Over two thirds of UK business leaders say they are afraid to admit when they don’t understand technology out of fear of looking out of touch or behind the times, according to new research by brand and cultural transformation company, BBD Perfect Storm.

Against a backdrop of slowing national productivity and, consequently, they need to create economic growth.

It has uncovered that over a third of business leaders don’t speak up because they fear not understanding makes them look old and they have a fear of embarassment.

One in four feel its easier to keep quiet and try to learn these new technologies at a later date.

Three in five are also worried about the digital world evolving faster than their business can keep pace. The biggest fears amongst them are not understanding new technologies, AI taking jobs, competitors quickly moving ahead of them and the business ultimately collapsing.

The research also revealed that business leaders are worried about feeling too old to grasp how things are changing, leading to losing relevance with consumers and employees losing faith in their ability to lead the business.

Interestingly, men ranked higher as feeling it’s more important to appear to understand whereas women are more worried about looking behind the times.

The report also looked at what the effects of these views are and how making fear-based decisions only exacerbates the problem. With over half of business leaders admitting to have spent money on digital services without understanding them or that haven’t helped or worked for the business, its more evident that C-Suite roles have become a lot harder.

Accelerated digital innovation and changing consumer behaviour are creating more decisions to make, at the same time growth is harder to achieve. Choosing where to invest and how to connect with consumers, is becoming complicated.

It also looked at the psychological effects of digital acceleration, with half of business leaders admitting they have lost sleep or felt stressed worrying about the speed of change in the digital world and the technological landscape – with a quarter worried this may soon happen to them.

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But despite this, 52% of male business leaders and 44% female polled feel it’s not their job to understand digital technologies and digital change – and would prefer to hire specialists instead to deal with it.

“The research proved what we had expected – that business leaders are often acting out of fear rather than understanding when it comes to new technologies and digital culture,” Laura Redman, managing partner, BBD Perfect Storm CO/LABS said.

“Worryingly, half of business leaders surveyed also feel it’s not their job to understand digital technologies and change. But the lack of understanding will likely increase the fear of being left behind which leads to investment in the wrong places.”