Driving Fear Out of the Workplace: How to Overcome the Institute Barriers to Quality, Productivity and Innovation - Softcover

"It has been tough to get a handle on fear, let alone find something specific to do about ituntil now. This book changes all that." --from the foreword by Joshua Hammond, president, American Quality Foundation "Focuses on the missing ingredient in the quality movementthe human elementand is filled with many practical suggestions and insights on how to unleash the creative talent and ideas of the vast majority of people who live and work on four of their eight cylinders, primarily out of fear." --Stephen R. Covey, author, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People "Gets to the heart of one of the most dysfunctional issues in industry today. Any leader or manager can profit from reading this book." --John E. Gherty, president and CEO, Land O'Lakes, Inc.

The eighth of W. Edwards Deming's fourteen points is "Drive fear out: employees must not be afraid to ask questions or take a position". Fear of losing credibility or a promotion, getting fired, or hurting a relationship all limit and corrupt employee performance, according to Kathleen D. Ryan and Daniel K. Oestreich. Scared workers lose pride and motivation, become defensive, seek revenge and hide failure. Managers often don't know how to put employees at ease, while some even use fear as a motivational tactic. The authors explain the sources of employee fear, and how to change these sources. Based on interviews with more than 250 people from 22 companies, the authors tell how to banish fear from all levels of an organization.