The metaphors you don't know you're using

We think through metaphors. They are the invisible scaffolding of how you operate. (See what I did there?)

The thing about scaffolding, like wallpaper, is that you stop noticing it. It just becomes part of ... what is. And that can be a problem, when it’s limiting you in ways you might not be aware of.

Consider a few common ones...

• Organisation as a machine: parts, efficiency, breakdowns, maintenance

• Team as family: loyalty, belonging, obligation, and possibly the kind of holiday party dynamics that are... sub-optimal

• The career as a ladder: upward only, zero-sum, and if you're not climbing you're falling

• Competition as war

• Change as a journey

• Work as a marathon (with a collapse at the end?)

None of these are wrong, per se. It’s just that none of them are complete. And the incompleteness is where the trouble lives.

The machine metaphor makes you optimise for efficiency but resistant to adaptation. The family metaphor makes you prize loyalty but makes it harder to address poor performance. The ladder metaphor makes you equate progress with promotion and leaves you stranded when the only meaningful move is lateral or diagonal. Which, inconveniently, is the case for so many of the most meaningful moves.

The metaphor you don't know you're using is the one controlling your options. It determines what you notice, what you ignore, and what you consider possible. A leader who thinks in terms of battle will see adversaries; a leader who thinks in terms of an orchestra would see sections needing to attune to each other. Same situation, different metaphor, different outcome.

In coaching, I’ll often notice a client’s metaphors around a problem and invite them to consider a new one for whatever the situation might be. It’s amazing how often this frees up their thinking and helps them get to a solution so much faster.

Start noticing your language when a problem feels stuck. Are you thinking about fixing, fighting, climbing, surviving, building? Each verb carries a metaphor, and each metaphor carries a boundary around what you can imagine doing next.

Then challenge it. If you have been thinking about the problem as a breakdown to repair, what happens if you reframe it as a design issue? If you have been framing it as a battle to win, what changes if you treat it as a dance to choreograph?

The shift is not about finding the “right” metaphor. There is no right metaphor. Just... notice what happens when you play with swapping them around.

Stop letting invisible scaffolding hold you back. If you're ready to challenge the mental models shaping your leadership and unlock new ways of thinking, let's connect.

Until next week,

Madeleine

I help accomplished professionals untangle difficult career questions so they can thrive in work and life.

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