Shadow of Leadership What is shadow Jungs definition

Shadow of Leadership

What is shadow? Jung’s definition vs. MKP’s altered use • All that is unknown about us • What we repress, hide, and deny - stay unconsciousness = Disowned shadow = small subset • Includes much more than what is disowned: • Well beyond mother & father wounds

How does shadow operate in us? • Expresses in ways that we won’t know • We don’t want to know about it - it’s unacceptable • We don’t provide what it needs - it is unloved and not nourished • Come towards us from outside of us • We reject it - it’s not claimed/owned • Repeatedly comes to meet us, to remind us it’s there, waiting to be claimed • We judge it, reject it, find it unacceptable in others

Examples of shadow in leaders • Personal vs. impersonal / losing objectivity • Pushing a personal agenda • Playing favorites • Head strong / not flexible • Not being attentive to those being led

Examples of shadow in leaders (continued) • Behaviors driven by insecurity • Running over people (steamrolling) • Need for control (out of insecurity) • Pleasing behavior (need to be liked) • “I’m not enough” (“My leadership can be challenged, and I’ll be shown that I’m not enough. ”)

Examples of shadow in leaders (continued) • Application of power • Overdoing it • • • Being heavy handed Driving an agenda rigidly Running roughshod over people Not being attentive to those being led Wielding power inappropriately • Underdoing it • Giving away our power • “I know what needs to be done, and I’m the only one” • ”I don’t trust anyone else to do it. ”

Examples of shadow in leaders (continued) • Diversity • Multicultural issues • Reactions to different populations • Invisibilizing people of color • Parent/child projections

SHARING

What can you do about it? • How can you know about it? (We can’t see it!) • Active reflections • Passive reflections • When it happens, then what?

BREAKOUTS