What do you do when you love your job, but not your company? (And, you happen to be a leader in that company…?) Knowing how to tune a guitar may help when considering options.

Personal Dissonance

Over the years, I’ve worked with a surprising number of executives who felt painfully stuck. Most love their work, and they’re great at what they do. But the organization they originally signed up with no longer feels quite so harmonious.

These situations often emerged when a new senior executive came on the scene with a new strategic direction. Or they came about more subtly from a slow shift in the organization’s culture that reached a tipping point. Regardless of the source, the results were the same: extreme personal dissonance!

What made matters worse was that several of these leaders had built strong teams with strong sub-cultures based on the values the leader thought the organization stood for. And now they felt like a stranger in their own home. Forcing them to wonder if they should abandon ship or stay and try to help preserve what they had built.

Tuning with Dissonance

Although I’m not a virtuoso, I’ve entertained myself (and a few others) by playing acoustic guitar for over 40 years. And, from that hobby, I’ve learned some things about dissonance, both musically and organizationally.

When tuning a guitar, the musician sounds a reliable tone from a piano, a tuning fork, or another tuned string. The musician listens to the tone and then plucks the string they are tuning. Then they tighten or loosen the peg until the tone from the string matches the tone from the tuning source. When a string is consonant (in tune) with the tuning tone, it’s almost impossible to distinguish the original tone from the tuned string. But, if a string is dissonant, it produces a pulsing “wah-wah” sound. The wah-wah indicates that the two tones are close but not yet aligned. When two sounds are highly dissonant, the wah-wahs increase in frequency causing auditory discomfort for most listeners. (Nowadays, electronic tuners and tuning apps visually show the musician the dissonance they are trying to remove.)

Every member of an organization is like a string being tuned. The organization’s leaders and culture set the tone employees are asked to tune to. But, when an organizational member (a leader in this case) is experiencing significant dissonance, they ultimately have 4 options:

Four Options for Dissonance:

• Option 1: Do nothing and live in the dissonance
  • A leader’s ability to do this depends on the level of dissonance felt. If it’s relatively minor (new processes, computer systems, policies, meetings, etc.) although a nuisance, they may be endured or ignored. However, if the dissonance is more profound such as a fundamental shift in corporate values, purpose, or strategy, or a new leader has a significantly different style of leadership, then doing nothing and living in the dissonance is less of an option.
• Option 2: Tune yourself (and your team) to the new tone
  • Good leaders should not be afraid of change. They should constantly strive to, “preserve the core and stimulate progress” (see Built to Last). That means, sometimes great leaders may need to change and tune themselves to the new environment. Then, they will need to bring their team along with them. This is the “when in Rome…” approach to dissonance. But, it should only happen if a leader is genuine about their “conversion” to the new way of being. Otherwise, the team will most likely see through the facade. If the leader sacrifices too much of themself to be in harmony, then this shouldn’t be the option of choice.
• Option 3: Tune the organization so it resonates more with you
  • Leaders may have enough clout to push against the new direction or culture (or leader) and change them! However, before taking this path, a leader must objectively assess their influence and the depth of the changes that caused the dissonance. If the leader doesn’t have enough influence or the changes are too deep, they’ll find themselves fighting a losing battle. And, as they push against the prevailing tides, it is not uncommon for the rebel to suffer a martyr’s death (organizationally speaking). So, if a leader picks this option, they should proceed with caution.
• Option 4: Find a new organization to tune to
  • And, finally, the simplest option is for a leader to find a new place with less dissonance. However, this is never an easy choice. For leaders it can feel like they are giving up and abandoning the team and organization they’ve put so much of themselves into building! In some cases, they may feel like they have been protecting their team from the rest of the organization. (And, that very well may be the case.) But a leader needs to do what is ultimately best for their own long-term mental and emotional health! Living in the dissonance (option 1) or fighting the good fight (option 3), can be incredibly painful, and emotionally draining! If a leader endures this for too long, there may not be much of themselves left to take to their next role or home to their family.

Summary

All four options above are viable solutions, even option 1 in some circumstances. Every situation is different and must be determined on its own merits. But in my coaching, the four options have become a helpful nomenclature to talk about the dissonance and explore which option resonates most with the individual leader in their unique situation. Hopefully, it can do the same for you.

One final thought. According to the Gallup organization, the percentage of fully engaged workers in the US is now somewhere around 32% with 18% actively disengaged. Globally, the engaged number is even worse at 23%. And, the number who have “quietly quit”, is over 50% in the US! To me, that means an astounding percentage of workers are suffering from a sense of painful personal dissonance with their employer! 

What can leaders do to help this situation? I believe – like tuning a guitar – one answer lies in the clarity of tone a leader sets in an organization! When there is no clear tone (sense of core ideology, purpose, strategy, direction, and culture) it’s difficult for employees to decide on one of the options listed above and they flounder. I believe leaders should set a tone that the current members of the organization, as well as potential future members outside the organization, can at least react to! Then, they can more effectively choose to tune themselves to the new environment, work to fine-tune or change the organization, or find a more harmonious place in which to work.

Stu Larson is a long-term practicer-of-guitar and the president and owner of Ferron Creek, LLC, a Leadership and Organizational Development consultancy based in Salt Lake City, Utah. To learn more about organizational dissonance, and how leaders can create more consonance in their companies visit Ferroncreek.com, or contact Stu directly at [email protected].