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Signs Your Cult-ure Drifted Into Cult-like, with Candice Schutter
Emotional intelligence is supposed to make workplaces better. But what if it might also teach people to tolerate what should be intolerable?
Candice Schutter spent two decades inside the wellness industry, leading programs, training instructors, building cultures of care, until her body started screaming that something was wrong through panic attacks and a nervous system in overdrive. She started digging into cult dynamics, coercive control, and the psychology of mission-driven organizations. What she found changed everything.
In this conversation with Dr. Mira Brancu, Candice breaks down what she calls "the drift," the slow, invisible process by which caring cultures slide into high-control environments. You will learn when wellness programs can train people to tolerate dysfunction, why high emotional intelligence can suggest greater ability to manipulate, and what the dark side of transformational leadership looks like from the inside.
If you have ever felt a disconnect between the language of psychological safety and the reality of structural control at your workplace, this episode will give you the frameworks to name what you have been feeling.
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Find our guest here:
https://thedeeperpulse.com/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/candiceschutter/
https://www.facebook.com/candice.schutter
https://www.instagram.com/candiceschutter/
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Learn more about my services: www.gotowerscope.com
Get practical workplace politics tips from my books: gotowerscope.com/books
Episodes and other resources referenced:
How to Speak Up When it Matters Most, with Ira Chaleff: https://youtu.be/_sUAHNUw6N0
Timestamps:
00:00 - The potential drift in mission-driven cultures
01:36 - The concept of “The Drift”
07:56 - Early warning signs in leadership culture
13:19 - "They paid for my therapy. It felt like love."
17:13 - How emotional intelligence can make manipulation worse (GOLDEN NUGGET)
29:25 - "I was love bombing my own followers"
33:57 - Triple isolation: how belonging becomes a cage (GOLDEN NUGGET)
48:48 - What genuinely healthy culture actually looks like
58:40 - The dark side of transformational leadership
#business #thehardskills #drmirabrancu
