Fear kills companies. Fear of failure. Fear of looking bad. Fear of making mistakes. Fear of being called out. Fear of not knowing where you stand. Each one of these is toxic.

As Ed Catmull said, “The antidote to fear is trust”. As you actively build trust within your company. Fear naturally subsides.

If you allow fear to take root in your company. The longterm effects can be devastating. It can affect your company’s culture. It can stifle innovation. It can hamper your team’s shipping velocity and it can water down the designs that you actually do ship.

Fear is corrosive. And you should always keep an eye out for it. And just do your best to weed it out wherever possible.

And the best way to do that is to build trust.