All aboard the Leadership Express!
Station Seven: Fear Tunnel
Welcome Aboard: The Rise As A Leader Journey!
Every great leader embarks on a journey, and today, we continue ours. Each stop along the way reveals new insights, challenges, and discoveries about yourself as a leader.
Our final destination? Your personalized Leadership Development Plan, a roadmap to becoming the leader you aspire to be.
Today, we arrived at: Fear Tunnel – What fears limit your leadership growth?
Every leader face fear, but only a true leader understands how it’s influencing her/ his behavior.
Reflect. Write. Grow. Name your fears so you can reduce their power and reclaim your direction.
Let’s dive in!
Reflective Questions
Here are some questions to help you reflect deeper.
Facing your fears is the first step to overcoming them, let's get to know them!
Fear is an emotional response rooted in anxiety, uncertainty, or perceived danger. For leaders, it can show up as self-doubt, hesitation, or a need to control. At its core, fear often stems from past experiences or internalized messages; things others have repeatedly said or things we’ve told ourselves.
Over time, these fears embed themselves in our subconscious, shaping our belief system and influencing how we lead; often without us even realizing it.
Fear can trigger reactions like:
- Feeling blocked or paralyzed
- Overthinking and excessive caution
- Shyness, tension, or being overly self-critical
- Avoiding visibility, feedback, or difficult decisions
While fear is natural, unmanaged fear limits a leader’s potential. It keeps them operating from the primitive mind (fight, flight, freeze), rather than from a place of creativity, confidence, and purpose.
Identifying your leadership fears is not about judgment, it’s about awareness. Once you name the fears, you reduce their power. And that’s where transformation begins. In addition, this will help you define the gap further and accordingly define skills needed for building your roadmap.
Take a few minutes in a quiet space. Close your eyes, breathe deeply, and imagine you are on your leadership journey, riding the train through vast landscapes. Suddenly, fog begins to cover the track ahead.
That fog is your fear.
Fear is like fog on a train journey. It doesn’t mean the tracks aren’t there, or that the destination has disappeared, it just means you can’t see clearly in the moment.
You may feel tempted to stop, slow down, or even go back. But the fog is temporary. The only way to move through it is to keep going with care, clarity, and tools that help you stay on track.
Naming the fog gives you power. It no longer controls your direction, it becomes part of your map.
Now reflect and write:
- What does the fog look like for you? (What are your fears as a leader?)
- Where does this fear come from? (A past failure? A voice from your childhood? A recent experience?)
- What do you believe about yourself when that fear shows up?
- How is this fog affecting your leadership visibility and decision-making today?
- Are they based on past experiences?
- Are they real threats or just perceived fears?
Fear can trigger a “fight or flight” response, blocking your growth.
Next stop: [Joy Junction] – We'll reconnect with what brings you energy and flow. Fear is the fog, but joy is the sunshine. Let's find your light
Your leadership vision is in motion—let’s keep riding toward bringing it to life!