The Aposematic leader

“In the world of business today, I find there are some behaviours that leaders exhibit which ward off other people –  so can be called aposematic.

On top of the pile in my view:

• The Forbidding Demeanour”

Porcupines, poison dart frogs and ladybirds – what they have in common is aposematism.
Aposematism refers to the strategy adopted by some animals to have bright colours, spines or other indicators to potential predators, basically saying “Keep Away”.

[The origin of the theory is a fascinating story of collaboration between Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace and John Weir in the years 1867 – 1869. It beautifully demonstrates the value of interplay between curiosity/ “I wonder why?” (Darwin), imagination/ “Maybe because …” (Wallace) and experimentation/ “What data will reveal the truth?” (Weir). But that’s another story.]

In the world of business today, I find there are some behaviours that leaders exhibit which ward off other people – team members, peers, stakeholders and so on – and so can be called aposematic.

Two behaviours are on top of the pile in my view:

• The Forbidding Demeanour
• I’m Busy, Can’t You See?

In this, the first of two parts, I’ll discuss The Forbidding Demeanour.

Part 1: The Forbidding Demeanour

       At 360changemagic I have processed many thousands of 360º feedback surveys in the past few years. One of the behavioural areas that invariably bubbles up as an issue is labelled “Emotions Management.” In the explanatory comments the single most often mentioned emotion is anger – losing one’s cool, shouting at others, constantly interrupting people, over-aggressive reactions, and bad language. The leader holds up a board saying “Beware – Tiger Sleeping Within” and no one wants to poke that tiger.

Some examples of this demeanour are:

1. “Once you get to know him he is fine – but at the beginning, people are afraid to approach him”. Leaders set up huge invisible barriers for others (especially newer team members) to interact with them. It is almost a rite of passage, some sort of initiation ‘test’ that people have to pass before they can reach the elixir of a meeting with the leader.

Consequently, such leaders miss out on opportunities to understand fresh (and perhaps different) perspectives from ‘new’ people, build organisational alignment (attrition is typically highest in the 6m – 12m band), or develop a rapport with the team.

2. “You better get your data right, your analysis perfect, your presentation absolutely error-free … else she will tear you apart”. Not only does this inhibit engagement, it also forces people to waste a lot of time doing multiple versions, chasing that elusive ‘perfection’.

While it is good to set high standards and benchmarks, “tearing people apart” if they do not reach those benchmarks is counter-productive.

3. Listening is very poor, and people hesitate to speak. There are possible reasons quoted for this:
   • “He has made up his mind before the start”
   • “She reacts too fast without fully understanding the other’s point”
   • “He believes he knows the solution or right answer, so cuts down any other voice saying anything different”
   • “She only hears what she wants to hear – brushes off anything else”
   • “Very hard to have a conversation with him, it is almost always just one-way”

There are enough and more posts, videos, business gurus, role model leaders and teachers out there who shout themselves hoarse about how important listening is to a leader and his/ her effectiveness; there is no need for me to add to all that strident wisdom here.

4. Behaviour is demeaning of others, often in subtle ways.
   • “She will pull up people loudly and publicly when things go wrong, but never supports/ appreciates/ motivates them at any time”
   • “He uses bad/ harsh language in professional settings, is often rude/ boorish to others”
   • “She makes negative comments about the person, rather than staying focused on the problem/ error”
   • “He demonstrates very high self-importance – “My way or highway”, “I know everything, you listen to me”, “I am the boss around here, know that” and so on”

Repel ⬄ Attract

Aposematic strategies in the natural world were confusing at first because Darwin and others believed the bright colours and conspicuous visible elements would attract rather than repel … attract sexual mates, attract predators too. Weir’s experiments proved that their primary function was to repel not attract.

• Do such leaders believe that their behaviour is somehow attractive? In that it shows how important they are, or how powerful?
• Are they under some delusion that the Machiavellian notion of “leading by fear” is still relevant today, after hundreds of years?
  • In high-power-distance cultures like India, this phenomenon is amplified by the notion of ‘seniority’ and how people higher in the hierarchy should remain unquestioned about their dysfunctional behaviour.

There are many concerns

Whether intentional or not, engagement is blocked with such behaviours. For many reasons that is concerning:

• There is huge value in engagement. People today are smarter than they were in the past. The magnitude of impact of the internet, social media and now ChatGPT on people and society is undoubtedly huge. Information is at one’s fingertips, literally. But for all this smartness to be leveraged within the context of an organisation, even a team – engagement is crucial. Blocking off that source of collective meaning-making makes no sense at all.
• Generation-based gaps in understanding need to be reduced. Many leaders I’ve met are worried about “How to manage the current generation?” (I’ve lost track of the alphabets). Clearly, leaders need to understand them better, understand their philosophy of life, understand their stances related to work and work-life balance, their priorities and concerns. Any leader should be looking for ways to engage more, understand more – and not throttle opportunities to engage.
• Building a culture of belonging is taking centre stage. Today’s post-pandemic world is forcing organisations to battle with high attrition rates. Building a sense of belongingness is becoming increasingly difficult – all the more so with practices such as WFH. In such times, it is crucial to build a culture of engagement and inclusion, and leaders would do well to foster interaction rather than limit it.

The simple and clear message for leaders is – build engagement. Not just ‘top down’ but ‘bottom up’ and ‘sideways’ too. Don’t engage in behaviours that repel people from engaging with you.

Author – Dr Anand Kasturi, CFI Coach