Spooky, Scary and Senseless

I don’t know what your thoughts are about ghosts, but mine are challenged. It all

began when our family moved to a new house that apparently had its very own ghost.

History touted that one of the previous owners had been struck by lightning while

standing in front of the big bay window built on to the front of the house, but who knows.

What I do know is that it was a two-story cape-cod style house with sixteen stairs

leading up from the ground floor to the rooms upstairs. It didn’t help that our home set

on a lot that was five houses behind a funeral home.

As a young guy, I remember sitting on the couch in the living room downstairs,

and while sitting there I began to hear what sounded like someone walking down the

stairs. BANG! A loud sound rang out from the door at the bottom of the stairs. I was off

the couch and across the room in less than a second. Mom came from her room

thinking I broke something. Have you ever tried to explain to a parent that it wasn’t you,

that it must have been a ghost? It didn’t go well. Mom, clearly frustrated, opened the

door to the stairs, said she didn’t see anything—I thought to myself hence the term

“ghost” —and told me to quit messing around. I had been blamed and charged for

something I did not do.

Whether ghosts exist or not is really a matter of one’s personal belief concerning

ghosts, but for me, I know what I heard and what quickly moved me away from a

comfortable couch. Over the years this scenario occurred on numerous occasions,

eventually we got used to it and gave our ghost the name, George.

During my career, I realized that there were lots of “Georges” in the leadership

arena. These leaders are frightful facilitators of unrest and discontent. You would hear

them come in, wreak havoc on the team, heighten people’s fear, and disappear. Talk

about ghosting the team! For all toxic and some typical leader’s this practice becomes a

“modus operandi.” You know it is prevalent when you hear statements like, “Is he for

real” or “what just happened” or “can you believe her” or “I not sure how much longer I

can take their behavior,” just to name a few. Leader’s, listen up, this practice should

never occur in any environment, especially the workplace.

Your people need a strong leader who is stable, trustworthy, responsible, open-

minded, and gracious. Are you that kind of leader? Anything and everything less are

spooky, scary, and senseless!