#62 - The silent threat within!

21 May 25

Working in a large Company does have it advantages. But it also has its downsides. Flexibility and agility of action are typically the areas that spring to mind! It is well-known that it takes time and effort to try and get a super-tanker to change course.

But there are also other areas which require change, and which the workforce 'do battle' with every single day. This is the area of 'self-sabotage'.

Addressing those concerns can be the difference between someone remaining with the Company or deciding to leave, and ultimately the Company safguarding its future or withering away.  

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#62 - The silent threat within!

What?

Over the course of my career, at times I have been stunned by the level of self-sabotage that runs unchecked throughout a company. It's undoubtedly recognised by the employees, and commented on, and yet they feel unempowered to do anything about it.

The fact is that most large companies don’t get disrupted from the outside.
Rather they crumble from within.

While competition, market changes, and technical evolution do play a role, the real threat often comes from behaviours, decisions, bureaucracy and mindsets inside the organisation.

Self-sabotage is rarely dramatic. Quite often it's incremental, cultural and institutionalised.

Why?

So why does it happen?

1. Success becomes a crutch - Success breeds confidence. But in large organisations, it also often breeds complacency. When a company dominates its market, it starts to believe it always will. Leadership stops asking hard questions. Risks are avoided. Innovation slows down. Why change what’s working? Disruption doesn’t come with a warning. By the time performance lags, it's often too late to catch up.

2. Bureaucracy over agility - Growth adds structure. But structure becomes bureaucracy. Decisions require approval from layers of leadership. Risk-aversion gets mistaken for discipline. Employees spend more time navigating the system than improving it. The cost is measured in terms of speed, innovation and motivation dying in the process.

3. Short-term thinking wins - Public companies chase quarterly results. Bonuses are tied to hitting near-term metrics. Leaders are rewarded for making the spreadsheet look good even if it weakens the business long term. The result is that corners are cut on culture, talent, customer experience, or innovation for the sake of this quarter’s numbers.

4. Culture becomes resistant - In the early days, change is exciting. In mature companies, change is threatening.

   'That's not how we do things here.'
   'We tried that once.'
   'This could make someone look bad.'

   Fear of failure, risk, or rocking the boat takes over. Initiative is slowly replaced with inertia.

5. Misaligned incentives - Incentives shape behaviour. When they're misaligned, even the smartest people do the wrong things. Sales teams close deals that create chaos for delivery. Managers hoard talent instead of developing it. Executives optimise their own metrics instead of the company’s mission. The frustrating thing is that these behaviours get rewarded!

6. Customer signals are ignored - Companies say they’re customer-obsessed, but when internal priorities outweigh external needs, customers are the ones who feel it. Teams get so focused on internal politics, process, or structure that they lose touch with the people they exist to serve. If you're not listening to your customers, your customers will!

How?

Once self-sabotaging behaviour has been identified within a Company, it can seem like an overwhelming task to address it.

Where do you start? It isn't about implementing a quick fix though! It’s about fundamentally shifting how leadership thinks, behaves, and builds systems. Here’s what that looks like in practice:

1. Rebuild feedback loops from employees and customers - Silence is not alignment. When feedback stops flowing, blind spots grow.

• Internally - Leaders need to create safe, structured spaces for honest feedback especially from the front lines. Regular listening sessions, anonymous channels and surveys are just the beginning. What matters more is how the feedback is acted upon.

• Externally - Customer insight must be embedded into decision-making, not relegated to a quarterly report. Customer complaints, churn data, and social sentiment are strategic assets not noise.

Feedback should flow up, down, and across and not get filtered, sugarcoated or ignored.

2. Reward long-term thinking, not short term gains - Most self-sabotage starts with this mistake: prioritising short-term gains at the expense of long-term value.

• Shift performance reviews to include strategic contributions, team development and sustainability of results not just immediate outcomes.

• Recognise and reward patience, systems-building, and investments that won't pay off this quarter but will compound over time.

If your KPIs don't align with your mission, you're rewarding the wrong game.

3. Question your successes, before the market forces you to - Ironically, success can be a liability. When something works, we stop challenging it.

• Leaders should intentionally interrogate what's going well. What assumptions are we making? What early warning signs are we ignoring? Where are we getting lucky?

• Institutionalise 'pre-mortems' and 'red team' exercises to test your own strategies before disruption does it for you.

If you're not challenging your current playbook, it's already outdated!

4. Simplify processes to empower decision-making - Complexity kills ownership. Over-engineered processes slow everything down and create cultures of permission-seeking.

• Audit workflows and approval chains regularly. If it doesn’t reduce risk or increase value, then cut it.

• Push authority closer to where the work happens, where decisions are fastest and most informed.

Speed and clarity are competitive advantages. Bureaucracy is not.

5. Invest in leadership development - especially in the middle layers - Middle managers are the transmission belt of culture and strategy but they’re often under-supported and overwhelmed.

• Build real leadership capability: emotional intelligence, coaching skills, conflict navigation and systems thinking.

• Don’t just train them, empower them to lead, shape culture, and innovate locally.

If the middle layer breaks, everything breaks!

6. Make culture a strategic priority - Culture isn't a perk. It's the invisible force that determines whether strategy succeeds or fails.

• Treat culture like a product. Measure it. Invest in it. Design for it.

• Align culture-building with your values, leadership behaviours, rituals, and even who gets promoted.

Culture doesn’t change because you say it should. It changes when leaders behave differently...consistently!

In Summary

I hope that you enjoyed reading this newsletter and that it has given you food for thought.

Self-sabotage generally isn’t about bad intentions. It’s about good intentions layered under bad systems. Great companies don’t just scale revenue they scale clarity, culture, and courage.

How will you counter self-sabotaging behaviour within your company?

Have a great week!

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