Scared Silent: The Illusion of Corporate Courage

Most behavior in companies isn’t shaped by official policies—it’s shaped by unwritten rules. These rules often create powerful illusions about what the organization truly values. One of the most damaging illusions I know of is the illusion of corporate courage.

You may have seen it.

Leaders proudly declare, “We value courage, transparency, and honesty,” while building or preserving a culture that discourages people from doing exactly that.

Smart, experienced managers and individual contributors—people who know better—see something going wrong…and freeze. Whether it is an early indication that things aren’t quite on time, an unsurfaced risk, or something else that should be shared—they hesitate, avoid saying the thing that needs to be said, or fail to do what responsible managers should do.

Not because they don’t care. Not because they aren’t aware of what’s right. Not because they aren’t courageous in general.

They back down because they’re doing the risk-reward math, and speaking the truth doesn’t appear to be worth it. Because saying the hard thing might:

Make themselves or someone important look bad or feel uncomfortable
Disrupt the social game everyone’s playing
Violate an unwritten rule that “you just don’t do such things here”
Become career-limiting honesty

So they stay quiet.

And the dysfunction rolls on—safe, untouched, and costing their companies vastly more in things like delays, missed expectations, surprises, inefficiency, and employee turnover.

Fear cultures don’t need strategy to survive–they thrive on poor reactions and strategic silence.

Silence By Design, Brought to You By the Fearful

The fear that caused the silence? It didn’t just happen on its own, without cause.

It was designed, though not necessarily on purpose, by leaders who reward smooth sailing and penalize friction. Leaders who say they want feedback, but only if it makes them feel good.

Leaders don’t need to work hard to strengthen or preserve a fear culture. It’s strengthened by every eye-roll when a team brings up an obstacle, every visceral response when an employee shares bad news, and each promotion that passes over the person who exposes the problems and goes to that political yes-person. The culture is preserved by more subtle acts, such as strategic silence in response to a brave soul exposing a problem, or by sweeping real issues under the carpet to look better, or by just not doing anything about problems when they surface.

And while leaders ensure the organization is designed for fear, it is the employees themselves who make it so – by putting aside personal ethics, responsibility, and integrity. Every person who isn’t candid, or doesn’t share the bad news early when there is time to do something about it, creates another experience for their peers and themselves that supports the fear narrative.

Years of behaviors like these accepted as the norm cemented them into the fabric of the organization, resulting in unwritten rules such as “you don’t go sharing bad news here,” and ultimately, into a culture of fear—in which there is little or no psychological safety.

The result: A self-sustaining system of silence that makes psychological safety nearly impossible.

An organization that quietly discourages bad news doesn’t value courage. It values comfort.

We All Play Along

There are two kinds of people needed to maintain the illusion of courage together: Those who design the environment ensuring silence, and those who build the reality by allowing fear to guide their actions (or lack thereof).

Leaders Design It

The VP who has a visceral reaction to bad news or who chastises their subordinates for exposing it (“no one else is complaining about this, why are you the only one who can’t deal with it?”).

The director who rewrites every message to make it “sound better.” (“we don’t want to seem alarmist”).

The PMO that spray paints yellow over red, and green over yellow (“we can’t show red on anything because that will get attention”).

The founder who reacts badly to being challenged or to bad news.

These leaders didn’t say, “don’t speak up”; they demonstrated it. And so everyone learned the unwritten rules.

Every uncomfortable or poor reaction is a tiny cultural investment in the illusion. And now it pays dividends in silence.

If you’re a leader who makes it risky, or even uncomfortable, to be challenged, or if you simply haven’t acted decisively to dismantle this dynamic, you’re enabling a culture of fear.

If your team never pushes back, it’s probably not because they agree with you. It’s because you made disagreement feel dangerous, or at least allowed it to feel that way.

I know it’s not your fault, leader. You’ve survived and gotten promoted by not rocking the boat, and these unwritten rules are part of the culture. Surely one person can’t fight culture, right?

That’s not leadership or responsibility. At best, it’s turning a blind eye.

Employees (of any level) Build It

Let’s not downplay the importance of those who are afraid. They are just as responsible for fear culture.

The manager who doesn’t share that at the current rate, the teams won’t get everything they are expected to do done by the date.

The team member who says “yes” to every ask, whether they are already overcommitted or not.

Those who stay quiet allow their integrity to take a back seat to their fear. Every time they withhold the truth, it is another cultural investment in the illusion.

If you’re an employee who is afraid to speak up, or if you feel it is not worth the risk to expose a major problem, you’re perpetuating the same culture of fear.

I know it’s not your fault, employee. You see how people who didn’t “toe the party line” tend not to last long here, and you know how your manager’s perception of you determines your bonus and career progression. Surely one person can’t stand up against their boss without risking their job, right?

That’s not responsibility. At best, it’s self-preservation disguised as powerlessness.

The Illusion of Courage Lives On

These two roles maintain the illusion of courage in their organizations by avoiding responsibility. Both roles involve taking responsibility only for their own feelings, rather than for the success of their team, organization, or company.

So, the real unwritten value is:

“We value courage (just don’t rock the boat).”

Here’s the Real Cost

Silence may feel safe, but it’s expensive by

Maintaining false expectations
Delaying action, hiding options until it’s too late
Killing learning
Letting bad ideas live way too long

These things prevent success, and over the long haul, may not provide the self-preservation you think.

The truth is noisy, messy, and uncomfortable. But it’s also the only way anything actually gets significantly better.

What Now?

I said some things in this article that may seem unfair. It’s not the fault of any one person that these unwritten rules or this culture exist. They have probably evolved over many years and from countless actions (or lack thereof) of many people. All of this is an example of how many organizations are built upon structures, culture, rules (unwritten ones in this case), and processes that may inhibit success.

It’s not your fault, but it’s your responsibility, whether you are a leader or an employee. The trick is to address the issue in a way that allows you to also thrive within your organization.

While it’s not easy to take on a culture of fear, there are many things anyone can do now. How better to change culture than to have lots of people acting differently in small ways?

If you’re a leader of people who are not speaking up, consider the following:

How do you react when your teams share problems or bad news? If your boss acted the same way when you exposed a problem, would you feel encouraged to continue doing so? Taking action to make the best of the situation while you have time encourages continued candor.
Do you encourage anyone to downplay, sugarcoat, or brush it under the carpet? Or do you challenge them to take action to make success more likely and to continue being transparent?
If your people are candid with you, will they regret it, or will they be proud of it based on what you do?
When your teams say everything is green and all will be delivered on time despite your knowing otherwise, do you let this answer stand unquestioned, or do you inquire further, and make it normal and positive for them to share the truth?
Do you own your own mistakes and share your own learning? Doing so makes it easier for your people to do the same.

Did any of the statements in this blog strike a nerve, or trigger a visceral or defensive reaction in you? If so, what might this reveal about your openness to candor or feedback?

If you are an employee at any level who is afraid to be candid, here’s what to ask yourself:

What do you do when you have bad news? If you were the boss, would you want your people to behave this way?
Do you say ‘yes’ to everything, even when it’s not possible, because you think that’s what’s expected?

Culture can change when enough of us choose to act with integrity over comfort, and when enough leaders react in positive ways—even when it’s inconvenient or risky. Illusions only survive when we keep pretending. Even one employee with one supportive leader can break the cycle.