You wake up in the middle of the night thinking about a colleague.
You feel anger.
Sadness.
Shame.
And you ask yourself:
How can one person have so much control over me?
๐๐จ โ๐ญ๐จ๐ฑ๐ข๐ ๐ฉ๐๐จ๐ฉ๐ฅ๐โ ๐ซ๐๐๐ฅ๐ฅ๐ฒ ๐๐ฑ๐ข๐ฌ๐ญ?
Organisations are places where people collaborate around a shared purpose.
Sometimes that collaboration becomes extremely difficult.
People may show repeated shadow behaviours such as:
โขblaming, shouting, or making fun of others
โขavoiding eye contact or refusing collaboration
I do not believe there are simply โtoxic peopleโ.
The same person who behaves destructively at work may behave completely differently in another environment.
But people can develop consistent behaviour patterns that damage collaboration, trust, and organisational performance.
That needs to be addressed with urgency.
From my experience, two patterns are especially harmful:
โขa lack of ontological humility – the inability to consider that another perspective may also hold truth
โขlow assertiveness – leading either to aggressive behaviour or passive-aggressive avoidance
๐๐ก๐ ๐ซ๐๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ฅ๐ญ?
โ Stress, burnout, and health-related costs increase
โ Valuable people leave the organisation, taking knowledge and relationships with them
โ Business performance suffers from disengagement