Since culture sets the overarching tone of how we interact, building a team culture is the most vital strategy to reduce stress. When teams have less stress, they are less likely to operate from four specific ego-fears and are more likely to operate from inner strength, enabling them to focus on work vs. self-serving agendas. When even one individual on a team operates from fear and self-serving agendas, the team climate can become dysfunctional, causing everyone to work less effectively.

The path to healing is best solved by self-awareness and character strength development which offers a stabilizing and inspiring alternative. The essential first step is a framework of organizing principles for human interaction that enables generativity and contribution that transcends focus on oneself, in favor of the purpose or mission (and even inspires a better future for all of humankind).

Low self-esteem and operating from unconscious fear instead of inner strength can impede high levels of productive output and result in underachievement. If leaders are extrinsically motivated by performance, as others see it, they will struggle to tap into their own creative intelligence. In this case, reward and punishment systems will drive the majority of their behaviors, limiting their potential to make unique contributions. Inner beliefs and thoughts will reflect inner conflict, indecision, and self-doubt as they interact with others. Consequently, this can spread throughout the organization and affect others who also harbor self-doubt. The general effect is an intense experience of relational triangulation that spreads ego-drama based on four specific fears, as follows:

• Loss of approval, which causes them to overcompensate by blaming others.
• Loss of attention, which causes them to overcompensate by fabricating untruths.
• Loss of status, which causes them to overcompensate by diminishing others.
• Loss of power, which causes them to overcompensate by dominating others.