Fear and Perfectionism, Emergency Management's Next Big Hurdle
Fear and perfectionism are productivity killers, innovation killers, and positive culture killers. They stifle us and suck our energy, not only as individuals, but as organizations too.
In her latest book Dare to Lead, author Brené Brown presents how perfectionism and fear keeps us from learning and growing. She describes perfectionism as self-destructive and addictive because it leads to a mindset of ‘If I look perfect and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of blame, judgement, and shame”. Perfectionism leads to a fear of failure. There are other factors that contribute to negative cultures and a lack of learning and growth, such as:
Bullying
Cover-ups
Teasing
Gossiping
Blaming
I chose to write about fear and perfectionism in emergency management because I have seen how they can keep us from ‘learning lessons’ and I have had my own battles with fear of failure and thinking that I must be perfect.
Pre 2013 southern Alberta floods I was very confident in my leadership abilities, I was learning a lot, and I was making great strides in my work. But post 2013 (southern Alberta floods) after my recovery from acute stress disorder, I found myself struggling to understand my value. This then lead me to feeling like I had to validate my importance; so my focus turned from getting my work right to trying to be right.
How does fear and perfectionism impact our ability to learn and grow? It keeps us:
complacent
unhealthy
in a state of competitiveness when we need to be in a state of cooperation
in our silos
from seeking data and evidence
in denial
People stay perfect and fearful because they think it keeps them safe….but as Brené Brown points out, “trying to protect ourselves with fear moves us away from authenticity and wholeheartedness”.
As emergency managers, if we want to LEARN from COVID-19, we will have to assess if fear and perfectionism is a risk for ourselves and our organisation, if it is, we will need to beat fear and perfectionism to the ground so we, and our teams, can work together better than ever before.
What is one way you can do this?
Start with watching some TED Talk videos by Brené Brown on vulnerability.
Then read Dare to Lead.
Then, if you are a manager or supervisor, buy all of your staff the Dare to Lead book.
Then guide your team through the Dare to Lead Read-Along Workbook. It’s free online.
Then be a stronger, more resilient, more productive, and happier team.
For information on Hazardscape Management Inc. visit our about page.
Author: Brad Ison is a professional disaster and emergency management coach. He’s held various position specific roles in the Alberta Provincial Operations Centre and had decade long career at the Alberta Emergency Management Agency where his focus was on Disaster Recovery and his last role served was as the Director for Training, Accreditation, and Standards.
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