Leadership Ghosts

As we enter spooky season it's a good time to draw the shades closed, light the black-flame candle, and summon the spirits of managers past as we convene with the occult of leadership ghosts! These aren't your normal spooks or spectres that you're accustomed to seeing this time of year. No, the phenomena of leadership ghosts find us regardless of the season.

Has this ever happened to you?

• Has a manager ever devoted quality 1:1 time to understanding your needs and learning style only to seemingly disregard all of that information the moment the meeting ended?
• Did you take a job after a glowing interview with your potential new manager only to find out they are a micro-manager after you started working with them?
• Have you put in you notice of resignation only to find your manager stops all communication with you?

If you have encountered one of these, or another similar experience, then you have encountered a leadership ghost! Fret not dear reader as even if you find the ectoplasm of that managerial ghoul to have ruined or sidelined your career development and growth, I am here to let you know that leadership ghosts can not hurt you.

On Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, and what makes a Leader turn into a Ghost

As we all learned in the 1995 movie sensation, "Casper," ghosts were once people who lived with hopes and dreams before meeting either an untimely or natural end to their mortal form. Leaders who ghost aren't too dissimilar as these People Manager Poltergeists were once regular folk like you and me with hopes, dreams, and aspirations. So what turns them into a Cubical Casper? I think it comes down to self preservation. Let's be very clear about something first: there is a difference between a person in self preservation because they need to honor and protect themself as opposed to someone doing that with disregard for the people they are responsible for at work.

Leadership is, among many things, a responsibility. When someone finds themselves turning inward and leaving their team in the cold, that's when they turn into a vapor of who they were and claimed to be. They stop active listening, they drift away, they just stop leading. They ghost.

Who Ya Gonna Call?

In every job I've had and at every company I've worked at I've experienced some form of leadership ghosts, either directly or indirectly. The 35 foot-long Twinkie for me was when I put in my two week notice at a prior job and my two upward managers stopped talking to me. No slack, no email, no zoom, no call. For those two weeks they treated me like I didn't exist. At the time that hurt quite a lot and I was left confused and wondering what I did wrong.

And then it hit me: I wasn't the one who stopped existing. They stopped existing and became leadership ghosts. They couldn't communicate with me because they themselves had given up on being leaders.

When you encounter a leadership ghost you have to recognize there is nothing you can do for that managerial spirit. It is not your problem to fix because you are not the problem.

As you look around and continue to venture onward in your career you'll continue to encounter these false managerial fantasms. Unlike the many movies out there where the ghosts run amok and can cause physical damage, leadership ghosts are simply lost corporate souls.

What is important is to understand is if a leadership ghost problem is negatively impacting your well-being, development, growth, or performance. If that's the case, then fire up the proton pack of a resume you have and find a team and place without these ghosts. Or in case all that fails just say Beetlejuice three times in a row during your next meeting with your leadership ghost and see what happens. Never underestimate the tactic of confusion.