Taboos are issues or ideas which are too painful, embarrassing, threatening or complicated to talk about openly. Webster’s Dictionary defines a taboo as, “a sacred prohibition put upon certain people, things, or acts which makes them untouchable…” In daily life, taboos are emotional hot-buttons, something we may be attracted to privately, but ashamed of publicly. As social beings, we go to great psychological lengths to avoid talking about them openly. Rather than deal with their reality, we prefer to talk about the mask hiding their reality. In that sense, taboos produce myths as much as euphemisms – glamorized falsehoods or false pictures which have the air of truth but none of the substance, the pithiness of wisdom but none of the depth.
How does this impact organizations?
Organizations have cultural taboos. Some have an unwritten, unspoken taboo against leaving work early. Whether your tasks for the day are long-finished or too difficult to complete without a good night’s rest, the people in such organizations will plug away, and stay chained to their desks until well past quitting time because it would “look bad” if they got up to leave. Some organizations have a taboo against challenging-up – in meetings you know better than to contradict the boss. Some organizations are okay with office romances or after-hours drinking, at other organizations these actions are social violations and cause for dismissal. One Midwestern organization prohibited their employees from smoking not only inside the workplace but even inside their own homes!
Time and again, we see employees and leaders caught up – unwittingly – in a cultural taboo. If this becomes public, it can hit the organization’s brand. If takes down a top executive or the CEO, the hit to the bottom line and the organization’s strategy can set it back years. Ask Boeing or Tyco what personal conduct taboos can do to the organization. Compare that to Southwest Airlines which makes light of Herb Kelleher’s famous penchant for enjoying a bourbon during the day. A toxic taboo in one organization can be completely powerless in another.
Anthony Smith is Co-Founder and a Managing Director of Leadership Research Institute and author ofThe Taboos of Leadership: 10 Secrets No One Will Tell You about Leaders and What They Really Think (Jossey-Bass, May 2007). His forthcoming book is ESPN: The Company (Jossey-Bass, September 2009). This article originally appeared in different form in his book, The Taboos of Leadership.
