This year’s inductees into the Pro Football Hall of Fame included arguably the best receiver ever to strap on a helmet: Jerry Rice.

I wonder…

Rice holds the records for receptions, touchdown receptions and total receiving yards. But Jerry didn’t merely set the records, he destroyed them: His totals are nearly 50 percent higher than second place.

Jerry was a perfectionist, and a tireless worker. In many respects his extreme training regimen redefined the work ethic for a professional football player. In his book Talent Is Overrated, Geoff Colvin says,

“Occasionally someone would write to the 49ers’ trainer asking for the details of Rice’s workout, but the trainer never released the information out of fear that people would hurt themselves trying to duplicate it.”

Interestingly, in his Hall of Fame acceptance speech Rice revealed that it was more than just work ethic that pushed him.

“I’m here to tell you that the fear of failure is the engine that has driven me throughout my entire life … I wasn’t the most physical or the fastest receiver in the NFL, but they never clocked me on the way to the end zone. The reason nobody caught me from behind is because I ran scared.”

Rice defends his fear of failure by saying it “flies in the faces of all these sports psychologists who say you have to let go of your fears to be successful and that negative thoughts will diminish performance.”

This topic comes up every now and then in a leadership context. I’ve had leaders comment to me that fear can be an effective motivator. There’s a sense in which that’s true: If the house is on fire, the fear feeds my performance to get out of the house. In the risky business of leadership — where there is no shortage of things to fear — there are lots of opportunities to test that theory.

So, as a leader, what do you think about fear as a motivator?

I suggest leaders ask themselves some questions:

• “Is fear of failure the best foundation for my leadership?”
• “Who benefits most from a fear-of-failure-based motivation: Me — the leader — Or the people I’m leading?”
• “How does my fear of failure affect the organization as a whole, and its confidence in realizing its vision?”
• “What does my fear say to the emerging leaders in my organization? What kind of model am I creating? What precedent?”
• “Am I comfortable letting something beyond my control be a driver for me and my performance?”

I’m not trying to play semantic gymnastics here, or take advantage of Jerry Rice’s transparency about his career. It is, after all, a thin gray line that divides the competitive drive to win and the fear of losing.

However, I think it’s important to make a distinction: Leadership performance is not like football performance. Leadership is not about running from something, as much as it is about running toward something.

And more to the point, it’s about leading other people toward something.

While it can’t be denied that fear helped Rice become a premier receiver, neither can it be denied that it had a cost. Rice himself said, “But if I have a single regret about my career standing here today, it’s that I never took the time to enjoy it.”

As a leader, are you willing to pay that cost? Is that the way you want to look back on your leadership opportunities?

I wonder. As astounding as Jerry Rice’s accomplishments were, what would they have been if he’d had a positive motivation?