Ideas for Wimps

This year’s BMT conference featured a speech by Howard Lees entitled ‘Ideas for wimps’, it contained material from his new book of the same name. Here is the introduction to give you a flavour.

My wife took this photograph when we were on holiday in Switzerland; it was funny when the pigs started chasing me, not so funny for me when they sped up and made the kind of noises I imagined pigs make when about to feast.

This book is predicated on the fact that all of us are wimps at some time, even the hardest people I know have had their wimp moments. I have attempted to put together a set of chapters here which I hope will resonate with you. I have encountered many examples of how fear stops people doing what they feel are the right things and have developed a number of tools for individuals to help them overcome this fear. Fear is not a bad thing, our bodies are designed to detect fear and respond in ways which help us deal with the threat. Fight, flight and freeze are the physiological responses to a threat; if the threat is a grizzly bear then you can run, fight the bear or stay very still and hope he doesn’t notice you.

In the workplace it is sometimes easy to see who decided to run, who fought and who stood still hoping not to be noticed. Some workplace environments are a joy to be part of and leaving them can be a struggle. Sadly there are also some work places containing people who are in a permanent state of boss induced paralysis. In the workplace we have choices which will determine whether we will place ourselves in danger. Our perception of what is danger in the workplace is developed over time, our past experiences guide us. The fight, flight or freeze responses still apply but you are hardly going to physically fight, run or stand very still in the middle of an office hoping no-one will see you.

Leaders who recognise that there will be fear in the workplace, recognising how and where it will manifest itself and dealing with these stress points would be seen as good leaders. Most leaders I have encountered are on a journey of enlightenment, some have travelled far; some are still in the garage.

Removing fear and the causes of fear in the workplace would be a good objective for leaders. However if the leaders are poor there are many techniques where everyone else can create their own positive bubble. This book will discuss various workplace situations I have witnessed, been told about and read about, I will offer commentary and some ideas of things you could do to reduce your chances of just being a wimp!