Belonging Stress Factors in Leadership
A particularly serious special aspect of relationship dynamics, in the context of leadership, which can be observed in the wish of many employees, is that the leader ought to be good, inspiring, motivating, authentic, charismatic, understanding, strong, fair and successful. Why is this so (apparently self-understood)? Many people unconsciously carry within them the desire for an ideal figure who knows and can do everything, who can care for them and who knows about them and their wishes without them having to do anything for this.
However, idealisations are one side of the dynamic. The other side is, that in every employee who has such idealisation needs, there are also impulses to push the idealised boss from the pedestal, on which they have previously unconsciously placed him. Ultimately, one only waits for an opportunity to prove to oneself and the boss what one has always known: that he is not ideal and no better than oneself. This dynamic has a stress potential which cannot be overestimated for leaders who are exposed to these unconscious images.