Are you a Jekyll & Hyde organization?

Aug 12, 2024

With every day, and from both sides of my intelligence, the moral and the intellectual, I thus drew steadily nearer to that truth, by whose partial discovery I have been doomed to such a dreadful shipwreck: that man is not truly one, but truly two.”

- Robert Louis Stephenson

Context:

It’s been a while since my last post, as I’ve been listening and observing what seems to be going on out there. Most recently, I was reminded of a phenomenon that’s been around for some time and seems to persist regardless of the business landscape. I call it the “Jekyll and Hyde” complex.

How many times have you seen or been a part of an organization that portends one image to the public, but lives another with its internal culture? You know what I’m talking about. The ‘brand’ is presented with all the elevator pitch and positive language externally, but the staff is stressed out trying to live up to the brand promise internally. It’s a remarkably common problem at organizations of all different sizes.

And, it’s frustrating and sad to see perfectly capable people struggle with directives from leadership that are so conflicting. The crux of the issue really seems to be that very few people understand how real brand management needs to be aligned. You can say your tagline all you want, but if your team can’t live it out because your systems and processes just don’t support it, then all it really becomes is an empty aspiration.

So how does this apply to a business context?

It’s important for companies to be honest with themselves and their people. When you put your team in a place to deal with external partners, they have to be able to live out your end of the partnership. They have to understand that just telling customers what they want to hear is not good business. In fact, it’s bad business because it jams up everyone with inconsistencies that show up quite quickly. It’s also a killer for internal morale and retention efforts. You just can’t be a Jekyll & Hyde in today’s business world where people see through it very quickly.

Alignment and honesty can be achieved but:

· Leaders need to own and understand their brand promise. It’s not just words and fancy logos and tag lines. It matters.

· Employees need to ask for clarity on boundaries and expectations with the idea of better work collaboration as the goal.

Taking the time to honestly communicate with your employees can provide you with many benefits, including: improved relationships, behavior reinforcement, employee satisfaction, increased productivity and positive company culture.

Prophetic & Insightful Teachers:

People are complicated and organizations are complex. All the more reason to actively practice self-awareness on all fronts.

C.G. Jung notes, “But there is no energy unless there is a tension of opposites; hence it is necessary to discover the opposite to the attitude of the conscious mind.”
And Joseph Campbell observes, “Every act has both good and evil results. Every act in life yields pairs of opposites in its results. The best we can do is lean toward the light, toward the harmonious relationships that come from compassion with suffering, from understanding the other person.”

The Invisible Obvious:

What I’m trying to say here is, good employees are longing for authenticity and alignment and support. If you’re so focused on selling your customer message, but not invested in supporting and living it out within your own culture, it’s just not going to work.

Marketing is marketing, but relationships are relationships. You have to keep a human and humanity in the loop if you really want to thrive today. You can try to keep pitching your customer-centric lingo, but if your team can’t deliver, then good luck.

Can we pause for a moment?

We need to keep thinking about how we invest in awareness and alignment in today’s market. The speed makes it difficult, but more is not always more. “An inch think and a mile wide” is not always the answer. Let’s take the time to really invest in each other as we invest in serving our customers and our larger community.

We can keep focusing only on the outer messages…

Or, or we can actively show how practicing honest alignment leads to greater awareness, personal integration and accountability.

Invisible Obvious