The Dysfunctional Leader
Here's how we guided a team and their leader from reactivity to sustained regulation.
Challenges
Prior to the training, attendees reported stress from working long hours to appease their emotionally dysregulated leader, feeling stuck in constant fight-or-flight as they walked on eggshells, and struggling with a lack of boundaries and psychological safety - all of which left them depleted and disconnected from themselves and their colleagues.
Objectives
Identify Patterns That Influence Dysregulation
Recognize that our personal histories influence not only our home lives, but also how we show up at work.
Strengthen Personal Boundaries
Empower the team to recognize and maintain personal boundaries to protect their psychological safety.
Clarify & Boost Resilience
Understand that mental "toughness" isn’t the same as being resilient, healthy, and emotionally regulated.
Our Solution
1
Explored how living or working in an unpredictable, distrustful environment keeps the brain and body’s autonomic nervous system (ANS) in a constant state of alert due to the absence of safety and predictability.
2
Guided weekly sessions among employees to recognize and distinguish neutral or comfortable body sensations in contrast from sensations experienced during the fight-or-flight state.
3
Completed 1:1 coaching with leadership, integrated with therapy, to explore how past trauma impacts their work life.
The Outcome
Participants reported stronger relationships between leadership and employees, with clearer boundaries that boosted work efficiency.
The leader and many employees carried this work into their personal life to enhance their personal relationships and re-establish values.
All participants established a new 'normal' in daily stress management, team cohesion, and effectiveness.
Leadership gradually delegated more responsibilities to senior staff, who consistently executed tasks with precision.