Explore the dark side
It’s a truism that people who are at the top of their game will not walk across the street unless there is something also pushing them out the door – no matter how appealing your offer.
This came to mind over the past few months as I had several individuals, all at the top of their game, told me they were leaving or have left their companies. These departures were months in the making (and likely a shock to the person receiving the notice). In every instance, the person was essentially at the end of their tether, fed up with the organization’s self-inflicted inertia or flawed leadership, the dark matter pulsing in all organizations.
There is a more dark matter in companies than you might think. Like its counterpart in physics, it is elusive, discernible only if you make an effort to seek it out. But it is there nonetheless and will vacuum the light and energy out of its surroundings.
Why am I telling you this? Because a lot of effort has been put in over the past few years into employee experience, culture, and engagement. Elements indisputably recognized to contribute to productivity and performance. But while leaders have focused heavily on what they need to get right, very little effort has gone into identifying what’s off. Leaders, and by extension their companies, often lack awareness of their dark sides, the shadow elements that destabilize and sometimes negate earnest efforts to develop and maintain a coherent and reinforcing culture.
The dark side of an organization can manifest itself in countless ways, in policies and practices that are outdated and, or counterproductive; in governance that is compromised or lax; in culture that is plastered but not practiced; and in systems that work but do not serve. But the most insidious dark force is Shadow Leadership. Shadow Leadership is micro-aggression – abuses of power, favouritism, mismanaging information, acting inconsistently, betraying loyalties, and failing to assume responsibility – behaviours that are generally reserved for closed-door and off-desk conversations but exert a disproportionate drag on an organization. (Have you ever heard someone admit to any of these as an “area of opportunity”?)
This year I would urge leaders to do some shadow work. Yes, it’s more difficult to look at our flaws, the behaviours, practices, policies and attitudes that erode #morale #productivity and drive away talent, but looking the other way is a dereliction of duty. Dig into the dark side.
