#JungianBitsOfInformation Insights: Shadow

#JungianBitsOfInformation. Every Thursday. Navigating the Unconscious: Exploring Unconscious Concepts and Dynamics. The A to Z of Analytical Psychology. How are difficult emotions seen psychologically, and how might Jungian Coaching, Therapy or Analysis help you open up to, and come to terms with, these feelings?

This week we look at: Shadow. 

360-degree feedback is a useful tool to shed light on an organisation's shadow. It is used in companies for development, appraisal, and compensation purposes particularly at a leadership/management level. The process involves collecting perceptions about a person's behaviour and its impact from the person's boss or bosses, direct reports, colleagues, fellow members of project teams, internal and external customers, and suppliers to form a comprehensive portrait of behaviour on the job. The 'reality check' offered by the process makes it a popular training and evaluation tool to examine behaviour that enables or impedes business success. By linking individual behaviour to business success, it helps to explore to what extent ‘shadow’ is a contributing factor to successful or unsuccessful initiatives, goals, projects, programmes etc.

The concept of shadow is perhaps one of the most well-known psychological ideas. It is essentially ‘the thing a person has no wish to be’, it is seen in others but not in oneself or projected onto others, we will look at the dynamics of ‘projection’ next week. It is the negative side of the personality, the total sum of all the unpleasant qualities one wants to hide, the ‘other person’ in one, one’s dark side hence the term ‘shadow’. Everyone carries a shadow. For some it is conscious and for others it is unconscious. By this I mean awareness of one’s shadow is like a spectrum on a scale from 0 to 10: from zero awareness (0) to full awareness (10).

I will explore the dynamics of workplace shadow in the next blog in the series, The Neurotic Organisation, through the workplace persona of the Authoritarian Manager: a shadow personality which is objectively seen by subordinates but not by bosses, has lots of formal and informal direct reports within their sphere of influence and whose behaviour ultimately impedes business success. Imagine you are working in an organisation where someone’s behaviour is not aligned with the organisation’s values which goes unchecked, then you’re looking at organisational shadow.

Great places to work put in place checks and balances such as 360-degree feedback to ensure their values are integral to their success. It is a practical tool to bring shadow personalities into the light, and to correct or modify behaviour in line with values through day-to-day line management, supervision, appraisals, coaching, training etc. Organisational shadow costs money. For example, it is estimated that organisational shadow costs UK business £18 billion annually. It has a massive impact.

The Authoritarian Manager

Dealing with organisational shadow can appear very daunting. And it can be frightening, requiring courage. What is worth remembering is that, often, the policy infrastructure like 360-degree feedback exists to deal with it. It is the implementation that is unnerving. However, HR professionals and leaders can work together in tandem with courage, collaboration and lead for the greater good for business success.

Next week: Projection.

#JungianBitsOfInformation. A Jungian psychoanalytic and psychosocial blog, podcast, events, Jungian Analysis, workplace transformation service dedicated to exploring the unconscious in the workplace, specifically, the unconscious dynamics between the individual psyche and the workplace. Bringing an irrational perspective into the rational workplace.