Pekka told me about his book project a few months ago. I was right away intrigued by the title “No Fear”.  My first reaction was that of potential objection: is “no fear” really that essential issue deserving a place among the few precious words of the title?  After all, fear is one of the most powerful capabilities which emerged during the billion year time span of biological evolution.  Isn’t fear, beside greed, the fundamental driver behind investor behavior in the booms and busts of capitalist economy.  Don’t we all fear at least something in our everyday lives? Why no fear?

While I have not yet been able to read the final book, my observational radar was activated for the notion of fear for Pekka’s title choice and related book teaser.  I started to identify fear everywhere – explicitly. When Nokia announced its new strategy the media was filled with thick dose of fear: how many people would lose jobs, would Microsoft swallow Nokia, what would happen to Finland?  Again, when media reported about the rescue package of Portugal, it was all about fear, even to the extent of doomsday of our global financial system. On a more everyday level in business, people and teams have fears concerning their positions. Company leaders fear the moves of competitors and the behavior of regulators. One could continue the list of these kinds of examples forever.

Finally, I had to agree that Pekka and his team of authors have made a terrific choice by taking the word “fear” in the book title.  Fear is evidently much more significant driver of our behavior than we, as human beings, subconsciously understand. As leaders, we tend to be consciously afraid of openly expressed fear as we try to maintain facades of fear-averse alpha-male leadership culture – in which only the most self-confident and mature leaders dare to openly fear. Moreover, it is obvious that we often fear wrong things, and don’t fear things we should. A typical example is fear of change. In most situations people perceive change (one that they had feared in the first place) retrospectively very positive. Therefore rationally, we should fear “no change” more than “change”.

All in all, how much is our performance as individual leaders, as teams and as companies degraded by the non-managed fear, or even worse – due to management by fear? Intuitively, a lot more than we usually think. In the modern, hectic and complex world, the constructive management of fear deserves decent attention – not only on all levels of organization but perhaps in our personal lives, as well.

One perspective is worth discussing more: How to turn destructive fear into opportunity-oriented, value-creating enthusiasm and passion.  While Pekka himself is a perfect role model in this, I wait eagerly to get the final book and take its intellectual shots.