How to Overcome Your Fear of Making Mistakes

Noone can reduce mistakes to zero, but you can learn to harness your drive to prevent them and channel it into better decision making. 

Don't be afraid or ashamed of fear.

Our culture glorifies fearlessness. The traditional image of a leader is one who is smart, tough, and unafraid. Don't be ashamed or afraid of your fear of making mistakes and don't interpret it as an indecisive leader. If you have a natural tendency to be prevention focussed channel it to be bold and visionary.

Use emotional agility skills.

Fera of mistakes can freeze people. Emotional agility skills are n antidote to this paralysis. Stating your fears out loud helps diffuse them. Next comes accepting reality. Then comes acting on your values. identify the five most important values related to decision making in a crisis. Ask yourself how each of those is relevant to the important choices you face.

repeat this for every fear. It will help you tolerate the fact that sometimes you need to act when the best course of action is not clear. 

Focus on your processes

Worrying can help you make better decisions if you do it effectively. Direct your worry towards behaviours that will reduce the chances of failure. We can control systems, not outcomes. Direct your worries into answering questions like - What systems you have in place to help see your blind spots? What are your processes for alerting you to a problem quickly?

Broaden your thinking

When we are scared of making a mistake, our thinking can narrow down around a particular scenario. It can help if you can see your greatest fears in the broader context of all fears outside. This will help you get a better perspective of what you fear the most.

This strategy will help you shift into problem-solving mode and lessen the grip that fear has on you. 

Detach from judgment clouding noise

When people are fearful they can go into always-on monitoring mode. This can result in information overload. Recognize if you are doing this and limit over monitoring.

Being afraid of making mistakes by itself does not make you more or less likely to make good decisions. If you worry excessively, you may end up doing the wrong things. If you understand how anxiety works at cognitive levels, you can use it to motivate well-reasoned choices. 

How to Overcome Your Fear of Making Mistakes

by Alice Boyes HBR June 24, 2020