The Transforming Leader

16It’s All a DreamDepth Approaches to Understanding and Withdrawing Projection

Jeremy Taylor

In Jironet and Stein’s essay, unconscious wisdom is an asset leaders tap to their advantage. However, the work of the unconscious also can distance us from reality and undermine our relationships with others. Sometimes we think we are listening, but really we are just projecting our own ideas or fears onto situations and groups. People project onto others all the time, particularly when stressed or fearful. As an example, at the University of Maryland, where I taught, two different leadership classes of executives unconsciously ascribed higher status to the second-semester class, acting this out in rather exaggerated forms, even though they had similar ...