The Season of Fear Fatigue
As 2025 nears its close, many leaders and organizations aren’t just feeling fear—they’re feeling fear fatigue.
It’s the quiet exhaustion that builds when:
- Uncertainty becomes constant
- Strategic decisions stack up
- Culture feels stretched
- Leaders are carrying more than they can name
Fear fatigue doesn’t look dramatic. It looks familiar: hesitation, blurred focus, emotional flatness, and systems that react instead of respond.
This post explores how leaders can understand fear fatigue—and how fear-informed leadership resets culture under pressure.
What Fear Fatigue Looks Like Inside Organizations
Fear fatigue spreads through systems quietly but impacts them loudly. Here are the signs many leaders are naming:
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Quick movement, slow progress
People are busy but not aligned. Decisions stall. Meetings multiply.
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Culture becomes cautious
Teams avoid risk, truth-telling, or healthy conflict. Curiosity drops.
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Leaders lose clarity
It’s not burnout. It’s “blurred-out.” Low energy. Low focus. Low creativity.
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Emotional disengagement
Teams are present but not energized. Collaboration feels transactional.
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Operational churn
Agility turns into chaos. Policies shift. Communication becomes reactive.
If these patterns feel familiar, you’re not alone. Organizations across industries—especially healthcare—are naming this moment as a turning point.
What Fear-Informed Leadership Looks Like
Being fear-informed acknowledges that fear can exist in every system and interaction. It means understanding how fear shapes behavior, decisions, and culture—and using that awareness to lead with clarity, compassion, and courage.
When leaders become fear-informed, culture begins to reset:
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Truth returns
Teams feel safer speaking honestly—with purpose, not fear.
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Decisions sharpen
Leaders stop reacting from anxiety and start acting from alignment.
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Culture stabilizes
Psychological safety grows. Innovation increases. People breathe again.
Fear-informed leadership doesn’t remove fear. It reframes fear as data—not danger.
Leadership Reflection
As you move through these last weeks of the year, ask yourself:
- Where is fear fatigue showing up in my leadership?
- How is it shaping my culture and the people I serve?
- What fear do I need to name—and what action will help reset the system?
The clarity begins when the naming begins.
Closing Reflection
We’ve entered the season where light changes and pace demands pause. Use this time to review your leadership health—your balance, your energy, your focus. Reset before the rush, and lead from clarity, not exhaustion.
Reflect. Recenter. Rise.
Editor's Note: This piece has been republished from The Sequel Journal with permission from Dr. Tonya Jackman Hampton. To learn more about her speaking, coaching, and consulting, you can contact her at drtonya@sequelconsultinggroupllc.com.
Interested in diving deeper into fear-informed leadership? Dr. Tonya Jackman Hampton will be the closing keynote speaker for the COE Summit 2026. She’ll unpack the myth of the fearless leader and expose a new path forward—one where leaders and their teams can move beyond the instinctual responses of fight, flight, or freeze.
The Ohio State University Center for Operational Excellence Summit, now in its 13th year, is a three-day event dedicated to connecting diverse industries to the latest best practices in leadership and continuous improvement. This year’s Summit will explore how organizations are rewiring excellence with emerging tech, bold strategies, and future-ready thinking. Top authors, researchers, and lean practitioners will share insights on operationalizing AI, innovating processes, and navigating disruption with clarity and confidence.
COE Summit registration opened for member company employees December 1, 2025. Public registration will launch February 1, 2026.
