What’s Your Leadership Shadow?
Inclusive leadership starts with a simple truth: leaders cast a shadow.
And shadows, by nature, can be bigger than the person who casts them. That means your influence as a leader extends far beyond your conscious intentions. It shows up in team dynamics, cultural norms, and whether people feel safe, included, and valued.
We use the concept of a leadership shadow in our work coaching leaders to role model inclusion.
First coined by Goldman Sachs to describe the impact leadership makes. We take it further and draw on shadow work in Jungian psychology and help leaders examine their shadows and gain deep insight and self-awareness into their own biases and preferences.
Understanding your leadership shadow enables you to reflect on the culture you create through your own words, actions and decisions.
How does it work?
There are four elements of your Leadership Shadow:
What you say
What you do
What you prioritise
What you measure
Together, these shape how others behave around you. An example: if you are determined to create a ‘speak up’ culture, where it becomes normal to respectfully flag when someone’s language or behaviour makes others feel uncomfortable or diminished. What are you saying to your teams to encourage speaking up? How often are saying it? Are you doing the speaking up that you are expecting of others?
Research in Harvard Business Review (HBR) suggests that up to 70% of how included and psychologically safe employees feel, can be traced back to the words and actions of their leaders. That’s your shadow at work.
For example, when a leader consistently models curiosity, openness, and respect - when they publicly recognise inclusive actions, ask for feedback, and act on it - they cast a shadow that encourages others to do the same.
In contrast, when poor behaviour goes unchallenged, or when diversity is sidelined as a ‘nice to have’, it creates space for exclusion to take hold.
Perhaps most importantly, your shadow has a profound effect on psychological safety. This term popularised by Amy Edmondson describes environments where people feel comfortable speaking up without fear of judgment or blame. That doesn’t mean always agreeing. It means fostering a culture where different voices are genuinely welcomed, and mistakes are treated as learning opportunities, not liabilities.
Ask yourself:
Do I talk openly about the culture I want to create?
Do I ask for feedback on how I show up as a leader?
Do I celebrate inclusive behaviour and challenge what undermines it?
Whether you realise it or not, you are always casting a shadow.
The question is: What kind of shadow do you want it to be?
Sources
MEDA Agency. (2023). What is Leadership Shadow? By Goldman Sachs [LinkedIn post].
Bourke, J. & Titus, A. (March 6, 2020). The Key to Inclusive Leadership. Harvard Business Review.
Edmondson, A.C. (2018). The Fearless Organization: Creating Psychological Safety in the Workplace for Learning, Innovation, and Growth.
Deborah L. Rowland – Still Moving: How to Lead Mindful Change
