Archive for Fear

Shaun White, Olympic Gold Medalist, and VUCA Leadership

One of my guilty pleasures is watching Oprah. I don’t watch it live so when I do have a few free moments, I turn on the digital video recorder and catch up. Last week, on February 19, Oprah had Shaun White, the Olympic Gold medalist on as one of her guests. He flew overnight from [...]

Night of the Living Dead, VUCA, and Strangling Tangles

This past Halloween, my husband and I locked ourselves in our darkened home, and watched a dvd of  Night of the Living Dead. I had never seen it before and to be honest, I can’t say that I truly watched the whole thing. I spent part of the movie hidden under a blanket! If you [...]

How to Build a Culture of Fear in 3 Easy Steps

Leaders, follow these three easy steps if you want to ensure that tough issues are never raised, that you don’t receive early warning signs, and that employees are seen and not heard. If you follow these steps faithfully, you and your executive team will hold all the power. You will be secure in your conference [...]

5 Reasons it’s So Hard to Give Tough Performance Feedback

There are no two ways about it. It is tough to give good constructive feedback. Not providing clear tough feedback to peers, direct reports, and staff exacerbates performance problem and contributes to situations that tangle forward progress. For example, I’ve had clients whose direct reports continued to come up short in developing product roll-out strategies. [...]

What Leaders Can Learn from Twitter, Facebook, and #Iran Election?

For the past ten days, I have been glued to the media and social networking sites, especially Twitter. I am not alone.  I have been awed by the level of interest, caring, and actions taken by so many after the June 12 election. As I sat in my office, watching my computer screen, I felt [...]

What’s Divorce Got to Do with It?

Tina Turner made a singing comeback in 1984 with her hit song, “What’s Love Got to Do with It?” My husband, a family law specialist in San Francisco has recently worked with some male clients, who I call alpha males, struggling through their respective divorces. Tina Turner claims that “love is a second-hand emotion.” However, [...]

Return the AIG Bonuses–No Pay for Non-Performance

photo credit: Ryan Forsythe
This past Sunday, I was so upset about the AIGbonuses that I wrote a letter to the editors of the San Francisco  Chronicle and New York Times. I received a call from the Chronicle’s editorial section on Monday, saying that they planned to run my letter. I am happy to [...]

More on Untangling Leadership Fears

“Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear.” Ambrose Redmon
It is easy to talk about courage when everything is going well. It is quite another to call up that state of being and sustain it when we are gripped by fear. Many years ago, [...]

Leaders . . . Untangle Your Own Fears and Minimize Your Corporate Tangles

As the leader of my own firm, the hardest thing that I have had to do during these challenging times is manage myself . . . and my own fear. The newspaper headlines do not help. This morning, one of the top headlines in the Wall Street Journal screamed “New Fears as Credit Markets Tighten [...]


Marcia Ruben, Ph.D., CMC

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