Fear...

The Future Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past.Edition 267.

Image by Midjourney to the prompt "fear"

If there is one emotion that is increasingly widespread across the world it is that of fear.

It is particularly acute in the world of business at every level and in every industry.

Fear beats like a second heart beneath an outward veneer of confidence.

What we fear at work is multi-faceted and multi-modal. Here are just a few factors:

a) Will our jobs be automated away by AI ? A very senior person who I respect in the world of tech wondered if the new tech they are creating is the wood chipper that they will be fed into? Are they architecting their own obsolescence? In other industries all of us wonder if AI will create a hunger games environment inside each company as they launch efficiency drives forcing us to compete for fewer and fewer opportunities.

b) Are we still relevant as leaders? As younger generations look with great dubiousness at their seniors, wondering what they do and the price they paid to get their roles, the senior folks also are grappling with change coming so fast that they no longer have the option to wait it out. With many financial obligations, the increasing insecurity of of one’s job and need to reinvent oneself make us fearful.

c) Where are the opportunities to grow? The great flattening is removing many middle management opportunities and roles while a combination of AI and uncertainty is making companies delay hiring even if they are growing. Companies worry both about business softness but also suddenly finding themselves with too many people if the new technology truly increases productivity.

d) Can we say anything that does not get us into trouble? Despite all the statements about fearless environments, risk-taking, the freedom and growth that comes from the clash of ideas, and the emphasis on experimentation happy talk, there is a dark cloud lurking. One of sinister monitoring and pressure to align, conform, and comply that invisibly defangs attitude , depersonalizes individuality , devalues provocation and dismisses those who walk another path.

e) Do we have a pretend job? Alex McCann who I will have as guest on The Rethinking Work show next week has an amazing series called “The Death of the Corporate Job” that begins like this:

Last week, I had coffee with someone who works at a big consulting firm. She spent twenty minutes explaining her role to me. Not because it was complex, but because she was trying to convince herself it existed. "I facilitate stakeholder alignment across cross-functional workstreams," she said. Then laughed. "I genuinely don't know what that means anymore."

She's not alone. I keep meeting people who describe their jobs using words they'd never use in normal conversation. They attend meetings about meetings. They create PowerPoints that no one reads, which get shared in emails no one opens, which generate tasks that don't need doing.

The strangest part: everyone knows. When you get people alone, after work, maybe after they've had time to decompress, they'll admit it. Their job is basically elaborate performance art. They're professional email forwards. They're human middleware between systems that could probably talk directly to each other.

f) We fear the death of leadership: So many “leaders” seem to have weather vane minds and squishy spines that are quick to align. Fleshy things who have a tropism that bends towards money and power. They tremble like leaves shivering with fear, rootless without any principles, but put on the show of florid orchids.

Fear leads many of us to go through the motions. We need the job. So we repeat the new mantra. Espouse the updated values. Chant the company slogan. We go along and get along. Hail the new leader! Hail the visionary Board! Hail the re-organization! Hail yet another re-organization!

Some keep their heads low and save all their passions for the side job. Others filled with hot air conflate title and the power that comes with the title as ones own power though deep down they know differently.

Overcoming Fear

We should not give into fear.

Because when we do, we lose everything including our ability to think for ourselves.

Frank Herbert wrote in Dune: "Fear is the mind-killer."

And when we are ruled by fear we are defeating ourselves.

We are practicing self-oppression.

Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote : “Fear defeats more people than any other one thing in the world."

Fear is natural but it is also the fuel that often can ignite courage.

"Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision." — Unknown

"Courage is not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it." — Nelson Mandela

If we are fearful of someone we should know this:

The fearsome are often fear filled: An outward shows of great confidence is often co-related with deep anxiety. The folks who are the most arrogant, the most sure of themselves, the least approachable are usually the most insecure. Other wise why all the drama?

First comes confidence. Then comes humility.

Many of the really accomplished people are gracious, generous, and kind. They know they are good. And that is enough.

And so the first way of overcoming fear of others is by recognizing that usually the ones who fill one with fear are usually fretful themselves.

Do not fear them. Instead take pity. Do not tremble. Put out a hand in friendship. They are not bad people but just isolated and worried with many challenges and difficulties of their own.

Stay true to an internal compass: The thing to fear is not others but when one we let ourselves down. When we lose our internal sense of bearing and the trueness of things. The point about principles is often one has to pay a price to stay true to them.

If we are fearful of being replaced or becoming obsolete we should do this:

Upgrade our skills: It is easier than it looks and often does not take much money. Today there is a world of online and offline capabilities ( including people in our organization willing to help us). All we need to do is to allocate an hour a day to learn new things. Very soon we will realize that the new technologies are not that difficult. When we invest $60 to get the paid version of Open AI, Gemini and Claude we have better AI than the company we work for will ever have since they sandbox the most recent version and tend to scale on just one foundational model.

Maximize our Optionality: When we lack choice we feel cornered. Everyone should put a plan of action to enable options right away even if it takes a year or two or three to manifest itself. Build a reputation. Launch a side hustle. Feed a network. Reduce spend. Save a little nest egg. The more options we have the less we can be controlled by anyone or any firm and the less we are fearful. Too many people start looking for the next opportunity when the current gig becomes untenable. Do it now. Sooner or later, through choice or circumstances we all need to leave. Every career has a midnight hour and the smart people leave at five to twelve. The more options one has the longer one can stay in a difficult role and the less likely we will fear other people.

Fear is natural. It is a signal that we are alive. But it is also the catalyst to courage, the driver of decisions, the igniter of revolutions.

We have nothing to lose but our fear.

Soul. Human. My first book is even more relevant today as recent circumstances have people recognize we truly need to restore the soul of business and remain human in an age of AI…learn more here…https://rishadtobaccowala.com/restoring-the-soul-of-business