Behind the Corporate Mask Is a Traumatized Leader

Behind their corporate masks business leaders suffer hurt, pain and trauma. A traumatized boss is frequently the result of a gut wrenching rightsizing or downsizing. Managers wrestle with their conscience when they suddenly sever company ties with employees. It is an act of abandonment.

Trauma is deployed and trauma travels. A leader receives marching orders from above that 212 members of the workforce must be eliminated. Such was the case at Jarling-Weber Engineering Ltd. as Senior Manger and master engineer, Max Lunger, was the anointed heavy. It was all on his head to lower the boom. On the surface, Max pretended to be the macho, fierce, despot and dictator. But behind his corporate mask Lunger was hardly a ruthless dictator - he was rather a confused, bewildered and torn pussycat. Yes, as the leadership coach I witness a few seemingly tough guys who perpetuate a charade of nastiness but crumble behind the curtain. Was Lunger ruthless enough to devour and destroy his alleged targets and come on like gangbusters - with all the bravado of a Benito Mussolini - all this in order to dismiss 212 of his beloved brothers? Clearly, Lunger was not tough enough to waltz through this dark and toxic mission. Fortunately or unfortunately, Max had a conscience and it was eating him up alive.

Lunger vacillated between feeling omnipotent and horrible. Max was bestowed this awesome power to dramatically change the lives of his engineers and staff. Some would be victims and others would live on and be identified as the "magnificent survivors." Max lost a lot of sleep over this one. During the five days immediately preceding the edict - Lunger practiced in front of the full length mirror -video-taping himself acting the role of the evil despot and destroyer. The senior manager struggled to find strength to deliver the lethal blow. But he could not sleep. He threw up profusely for three days following the poisonous proclamation. Mr. Lunger reflected back on his engineering and MBA background. His professors had never prepared him for this dark, seamy and almost demonic side of leadership. Forget about all the nonsense surrounding emotional intelligence. Max was emotionally traumatized. Lunger's internist fumbled around for a diagnosis and prescribed three different types of stomach 'n stress pills. It was in the office of his leadership coach that he first recognized that he was traumatized. In fact, following the downsizing Lunger confided in his CEO that he was "a wounded sergeant of the battlefield who was suffering from a civilian version of post traumatic stress disorder..."

Once Max Lunger officially delivered the noxious mixture of a downsizing and rightsizing message at the meeting of several thousand Jarling-Weber employees and stake holders - the shooting pains in the body and the full tilt emotional upheaval took hold. Falling far short of your classical dictator or tyrant - Max had the distinctive misfortune of feeling the pain of his 212 workers. In Max's conscience he was a demon delivering a mushroom cloud over what were soon to be his fallen angels. Two hundred and twelve fallen angels all fell face first into the hard concrete of a corporate rightsizing. A piece of Lunger went down with each of the 212 degraded faces. The engineers' expressions were even worse than Max anticipated. He understood their faces quite deeply. Mr. Lunger did not need any lessons in empathy or stepping into the shoes of his subordinates - he naturally and profusely empathized all over the place.

The dastardly words of Max Lunger unhinged and cracked his corporate mask. He was no longer the leader he pretended to be. The prime time cowboy with the big laugh took care of his engineers until he was forced to crack the whip. What remained was a traumatized shell of a man. Leadership rapidly slipped through his fingers. All the pain of his workforce was the hurt that gripped Max. Once the deadly message rolled off of Lunger's lips, the rightsizing cancer rapidly metastasized to colleagues, staff, family, community and superiors. Deleted employees were thoroughly stunned. The discarded ones felt manhandled and debilitated. The ground they once walked on had given out from below. Company reality was no longer solid and real. All was in a negative flux. Those chosen for the "big exit" were suddenly suspended in a parallel universe of despair, deceit, disappointment and rage. Exaggerated feelings were rampant. Staff, line workers and engineers acknowledged their dismissals with disbelief. Why did some get the ax and others get to stay on? Lunger felt as if he was suffering through internal bleeding and emotional disengagement. But he said little or nothing. Moreover, the fact that some companies like Jarling-Weber had the audacity to call it a "rightsizing" only made it worse for those singled out. Trauma set in. But the traumatic condition was not limited to employees. There was enough trauma to go around and it enveloped all the players. Bosses do not escape from the wrath of destruction and emotional disarray. Screams, cries, moans, tirades, threats and vendettas are commonplace. The Jarling-Weber implosion had a mind of its own. Collective pain cries out with a mandate for vindication. Who would the workers retaliate against? Had the trauma that Lunger was feeling further fueled the pain of the engineers and staff? It was a guessing game. But there was no guessing about the damage done. The carnage was everywhere. Clever semantics could not whitewash the trauma experienced.

Yes, leaders like Max Lunger are haunted by a devastated workforce who finds that their dreams, careers and families are abruptly thrown into turmoil. The fact that the boss may only be carrying out marching orders doesn't change the fact that he is right in the middle of the damage inflicted. Moreover, the boss delivering the blow becomes one big, fat target. Frustration, anger and retaliation were all directed toward Max Lunger.

I served as a consultant to Jarling-Weber and as a personalized leadership coach and therapist to the struggling and traumatized Max Lunger. At the risk of sounding a bit inflammatory - I can assure you that the agony experienced by Lunger and his workforce was not unique. Downsizings and rightsizings are a form of separation and divorce. Much as husbands, wives and significant others in part derive their earthly identities and rhyme and reason for existence from a spouse and family - so do corporate citizens find their lives deeply embedded, entangled and even defined by their company culture. When that culture is abruptly blown to smithereens - what can we expect? Nothing terribly constructive or civilized should be anticipated. Assuming that this severing is madly, truly, deeply disturbing - is there any way to lighten, alleviate or redirect the blow of a mass dismissal - so that it is not sooooo deadly? And is there any means of preparing not-so-thick-skinned-managers (the majority) for delivering dreadful news to hundreds of professionals?

The answers to these questions have plagued those companies and CEOs who are doomed to allow their heart into the mix. Leaders with heart are emotional live wires. Max Lunger confessed to me behind the scenes that he was not a downsizing shark, a closer or a destroyer. He was a feeling leader who dreaded the day when he would have to do the dirty work on behalf of his president and executive board. Corporate masks are fairly superficial and flimsy objects that crack when subjected to the heat of the dark side of the human condition. Even the survivors of the Jarling-Weber melt down were shell shocked. The post-downsizing company was in deep trouble. Max Lunger had nowhere to run to and nowhere to hide. Those who survived the deep cuts were spooked, fearful and thoroughly paranoid that they would be next - they too would soon be singled out for a dismissal. Who could they trust? They were quite certain that they could not trust their traumatized mess of a leader, Mr. Max Lunger - a secretly bleeding heart wearing the mask of the corporate downsizing shark.

Goldman is the author of Transforming Toxic Leaders (Stanford University Press, 2009)