Walter Lippmann once said, “Where all think alike, no one thinks very much.” This can apply to many things in life, but especially so when we define leadership roles and what makes for an effective leader.
As individuals, we are all unique in our thoughts and what we choose to believe is the best response when we are in a leadership role whether it is in the workplace, our home lives or in personal activities. This carries us into what we know about Freud’s psychodynamic theories that are centered on human behavior. It is his theories that give us the thought that our tendencies come from underlying forces within us. (Northouse)This is a thought many of us have related to or given credit to at some point during our lifetime. I know I personally have looked back on instances in my childhood and placed blame on those instances for causing me grief as an adult.
Yet, I do find Freud’s psychodynamic theory on human behavior interesting when applied to leadership. I personally have been in workplace leadership roles in prior positions, and based on my personality I would never have given myself any shot to be successful in those roles. Yet, often times these personality traits can be influenced by others, how we were raised and simply by who we are as people. Often times it is these traits that define us as individuals; we can be intellectual or spontaneous or simply quiet. For me, I would agree that my personality traits were influenced by others as I gained more confidence in myself because of others having confidence in me.
However, Eric Berne also pointed out in his transactional analysis that people have three ego states; parent, adult and child. (Northouse) As people shift in and out of these ego states, it is not always an easy shift from leader to follower yet Berne’s purpose was to reinforce the idea that as individuals we each offer value in our communication (body language, tone, etc.) to others and sometimes there may be ulterior motives or messages. (Northouse) This I would again have to agree with. As having transitioned from a leadership role to more of a, well a “bottom feeder” so to speak, it is very hard to shift the ego state from leader to follower.
https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/sp16/psych485/002/content/03_lesson/14_page.html
Northouse, Peter G. Leadership: Theory and Practice 7th Edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2016