{"id":3023,"date":"2019-04-23T21:05:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-23T20:05:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/?p=3023"},"modified":"2019-04-23T21:05:46","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T20:05:46","slug":"fomo-and-fobo-that-leaders-should-be-aware-of","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.iese.edu\/expatriatus\/2019\/04\/23\/fomo-and-fobo-that-leaders-should-be-aware-of\/","title":{"rendered":"FOMO and FOBO That Leaders Should Be Aware of"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fear is one of the universal and central emotions to human existence. Some 200,000 years ago fear helped our caveman ancestors to survive on a daily basis, and it seems to have been an adaptive feature of our cognitive and affective repertoire ever since. Although nowadays we hardly find any saber-toothed tigers, we successfully focus on other sources of fear.<\/p>\n

In 2004 Patrick McGinnis, a student at Harvard Business School at the time, invented the acronym FOMO<\/a>, which stands for fear of missing out<\/strong>. We have all probably experienced it: be it the fear of missing out on a social situation, a new work opportunity, an attractive sales offer, the right moment to say or do something, or the chance to meet someone special. FOMO\u00a0<\/strong>can be one of the possible reasons behind our \u2018smartphone epidemics<\/a>\u2019 and addictive scrolling \u2013 there is so much news out there, we just can\u2019t miss it\u2026<\/p>\n

Together with FOMO, Mr. McGinnis coined another term, FOBO<\/strong>\u2013 the fear of better options<\/strong>. FOBO is also fueled by endless opportunities and choices but drives us in the other direction from FOMO. When fearing better options, we might experience the so-called \u2018paralysis by analysis\u2019 state, which makes us endlessly hesitate instead of taking action. Have you ever delayed or ditched a choice, because there \u2018should be something better out there\u2019?!<\/p>\n

Although clearly familiar syndromes in our everyday life, I believe they are quite relevant also in the context of global business<\/strong>. As discussed on several occasions in my blog, the current global market is vibrant, ever-changing, full of potential and opportunity\u2026 It is a hyper-busy and hyper-connected world that we live in, hence, an ideal ground for the two FOs.<\/p>\n

By fearing to miss the right moment, an important trend or opportunity, and thus being outcompeted, managers might take on too many initiatives and \u2018run in too many directions.\u2019 Pivoting, growing and experimenting might be good for business, but having a misaligned or inconsistent strategy is not. For example, adding products and services too quickly, spreading business to several new markets at once, marketing to multiple different audiences at once \u2013 these are some of the common FOMO<\/strong>-fused business mistakes. On the other hand, in times of big data, available information and constantly upgraded versions of everything, managers can likewise get paralyzed. In such a scenario, FOBO\u00a0<\/strong>makes managers over-analyze and keeps them stuck in a process of finding yet a better option.<\/p>\n

Completely eliminating these fears is unlikely, as our environment implies competition and choices, and it is in our nature to strive for better resources and anticipate dangers. Hence, FOMO and FOBO are there to last, but we can become better at spotting and managing them. As discussed in a relevant FT article<\/a>, fighting FOMO is in essence about embracing the possibilities to step back and say \u2018no.\u2019 It is also about minimizing distractions, which echoes with the notions of deep work<\/a> by Cal Newport. As for fighting the fear of better options, Mr. McGinnis suggests<\/a> decisiveness, which is sometimes literally about flipping a coin\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fear is one of the universal and central emotions to human existence. Some 200,000 years ago fear helped our caveman ancestors to survive on a daily basis, and it seems to have been an adaptive feature of our cognitive and affective repertoire ever since. Although nowadays we hardly find any saber-toothed tigers, we successfully focus […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":345,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18330],"tags":[102705,102704,102703,102702,26739],"class_list":["post-3023","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-views-and-news-about-expatriates","tag-fear-of-better-options","tag-fear-of-missing-out","tag-fobo","tag-fomo","tag-global-business","megacategoria-mc-leadership-and-people-management"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t