Dismantling Hidden Taxes on Leadership 🛠️

The Silence Tax: Is your leadership team paying it?

In my forty years of navigating high-stakes environments—from the front lines of the Canadian Armed Forces to the governance boardrooms of regulated Colleges—I have observed one constant: The most expensive problems in an organization are the ones nobody is talking about.

We often blame “culture” or a “lack of psychological safety” for organizational drift. But as I’ve explored in my recent writing this month, these are often just symptoms of a deeper, more systemic issue: The Cost of Silence.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve broken down the three pillars of this challenge:

1. Silence is a Choice, Not a Condition: At the senior level, waiting for a “safe space” to speak is an abdication of duty. Leadership isn’t about being comfortable; it’s about the courage to kill back-channel gossip and model the transparency the organization requires.
2. The $1,600 Per-Employee Tax: “Quiet toxicity” isn’t just a morale killer; it has a line-item cost. When leaders favour silence over clarity, the result is lost productivity, mental health absences, and the quiet exit of your highest-performing talent.
3. Benevolence as a Force Multiplier: Trust is built on competence and reliability, but it is sustained by benevolence. If your team doesn’t believe you have their best interests at heart, they will never give you the truth you need to govern effectively.

The question is: Are you leading your culture, or is your culture leading you?

Strategic planning and governance reviews aren’t just about documents and bylaws; they are about opening the valves of communication that have been choked by silence.

If you suspect your leadership team is operating in silos, or if the “real” meetings are happening in the hallways rather than the boardroom, it’s time to stop paying the silence tax.

I am currently booking strategic reviews and executive coaching sessions for the coming quarter.

I invite you to a 30-minute “No-Nonsense” consultation. We won’t talk in buzzwords. We will talk about the specific bottlenecks in your leadership team and how to build a culture of benevolence and high-stakes accountability.

Book a Consultation with Steve

Let’s get your team talking about what matters most.