Leadership

PSYCH 485 blog

The Importance of the Motivation of Behavior

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Our past experiences and beliefs influence the way that we see the world. To be a good leader, or even an informed citizen, it is important to be able to recognize where our own beliefs come from as well as the origins of the beliefs of others. Too often, beliefs are characterized in terms of being good or bad. In reality, it is almost never that simple.

Our textbook, Leadership; Theory and Practice, by Peter Northouse, talks about the importance of understanding the basis of beliefs in the section on the psychodynamic approach to leadership. As stated in the first of the four basic premises of the clinical paradigm for psychodynamic analysis, “there is a rationale behind every human act” (Northouse, 2016, p. 296). Where that rationale comes from is often more complicated than what it seems on the surface. According to the psychodynamic approach, all people have past experiences that form the undercurrents of motivations and desires that drive their actions (Northouse, 2016).  For a leader to be effective, they need to attempt to understand those undercurrents and reasons in themselves and their subordinates (Northouse, 2016).

This is a skill that expands beyond direct organizational leadership into the world today. America is very polarized politically right now and people have very strong feelings on one side or the other. It makes sense and is natural that this is the case, as the issues being debated and acted on are very important to a lot of people. However, to understand the beliefs of others, we have to understand the undercurrent of motives and desires that drive their behavior (Ted, 2008). In a Ted Talk by Jonathan Haidt, a moral psychologist at NYU, he describes what his research has determined to be the 5 moral foundations of humanity. His research has determined these 5 factors (Ted, 2008):

  1. Harm/Care
  2. Fairness/Reciprocity
  3. In-group/loyalty
  4. Authority/Respect
  5. Purity/Sanctity

Liberals and conservatives value these different morals differently (Ted, 2008). However, in both cases, these morals drive their behavior and beliefs. In a gross oversimplification of his research, he has determined that liberals and conservatives both have something to contribute to politics, as they represent a balance between the forces of change and stability (Ted, 2008).

Recognizing that people with different beliefs from us have something to contribute doesn’t come naturally to us. Our minds were designed by evolution to unite us in teams, divide and isolate us against other teams and blind us to the truth (Ted, 2008). These factors made groups stronger and, due to this, more likely to survive. However, in leadership as well as in social situations, we need to fight these urges and make an effort to understand each other. Only after one makes an effort to understand the basis of other’s beliefs will they be able to be an effective leader or a well-rounded public citizen.

“Your enemy is never a villain in his own eyes. Keep this in mind; it may offer a way to make him your friend.” – Robert A. Heinlein

 

References

Northouse, P. G. (2016). Leadership; Theory and Practice. Sage Publications.

TED. (2008, September 18). Jonathan Haidt: The moral roots of liberals and conservatives [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs41JrnGaxc

Psychodynamic Friendship

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In this blog I am going to describe my friend Kyle and I’s leadership style using the psychodynamic theory and use transactional analysis to talk about how we have interacted and stayed friends for years. Kyle and I are very different kinds of leaders and we work well together by helping each other work on our leadership type.

First we’ll examine Kyle’s leadership style with the psychodynamic approach. The psychodynamic approach focuses on unconscious, learned emotional responses. This psychological development produces one’s personality type and therefore their leadership (PSU WC, L3, 2019).  First I’ll start by examining Kyle’s family situation. The psychodynamic approach says that our experiences with our family often guide how we act, or as stated by Northouse (2016), “Much of what we do whether we want to admit it or not, is guided by deep-seated experiences and patterns that are first mapped out in early infancy, through our experiences with early caregivers” (Northouse, 2016, p.324). Kyle is an intelligent person who acts with a lot of authority. He is always trying to be in charge and thinks his ideas are better than others. This probably stems from his parents. His dad is a police officer and his mom is a college professor in physics. While Kyle is this way, he also has a softer side which I believe extends from the love his family shows each other which I have seen since we were quite young.

I would say Kyle is a warrior archetype. I believe this because he is very competitive and often tries to impose his will on others. Also, because he often represses his shadow self because he wants to be seen as confident and in charge (PSU WC, L3, 2019). Kyle’s shadow self I believe is his inability to let others make decisions or have anything important to say. At first Kyle never noticed this about himself but I was there to help him see his shadow self which is important because from that he was able to react to it (PSU WC, L3, 2019). I on the other hand, see myself as the magician archetype. I am often willing to change to achieve team goals (PSU WC, L3, 2019). so I am always trying to get Kyle to understand that we can’t always agree with his ideas and sometimes he has to let other people make decisions.

In our relationship, I would say we are both leader and follower to each other. Through transactional analysis me and Kyle have been able to change each other’s feelings attitudes, behaviors and develop each other in different ways (PSU WC, L3, 2019). I would often get annoyed with Kyle and have talks with him about how he can’t always be trying to impose his will onto others. Kyle would also have talks with me about being too compliant with things and not needing to get my way. In a way, we were having interventions like the one discussed in Northouse (2016) which stated that “the best intervention is a holistic one, which adopts both a structural and a psychodynamic lens” (p. 308). Through these interventions and knowing each other so long, we were able to point out each other’s ego states, or way of acting and out behavior patterns, and help each other to make our ego states more fluid (Northouse, 2016).

