What is FOPO?
Have you heard about FOPO? It’s the fear of people’s opinions. Yeah, it was among us for a long, but now we have a name for that kind of fear.
It’s so fascinating. My heart was filled with hope while reading this Harvard Business Review article called “Free Your People from the Need for Social Approval” by Michael Gervais.
A manager’s responsibility is to create an environment where employees at all levels know they can speak and act without fear of embarrassment.
So right. In my humble opinion, most managers aspire to create such an environment. To be successful in that creation, you need tools and persistence.
So, how come most managers want to build a psychologically safe workplace, but more and more people experience burnout and anxiety?
What causes FOPO?
It might be that FOPO is just a little piece of the bigger picture. The craving for social approval is part of our human nature. We want to know our place in a team. But FOPO is an exhaustive attempt to interpret what others think in an effort to preempt a negative evaluation by them. The fear of other people’s opinions is normal. So is our strong reaction to it. The fear of a negative opinion is the problem. FOPO creates significant distress in people.
In this modern world, where we are exposed to almost every tragedy, we tend to worry more. People are wired to solve problems, and many issues must be solved. We fear other’s opinions as we fear shame. Shame was fatal in medieval life. We want to belong and be loved, and therefore, we want others to think well of us. But, back to the topic.
Check your FOPO
If you want to evaluate yourself on how much you fear other people’s opinions, ask yourself these questions:
- Do you laugh when the joke isn’t funny just because others do?
- Do you bite your tongue when someone says something offensive?
- Do you change your response while listening to others?
- Do you pursue power and money instead of purpose?
The article has more questions, but if your honest answer is four yeses, it’s time to consider how to overcome it.
How can we help people overcome FOPO in the workplace?
Performance-based teams quickly achieve metric-based goals but are less effective in their jobs, leaving them anxious and burned out. Purpose-based teams are performing better.
The article has four steps to create and maintain a purpose-based team.
Thank you for reading, and I'm sorry for the teasing.
Michael Gervais wrote a whole book about this topic in November 2023.
It’s called “The First Rule of Mastery: Stop Worrying about What People Think of You.”
I can’t wait to put my hands on the book.
Have you heard of FOPO before?
Leave a comment, and have a fearless rest of your day!
Thank you for reading me!
The Witty Witch