The Fearless Executive: Finding the Courage to Trust Your Talents and Be the Leader Your Are Meant to Be.(Review)

The Fearless Executive: Finding the Courage to Trust Your Talents and Be the Leader Your Are Meant to Be Alan Downs AMACON 2000 212 pages, $22.95 Hard-cover

Alan Downs uses myth, stories, and guidelines to tell us how to overcome our fears, recognize and focus on our talents, and follow our passions. If we adhere to his advise, he suggests that we will become confident, creative executives. Based in part on his own achievements, this book is interesting and fun to read. It's hard to put it down until the final page. In fact, the book actually picks up momentum during the second half.

The book is divided into five major sections titled: (1) Breaking the Cycle of Fear, (2) Talent: Your Strongest Suit, (3) Possessed by Passion, (4) Action is the Antidote to Fear, and (5) Forged by Fear: The Passages of a Fearless Executive. Before dealing with fear in part one, the first chapter provides an overview of the book with the author advising executives to "Trust your talents. Follow your passion. Silence your fear." The following eight chapters of the first section focus on the trait of fear which is described as a long-term, free-floating anxiety that interferes with career progression. The author suggests that all successful executives experience fear, but they must push through it. If not, fear will breed failure. To assist the reader in identifying this trait, a paper-and-pencil inventory is provided to measure fear susceptibility.

Downs says that the two most fearful issues for an executive are adequacy and fitting in with others. To cover up feelings of inadequacies, the executive may strive for perfection trying to be super-capable in all things, rather than realistically acknowledging his or her strengths and weaknesses. In response to the fear of not fitting in with others, the executive may feel threatened by feedback, always seek consensus, or cover up the truth. Beyond these basic fears, the author identifies five others. These include the fear of scarcity where one stockpiles to hedge against upcoming disasters; the fear of reality resulting in the search for a quick, magical solution; the fear of the unknown where one avoids change; the fear of authority where obedience rules; and the fear of death. Ways to work through fears are offered. For example, ...