Overcoming Fear through Empowerment

Fear is a powerful and complex emotion experienced in anticipation of some specific pain or danger. It is usually accompanied by a desire to flee or fight. Fear can be real or imagined.

If fear is imagined or irrational, it can paralyze and hold us back from fully and productively living life. Many imagined fears can impact our thinking and decision-making in negative ways.

Fear is hard-wired into our brain. It’s primal, and we should respect it. However, it can impact our day-to-day functioning by impairing critical thinking and bringing negative thoughts to the forefront. It can even cost lives in a crisis.

With what’s happening in the world today, fear is spreading quickly and deeply. It affects our coping skills and can leave us vulnerable to safety issues, workplace violence, conflict, domestic violence, and high-risk terminations.

Fear can be an ally, or it can be an enemy – you choose! It’s essential to learn how to navigate fear and use critical thinking skills to guide you through an emergency or a crisis.

Busting the Fear Factor: Key Ideas to Keep in Mind

• Identify the fear response and anticipatory anxiety
• Discover how the brain processes fear
• Learn concrete strategies to help your employees navigate fear

Blind Spots, Fear, and Innocence — Fixing Your Workplace Violence Strategy

As hate, violence, and tension rise in our communities, our workplaces are affected, too. Current trends show an upswing in suicides, hate crimes, threats, and conflict, putting companies at a higher risk for escalating violence.

Here are five helpful tips to de-escalate tense situations on the job.

1. Know your employee’s states of mind

It’s important to ask yourself whether you’re dealing with a problematic employee or simply an employee experiencing difficulty. The distinction is crucial here, and we need to approach the two instances very differently.

An excellent illustration of this is the challenges and chaos brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has left many employees dealing with hardships they’ve never known before. If your employee is acting uncharacteristically tricky, handling the situation with compassion, empathy, and understanding is crucial.

2. Identify personality clashes

If you have employees who can’t seem to play on the same team, it is essential to intervene before things escalate. Be aware of the dynamics of the situation and the personalities at play.

3. Manage responses to conflict

Understanding judgments, biases, and emotions are crucial to ensure they don’t exacerbate the situation.

Those who manage difficult situations should check in on their thoughts, beliefs, and triggers [before going into a tense situation. Recognize them, acknowledge them, and see if you can shift your mindset. If you can, you will notice a big difference in how you come across and how quickly you can handle the situation.

4. Handle triggers

Triggers — or actions that set off emotional responses in our brains — often stem from traumatic experiences, bad relationships, and other events that impress themselves on our subconscious.

We can manage our emotional triggers. The more adaptable and flexible we are with verbal and non-verbal communications, the easier it is to de-escalate situations and help others manage challenging moments better.

5. Avoid specific words and phrases

You should avoid language that can put someone on the defensive and derail constructive dialogue in difficult situations. Some examples include:

• Telling the person to “Calm Down.”
• Saying that you understand (unless you do)
• Using terms that are too definitive (“always,” “never,” etc.), harmful, or judgmental.
• Asking potentially accusatory questions like “why did this happen?” or “why did you do this?”
• Being sarcastic

When you work with a health and safety speaker like Carol Cambridge, you will take your audience on an emotional and intellectual journey creating a memorable experience. These keynote speakers put today’s realities into perspective, help to eliminate fears and share valuable lessons that your audience will never forget.

When you work with our health and safety speakers, you will increase the success of your business. Our core job is to help clients run their businesses confidently and develop psychological safety for peak performance.

Reach out to let WCD find the right speaker to meet your needs: Contact us.