Fear of bad news
Why are we so afraid of bad news?
As a leader, I have often asked my teams that very question.
Why am I so afraid of bad news?
How can I ask that same question to myself, that I ask my teams? Well, I am a human, and we are messy. Right?
Fear of bad news is normal, but there is something connected to it that is truly the root of why we are afraid of bad news popping up. It is not the bad news we are worried about, or speaking for myself, it is the way we will look when the bad news is broadcast.
In those moments, my ego is making this fear grow in my mind. Ego and fear.
There is a classic Sci-Fi book written by Frank Herbert called Dune. It is one of my favorites and a passion that I shared with my Grandfather. He and I loved the story and more so we loved the way Herbert spoke about human nature. One lesson, in particular, I always took to heart.
Fear is the mind-killer.
This particular phrase is part of a larger quote called The Litany Against Fear. Here it is from the book;
“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past, I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
To face off with a massive sandworm on Arrakis, you had better master your fear…
To explain the context of that image and origin of this selection of writing in Dune, the Book by Herbert would truly pull anyone reading this into the depths of pure Sci-Fi nerdom that I am unsure of your interest or stamina to endure, but I do encourage you to read the book. It is one of my favorites. The movies are pretty good too!
Anyway, fear IS the mind-killer. This is so true and frankly, fear that is linked to our ego is a double killer. In the case of bad news, I believe this is the true root cause of why many of us fear bad news rearing its head in our day to day.
“What will my boss think of me if they see these numbers?”
“Will they think I am a bad leader?”
“On man, am I going to be looked at as a failure?”
“What will my team think of me if they know how bad this deal went?”
Fear and ego can take our brains to the depths of self-doubt, but even worse, we start wasting time telling stories about what others think of us, and in the end, these are probably not true. If they indeed prove to be true, the bad news is our responsibility to deliver and deal with it in a way that adds value and solves the problem.
Everyone is afraid at times. What I decide in these moments always revolves around changing my mental narrative. As soon as my brain chooses the soundtrack of “What does this bad news say about me and my value..” I make myself click to the next track and as I always try to have the, “I solve problems and learn more from failure than I do from winning all the time” track queued up. Also, I love to immediately play the track of “If I’m not failing, then I am not trying anything new or hard enough..” track. That one always gets me focused on reality.
Reality Check: Bad news comes from failure, and failure is the by-product of doing hard things.
I choose to keep doing hard things, so I am going to fail, and thus get bad news from time to time.
The bad news is the presentation of a problem that I need to solve, thus a hard thing to tackle.
Fear is the mind-killer. Our ego can be the accelerant.
Let’s all keep pushing ourselves. Let’s look at the bad news that comes with failing at hard things for what it truly is: A signal that we are doing what we are supposed to do and the bad news is the beacon showing us where we need to focus.
Jason A. Belt 