How fear-driven leadership stifles growth—and what to do instead
I once worked with a CEO who believed that fear was the sharpest tool in his leadership arsenal. During every quarterly review, he would remind his executives: ‘If we don’t hit double-digit growth, some of you won’t be in this room next quarter.’ His logic was simple: pressure fuels performance.
At first, the numbers seemed to confirm his theory. Deadlines were met, growth targets achieved. But beneath the surface, creativity collapsed. People stopped taking risks. Decision-making slowed to a crawl because every choice felt like a trap. The culture became one of survival, not innovation. And eventually, the very fear that was meant to motivate began to paralyze the entire leadership team.
This is not an isolated story. Fear-driven leadership is common, especially in uncertain times. But as research and experience show, fear rarely stimulates the best in people. More often, it freezes them.
Fear and the Illusion of Control
As Spanish author Borja Vilaseca points out, fear is the most powerful mechanism of control in society. It disguises itself as safety, order, or tradition, but its real purpose is to keep people dependent on external structures. In organizations, fear operates the same way: it keeps teams aligned through compliance rather than commitment.
During downturns or crises, many leaders revert to fear-based tactics, believing they will guarantee discipline. But as Ferran Ramon-Cortés observed, “fear, above all else, paralyzes”. Under fear, our brains stop accessing their full capacity. Creativity decreases. Even decisions we normally make intuitively begin to feel overwhelming.
In other words: fear doesn’t protect performance, it sabotages it.
The Psychodynamics of Fear in Leadership
Why does fear have such a grip on leaders themselves? Because fear threatens identity.
Many executives tie their worth to control: control of outcomes, teams, and reputation. When uncertainty arrives, the fear of losing control hijacks them, and they project it onto their teams.
The inconvenient truth is that leaders who use fear as a whip, are often carrying unconscious fears of their own: fear of irrelevance, fear of failure, and/or fear of not being enough. By transmitting that anxiety to their teams, they create a culture that mirrors their inner state. What is unresolved inside the leader, inevitably plays out in the organization.
A Different Path: From Fear to Resilience
One of my clients, a founder in the tech sector, confessed that he couldn’t sleep at night because he constantly feared his competitors would overtake him. His solution had been to double down on pressure: longer hours, stricter reviews, and higher demands. But this only drained his team’s energy and trust.
In our work together, he confronted his fear instead of avoiding it. He realized the issue wasn’t his competitors: it was his own belief that slowing down meant losing. When he stopped reacting from fear and started fostering trust, something shifted: His team became bolder. They started bringing forward ideas they had previously kept hidden out of fear. Better financial results and more KPIs met followed. But, more importantly, resilience was built among the team.
What This Means for Leaders Today
If you are leading through fear, whether consciously or unconsciously, you’re not building commitment. You’re building compliance. And compliance cracks under pressure.
True leadership today requires resilience, not intimidation. It requires the courage to face your own fears, so you don’t pass them on to your teams.
Fear will always be present in moments of uncertainty and change. But it doesn’t have to run the show.
Leaders who replace fear with trust, awareness, and authenticity create cultures where creativity thrives, and where people bring their best not because they’re scared to fail, but because they feel safe to succeed.
Want to Explore This Further?
At Re·Thrivin’™, we help leaders break free from fear-based cycles. Together, we uncover the unconscious patterns driving your leadership so you can create environments of trust, resilience, and bold innovation.
Because true leadership doesn’t live in fear. It lives in courage, clarity, and authentic connection.
References
Ramon-Cortés, F. (2012, March 4). El miedo: ¿Estimula o paraliza? El País. Vilaseca, B. (2012, July 15). El miedo al cambio. BorjaVilaseca.com.