A Leadership Short — Discovering Mental Scapegoats
Its an insidious and slippery slope for leaders
A while back, I read a leadership book at a time when I was dealing with a very challenging leadership struggle. A relatively inexperienced, first-time leader on my team felt he was ready for promotion, and I didn’t. This difference grew into an obstacle between us.
Early in the book, I found myself relating the author’s points to my struggle. Each time I came across a leadership fault, I mentally connected it to my leader.
In the beginning, it didn't strike me as all that strange. Until I realized that I was doing it with every example of poor leadership discussed.
This employee had become my mental scapegoat.
I was frustrated by the struggle I was having resolving our differences, and I was subconsciously holding him ultimately accountable. To relieve my frustration and justify my feelings, I was mentally heaping every leadership fault I came across on this leader.
Fortunately, I became aware of what I was doing before my thoughts turned into action.
Important takeaways
My understanding of self-awareness improved quite a bit through this experience. I leave you with these two critical thoughts:
- Self-awareness is how we get to know ourselves day by day. When we are self-aware, we are in touch with what we are thinking while we are thinking it and what we feel when we feel it.
- Self-awareness is how we monitor thoughts so we can manage actions according to our values and principles.
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