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During this live conversation with entrepreneur, author and blogger Elizabeth Shassere, you will uncover how fear might be affecting you as a leader and what you can do to regain control over the fears that may be affecting your leadership. There will be an opportunity to ask Elizabeth questions about her experiences and seek direct advice.

A natural part of being human is fear. Fear has helped us not get eaten by tigers; avoid the poisonous berries and survive the perils of our history. The problem is that our mental responses to fear are the same regardless of whether we are facing sudden death, a pressing deadline or difficult client. As a leader people look to us for answers; and we are ultimately accountable to the business and our people for making the right decisions. In a climate of uncertainty knowing what’s right is becoming increasingly difficult.

If we start to translate the uncertainty, challenge and pressure we are experiencing as some how our fault. If we approach ourselves with a lack of compassion, we can create an additional unseen layer of fear. The fear of being found out as a fraud, promoted beyond your ability, lacking capability, not really knowing the answers. The fear of being in over your head and ultimately the fear of failure. These personal unspoken fears will affect our ability to be effective in any role in an organisation and is a huge issue when our leaders are struggling with fear.

Fear can bring with it a sense of shame that they should know the answer and should be able to fix things; leaving people feeling isolated, with no one to confide in or share their concerns. However, when we can learn to recognize how fear manifests itself in our behaviour, when we can tap into the difference between what we are telling ourselves and what is reality, we can start to take the actions needed to stop fear from undermining our performance.

What to expect from attending this event

We will be discussing with Elizabeth how to recognise fear when it comes up at work and what strategies to take to manage it. Fear can come in many forms: the fear of failure; fear of being overwhelmed; fear of being out of your depth; and the fear of being found out to be a fraud (Imposter Syndrome). Through our discussion, Elizabeth will help you explore if fear is affecting your own leadership and what to do about it.

A key theme will be how to recognise fear in others; and in particular what practical steps you can take when you recognise that your leaders are struggling with fear. We will ask Elizabeth to share some quick, simple remedies to overcome the effects of fear while building a strong, united team.