Hindering Appreciative Intelligence® and Followers Ability to Make Sense of the Stress

January 2016

From my published work: 

Hindering Appreciative Intelligence® and Follower Sensemaking Through Hostile Leadership

Hostile work environments hurt. It's a personal reality that I have unfortunately had to experience more than once, and I can say from that place of understanding that as much as it hurt me it hurts the organization more. All that I could have done and would have done - could have been and would have been within each organization was utterly shut down due to hostile leadership. From a researchers perspective, I witnessed similar behavior from followers and leaders who perceived their workplace was hostile. Hostile leaders, hostile owners, and hostile co-workers cost your company in more ways than just the bottom line. 

Make your organization a safe place for all of your staff. Build community, allow for healthy relationships and make the hard decisions to release those who cannot accept the new norms. If the hostile leadership is coming from you as the owner, I suggest you consider your behavior and the role it plays in staff production, risk-taking, and production. 

Just like the school has no place for bullies - neither does your workplace. 

“Sensemaking, in short, is the process that we go through mentally to understand an issue or an event. Most people will gather information about the event and then find ways to implement a plan. When this occurs, we can better comprehend the situation. However, from my research, I have found that people who are working under toxic leadership are unlikely to be able to mentally process situations healthily. In fact, people will be more likely to "shut down," thus hindering the processing of the most basic of situations. Research shows people will put their eyes on the toxic leader and be unable to "see" anything else. 

The very basic foundation of an AQ person is their ability to see beyond the immediate negative and find a way to address the issue positively. However, my research found that even the best of the best AQ employee, after time, is hinder in their sensemaking abilities and they too will succumb to the toxicity of the environment. 

Leaving followers hopeless and fearful will never motivate anyone to be better or do better. Despite your best efforts to shame a person to do more - it does not work! 

What a loss of manpower! What a loss of potential!