The Shadows in the Room

Topic

Team Effectiveness

Date

October 17, 2025

Authors
Margot & Monique
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How Unspoken Dynamics Shape Team Culture

 

This is the second piece in our October series on The Shadow Side of Leadership. After exploring personal shadow, we now explore how it plays out collectively in teams.

Every team has moments when the air feels heavy. The meeting where the real issue doesn’t get named. The project where the same conflict resurfaces again and again. The silence after a leader asks for feedback. These are all signs that the team’s shadow is in the room.

Shadows in teams often look like...
  • One person becoming the “problem” everyone points to.
  • Departments retreating into silos instead of collaborating.
  • Groupthink, where people nod along rather than speak honestly.
  • Everyone waiting for the “hero” leader to step in and fix things.
  • Conflict or mistakes being quietly brushed aside.

These patterns drain energy. They don’t mean a team is broken, just that something important is staying hidden in the dark.

Practical ways to bring light to the shadow
  • Name recurring patterns: If the same issue keeps circling back, call it out. Then navigate it by asking, why does this keep happening?
  • Listen for what isn’t said: Notice who isn’t speaking, or which topics always get avoided.
  • Pay attention to the roles we take up: Is someone always the peacekeeper or the challenger? That often points to what the team isn’t addressing collectively.
  • Make space for honesty: Use check-ins, after-action reviews, or a“what we’re not saying” round to surface what usually sits in the background.

The shift happens when teams create safe ways to name what’s usually hidden.

Energy that was tied up in avoidance becomes available for trust, clearer decisions, and progress that feels lighter.

Seeing the Systemic Link

What happens in teams rarely stays in teams.

If leaders avoid conflict, it often shows up in the wider organisation as missed opportunities, unresolved issues, or a culture of politeness at the expense of progress. Naming shadows at the team level is one of the most powerful ways to shift culture system-wide.

Reflection Prompts

  • What’s the conversation your team never seems to have?
  • How does your team handle tension: avoid, push through, or work with it?
  • If your team held up a mirror, what would it show about your collective shadow?

In the final blog of this series, we’ll look at how to work with shadow in a way that strengthens, rather than undermines, leadership and culture.

Images by Daniel Boburg, Judith Schouten and Ayush Kumar on Unsplash