The psychodynamic approach to leadership should be part of every leader’s tool box. This approach can add to the leader’s ability to be more effective by providing a leader with a better understanding of his or her followers.
One of the hardest things as a leader is finding a way to motivate your fellow team members to achieve a common goal. What works to motivate one team member may not motivate other members of your team. That is where the psychodynamic approach to leadership can provide a leader with tools required to successfully motivate his/her team members, by better understanding their family of origin; maturation or individuation; dependence and independence; regression and the shadow self; and archetypes (Northhouse, P. 2013). A team member that comes from the typical family where the wife stayed home and nurtured her children while the father was the bread winner will have a different outlook on life then a team member that comes from a single parent home, where the parent had filled both the nurturing and bread winning roles at the same time.
Not only does the psychodynamic approach provide a leader with ways to understand his/her team, it provides a leader a way to better understand their own personality. A leader that understands his/her own personality can be a more effective leader by making adjustments to their own short comings. If a leader has a large personal space and has difficulty allowing people into his/her personal space they may be able to address this by focusing on ways to open up their personal space and allow their team members into their personal space.
The psychodynamic approach to leadership may not be the only way to be successful as a leader. But it does provide some good tools that a leader can use to improve their abilities as a leader.
References:
Northhouse, P. (2013). Leadership: Theory and Practice (Sixth Edition). California. Sage. 2011049043. Ch. 13.
Penn State World campus, The Pennsylvania State University. (2015). Leadership in Work Settings. Retrieved 25 January 2015 from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp15/psych485/002/content/03_lesson/printlesson.html
Toni Pastorino says
I agree completely that the psychodynamic approach should be in every leader’s toolbox, especially when it comes to self-reflection. However, I don’t think this knowledge will always help a leader drive the motivation of their team. In my opinion, you are correct when you say that what drives one person does not necessarily drive another. What is not so straightforward is determining HOW the personality types of subordinates can drive motivation. This is due, in some part, to motivation being hypothetical and the fact that it cannot be directly measured (PSU WC P484 L1). Even if you attempted to measure the affect based on performance, motivation is only one portion of that equation. Some people may be very intrinsically motivated, so learning their personality types and adjusting your interaction with them may have no affect on motivation. Another subordinate might be extrinsically motivated and learning about their personality and what arouses them to action could be very effective in increasing motivation.