I’m guilty of it – I even wrote an article about the cost of fear – where I calculated my inconsistencies (fear of failure) cost me nearly $2.3 million dollars in loss of opportunity. That should have motivated me to jump in the deep end of building my business and start marketing, but it didn’t.
So, is fear a good motivator?
We’ve all felt it. The adrenaline rush of a looming deadline. The knot in your stomach before a high-stakes presentation. The low-grade anxiety when a manager says, “We need to talk.” Fear and pressure are often used as go-to motivational tool, but is it actually healthy?
Should we be using them regularly? or at all?
The logic seems simple: if people are afraid of negative consequences—like missing a target, looking foolish, or even losing their job—they’ll work harder to avoid them. And in the short term, it kind of works.
Fear is a powerful, primal motivator. It narrows our focus, floods our system with adrenaline, and forces us to act, avoid, or freeze.
It’s an effective way for managers to get their team moving towards productivity – but is it a good way to lead?
Does a culture built on pressure and fear create a truly high-performing team, or does it just create a team of stressed-out survivors?
Let’s get real about the hidden costs of fear and the much smarter way to drive results.
Fear, a survival response
Earlier, I mentioned I knew my fear was costing me, but I still choose to do nothing about it. Why?
I didn’t care because I wasn’t in immediate danger or losing anything. My coaching business has always been a passion project, I never want to do this full-time because I love working in corporate and leadership dynamics. I love to help people during my off hours because it allows me to support the growth of people that’re in search of greater support.
If money, or loss of income, was a survival need, than of course that would’ve forced me to engage in building my business into a robust system where it was about quantity and not quality. I appreciate the flexibility I have in coaching because I get to choose the clients I work with, because it’s a mutual agreement and not a number or dollar amount in my business.
Using fear as a motivational tool sets of alarms in our brain, a threat level is increased, our stress-level skyrockets, allowing for adrenaline to pump through our veins to get the task done. Using fear launches our protective motivation for survival, where we ground ourselves by asking two questions:
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How bad is this threat? (Perceived Severity)
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What are the chances it will happen to me? (Perceived Susceptibility)
If the threat feels both severe and likely (e.g., “If I don’t finish this report by 5 PM, the client will be furious and I’ll be in huge trouble”), we are powerfully motivated to take immediate action to protect ourselves. It opens us up to act immediately because our survival (social, financial) depends on our ability to perform.
The fear of failure focuses the mind and creates a burst of urgent energy – and – it has a steep cost.
Cost of using fear as motivation
The cost of using fear on a regular bases have severe impact on you as a leader and an employee.
Imagine this for a second, imagine your car going the speed of a rocket. How long and how far do you think it’ll manage before it starts to show wear and tear?
A mile, more or less?
A day, more or less?
Likely, it’ll exploded within 10 seconds and nothing will survive.
Essentially, when you use fear as a motivator, that is what you’re doing with your team. You’re putting rocket fuel into a vehicle that isn’t designed to handle that level of stress and pressure. It’ll move but not for long and it won’t get you far.
Honestly, relying on fear as your primary motivational tool is one of the most destructive things a leader can do.
Here’s the long-term damage it causes:
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It destroys psychological safety. In a fear-based culture, mistakes are hidden, not discussed. People are more focused on covering their backs and blaming others than on collaborating to solve problems. Honesty and vulnerability—the building blocks of a great team—become impossible.
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It kills creativity and innovation. Fear shuts down access to creative, expansive thinking and focus only on the immediate threat. People won’t experiment with a new idea if they’re afraid it might fail (psychological safety). They won’t challenge the status quo if they’re afraid of being shot down. You get compliance, not innovation.
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It leads to massive burnout. Constantly operating under stress and anxiety is mentally and physically exhausting. Your team might hit their quarterly targets, but they’ll be running on fumes. This leads to higher turnover, more sick days, and a team that is too drained to handle the next big challenge.
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It can encourage unethical behavior. When the main goal is to avoid punishment, people will find the shortest path to safety. This can mean cutting corners on quality, hiding negative data, or making other poor decisions just to stay out of trouble.
There are better ways to working with your team that don’t relay on fear, but healthy motivational styles and strategies to help you create a high-functioning team.
A better way . . .
Now, we all know that emergencies come up and fear and urgency is part of business, sometimes. Sometimes.
What can you do to support your team during those times, again emergencies should be less than 10% of the time, unless you’re working in an emergency room of a hospital. Nothing outside of life and death is an emergency.
Let’s say, an emergency is given to you and your team – what can you do to create a positive and effective motivation for your team to meet this new deadline?
Healthy and productive motivation looks like informed participation, resources, and support. They your team needs to see the threat/urgency and they need to feel they are capable of handling the situation. A great leader’s job isn’t to create fear; it’s to build confidence. You need to shift the focus from the scary problem to the empowering solution.
Here’s how to do it:
Build confidence a plan will work (response efficacy). It doesn’t matter if the plan ends up modified, you and your team need to belief that the foundations of problem solving skills, along with their creativity, and communication skills, they’ll be able to overcome the survival event (emergency).
Don’t just say, “This project is on fire!” and walk away. That creates panic. Instead, provide a clear path forward:
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Instead of: “We’re way behind schedule!”
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Try: “We’re behind schedule, but here’s the three-step plan to get us back on track. I’m confident that if we focus on these priorities, we can do it.”
You’re still acknowledging the challenge (the “threat”), but you’re immediately giving them a clear, effective way to cope with it. This instills hope and confidence in you and your team isn’t forced to focus on the threat only, they see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Take for example, the car going at the rocket speed – if you set that as a goal and discussed XYZ are the risks – your team can modify the car (solve problem) to ease it from exploding (quickly), or gradually increase the speed, or 100s of other creative solutions. By taking away the anxiety and the fear response, you’re allowing the brain to think more creatively and calmly.
Build their confidence (self-efficacy). It’s not enough for them to believe the plan will work; they have to believe they are capable of executing it.
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Instead of: “Don’t mess this up.”
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Try: “This is a tough assignment, but I’m giving it to you because I’ve seen how you handled X and Y, and I know you have the skills to nail this. What support do you need from me to feel more confident?”
This simple shift in framing moves you from being the source of pressure to being the source of support. You’re not the scary monster; you’re the person handing them the tools to fight it.
No matter what happens, they know you believed in them and when they succeed they’ll see you has a great manager for believing in your team. And if they don’t succeed, you need to come in with kindness and ensure that they did everything they could at the best of their ability, and it just wasn’t possible.
Self-work is tough, but extremely beneficial
Pause for a moment and reflect on the past six months – have you started more fear conversations or were you more threat+ options?
Neither is wrong, it’s just where you are. Your leadership will improve as you continue to invest in yourself.
Fear can get you compliance. Trust and empowerment will get you commitment, creativity, and a team that will go the extra mile for you.
Building a culture of empowerment instead of fear is a skill.
It requires self-awareness and intentional practice. If you’re ready to ditch the short-term tactics of pressure and become a great leader who builds a resilient, innovative, and truly motivated team, a coach can help.
A coach can provide an outside perspective on your leadership style and give you the tools to:
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Communicate with confidence, not fear.
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Build psychological safety within your team.
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Empower your people to handle challenges effectively.
Let’s build a better way to lead. Book a free, no-strings-attached call today to explore how you can become a leader who inspires, not intimidates.
