Are There Ghosts in Your Office?

While visiting my sister in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, we went on a ghost walk. I love ghost walks because they're one of the best ways to understand the history of a place.

Ghost walks aren't really about ghosts. They're about invisible stories.

Before the tour, I saw beautiful old homes, churches, narrow streets, and old buildings. Two hours later, I saw shipbuilders, families, tragedies, and resilience.

I heard Edna’s story. Her wealthy father built one of Lunenburg's grandest homes in 1888 as a wedding gift. Before the tour, it was just another beautiful old house. Afterwards, it was Edna's house. It belonged to a real person with hopes, fears, and dreams. I couldn't look at it without thinking about the young woman who once lived there and the life she lived inside those walls. The stories had always been there. I just couldn't see them.

Lunenburg was a shipbuilding town, which meant intricate woodworking was an everyday skill. Beautiful homes weren’t reserved for the wealthy. They reflected the skills of the people who built them. Once I knew that, I couldn’t unsee it.

I think about people the same way. We spend so much of our lives reacting to what we can see: the impatient colleague, the leader who seems controlling, the direct report who resists every new idea.

Every person has invisible stories. There are reasons someone always needs a plan, hates meetings, is afraid of looking foolish, or doesn’t trust easily. We don't see those stories, but they influence behaviour every single day.

Coaching often feels like a ghost walk. We make visible the invisible stories that have been shaping someone's behaviour for years. Once people can finally see those stories, they often stop being controlled by them.

One of the most important jobs of a leader is to stay curious about the parts you can't yet see. Because every person you lead or work with has invisible stories.

Most of the ghosts in organizations aren't dead people. They're old stories that still shape today's behaviour. You don't have to know someone's story. Just remember there probably is one.