A typical dilemma
Under pressure from an investor, a company's CEO is to implement cuts at the expense of employees. He says: “Business is business, but I'm starting to do things I don't respect. At work I feel like a cynic or a fool. It's not just stress - it's about who I am becoming.”
What looks like stress or anxiety symptoms is, from a logotherapeutic perspective, above all a conflict of values: dignity, honesty and responsibility for people on one side - profit, security and the survival of the company on the other.
Two mistakes
- Moralising - the therapist or coach says what is right (“profit is immoral”). That is “not midwifery but a caesarean section”.
- Empty neutrality - “it doesn't matter what you choose, as long as it's your choice”. It disregards the conscience already at work in the client.
The logotherapist keeps a distance and respects the client's autonomy, but takes their value system seriously - and treats profit and the company's survival as real goods, not as excuses.
Three kinds of questions
| Area | Sample questions |
|---|---|
| Moral boundary | What price is acceptable and what price is unacceptable? How will you know you are straying from the path of being fair? |
| Identity | What will this decision do to your self-respect? What kind of leader do you want to be? Who will you become with each choice? |
| Agency on a micro scale | What minimum standard of honesty can be implemented even under pressure? What could be a first step? |
Summarising intervention
Template: “I hear that you are fighting for… The real cost is… What lies within your freedom is…”. It helps to name the value, acknowledge its price and point to the space for choice.
Minimum standard of dignity
Exercise: “This week my minimum standard is…” - e.g. I do not mislead the team about the reasons for decisions, I do not make changes by surprise, I do not shift costs onto the weakest without looking for alternatives.
The goal
The aim is not to find “the right solution” or to take the dilemma away from the client, but to help them pass through the conflict honestly - so that they can carry the responsibility for the direction in which they lead themselves and the company. Socrates' question: “I am not asking where you are going. I am asking where you are heading.”
Sources
V. E. Frankl, The Will to Meaning; The Doctor and the Soul; Plato, Socratic dialogues (maieutic method); E. Lukas, H. Schönfeld, Psychotherapy with Dignity.