DVDs, Managing Fear, and Being Very Human

Governmentchangeagents.com has been winding down our posts to one or so a week. We plan to keep this model as we are nearing the one year anniversary of the publishing of the paper. Yet we continue to see people in our reading and work that inspire us and fit some of the attributes that we uncovered in our research.

A great source for change agent observation has been the legendary TV show 60 Minutes. Each week the show profiles one to three people who are either notoriously bad or others who are blessed with talents and insights that make the rest of us stare in awe. This week the show featured an overview of Netflix, a company that has revolutionized the way millions of people consume content via DVDs. The company itself is a change agent but perhaps one that may not achieve greatness given all the competition that it will soon face in downloading content from the web. The firm is headed by Reed Hastings. Reed is a self made man who during the 1990’s led a software company to be acquired giving him riches beyond his imagination. He was often criticized for his leadership as CEO and that has continued to haunt him even today.

The most telling part of the interview with Hastings was not the focus on the innovative company, his riches or even fame but it was the candid discussion this leader had about his own self doubts. Self doubt and fear is a topic we rarely touch on this blog but one that is worthy of much consideration.

Something we discuss often at Sapient is that leaders are people who manage fear. I really like that statement as its rational and not pithy. By manage fear we mean that conquering fear is illogical given that we are all so very human and our minds and bodies are governed by the flow of hormones and chemicals that help shape our view of reality and therefore ourselves. The leader then is one who has conversations with him or her self and act in ways that don’t imply that they more than human or helpless victims in the face of challenge and intense pressure.

CEOs and change agents in government must come to grips with managing their own fears and insecurities on a daily basis. It strikes me that the change agents I have come to know exude confidence and let it ride the line with humility but they also manage fear that creeps in. Take a close read of what Hastings said below as he implied a humility and sense of self that you rarely see displayed by CEOs and leaders of companies. He speaks volumes here with out bragging or self promoting. In fact, he is being honest and open about the thing that connects everyone—the condition called being human.

Up to now, Hastings has been a big fish in a small pond. But with the downloading wave coming, his confidence about the company comes with nagging questions about himself.

“I think for sure in my first company I had a lot of self doubt. And I have some now. But it’s manageable now, where it was troubling before,” he tells Stahl.

Asked if he feels that he has mastered whatever it was that he was struggling with before, Hastings says, “Being a CEO is a lifetime of learning. So I would never say the word ‘master.’ But I’m continuing to really enjoy the learning of it.”