It's not uncommon for people to feel apprehensive or anxious about things like; starting a new job or being involved with a new project team or spending a day with unknown people in a workshop? What is useful
to understand is that when we're faced with potentially 'fearful' situations/experiences, evolution takes over and does our thinking for us. The subsequent outcomes we experience when in these situations, is...

It's not uncommon for people to feel apprehensive or anxious about things like; starting a new job or being involved with a new project team or spending a day with unknown people in a workshop? What is useful
to understand is that when we're faced with potentially 'fearful' situations/experiences, evolution takes over and does our thinking for us. The subsequent outcomes we experience when in these situations, is dependent on our exposure and responses to previous 'fearful' situations we've found ourselves in.

In a recent article entitled 'The biology of Fear' published in the online 'Fearless' magazine, Dr Joseph LeDoux explains that " Our brain is programmed to react, and when we react, we perform some kind of action to deal with the danger. You can't stay frozen forever. Freezing temporarily is the right thing to do as an animal and perhaps even humans for a short period of time, as predators, respond to movement. If you're in a fearful state, then your brain is monopolized by the emotional event you're experiencing. The more that monopoly controls your brain, the more you'll shift from having an emotional reaction to more of an enduring fearful temperament. Now, the nature of emotions is that the emotion persists beyond the stimulus. Fear is an emotion that occurs in the presence of a real stimulus that's there right now. Anxiety is a worry about something that hasn't happened yet, and the more anxious you are and the longer you're anxious, the more anxious you become."

The degree to which a person has a 'fearful temperament' is important for people in leadership roles to understand, particularly when making organizational changes, bringing new people into the organization and relocating people within the organization. The 'higher' their 'fearful; temperament' the more likely it is that they will 'freeze' in new situations. This 'freezing' will affect things like their interactions with others, their thinking, comprehension of information/instructions, decision making, self reliance and ability to quickly work through experiences of 'culture shock' and assimilate themselves into the workplace culture.

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