Seeing Your Shadow
The actions of a leader today, sow the seeds of the culture tomorrow.
Autumn Goose offers a specific training focused on exploring the ‘Shadow of a Leader’, where we hyper focus on the long shadows cast by leaders across organizations. Together, we strive to better understand the impacts of our actions. After all, if you are not happy with your culture, it might be time to look in the mirror.
Recently, after delivering ‘Shadow of a Leader’ training, a person shared a story about altering their behavior to consciously influence culture. We will call him “Fred”. Fred is passionate about mental health and creating a culture of wellness. His actions as a leader clearly reflect the values his organization is attempting to cultivate.
Here’s what Fred had to say:
“When I got to the office in the morning, I noticed that one of my mangers sent a proposal to one of our important clients at 11:00 pm on a Thursday night. My initial gut reaction was ‘right on, this is getting it done’. In the past, this might have been the type of behavior I recognized and rewarded. Early in my career that was me, burning the midnight oil and sacrificing time with my family to ‘get it done’.
I thought about how my life has changed and how focusing on true wellness has contributed to not only the quality of my life, but my ability to be a better leader. I also thought about our recent training and asked myself ‘what type of culture do I really want to create’.
Instead of reaching out to this individual with a pat on the back I did the opposite, I reached out and shared my concern about the impact working like this could have on their young family and what the perception of emails going out at 11:00 pm had on their team.
We talked about what they really want in life and the shadow they were casting on the rest of the organization and decided that if we are going to be a culture that truly prioritizes wellness, as leaders we need to stop modeling working at all hours of night.”
I wanted to share Fred’s story for two reasons:
I love brave leadership. I find it inspiring when leaders look in the mirror and are willing to see how their behaviours are creating the exact OPPOSITE culture they are trying to achieve.
It was recently Bell’s ‘Let’s Talk’ day for mental health – I think it’s time we begin a conversation about the danger of glamorizing busy (and wondering why people burn out).
So like Fred, it’s time to ask, “What shadow are you casting?”