Organisations are full of beautiful words – values, security, meaning, collaboration, commitment, etc. From my own leadership experience and from my clients, I see that often behind the words live the things we don’t want to see. These themes drive us.
And as long as we don’t talk about the things that are hidden, we get buried in meetings where we talk a lot, but because we don’t talk about it, we don’t solve the problem.
These hidden agendas are not malicious, but subconscious, human. Written on the walls. Here are just a few that I have seen, and need to be brought to light, so that we can then get down to the real business. For the sake of clarity, let them be amplified a bit:
1️⃣ “Open communication”
Speak out as long as it doesn’t touch power or as long as openness doesn’t threaten me. Honesty ends when the level of feeling becomes uncomfortable or leads to conflict.
2️⃣ “Collaboration”
Collaboration is talked about when there is covert, quiet competition and position-holding. Supporting each other becomes a test of loyalty.
3️⃣ “Psychological safety”
At the same time, the influencer himself cannot tolerate conflict or vulnerability or the public disclosure of his own mistakes. Security becomes a word, not an experience.
4️⃣ “Meaningful work”
In reality, trying to survive between performance Excel and optimisation. Meaning is left to the individual, not the system. And the result is finding meaning elsewhere and a loss of commitment.
5️⃣ “Innovation”
New ideas are welcome as long as they don’t threaten anyone’s comfort or create too much work. Thinking out of the box is allowed just inside the bigger box.
6️⃣ “People-Centred Management”
Allowed as long as people remain comfortable and in control/directed towards the future and don’t bring into view something that is ego-boosting. Vulnerability gets labelled as “too emotional” or “digging into the past”
7️⃣ “Values”
Words on the wall, but beliefs that hinder them live in the system and in the people themselves.
8️⃣ “Excellence”
Often a fear-based system where instead of being wrong, there is hidden anxiety and a struggle with future threats. Energy goes into survival rather than creativity.
9️⃣ “Leadership Culture”
An organisation reflects the inner world of the leader – their fears, boundaries and beliefs, their own experience of authority, family relationships, traumas and desires.
There is no command to get out of these patterns. But you can create a space where the system can make itself visible.
This is what I’ve been doing more and more in my trainings lately:
– not teaching new leadership techniques, but helping to spot the invisible – what drives people, teams and cultures unconsciously
– together we bring to light the beliefs and hidden dynamics that hold the system in place
– together we guide leaders not to lead people, but to create space, mood and meaning
– together we guide them to distinguish the problem from the person
– together we bring to light the alternatives they have not dared to think about.
What is visible can be managed. What we cannot see, or do not want to see, controls us. Unconsciously and imperceptibly. As long as we make things visible…
