You hire someone excellent.
The kind of person who lifts the standard the moment they arrive.
They see what needs to change and they start moving the work in the right direction.
Then it starts.
A comment.
A hesitation.
A small complaint that doesn’t match what you’re seeing.
Someone “not sure they’re the right fit”.
Someone “having trouble with their style”.
In Australia, some people call this white anting. White ants are more commonly known as termites: pests that gradually erode a structure from within before anyone realises what is happening. But naming it doesn’t solve the harder problem here, which is working out what’s really going on. The term doesn’t capture the complexity.
And you feel it too.
Not confusion exactly. Something more uncomfortable.
The responsibility of working out what’s actually happening.
Who’s right?
Is this a performance issue?
Or is it resistance to change?
Do you back your new hire?
Do you slow down and listen?
How do you tell the difference?
If you reach a point where you’re clear this is happening, what to do next is a different question. I’ve written about that here.
No one prepares leaders for this part.
The person being undermined feels their footing go.
The leader asked to intervene feels the weight of the decision.
It is deeply unpleasant to navigate.
And it happens more often than we’d like to admit.
The patterns I see most often
I’ve seen variations of these so many times.
Someone brought in to raise the standard.
Their direct reports object.
They escalate upward.
The boss feels responsible, tries to help and starts meddling; often making things worse.
Or an experienced operator is hired under a less skilled leader.
The boss realises the newcomer knows more than they do.
Instead of learning from them, they sideline them.
The newcomer walks into meetings to find decisions already made.
They’re now excluded from work they were hired to improve.
Or someone threatens the status quo simply by being competent.
A peer feels exposed.
Small doubts are seeded in the right ears.
The boss listens to the wrong voice and the capable person is slowly erased.
These stories look different on the surface.
Underneath, they reflect the same dynamic:
What being undermined at work looks like in practice
Undermining rarely begins with overt behaviour.
It starts in the moments people often ignore:
- Information that doesn’t reach the right person.
- Decisions made one layer down.
- People stepping around a leader they don’t want to adjust to.
- A tone that hardens.
- A colleague who used to be open now creating distance.
- The feeling of being “out of the loop” without explanation.
If you’re the one being undermined, it’s destabilising.
If you’re the one responsible for resolving it, it’s confronting.
Either way, it shows up in the experience before anyone names it.
Why your best people are undermined
There is no single cause.
But in practice, undermining often appears when:
- Someone asks for more than what people are used to.
- Authority shifts and someone feels they’re losing influence.
- A leader exposes gaps in how work has been done.
- People are asked to step up in ways they don’t feel ready for.
- A boss feels exposed and protects themselves rather than the work.
- A long-avoided issue lands on someone new.
The individual may not be the true source.
Their presence or expectations may be bringing something longstanding to the surface.
What makes this so difficult for leaders
Leaders often underestimate how much judgement this situation demands.
You’re not choosing between right and wrong.
You’re choosing between competing versions of the truth.
You’re deciding whether a complaint is legitimate or a reaction to higher standards.
You’re deciding whether resistance is about the person or about what the person represents.
You’re deciding whether to intervene or to hold the line.
And you know the consequences will land on someone.
This is why undermining is not a small issue.
I work with both sides of this dynamic.
The person being undermined, who needs to stay grounded while their footing shifts.
And the leader trying to work it out.
Whether a concern reflects real behaviour or resistance to change.
How to protect the work without making it worse.
Getting this wrong costs more than people realise.
You lose someone you invested in recruiting.
Your team learns that resistance works better than adaptation.
Your ability to integrate talent and hold standards becomes questionable.
That reputation is hard to recover.
Getting it right comes down to how well you read what the system is showing you.
Seeing what the behaviour means.
Acting before the damage becomes structural.
What happens if no one addresses it
If undermining isn’t named or interrupted, it grows.
People adapt around it.
Information becomes selective.
Work slows.
Capability retreats.
Decision-making narrows.
Talent leaves.
Left long enough, it escalates into more overt harm.
Bullying.
Exclusion.
Mobbing.
I’ve seen people develop serious psychological injury from prolonged undermining, including trauma symptoms.
What it tells you
The question is larger than “who’s at fault?”
The more useful question is:
It might be showing you:
- Expectations that haven’t been held.
- Authority that hasn’t been supported.
- Loyalty sitting in the wrong place.
- A leader out of their depth.
- Conversations that have been avoided.
- Decisions that need proper ownership.
Undermining looks personal, but it reveals exactly where attention is needed.
Recognising it is part of leadership.
Acting on it is what strengthens the organisation.
If you’re responsible for working out whether concerns about a capable person reflect a genuine behaviour problem or resistance to what they were hired to change, you can book a conversation with me here.
Image by interpolsk from Pixabay.
