How are you coping with your own fears, as well as helping your team members and colleagues manage their fears, worries, and anxieties? This isn’t just about AI, although AI can quickly trigger feelings of fear as I recently observed while listening to one of the world’s most courageous filmmakers, Spike Lee.

While visiting Charleston in mid-October to speak on a program through the Gibbes Museum of Art, Lee graciously allocated time to take questions from the floor. When someone asked Lee his opinion about AI in the entertainment industry, Lee immediately acknowledged that he was scared about it. That comment prompted the reporter and editor of the local newspaper, Post and Courier, to lead with Lee’s fears of AI in their article about his talk, even though this was a tiny segment of a fascinating talk by a trail-blazing artist. Yet, Lee’s fear of AI must have resonated with the editor, reporter and others at the newspaper who are facing big unknowns with AI’s influence in the media, as are those in the entertainment industry.

We humans need to realize that fear is a natural response to any dangers we perceive, real and imagined. This is the brain’s way of protecting us.

If you want to avoid living in fear and becoming paralyzed by it, you need to understand the actions you can take to help yourself and others manage fear. This is especially valuable to do — and more difficult  — if your mindset is more fixed than growth-oriented. That’s because those with growth mindsets are more open to new experiences and less fearful than those who have a fixed mindset.

In this article, Feeling threatened by AI? You’re not alone published online Nov. 26, 2024 by the Forbes Coaches Council, I describe the brain’s reaction to fear as well as actions to take to counteract it, especially if you’re a leader.

PS And if you’re a movie fan, especially of scary movies and in particular zombie movies, note that Dawn of the Dead influenced the cognitive neuroscientist Dean Mobbs and his work in his Fear Lab. Mobbs’ findings about how the brain responds to fear have been invaluable. I refer to his work in this post.