September 17, 2026 | By: Beatriz Espinosa Pineda, Director of People and Culture
Why is this a confession? Are leaders allowed to admit when they’re scared? Conventional culture would make us think that we can’t. However, I’ve learned that when I’m stuck, it’s most often a fear response. Fear of failing, fear of hurting or disappointing someone, or fear of somehow “breaking” the beautiful workplace I get to caretake. Fear is a constant companion, and it can also be a strategic guide.
Confession: I'm scared all the time, and it makes me a better leader. How? I use purpose to move through fear, all day long, regularly - and even more as the year-end approaches. I believe purpose can help leaders listen to fear without letting fear make the final decision. And that purpose-driven leadership will cultivate more equitable workplaces.
As a leader, at whatever level you sit, you may be facing some difficult end-of-year decisions perhaps about resource distribution, how to recalibrate to finish the year closer to your goals, or trying to figure out how to galvanize a fatigued team. In any of these cases, it can be useful to identify any fears arising, give them a place to be heard, and create some space for yourself to pause, reflect, and discern the next right move.
As LFA’s Director of People and Culture, my goal is to make the first truly regenerative workplace: a place where people return to their homes and communities in a better state than when they started their workday. Take that, late-stage capitalism! This is a big purpose, especially in our current social context, and I know that I will often fail while pursuing it. I don’t like failing. I don’t want to fail! And I cannot wait to send people back home from work feeling better. Imagine what that could look like? Patient parenting, hilarious writing, innovative problem-solving, engaged citizenship? Because I practice making friends with my fears, I imagine what this purpose could yield multiple times a day.
My fears often point to weaknesses in design, reasoning, purpose, or empathy. My fears help me lead more equitably as naming them helps to signal space for pause, thoughtfulness, and improvement. As a formerly undocumented teenage worker (DACA before DACA existed), fear kept me safe. Fear was a fact, not just a feeling. I couldn’t change that any more than I had control over the sky being blue. So, I gave up running from it, and I started getting curious about its flavor, and how to keep moving despite it. At this moment in time, as many of us look around and wonder “what.is.happening?!” I return to the same practice of radical acceptance, building community, and persisting in my purpose. I leverage fear to move more equitably as a leader. My journey has tested and refined my equitable leadership practices. My experience taught me that equity requires courage: staying rooted in purpose and moving forward through fear, doubt, and resistance. A courageous leader uses purpose to illuminate a path forward, while using fears to inform improvements.
Taking Action: Grounding in your Purpose
The swiftest road around fear-based side-quests is to reground in purpose: the work, the community you’re serving, and the impact your team is making in the world. Then gather those purposes to “Yes, and” your fears into the background, where they can inform design without driving decision-making.
If you’re ready to try this out, pick a fear that’s on your mind, and try the following steps:
Is this fear truly mine, or does it belong to someone else?
What might I learn from it?
What would it take for it to ease?
What does this fear look like?
Where does it come from?
How likely is it to happen?
What is it trying to show me?
Once you’ve jotted down some reflections, sort through your notes to identify anything tangible that you can act on (“Email our Finance Manager to get clear on budget discrepancies”). Often, our fears point us to a few practical actions we should take, and the rest is for us to respond to internally.
Take two minutes to write out your vocational purpose. This should come naturally and easily. Don’t overthink it. Why do you care about the work you do? Who do you care about, as it relates to your work?
“Yes, Espinosa; you’re scared to disappoint this team; you’re scared that Performance Management will be disruptive, and that your team may not know how to navigate those disruptions. And you’re excited to get it closer to right this time, to design something new and different, and to be trusted with this opportunity. Your purpose is clear, and this team of magnificent, caring, thoughtful, and brilliant people deserves your best efforts to deliver on it.”
The last step brings it all together. Use your purpose statement to respond to the fears directly. For me, grounding in purpose to move through fear might look like this:
I invite you to explore how you might use purpose to respond skillfully to fear and to lead with greater equity. Let’s gather momentum, on purpose, and learn to make fear a companion as we continue on our leadership paths.
If you’d like to connect with me about how we ground and reground in purpose to design workplace processes differently at LFA—and how it enables our team to do great work at the center of our mission, please reach out. I’d love to talk it over.