
CPR: taking the stress out of practicing public speaking
Practicing a speech is intimidating. Not only do you have to know your stuff, but you also have to think about your structure, your gestures, and your audience. Here’s how to use...
by Jennifer Jordan Published October 2, 2024 in Brain Circuits • 3 min read
Here are six tell-tale signs that your organization is characterized by an unhealthy parent-child dynamic and how to correct it:
Like actual parents, leaders often fear showing their weaknesses and insecurities to those who report to them. The result? A culture develops where mistakes are swept under the rug.
This is where leaders see their staff as lacking competence – they need to be told what to do and how to do it. This unhealthy paternalistic dynamic can include highly negative feedback, which is likely to lead to task-avoidance and stalling.
If leaders don’t see people as competent, they will not delegate tasks and share power with them. Power stays at the top and those below don’t get the chance to develop, to the detriment of the organization.
A parent-child dynamic can lead to employees being fearful of trying new things for fear of disappointing leaders. This has a direct impact on the organization’s ability to innovate.
When management takes on a parental role (especially a disciplinarian-parent role), people feel little psychological safety to share mistakes. Again, this leads to a culture where mistakes are hidden and healthy risk-taking (innovation, etc.) is discouraged.
This could be described as an “and” culture, where management says, “We have to do X and Y and Z” – piling initiative on top of initiative, but without letting go of any or communicating strategic priorities to their teams. A mutual aversion to prioritization works to the detriment of organizational performance.
This will increase psychological safety and convince the levels below that the change in culture is sincerely desired.
This is necessary to build trust, especially where people have moderate levels of experience (because, unlike both novices and experts, they don’t know what they don’t know).
Asking questions is a simple, yet highly effective way of communicating – and ask questions as an adult would ask another adult for advice.
Just as in adult-to-adult conversations, we don’t need to take on every suggestion or idea that another adult gives us. Instead, we should have sincere curiosity about their viewpoint and respect it enough to listen properly to it.
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Social psychologist and Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour at IMD
Jennifer Jordan is a social psychologist and Professor of Leadership and Organizational Behavior at IMD. Jennifer’s teaching, research, and consulting focus on the areas of digital leadership, ethics, influence, and power. She has received specialized training and certifications in lie and truthfulness detection, as well as in conflict resolution within organizations. She is Program Director of the Women on Boards and the Leadership Essentials program, and co-Director of the Leading Digital Execution program.
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