Day 2: The Whispering Hyena vs. The Grounded Elephant

Some people shake the room when they speak. Others never speak — yet somehow shift the energy entirely.

Welcome back to The Zoo at Work — a 30-day exploration of the creatures we become in professional spaces. Not the ones on our job descriptions, but the ones that show up in between lines and during coffee breaks.

Today, we meet two characters with very different volumes… and very different impacts.

🦝 The Whispering Hyena

You won’t find them on the agenda. They rarely speak in meetings. When asked for their input, they might smile politely and say, “No strong views.”

But give it five minutes. A hallway moment. A quiet ping. A lean-in at the end of a call.

And suddenly:
“Hey, just between us…”
“You probably didn’t notice, but…”
“I really shouldn’t be saying this, but…”

The Whispering Hyena doesn’t escalate issues publicly. They drop seeds of doubt privately. They don’t offer criticism in the open — they deliver it like a secret. They don’t build trust — they test its edges.

They’re not here to lead or disrupt. They just want to be in the know. And if they can’t be the centre of attention, they’ll settle for being the one behind the curtain, quietly pulling a few emotional strings.

The tricky part? They often seem harmless. They’re soft-spoken, approachable, sometimes even charming. But the wake they leave behind is rarely neutral.

🐘 The Grounded Elephant

Then there’s the Grounded Elephant.

They don’t jump in to speak. They wait — and when they do speak, it matters.

They don’t interrupt to correct others. They listen first, then ask the question no one else dared to. They don’t have all the answers, but they ask the kinds of questions that bring the fog down a notch.

You’ll see colleagues drift toward them during breaks:
“Can I get your thoughts on something?”
“What would you do in this case?”
“Do you think I’m overreacting?”

They’re not loud. But they’re steady. They don’t perform wisdom — they carry it, like weight.

You rarely see them taking credit. You rarely see them panic. What you do see is someone who, just by showing up calmly, helps others settle down.

Their strength doesn’t come from dominance. It comes from grounded presence — and the trust they’ve built by showing up with consistency and clarity, again and again.

🔍 The Reflection

Not all tension is loud. Some spreads quietly — a murmur, a glance, a shared sigh. Not all influence comes from titles or airtime. Sometimes, it radiates from those who make others feel more anchored, not more alarmed.

The Whispering Hyena shifts energy through suggestion and doubt. The Grounded Elephant shifts it through poise and perspective.

Both operate in silence. But only one brings peace. So ask yourself: When the room gets restless, are you stoking the storm or calming the dust?

📌 Did You Know?

Hyenas are more complex than their reputation suggests. Though often seen as sneaky or laughable, they live in highly structured, female-led clans and use a wide range of vocalisations, many designed to influence group behaviour without confrontation.

Elephants, meanwhile, are celebrated for their emotional intelligence. They comfort distressed peers, revisit the bones of their dead, and can identify over 100 individual voices — human and elephant alike. When one elephant rumbles, the others don’t just hear it — they feel it in their bones.

In teams, we all carry some of both. The question is: do we whisper for connection, or to create division?

📚 References

• Holekamp, K.E., & Strauss, E. (2008). “The Development of Social Behavior in the Spotted Hyena.” Current Directions in Psychological Science

• Bradshaw, G.A., et al. (2005). “Elephant Breakdown.” Nature

• Goleman, D. (2006). Social Intelligence: The New Science of Human Relationships

• Harvard Business Review (2019). “How to Build — and Rebuild — Trust”