The Leadership Shadows
Part 1/3 in the Leadership Shadow Series
One of my deepest desires is that we are all lucky enough in our lifetimes to experience full self-expression.
Like a bird, the expansive-self spreads its wings and flies through the open air, unafraid to be seen and to take up space. Yet full self-expression is not necessarily loud. It is also anchored in such a strong sense of self that an unshakeable calm emerges. It also means that we are in harmony with nature, neither taking more than our share nor giving more than we are able. As our fully-expressed selves, we get to both be ourselves and be part of the whole; at once individual, and together.
However, full-expression is only available to us if we can recognize our inherent, god-given genius and free ourselves from self-imposed mental limitations and unconsciously-harbored shadows. This is why I wrote this series — to help us collectively emerge from the darkness of our own unknown nature.
Shadows are part of our character that are hidden from conscious awareness. They typically consist of the repressed aspects of our nature, yet they paradoxically drive a significant portion of our behavior.
Unfortunately, many of us do not know our shadow and this is reflected in our reactive, habitual, and unconscious actions. The goal of shadow-work is to shed light on all of our nature — to delve into our repressed, hidden, and rejected parts — so that we bring greater awareness to our actions and behaviors.
As you read the following articles, try to see yourself in each of the Leadership Shadow archetypes as well as the Fully-Expressed archetypes. Like Yin and Yang, the traits of great leadership only exist in contrast to their respective shadows. To become truly great leaders, we must accept that we will sometimes fail to lead.
Before You Read Further
I would like to invite you to contemplate leadership capabilities. While there are many noteworthy capabilities, the two I want to highlight for the purpose of these articles are self-awareness and adaptability.
Self-awareness means that we can accurately identify our defining characteristics (gifts and shadows) as well as our present-moment state (feelings, emotions, expression of gifts/shadows). This is your ability to see yourself clearly, without clouded eyes.
Adaptability means that we alter our behavior and language to the situation or person in front of us. With this in mind, picture leading as an active and dynamic movement, moving fluidly around and through your teams and organizations to reach a collective goal. This is your ability to swoop and maneuver through the air, slowing down to glide or speeding up to dive for your target.
Self-awareness will help you identify the extent to which you exhibit shadow behaviors and adaptability will help you shift your leadership style to suit the situation at hand.
What Style of Leadership is Required?
Here are two (unfortunately) common modern leadership misunderstandings:
- There is one style of leadership that is my unique style of leadership. If I uncover what it is, then I can be that and become a great leader.
- Supporting people is good and telling people what to do is bad. If I want to be a good leader, I need to be supportive, not directive.
The truth is that great leadership comes from knowing who we are and holding a point of inner-stillness and confidence while having the ability to flex our leadership style to suit the needs of the community. This means that we need to be both supportive and directive. Sometimes we will need to be slightly more supportive and other times we will need to be slightly more directive.
Looking at leadership as a dance around and within our teams, we can create two dynamic categories: Visionary Leadership and Servant Leadership.
The Visionary Leader leads from the front and within. Their shadows include Heroing and Tyrannizing, which emerge from an overabundant desire to guide.
The Servant Leader leads from behind, beside, and within. Their shadows include Martyring and Caretaking, which emerge from an overabundant desire to serve.
As we explore the shadows in detail, please remember:
- These are not styles or categories of people, but types of behavior.
- All four shadow behaviors exist in each of us.
- You can exhibit more than one shadow in any given situation.
- You can move between the shadows.
In our effort to lead effectively, we must always remain connected to the needs of our organizations from within. From there, sometimes we lead from the front (visionary) and sometimes from the back and the side (servant). Always, we can engage our self-awareness to identify where we are and remain dynamic and agile so that we can adapt to the person or situation in front of us.
Next time, we will look at Servant Leadership and its respective shadows. We will conclude the third article by exploring the qualities and shadows of Visionary Leadership.
>> Click here to continue to Part 2 on Servant Leadership and its shadows.
This was originally written as a 7-part Shadow Series for my newsletter and is now consolidated into 3 articles. If you would like to receive these writings before they are turned into articles, please subscribe to my newsletter.
