In the early days of the pandemic, we at VIM Executive Coaching, as with many other Americans, were shocked at the stories of grocery hoarding: hand sanitizer, toilet paper, flour, beans and such. The shelves were stripped bare as the panic increased. Before long stores had to place limits on such greed. But why?
Dr. Stephanie Preston, a psychologist and professor of psychology at the University of Michigan wrote an article in March 2020 on the topic of hoarding and noted:
“But hoarding is actually a totally normal and adaptive behavior that kicks in any time there is an uneven supply of resources. Everyone hoards, even during the best of times, without even thinking about it. People like to have beans in the pantry, money in savings and chocolates hidden from the children. These are all hoards.”
The outcome of all this hoarding is that there are now countless numbers of Americans with shelves overflowing with hand sanitizers, toilet paper and cake mixes. It is a bit embarrassing. While it may be totally normal, it left many of us with an uneasy feeling about what values are important to us, and what principles have been lost?
It Got Us to Thinking
Do executives leaders hoard? Not in a supermarket sense, perhaps, but certainly in terms of management style (By the way, the profile of grocery hoarders may surprise you, but that’s a topic for another day).
Executive leaders going through change have surprisingly interesting parallels to what we observed in grocery buyers in the early stages of a lock-down. It can best be summed up in VIM Executive Coaching concerns as a “reactive panic.” We have seen this panic manifest itself in situations where companies are bring acquired or spun off, where there is no leadership or clear-cut direction or even in situations where there may be change but it is rumored rather than actual.
Quite often when this occurs, executives want to grab or “hoard” as much power as they can get or they harshly react, rather than respond to situations or they assume they’re entitled to power and all of its trappings. In fact, they will sometimes hoard as much as they can without so much as asking for help or a sounding board from their peers or those above them.
As a result, their teams often suffer or are turned off from any in-depth interaction with “the hoarder.” An obsession with grabbing control frequently leads to a lowering or lack of compassion, the disappearance of authenticity and a sense of invisibility among those supervised. There is a self-centeredness on the part of a hoarding pattern of executive behavior.
While it may be “natural” for an executive in panic to grab as much power as possible, it frequently leaves the rest of the team out in the proverbial cold. This can – and often does – lead to employee turnover. Unfortunately, the employees who leave are frequently those most valued by the organization.
Even the Ancients Knew
No leader can have it all. Emperors, Royalty and Dictators ultimately learned that their quest for power ultimately left them in isolation. While we are not suggesting that many modern-day leaders who “hoard power” in panic are dictators, we also know that real power does not emanate from accumulation, but from within; a true knowledge of self.
Those who want it all, eventually come to accept that it is far better to have it all from inside; the quiet, meditative space of mindfulness.
Hoarding may be something we do within our own framework of reference or preference in the moment, but ultimately the possessions we own, come to own and overwhelm us. True power appreciates the beauty of acceptance in that we cannot do it all, but mindfully do want we can. In the process, if we can help others, we rise above what may be natural, but we understand as being wrong.