These are my children picking strawberries on a Maryland farm last summer. An hours’ drive from the hustle and bustle of DC’s traffic, we had entered a new land, one of peace and tranquility. Pulling up to Larriland Farms, they could hardly wait to grab their “flat” and commence the picking. In the city, I had to keep them within arms length, but somehow they knew it was time to run free. After about 30 minutes, the heat must have been getting to my youngest son when he looked at me and said “Dad, can I eat a strawberry?” “Of course”, I quickly replied, thinking nothing of the transaction that just took place. This innocent question, as simple as it was, is exactly how we learn about the world around us. It’s exactly how we test our limitations. It’s exactly how we grow into the individual we’ll become.
We’re all born with a specific upper and lower limit to our cognitive abilities. Given our biological limitations, our environment begins to mold and shape us from a very early age. What happens next is up to our teachers. We can’t all have the greatest of these teachers but it’s important that we take what were given, understand the world around us, understand others, and most importantly, understand ourselves.
Particularly in the early years of childhood, our primary caregivers create deep-seated feelings about leadership (Northouse, 2013). If you think about it, we’re all created scientists, constantly poking and prodding the world around us. Even in the womb, we’re touching, feeling, listening, thinking. Fast-forward to toddler age and we can’t wait to find out what will happen if we bang the wooden spoon on mom’s pots and pans. Hey look at that, they made different sounds! Her reactions allow us to test both our physical, and social environments. No shampoo should stay in the bottle if you don’t know what will happen after squirting it all into the tub. No puddle should be passed if you’re unsure about mud. Its our caregivers’ reactions, guidance, and interactions with others that form our world outlook and ultimately our personality. We take the bad with the good and learn about leadership at a very young age. Learning from our experiences, we form our world outlook; hence, our personalities are born.
Common knowledge suggests that personalities vary; this is backed and further explained by theory. Psycho-dynamic theory is a descriptive theory that attempts to explain phenomena the way they are, and does not seek to change or prescribe leader qualities (PSU, 2015). This theory relies heavily on the work of Carl Jung, among many others. This scholar in particular however, believed that personality types should be assessed and explained in four dimensions each placed along its own separate spectrum: origin of energy, information gathering process, decision making process, and planning and organization tendencies (Northouse, 2013). Individuals can be categorized in the first dimension as either extraverted or introverted. Extremely extraverted individuals are energized by highly social environments, while extremely introverted individuals prefer solitude. In the second dimension, individuals can be explained as sensing or intuiting gatherers of information. Strong sensors understand their environment through analysis of concrete evidence, while intuitors are more theoretical and openly accept abstract ideas. In the third dimension, individuals are explained as making decisions as either thinkers or feelers. Those strong in thinking tendency make decisions based on reason, while feelers come to their conclusions by taking into account the thoughts and perceptions of others. In the final dimension, individual planning and organization processes are explained as either judging or perceiving. Judgers tend to be extremely structured, often utilizing checklists or other means of organization while percievers tend to go with the flow, often “winging it” and are open to a change of plans at a moments notice. These four dimensions allow each individual to be placed in a specific category within 16 personality types. Leadership ability exists within each of these 16 types; however, effective leadership requires self awareness on the part of the leader (Northouse, 2013).
If you’ve never tested your personality with the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), which places you in one of Jung’s 16 categories, I highly suggest that you do. You can find a free version that discusses your personality type here: http://www.humanmetrics.com/cgi-win/jtypes2.asp. This will take about 10 minutes and your result description will more than likely surprise you in its accuracy!
The psycho-dynamic approach to leadership recognizes the great importance of personality and how it affects thought processes, cognition, and interactions with others. In a nutshell, it suggests that our leadership ability is affected by our psychological development. While it doesn’t prescribe a means to achieve a superior personality, it does lend us the fact that childhood experiences can have long lasting implications on our adult abilities. In addition, it suggests that we can gain a complete understanding of our own and others’ biases and tendencies. By understanding ourselves and the diverse personalities of our colleagues, followers, and leaders, we can boost ourselves to our leadership upper limits.
There’s no greater gift you can give to the world than ensuring the next generation reaches their maximum potential. They are our next thinkers, innovators, and leaders. They’ll solve problems that we can merely speculate on today. Although one farm-raised strawberry probably won’t spark a future innovative leader, a childhood of strawberry moments may!
References:
Northouse, Peter G. (2013). Leadership Theory and Practice. 6th ed. Thousand Oaks,California: Sage Publications Inc.
Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2015, January). PSYCH 485 Module 3: Psychodynamic Approach.