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The library of essays of Proakatemia

Fear in teams



Kirjoittanut: Kamil Wójcik - tiimistä FLIP Solutions.

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The other day I had the pleasure to take part in the seminar How to build super teams with Pouria Kay organized by Red Brick Accelerator. The topic of team building is time after time brought up at Proakatemia, but my feeling is that there is always something more that can be done.

In this post, I would like to reflect on one part of the seminar – fear. How does fear effects the team, and what’s the root of it?

Before I would like to briefly bring the definition of the team and what turns a group of people into a team. There is no doubt that many different definitions can be found, nevertheless this one was new to me and provoked a new thought. A Group of people can be found on the football field, in the surgery room, or on the construction site of a new canal digging a hole. From these three examples, the first two usually are teams, because if we would remove one member of the team it would be near impossible to perform. While the last group would work without bigger issues, therefore they are just a group of people.

A group of people makes a team when in case of removal of one member it would be very difficult to work without that person.

Now that we got this clear, how does fear has anything to do with a team?

Oxford Dictionary of English

In the seminar, Pouria distinguished four (red) fear flags. I could recognize all the behaviours in my own team and in my own behaviour too. When emotions start to dominate, I easily stop thinking about the result of my actions, what was the goal and what kind of damage I create. The goal is not to eliminate the fear, but acknowledge it and not let emotions act. I can feel all kinds of emotions, and that’s alright, but it’s up to me how I act and behave.

Simplified four flags:

Downer – very negative behaviour, complaining and pessimistic – usually, the person would fears rejection so they reject everything first

Show-off – try to be better than others and pretend to know-it-all – usually, the root of that behaviour is a fear of being undervalued

Passive – very quiet, not contributing, not asking questions – usually, these kinds of people fear criticism

Tank – Explosive, dramatic and reactive – usually, this is a call for attention and an attempt to take over control

All these were familiar to me, but I wasn’t perhaps paying attention to what is the root of these behaviours. Now that I can be more aware of my own feelings I can faster recognize them and don’t let the emotions take over. I find this also helpful in understanding others because I can better relate to their emotions. I would take this classification for grated and absolute, nevertheless, it’s a good start in my opinion. The more aware we are of our own fears, the better team members we are, we can communicate these to the team, and even ask from others to help us deal with them. These are the steps necessary to take to create a super team.

 

Pouria, K. 2022. How to build superteams? Luento. 9.11.2022. Red Brick. Tampere.

Dynamic and entrepreneurial developer of new ideas. Focus on coaching and sustainable development.

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