The concept of leadership is one of the most complex topics as there are many different viewpoints in regards to what the definition of leadership is and what types of people make effective leaders. When I think of leadership, I often think of leaders being the examples to others. Whether this is in the community, politics, religion, or in business. I personally find it hard to look up to anyone and follow their lead if I find them hypocritical. While studying the psychodynamic approach to leadership, I realized that I am a strong advocate for this theory as this approach takes into consideration that individuals personality characteristics cannot simply be changed, but the key is to accept one’s own personality characteristics and understand the effect they have on followers (Northouse, pg. 321).
I am currently a salon manager, and I thought a lot about this approach when studying leadership in another course here at Penn State this past spring semester. When reading about a lot of the approaches, I would often try to exude some of the qualities in each lesson, and some came naturally, but some were more difficult. Of course the ones that were more natural made me feel like I was a true leader, but the others made me feel like some approaches were just too complex and that people could not simply be developed into leaders and change who they are. My thought process behind this is that no matter how much you “train” a person, if certain characteristics are not innate, they will come out eventually.
With that being said, the psychodynamic approach, being one of the last chapters, was like a rainbow appearing at the end of the storm. Having roots into the studies of Sigmund Freud, this approach realizes that some things are indeed just a part of who we are, and that the best way to overcome them is to face them. For instance, I can be very emotional or sensitive, so in leadership, I often find that this could hinder me or lower the respect that my subordinates have for me. I find myself often taking a “look in the mirror” so to speak and realizing that this weakness can have a negative effect on my success and that I must learn to remove my emotions and having too much of a soft spot to keep subordinate’s respect.
In conjunction with this theory and the hypocritical issues I spoke of, in the past I would sometimes find myself not finishing simple duties in the salon because I would be running late or needing to leave work to get home to my kids. I realized after studying this theory that I cannot expect my subordinates to always finish simple duties if they ever catch me doing the same. With that being said, I made just to have a “no excuses” policy for myself. With the psychodynamic approach I realized that I should take a look in the mirror, in any ways necessary, and see how my choices could affect subordinates.
Northouse, Peter G. (Ed.). (2013). Leadership: Theory and practice (6th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.