Organizational failure never happens overnight. Even in the most acute cases, those organizations that collapse in flames always do so as the result of embedded patterns of decisions and entrenched cultures that eroded their health and viability. 

There are so many acids that can corrode the health of an organization. Some are more apparent than others. But one of the most powerful and often hard to identify is fear.

Fear has an inherently distortive power. It never builds, it only protects. It never advances, it only stands guard. And even worse, fear can push leaders and organizations not only to make poor decisions but quite often to make the worst decisions.

Of course, there really are fearful things out there. On any given day, the number of forces that can debilitate an organization is more than we realize. And Christian organizations in particular have a robust understanding of just how wide-ranging and hostile the threats truly can be. But if fear is allowed to be the dominant force that shapes organizational culture, the outcome is sure to be ugly.

So let me suggest a number of ways in which a culture of fear can embed itself within an organization. Once you’ve identified it, the job of a leader is to work to address it and change it.

A Fear of the Truth

This is perhaps the most toxic manifestation of fear-based organizational culture. Institutions that have succumbed to this are generally uncomfortable with the truth. The cruel irony is that some institutions that position themselves as stalwarts for truth can be the most susceptible. Christian non-profit organizations and churches certainly must guard the truth and be consistently shaped by the truth. This is just part of the currency of Christian institutions. But look under the hood and you might discover that for all the rhetoric about truth, some organizational cultures say something very different.

Are leaders willing to deal with reality? Or do team members have to tread on eggshells with bad news?

Does the organization perform regular assessments of its own personnel, programs, and policies?

Is the organization absolutely transparent with stakeholders about the financial health of the organization? Or is there always an attempt to “spin” things to try to make things appear better than they are?

Are leaders within the organization unable or unwilling to tell each other the truth, especially when it risks stepping on each other’s toes or pointing out areas that need improvement? If leaders can’t model how to receive healthy criticism, don’t be surprised if that shapes the organizational culture. The big question isn’t whether the criticism stings your ego, but whether it’s true.

Organizations that are more interested in perpetuating their own mythology than in dealing with reality are stuck in this kind of fear. This dynamic is far more prevalent and powerful than we often realize. It can be especially forceful for organizations that have a storied history. But at some point along the way, the organization and its leaders made clear, even if inadvertently, that what is most valued is maintaining the organizational myth, rather than admitting that that reality is quite different. 

If leaders can’t model how to receive healthy criticism, don’ be surprised if that shapes the organizational culture.

This can happen in the corporate world, of course. Just take a quick look at some of the world’s leading publicly traded companies 30 years ago and notice how many are a shell of what they once were, or have disappeared altogether. But it can also shape churches in especially dangerous ways. How many churches have adopted organizational cultures where it’s understood that no one should bring up the sliding attendance numbers of the past decade, the decline in giving, and the literal erosion of facilities? Instead, dysfunctional cultures develop that traffic in posturing and anything that can deflect attention away from the decline all around.

There is a lot of money to be made in the fear business. Indeed, fear and outrage are the currency of so much of our culture right now, including in much of American Christianity. Stirring up your base to be outraged at their perceived enemies or to be horrified at the latest display of cultural insanity can prove to be particularly effective, even profitable. But it’s never sustainable. If you build a following premised upon fear and outrage you inevitably have to keep feeding it and eventually it will eat you alive. But this kind of approach offers a short-term benefit, allowing people and organizations never to have to pause and ask if perhaps they are actually wrong. That’s because fear and outrage have a remarkable ability to suppress that kind of self-assessment and inquiry. But in the end, the cost is too high. And it will destroy individuals and organizations alike. The truth is often not comfortable, but it’s always the path toward renewal and life. 

A Fear of Being Wrong

No surprise here, but organizations that are afraid of the truth are terrified of the prospect of ever being proven wrong. 

A tragic consequence of this kind of fear is its power to keep you from learning. A culture of fear is one that stifles curiosity and inquiry. And in Christian organizations, it can masquerade as a desire to defend truth. But the Christian life of the mind is not one marked by fear. It’s one marked by the freedom to ask questions, to explore new avenues and ideas, and to receive correction. Strong confidence in the power of the Holy Spirit and the authority of the Bible actually fosters a culture of learning and discovery. 

The best leaders I know have an epistemological humility that comes from deep confidence in the trustworthiness of the Bible. The same is true of Christian organizations, especially colleges, universities, and seminaries. This strikes me as one of the many values of healthy confessionalism, one that lays down with clarity and consistency those biblical convictions that an institution makes clear are not up for debate. But it allows for room within those borders, pairing faithful obedience to God’s Word with the humility to admit where we have room to disagree with one another.

This kind of fear also shows up in more personalized ways within organizations in general and among leaders in particular. It is perhaps most conspicuous among those leaders who seem to possess some innate inability to ever concede an error or to show weakness. 

These dynamics make for some of the most dysfunctional and toxic teams. If your worst fear as a leader is that you may actually have to change your mind, admit a misjudgment, or simply acknowledge an error in your judgment, then you have no business leading. The best leaders I know are the ones who have the humility, integrity, and courage to identify where they got it wrong and to then quickly pivot with a better strategy grounded in accurate information.

