Surviving Work: How To Identify The Pivotal Players Contributing To Unhealthy Dynamics At Work

This fiery beast craves authority, accolades, and access. Though not necessarily possessing a formal leadership role, he employs gossip, gaslighting, manipulation, and sabotage in order to clear the opposition and climb his way to the top. Since power and recognition are the rewards he seeks, he carefully curates a persona framed by commitment and loyalty, while behind the scenes, his behaviors are conniving, unethical, and, at times, illegal. His ultimate kryptonite is the Creative, and he deploys the Shapeshifters and Community Builders to clear the competition keeping his claws clean.

Like Dragons, Shapeshifters crave influence and recognition yet lack the charisma to garner power of their own, so they search for coattails to drag them to the top. Sensing their desire and capitalizing on their vulnerabilities, Dragons create an inner circle, offering social influence and perceived prestige in exchange for following tight group norms and carrying out the Dragon’s dirty work, which often includes instigating gossip campaigns to sully the Creative’s reputation.

Community Builders, like Creatives, are often hardworking and authentically dedicated to the mission. However, their aversion to conflict and need to belong to the dominant group causes them to be willowy, bending to the whims of the crowd in order to avoid making waves. Preying on their insecurities, the Dragon offers them a space at the table in exchange for their loyalty. Therefore, when the Dragon and his Shapeshifters target a Creative, the Community Builder is expected to participate in the gossip ring and ice her out, even if the Community Builder and Creative were once good pals.

The Creatives that participated in relevant studies revealed that the Dragon wasn’t the source of their most significant pain, as they had always known he couldn’t be trusted. Instead, it was the betrayal and abandonment by the Community Builders—those they had helped, confided in, and considered friends—that inflicted the lasting wounds.

Though the character assassination and targeted attacks innate in workplace bullying often leave the Creative feeling ostracized and alone, if she is lucky, she finds a Confidant in the weeds of office life. That Confidant might be a Creative like herself, excited to take intellectual risks in an attempt to solve knotty problems, but that Confidant may also simply be an individual who is grounded in her values and steadfast in her worth, making her largely unsusceptible to the Dragon’s antics.

When the Creative comes under attack, the Confidant serves as a sounding board, validating the Creative’s experiences and sometimes steps into the role of Upstander, pushing back on the Dragon’s false narratives. The participants in relative studies shared repeatedly that the presence of just one Confidant in the workplace provided the necessary glue to retain them in the organization, as opposed to abandoning the ship in search of a better cultural fit, and, at times, even helped them to shift the cultural tide from one of small circle exclusion to big tent and big thinking belonging.

Most organizations are governed by an official hierarchy, placing a Big Figurehead at the top of the tower and multiple Little Figureheads in the surrounding departments. Figureheads are sometimes Dragons who achieved the ultimate takeover, but more often, they are “yes” people who have carefully built alliances with influential players and stealthily curated an image of care and compliance.

Such devotion to promotion leaves little time for expert work, so they utilize an inner circle to gather intel instead of spending time in the field. Therefore, it is not unusual for a Dragon to wiggle his way into the in-group where he enacts deceptive influence. In deep need of external approval, Figureheads are hesitant to offer original ideas and seldom go out on a limb for employees who are being subjected to harassment or harm, for they fear rocking the boat just might catapult them out of the captain's chair.

Leaders are unicorns, brilliant to behold yet rarely employed within organizations. Leaders are experts in the field with reputations as disruptors. Their place at the table was secured by creative inventions and measurable results. To foster a culture of diversity and intellectual risk-taking, they dismantle the hierarchy, inviting all players to speak.

For Creatives, it is invigorating to work for a person who builds belonging, fosters innovation and invites disagreement, viewing critical conversations as essential elements for new growth.

When a Leader restores civility and fair play, eliminating dysfunction, it is not unusual for the Community Builders to join the good guys as they discover the personal empowerment inherent in authentic belonging. No longer able to manipulate circumstance and sully reputations, Dragons and Shapeshifters willingly leave, are dismissed, or they change their behavior to adjust to the new culture. Figureheads follow, or they are transferred out of leadership roles, opening up a space for the Creatives to get to work.

Though in our daily relationships, it is wise to resist the labeling of others; however, when it comes to dysfunctional, and at times toxic, work cultures, the impact can be dire, resulting in significant health consequences, both physical and emotional, as well as job loss. Identifying the characteristics of common players can help us understand the plotlines of work life, anticipate what various colleagues might do next, and remind us of the importance of seeking out allies who can help us on the journey — all of which provide powerful amor for navigating challenging circumstances.

Moreover, for the Creatives, recognizing the specific people who may wish to cause them harm allows them to avoid self-blame when coming under attack and gives them a runway to anticipate potential problems. It also reminds them of the importance of crafting a circle of innovative colleagues, both within and outside of their organization, who can help them to navigate the hard parts, allowing them to feed their spirit and avoid isolation. Moreover, as their circle grows, they can work together to search out unicorns who can lead their organization in new directions or, even better, become one.