People with authority sometimes behave in ways that negatively affect team dynamics. Shadow learning teaches leaders to recognize and address those behaviors.

The shadow side of formal power is that part that drives leaders to sometimes behave like autocrats and followers to be wary and deferential. When left unchecked, these dynamics damage morale, squash innovation, focus behavior on defensiveness rather than strategy implementation, and ultimately alienate talent and destroy people and organizations. Unless they are willing to deal with this shadow side of power, leaders will find it difficult to implement what they learn in leadership development programs.

Dark side of leadership

Carl Jung, who taught that a key life purpose is to discover and integrate all parts of the self, introduced the shadow in his 1917 essay "On the Psychology of the Unconscious." He writes: "By shadow I mean the 'negative' side of the personality, the sum of all those unpleasant qualities we like to hide, together with the insufficiently developed functions and the content of the personal unconscious." His initial view of shadow evolved to include untapped energy and unacknowledged capabilities.

We are all on an evolutionary journey in partnership with our shadows. But for people in formal leadership positions, there is an added complication—the role itself also has a shadow side: over time, it is easy to feel above the rules, special and more important, and more perfect (or needing to appear more perfect) than others.

In the meantime, people with less authority often project their own shadow side—their unsatisfactory and even painful relationships with past and current power figures. The dialectic between leaders and led can, and often does, increasingly isolate leaders. And it can alienate followers, who then stop telling the truth, blame leaders for not being perfect, and wait to be told or to see signals about what the leaders want. This results in a self-perpetuating environment of distrust rather than shared purpose and performance.

One executive told me about a time when his staff remodeled his office over a weekend. "I didn't ask for all the changes. I just said, 'This office is a bit dark,'" he explained. I reminded him that in his authority role, "When you speak, you roar. When you walk down the halls, you shake the earth. It may not be who you really are, but it is how formal power often works."

There is a bright side to all this, however. Formal authority doesn't create the shadow and it isn't inherently toxic. Rather, when its effects show up, it's actually a wake-up call. This is where people who develop and nurture leaders come in.

Developing power-wise leaders

The main goals of shadow learning are to increase awareness of the role of the shadow in decisions, actions, and interactions; and make it more likely that leaders will recognize shadow dynamics, and understand and deal with them when they occur.

Traditional behavioral, conceptual, and analytical methods won't easily draw out the shadow because it is elusive, has its own language, exists in its own time, and reflects an individual's unique history and personality. Thus, shadow learning can be tricky business.

What follows are a few specific ways to bring the shadow to light in leadership education and training, and to transform its energy. Although some of the methods are not new, the intent and how they are used is a different focus.

Conversations and stories

Have discussions about power and shadow dynamics in a relaxed setting. One strategy is to have discussions about effective and ineffective leaders who are in the news, literature, and history.

Talk about how those leaders used, could have used, and abused their power. Discuss the role of followers. Explore the view of power and authority at that time in history.

Another strategy is to have free-flowing conversations about personal experiences of the shadow. Most leaders have had bosses who abused or were tentative in their use of power, have caught themselves not using or misusing their own power, and have realized that their authority level sometimes affects others' willingness to tell the truth.

However, few leaders realize that they are not alone, that shadow dynamics are inevitable when there are authority differentials, or that when the shadow knocks it is a call to a higher level of consciousness and development for everyone involved. Set aside time in an informal setting to introduce the shadow and to launch a conversation about how it affects both leader and follower roles.

Career and role exploration

Many leaders continue to see the world as individual contributors, not as formal leaders. I recall an executive who told me, at the end of a day when he had done strategy work, had feedback discussions with his team, and dealt with cross-department conflicts, that he had not "gotten a thing done."

He was an engineering executive who still thought in terms of engineering deliverables. He hadn't created a design, so in his mind it wasn't a good day. An important function of development programs is to help leaders redefine success and align their internal self-talk about what is a good day so their inner world supports their leadership role.

Personify the shadow

The shadow's voice often is pushed into the psychological underground. Channel and personify its energy by giving it a voice. The goal is to help the leader to observe himself—to notice and name internal conversations and projections, and to mine their deeper meanings.

Four powerful methods to use—and teach leaders to use—are tuning to internal conversations, raising awareness of projections, appreciating diversity, and changing the channel.

Tune to internal conversations. There are various methods for identifying, naming, and exploring conscious and unconscious perspectives that may be at play inside the leader during decisions and actions. Shining a light on these inner voices (for example, critic, victim, judge, ego-defender, or rescuer) helps to tame or transform the shadow forces that might otherwise inappropriately take over the process.

Raise awareness of projections. Leaders' strong negative or positive reactions that are out of proportion to a situation may be signs of a projection—a disowned personal quality. Help them identify times when they have had these reactions, explore them, and discover how the quality they see in the other person may be one of their own misunderstood, desired, or denied characteristics.

