Overcoming the Fear of Start

I’m overwhelmed by the number of opportunities available to take Aurora Health Care into a new direction with digital communications and social media. It’s an exciting time for me and my team but it is also challenging because we’re facing the Fear of Start.

In an organization of 30,000 employees, one of the most challenging items is determining where to start. It’s a paralyzing experience when you consider the organizational goals, overall strategy, resources required and need to have the right people on board.

I came to a realization this week during a team meeting. We’ve got nothing to lose. The team is primed and ready and all I need to do is lead us out of paralysis. I’m going to do three things to get us out of the current situation and moving forward. 

Our first step is to overcome the fear of the unknown and who needs to be on board. We will do our best to educate internal participants on digital communications and social media along the way rather than waiting for them to “get it” before we start. We’ll start small and grow as more and more people see the vision and get excited.  

Our second step is to realize that their is no template. I’m a big fan of templates and established processes (ask my previous boss) but there isn’t a one size fits all template for instituting social media internally and externally for an organization. We need to be prepared to experiment, fail, learn and do it again.

Finally, I need to motivate my Tribe. I need to lead by being courageous, by making mistakes and learning from them. I need to empower my team to do the same. We need to take risks and harness the excitement of the organization.

The time has come to lead and overcome the fear of start.