INsight/ Overcoming Dominator Hierarchies

Photo by Sponchia on Pixabay

Manila, 22 January 2020 — Unhappy in a hierarchy? Here’s what you can do.

Do you want to leave your job because of your bosses? Then you are not alone.  

Leaving Your Boss

According to a Gallup study, 75 percent of workers who voluntarily left their job did so because of their bosses and not the position itself.

“In spite of how good a job may be, people will quit if the reporting relationship is not healthy,” shares Brigette Hyacinth, author of The Future of Leadership.

This rings true to me because it matches the stories of disgruntled staff that I have listened to in my role as a leadership coach. Stories that expressed pain and damage in people who experienced feeling unappreciated, dominated, bullied, or used.

In our increasingly postmodern societies today, hierarchies get a bad rap. They have become unpopular among large sections of the working population today.

There seems to be a growing wave of sentiment that organizations of the future (read today) should be flat and characterized by equality.

Wrongly so, I argue.

By being tempted to create organizational flatlands everywhere, we forget that hierarchies are playing a fundamentally essential role in everything that humans are and do.

The same goes for the nature of which we are a part, from its most simple elements all the way to its most complex and valuable forms. And everything in between.

Growth and Dominator Hierarchies

What we are in danger to lose sight of is an important distinction between two types of hierarchy: growth (or actualization) hierarchies and dominator hierarchies. 

Simply put, we need to respect, join, and help advance growth hierarchies that produce ever more value (depth) with decreasing span. How does that work?

Consider that you have only one pre-frontal cortex in your brain, yet your body has countless cells and atoms. They all are needed. However, your pre-frontal cortex is arguably the most complex part of your body, controlling many of your positive thoughts and actions. You can say it’s at the top of your body’s growth hierarchy.

That growth and actualization hierarchy is critical for you and all of us to be healthy and functional human beings who can decide to live up to our potential.

On the other hand, we need to be aware of dominator hierarchies that result from certain elements in our body or people in our organizations deciding to spoil the game—throwing a spanner in the works—mainly for their own good rather than the value of the whole.

That’s where the perception of selfish and malevolent bosses comes in. 

Dominator hierarchies versus growth hierarchies. They can exist side by side and can morph into each other in both directions.

We all know the saying that power can corrupt. Just like a healthy body can encounter disorder and disease.

Experiences and Perspectives

In the stories I have heard as a coach, being part of a hierarchy can generate a whole range of experiences and feelings in individuals, all the way from pride, safety, and comfort to anger, suffering, and depression. And everything in between. 

It’s important that we make some space to look at these experiences and emotions from several perspectives, from subjective ‘I’ feelings to intersubjective ‘WE’ norms and culture, to objective ‘IT and ITS’ behaviors that can be measured, as for example reflected by the Gallup statistics.

As part of our scan of perspectives, it’s important to keep in mind that a dominator hierarchy is not just something out there that we can objectively observe. Humans are known to project on to others what we have inside of ourselves.

We all have a degree of dominator tendency in our personality profile. We all have a gorilla in us, and not just when we were two years old (during the terrible two’s). 

Future of Work

As we explore the Future of Work in the 21st century, and we see rapid changes around us, a part of that concerns how we deal with hierarchies.

For sure, we should stop thinking of hierarchies only in a linear manner, which was the paradigm of the past centuries. 

Modern approaches, such as explored by Frederic Laloux in Reinventing Organizations (2014) and Marco Robledo in 3D-Management: An Integral Business Theory (2016) describe how hierarchies manifest in dynamic and nonlinear ways in organizations and in teams within businesses, with a focus on for example purpose, contribution, roles, and accountabilities.

Let’s get back to our opening question.

Three Questions

If you want to leave your job because of your bosses, you might feel that you are a victim of a dominator hierarchy. That’s an important realization because it’s part of a bigger picture.

What you can do is to ask yourself these three questions:

First, where do you observe dominator and growth hierarchies in your workplace? 

Consider how you are affected and supported by these two kinds of hierarchies. And be open to considering what contributions you yourself make to both types of hierarchy, including possible dominator aspects you might exhibit from time to time. 

Second, what’ s the default worldview of your boss, your team, and yourself? 

Leadership always happens dynamically in a context, and people’s behaviors—including your bosses—are guided by their worldviews. And this is not limited to bosses.

Teams that struggle with their performance are often held back by clashing worldviews among team members that are projected on to individuals rather than recognized and expressed for what they are: worldviews, mindsets, ways, and different styles of behaving.

Third, what range of actions can you choose from to ‘move the needle’ in a positive direction to grow more value in your workplace, beyond your own purpose? 

Write down at least ten actions you can take.

They can start with volunteering to take on leading roles of greater responsibility. And having better conversations with your boss and colleagues.

All the way down to taking necessary action to protect your personal boundaries so that your core values are no longer compromised if that was the case.

And, as a last resort, to leave and find a workplace with a demonstrably stronger growth hierarchy.

Transformation First

The three questions above are an expression of the business philosophy we use in TransformationFirst.Asia.

Before you blame other people and the situation you’re in, take a closer look at what is really happening, and what you can do to improve the situation for yourself and others.

With that philosophy, it’s always your turn. And that’s the kind of life-changing leadership that you and your business deserve. Such transformational leadership helps to grow people, value, and results.

To make that happen, we need to nurture stronger growth hierarchies, and to practice our ability to defuse and turn around dominator hierarchies wherever we can.

Learning Leadership Together

If you like the idea of tackling hierarchy issues with these three questions, and you are not afraid to learn, share, and collaborate with peer leaders, you’re welcome to come and practice it in the Grow3Leaders community. 

Joining Grow3Leaders is free of charge, yet not free of commitment. We are looking for high achievers who want to develop skills to build stronger growth hierarchies.

If that resonates with you, it may be a good fit. Visit Grow3Leaders to request your invitation to join, to experience life-changing leadership.