

12. Intellectual: Need to be
Knowledgeable
Fear of feeling ignorant or uninformed
• IMPACT:
– avoid situations where they aren’t the expert
– routinely avoid group training or coaching
– compete (with trainer); ask questions
beyond scope of training to show expertise
– refuse to participate; do other work;
leave early

13. Performer: Need to be Recognized
Fear of feeling shame or embarrassment
• IMPACT:
– ask questions and tell stories; hijack the training
– dismissive or rude to the facilitator when asked not to talk;
engage in side conversations that are disruptive to the group
– disrespectful of those in authority (manager, facilitator, trainer,
etc. act like their equal
– argue and question things both for attention and
because they feel entitled to do so

14. Visionary: Need to be Perceptive
Fear of feeling invisible or disengaged
• IMPACT:
– disengage from what is going on when they can’t get a picture of
what’s going on and how they fit
– shut down when told they need to develop interpersonal skills;
have trouble picturing themselves behaving the way
they are told they need to
– intense questioning style intimidates the trainer
or facilitator
– when not allowed to ask questions, they
feel invisible, disengage and stop participating

15. Socializer: Need to be Connected
Fear of feeling abandoned or socially exiled
• IMPACT:
– give unwanted advice to feel connected and needed; get upset
when they aren’t heeded
– connect through focusing more on socializing or helping others
than their own performance or development
– assume the role of assistant; enforce rules,
telling those who aren’t doing things properly
what they should be doing
– personalize performance feedback; blame boss for
the way they feel and disconnect emotionally.
Performance declines

16. Artist: Need to be Creative
Fear of feeling invisible or assimilated
• IMPACT:
– exaggerate their shortcomings so others don’t expect anything
from them
– Personalize performance feedback; withdraw with a marked
decline in engagement with others; more perfectionistic
– keep to themselves and blame others for not
including them. Don’t communicate necessary
information on the team
– hypersensitive; fear being judged or criticized. Can’t
hear what is being said because of unrelenting
negative self-talk

17. Adventurer: Need to be Spontaneous
Fear of feeling trapped or restricted
• IMPACT:
– bored easily; become disruptive; make comments or tell jokes
that interrupt the facilitator
– vocal about how “stupid” or “worthless” the training is to
validate their inappropriate behavior
– performance correction is often around their
impulsive behavior; act without telling others
– impatient when training is abstract or
conceptual

18. Stabilizer: Need to be Secure
Fear of feeling anxious or insecure
• IMPACT:
– resist change, learning & trying new ways of doing things; don’t
like strangers teaching them
– don’t ask questions or participate in exercises; look like they are
resistant or disinterested; frustrate facilitators
– performance development focused on “soft skills” makes them
anxious
– catastrophize about training events; work
themselves into anxious states

19. Addressing Needs & Fears in
Performance & Development

20. Change the Brain
• Understand Brain Styles of participants & extent of
development of each quadrants
• Provide activities that address fears
• Train managers to address fears instead of reacting to
behavior
• Provide iterative experiences that lead to
a sense of self-mastery and confidence

21. Provide for Emotional Security
• Create safe work environments that offer a steady source
of positive emotional support
• Talk about negative emotions and their impact on
learning
• Attend to the fears and emotional barriers
• Foster an atmosphere free from undue stress, with
pleasurable intensity

22. Engage the Whole Person
• Program designers, facilitators as well as participants
understand:
– Brain Styles – mechanics of the
mind
– Emotional Drivers of Behaviour
• Innate Needs
• Associated Fears
– Learning Styles
• each Style begins the learning process from a different
part of their brain

23. Creating Whole Brain P & D
Programs
Left Rational Brain
Answers: What will we build?
• Decide on content
• Construct program, establish modules
• Benchmark & accountability
Left Emotional Brain
Answers: What will they experience?
• Determine sequence & steps
• Determine experiences
• Connections to current situation
Right Rational Brain
Answers: What are our goals?
• Envision desired result
• Organizational context
• Generate enthusiasm
Right Emotional Brain
Answers: What will they feel?
• Determine emotional needs
• Relational/social experiences
• Reward & recognition
Objective
Subjective

24. Needs During Development
Left Rational Brain
Learning Function: to sort information
Needs & associated fears:
• Will people feel in control?
Left Emotional Brain
Learning Function: to relate info to past
experiences & steps involved
Needs & associated fears:
• Will people feel secure?
Right Rational Brain
Learning Function: to envision the whole
Needs & associated fears:
• Will people feel
Right Emotional Brain
Learning Function: to relate & bond
Needs & associated fears:
• Will people feel connected?
• Will
Objective
Subjective

25. Use the Whole Brain to Design
Left Rational Brain
~ Analyze & Build Structure
- Basis for selecting program
content?
- Criteria to evaluate progress
against expectations?
Right Rational Brain
~ Envision & Explore
- Desired outcomes?
- Context for new experiences &
reinforcement of learning?
Left Emotional Brain
~ Experience & Security
- Experiences needed to build
the brain?
- Participants fears?
Right Emotional Brain
~ Connection & Creativity
- Motivation to learn?
- Ensure participants’ needs
get met?

26. Remember...
• Expectations for engagement must be clear for both
employees and managers
• Consistency of approach to performance & development
• Ongoing dialogue about resistance and the fears that get
in the way of performance and development – develop a
comfort zone
• Allow for adequate time and experiences in the learning
cycle to change the brain
Maximizing the ROIforperformance &
development is easy when you take a
whole person, brain based approach to
the design and delivery of your

27. Our Approach
• Striving Styles Personality System is a neuro-
psychological framework for development,
behavioural change and achieving potential
– Can be integrated into any development program
– Audit existing programs to ensure design & delivery reflect
personality, emotions and how the brain learns
– Facilitate organizational change, eliminate dysfunction and
disengagement
– Build expertise of anyone involved in training, development &
behavioural change by becoming a Practitioner

28. Contact us
…for a free consultation
…for a copy of our White Paper on the SSPS:
an evolution of the MBTI
www.StrivingStyles.com
416.406.3939 x2
anne@strivingstyles.com