Despite the occasional need for rollercoaster rides or horror films, fear is not an emotion most people want to experience often. This is particularly true if it shows up in the office.

Granted, there are those adventuresome types who thrive on death-defying acts like cliff diving and sword swallowing as a profession, but generally speaking, being scared in the workplace is never a good thing.

So how can you tell if fear is a problem in your office? In a recent Bloomberg Businessweek article, columnist Liz Ryan lists 10 telling signs that fear is not only present in a company, but wreaking havoc on its stakeholders. Below is a summary of the list:

There is fear in your workplace if . . .

• Concern for reputation outweighs quality of work.
• There is a preoccupation with employee status.
• Distrust halts the sharing of ideas.
• Value of employees are based solely on numbers.
• Rules rather than ingenuity dictate work.
• Title and salary outweigh the ability to freely share ideas.
• The need for understanding is power rather than knowledge driven.
• Wrong people are promoted for the wrong reasons.
• There is an inability for creativity, passion and collaboration.
• Leadership morphs into dictatorship.

Take a moment to reflect and question: Are you or your employees being micromanaged? Belittled? Controlled out of distrust?

As The Methodology Blog has covered on a multitude of occasions, stakeholder satisfaction is vital when achieving success in the office. In Slaughter Development’s view, the greatest way to improve productivity and generate overall success is to empower employees rather than inhibit them. As the list above shows, encouraging subordination and allowing fear to dictate work does little more than create a volatile work environment that breeds intimidation, resentment and mediocrity.

Don’t allow stakeholder passion and creativity to fall by the wayside. Contact Slaughter Development today. We guarantee your stakeholders will find a renewed sense of value through encouragement and trust. And though we may not dissipate fear with popcorn and funnel cakes like theaters and amusement parks, we guarantee our solutions are just as successful and satisfying.

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