Appreciate diversity. Shadow issues are really diversity issues. The goal of shadow learning is to make it more likely that a leader's reactions are appropriate for a situation, and not driven by fears, anger, defensiveness, or others' projections.

Any exercise that helps a leader understand her own personality and preferences, shift into and out of various roles, take different sides and points of view, interact with diverse others, or use a variety of thinking methods helps broaden the leader's awareness and repertoire of responses.

Change the channel. Instead of talking about the internal and interpersonal forces at play in decisions, use more right-brain methods such as drawing or music. Many leaders have been exposed to such methods as graphic recording and drawings and images that depict strategies. These methods provide more direct access to subconscious information and energies.

Create perspective

As formal authority increases, so does the temptation for leaders to equate themselves with their roles. As a result, power can lead to a loss of perspective. Therefore, a key part of shadow learning is to help leaders keep perspective and resist merging with their role.

Multi-rater feedback is one way to accomplish this. Feedback loops often are distorted or weakened because people in authority control or influence important decisions about others (pay, promotion, or inclusion). Structured approaches such as 360-degree feedback can supplement the normal feedback channels. However, the shadow can cause these methods to backfire.

To reduce the feedback receiver's defensiveness and increase the givers' honesty, ask for relative rather than absolute ratings. For example, instead of asking "How strong is each area?" ask "What are the three strongest and three weakest/most important change areas?"

Also, journaling is a reflective practice that helps bring a new perspective to actions and issues that may have brought out shadow reactions. For shadow learning, it's important to explore relationship and decision dilemmas, examine leader and follower actions that may be due to shadow dynamics, and assess how power was used or misused in specific situations.

Meditation, spiritual practice, and contemplative exercise (for example, yoga) also create perspective, as do personal coaching, dream interpretation, and therapy.

For all shadow learning, it's important to have clear codes of practice that expand leaders' boundaries without pushing them into areas they are not sufficiently prepared to go.

A call to take the risk

Shadow learning requires an investment of time and energy, as well as courage on the part of both the facilitator and the leader to step into a murky, subjective, and irrational world where we can't easily predetermine or quantify outcomes.

For this reason, many leadership development programs walk around the shadow. In the meantime, shadow energies cause mayhem for individuals, organizations, and society—and keep leaders from implementing the more rational and behavioral thought patterns and skills we teach.

We must be courageous enough to move into this area of development, and help leaders to see that their leadership success and legacy depends on learning from and integrating their shadows. If we don't, at best, much of what we teach in leadership programs will remain on the shelf. At worst, the most devious expressions of the shadow will continue to find ways to create havoc and even destruction.

Facing the shadow, rather than running from it, helps strengthen and expand leaders' capabilities and positive impact—which is the ultimate purpose of leadership development.

The Shadow at Work in Leadership Roles

People in authority have the power of their positions and, therefore, face these position-related temptations and opportunities for growth:

  • False innocence. Many leaders move into formal authority positions but remain ignorant of the responsibilities and powers of their new role. This results in nonperformance or even abusing the role. The growth area is expanded awareness.
  • Myopia. Leadership roles require a balancing act of short- and long-term priorities. It is easy to favor the short term because the rewards are more immediate. The growth area is bifocal perspective.
  • Reductionism. Authority brings along disproportionate influence. The tendency is to elevate the leader’s style, bring in people who are similar, and marginalize others. The growth area is toward synergy.
  • Abdication. As time goes on, leaders may begin to hold staff responsible for rules that they do not always follow. The opportunity is for a greater accountability for ensuring and role-modeling processes and behaviors that add value across the board.
  • Cowardice. Leaders have a special responsibility to stand for unrealized visions and to help resolve conflicting views. Yet sometimes leaders fail to take a stand. The opportunity is to show courage that matches the breadth of their impact.
  • Abuse. As authority increases, it is tempting to think that position means “being better than others.” This can lead to a variety of forms of abuse. With disproportionate power goes disproportionate responsibility for treating others with awe and respect.
  • Corruption. Some leaders divert institutional and other resources to personal use and for personal gain. In the process they create destructive cultures and damage institutional reputations. Higher position calls for stewardship of one’s own institution and across boundaries.

Source: P. McLagan, The Shadow Side of Power: Lessons for Leaders. Changing World Press, 2013 

The Leader’s Rewards for Shadow Learning

Why would leaders open the Pandora’s Box of the shadow, especially if their preference is for action not reflection? Different leaders will appreciate different reasons:

  • more energy available for achieving strategies and goals
  • more genuine self-acceptance and less stress, based on a more complete self-knowledge
  • fewer negative reactions that erupt unexpectedly in the leader’s daily life
  • more congruence between walk and talk
  • a more trusting and open performance environment, with less behavior focused on destructive politics and more behavior focused on getting the best work done
  • better, more direct communication, and more comfort in making and communicating tough decisions and messages
  • increased ability to stimulate and support innovation and new ideas
  • ultimately better performance today, and a leadership legacy to be proud of tomorrow.