A Fear of Opposition

Organizations that make a difference will inevitably face opposition. This is especially true of Christian organizations. There will always be internal opposition, which often catches some by surprise. And that opposition can actually spark real conflict. But organizations that run from that kind of conflict never are able to seize the opportunity that conflict brings. Don’t misunderstand me. Conflict is not virtuous in itself. And the conflict that happens in a leadership vacuum can be deeply painful and devastatingly costly. But organizations—and leadership teams in particular—need to develop the ability to work through disagreements, including especially heavy ones, so as to arrive at the right decisions and strategy. Unfortunately, I have seen too many in leadership positions who recoil at conflict and opposition and seem to think their job is to maintain a universal consensus. Without fail, they end up on the other side of a proverbial buzzsaw, where no one is happy and the organization suffers.

Organizations that make a difference will inevitably face opposition. This is especially true of Christian organizations.

Of course, organizations can also expect external opposition. Businesses are used to this, especially when they survey their industries and are particularly aware of direct competitors. But it can also be true of nonprofit organizations that are driven by a very focused mission. It may not be a competitive dynamic, but there can be all sorts of forces that press against their ability to fulfill their mission. Social media has added a whole new layer to this for these kinds of organizations, bringing the sharp knives and bare knuckles of contemporary political discourse into everyday currency. 

There is one significant caveat to be made here. There is a massive difference between opposition and accountability. If you’re taking heat for a breach in integrity or for a breakdown in organizational ethics, that’s not opposition. Beware of leaders and organizations that swat away any and all attempts to hold them accountable as opposition from “enemies.” Again, this goes back to the point made earlier. If it’s true, that’s what matters. And accountability demands that organizations maintain trust and hold true to their principles and to the legitimate expectations of their stakeholders. For Christian organizations, including churches, the stakes are even higher. Pastors and ministry leaders will give an account to the Lord for their stewardship (Hebrews 13:17). 

A Fear of Failure

No one likes failure. And anyone who romanticizes it is likely selling you something. None of us enjoy it. But that doesn’t negate the fact that failure can indeed be leveraged for extraordinary opportunity. The fact is that leaders and organizations learn the most on the other side of failure. 

That growth does not happen automatically. Indeed, failure that is mishandled can be lethal to an organization. But good leadership makes all the difference, helping organizations identify the causes for their failures, make necessary changes, develop new strengths and strategies, and more effectively pursue their mission than they did before. 

So why is it that so many organizations are paralyzed by a fear of failure? There’s a lot to be said here. But a lot of it, perhaps most of it, has to do with trust. We are terrified that if others see us fail, they will form judgments about our competence and whether or not we deserve to remain on the team. [On an aside, this is an important part of any good interview. Somehow, you have to get at how the candidate for the job failed in their work, how they handled it, and what they learned from it.] 

The fact is that leaders and organizations learn the most on the other side of failure. 

Healthy organizations know the difference between calculated risks and recklessness. The former is an essential ingredient to any effective organization. It frees up the most creative members of the team to do what they do best, to generate new ideas. But it also keeps appropriate guardrails in place. Recklessness is a different matter. In a healthy organization, leaders empower personnel to take risks with the full understanding that things might not work out. This is why, when exploring a new idea or strategy, it actually makes a lot of sense to ask, “If this blows up, what’s the worst that could happen?” In some cases, it may redirect the plan altogether. But even when it does not and plans move forward, it has the ability to help isolate the potential “blast zone.” It’s a calculated risk in the sense that the team is aware of the implications of a negative outcome, but has determined the risk is worthwhile. 

It’s been said that failure is the best teacher. If you line up 100 entrepreneurs and executive leaders, chances are almost all of them will recount how some moment of failure was a turning point in their own growth and development, whether for them personally or for their organization. But there should be a warning here too. Failure is only an effective teacher for those willing to learn. Fear of failure paralyzes people and organizations. But a failure to learn and adapt means that people and organizations keep repeating the same mistakes, resulting in the same failures, with entirely predictable failed outcomes. 

The One Fear You Need

The Bible tells us that “the fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” (Psalm 110:10). That’s because skilled living demands rightly ordered fears. The truth is that we tend to fear those things we should not and we are numb toward the rightful fear we should have.

Here’s how Jesus put it:

“I say to you, my friends, don’t fear those that kill the body, and after that can do nothing more. But I will show you the one to fear: Fear him who has authority to throw people into hell after death. Yes, I say to you, this is the one to fear!” (Luke 12:4-5)

So many of the problems that plague our lives as Christians stem from this disordered fear. And the same could be said of the organizations we build. The truth is that when an organization is marked by the fear of the Lord, it becomes bolder, more compassionate, more mission-minded, more generous, more resilient, and more hopeful. Fear of the Lord, grounded in the confidence that can only come through the gospel of grace in Christ, propels us forward with an eternal perspective. And that’s the kind of fear we all need in increasing measure.