Many executives in commanding positions are faced with the reality of fear, uncertainty or doubt in achieving the goals they have been assigned. Read this article so you can learn why this happens and how to develop healthier ways to handle these situations.

Fear, as from an emotional point of view, intends to protect us from a threat. If you are warned that your office is on fire, fear moves you both physically and mentally to run and save your life.

But there are also fears that are psychological. These are generated when there is no real threat in your environment, but you feel threatened when you are assigned a goal you must achieve and you fear you may fail, you fear not being able to achieve it, or be seen as incompetent and lose your value as a person and as a worker.

At first, the purpose of this fear is to protect yourself from all these experiences, but unfortunately you will also paralyze, you’ll avoid taking risks, and might feel insecure when making decisions, seem inhibited, you fear being exposed in the eyes of your team and  this will affect your power and influence as a leader.

As a result: It will be even harder to achieve the goals you were set at work.      

The core issue is the lack of self confidence, low self-esteem. Doubting your skills and resources to successfully achieve goals, or those expected from you, notwithstanding how good intentions one might have.

For this reason, your main focus should be to strengthen your self-concept, the image you have of yourself, emphasize your talents and virtues in your own eyes and specifically work reinforcing the need to build a solid foundation within yourself.

These are some actions that will help you:

1. Prepare an inventory of your qualities and talents.

Read this inventory every day and seek to deepen on one quality each day.

Let’s say for example you are warm-hearted. Look up in the dictionary the meaning of warm-hearted. Today you will decide three ways to project this quality. At the end of the day, remember how you put into practice projecting this virtue, and fill yourself with pride in it.

Then, go through the same procedure with your next quality. The goal of this exercise is to strengthen your talents in your own eyes.

2. Keep a diary with your success stories.

If possible, write something down every day, all those small and big things that made you feel stronger and successful throughout the day. After a week, read all you have written and evoke in your mind how you felt at the time.

The purpose of this exercise is for you to realize you have the potential for achievement within yourself. If you could do this once, it means you can do it twice.

3. Meet with successful executives or with those you admire.

Ask them what goes through their mind when they are assigned a new goal or challenge they must accomplish. Ask them for recommendations or tips on how to meet the challenge with a wining attitude. You will learn a lot from them!

4. Performs visualizations.                       

Imagine fulfilling your goal to 100%, what you will hear and feel when you achieve your goal. If you have trouble visualizing, then write down on a sheet of paper as if it had already materialized, include visual, auditory and emotional elements.

Read through your story or narrative consistently and enjoy the process. Preferably in a relaxed place, upon awakening or before sleeping.

The purpose of this exercise is to program your mind for success. When one is afraid, the first things that come to your mind are dramatic scenes, the worst scenario, so the problem is further exacerbated. For this reason, we have to train our mind to think positive, directing it towards what it wants, not what it doesn’t want.

Be tenacious. The brain has a great capacity to learn new ways of reacting to the environment, but perseverance will allow you to conquer the sweetness of victory.

So the strength of your leadership will not come from outside, but from within yourself, you will feel greater power and dominion of your circumstances, thus reflecting a strong and decided leadership, you will have much more influence within your work-team. Results will just work out for themselves

Who says you can’t?