 

References:

 

Northouse, P.G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and practice(7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). PSYCH 485 Lesson 3: Introduction to Psychodynamic Approach. Retrieved from https://courses.worldcampus.psu.edu/canvas/fa19/21981–15196/content/03_lesson/printlesson.html

Psychodynamic approach and managing

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The recent lesson on the psychodynamic approach to leadership was particularly interesting to me. I am a psychology major so I am familiar with psychodynamics, but it was nice to see it applied towards leadership in a way that I have not learned about before. The approach also plays into my current life quite well actually.

I just recently got promoted to manager of a store in my company, and while I could not be happier I am also a bit nervous. Not about running my store smoothly, or doing the paperwork and logistics of everything, but I am nervous about coming into the store and knowing none of the people I will be in charge of. I am a relatively chill boss (I was assistant before hand), so long as everything is done the way it is meant to be done we can still have fun at work. Going into this new store I am going to have to connect with my staff on a new level that I have never done before, this is where I believe the psychodynamic approach will actually help me a great deal.

The psychodynamic approach will be great for my role as leader of the store because it is a small staff and I will be working closely with all of them at some point or time. The psychodynamic approach focuses on the dynamics of human behavior and emphasizes the interpersonal connection between leader and follower (Northouse). I am going to be able to connect with each of my staff on a personal level, I will be able to learn their ticks, what they excel at, and what their future plans are for their career. This will help my store to grow stronger.

In the lesson several weaknesses of this approach were mentioned, the first one being that the approach was based on people who had more mental issues as opposed to ‘everyday’ people (PSU WC, 2019, L3, pg 10). I don’t think this will present itself as issue in my scenario because while none of my employees have serious problems, I will want to know more about them other than just the top layer. I am going to want to know even the smallest of personal issues incase it were to affect the operations of the store. It is also mentioned that the approach is too broad, and does not take into account other situational factors, making it a very hard approach to implement (PSU WC, 2019, L3, pg 10). I can see how this would be a problem, especially the higher up you were to go in a company, just because of the sheer number of followers there would be. Considering how small my staff is though, and how often we will be together, I do not think this will come up as an issue.

Given all the information above, I think the psychodynamic approach is going to be the best way to lead my store. There could be some flaws in the system, and I will still have to learn a lot and tweak it to make it my own, but the approach itself is a good starting block.

 

Northouse, P. (2016). Emotional Intelligence. In P. Northouse, Leadership: Theory and Practice (p. 295-323). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, Inc

 

Pennsylvania State University World Campus (2019). PSYCH 485 Lesson 3: Psychodynamic Approach. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1972967/modules/items/25704854

Psychodynamic Approach

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Humans are naturally complicated and unique to one another. What influences and drives a person to do or think something may differ greatly from the next person. It is these facts that are at the heart of the Psychodynamic Approach to leadership. The Psychodynamic Approach to leadership focuses on the dynamics of human behavior, and the idea that if we study what affects a person’s behavior, we can understand how he or she functions and why they react or act in certain ways, and in turn use that information to be better leaders and followers. It is rooted in the ideas of traditional psychoanalysis and the studies of Freud. The Psychodynamic Approach is important to leadership in the workplace for two reasons. One, if a leader is successfully introspective and knows their characteristics and inner drivers, they will be in tune to their emotional responses and can guide their actions towards their team accordingly and potentially more successfully. Additionally, if they are more aware of their followers’ emotional reactions and pattern responses, they may be able to tailor their leadership style towards their followers and better guide them toward goal attainment.

Here are some basic ideas behind the Psychodynamic approach:

  • We are all a result of our past experiences. Our personalities are developed through our experiences, in particular, shaped throughout the early stages of our lives. These early experiences help to create our response patterns to others and contribute to the creation of different relationship themes.
  • There is an explanation behind every one of our actions. Even if our actions aren’t rational, a rational and logical explanation behind the actions exists.
  • Many of our feelings, fears, motives, lie in our subconscious. We aren’t always consciously aware of the things that drive our personality and actions, but they do have a major effect on our reactions and relationships.
  • How we regulate and express our emotions is central to who we are (Northouse 297). Our emotions guide how we feel about different experiences, and how we mentally file them away.
  • Everyone is different, has a unique personality, and has different motivational drivers.

It is important and prudent for anyone to be aware of what has shaped their personality and emotional responses over time understand or at least recognize his or her nuances. If we understand some of these things about ourselves, we can recognize when our negative reactions start to emerge and hopefully mitigate them. For example, over time I have come to realize that I am quick to become self-defensive when a mistake or oversight I have made is brought to my attention, especially by a superior. While I can’t exactly pinpoint this behavior towards an early experience in my life (even though many psychologists who subscribe to the old-school psychoanalytical theories of Freud would certainly point out that there must be something deep in the depths of my upbringing), I can now recognize this behavior. Ever since I realized this pattern of reaction, I have been able to develop a better emotional response to being reprimanded or reminded of something. I am able to tell myself that the mistake is not a big deal, and it is fixable, which causes me to react more appropriately without a defensive chip on my shoulder. Being able to do this makes me a better follower and a better teammate to my leader. I am more approachable, and better able to meet our team’s goals, which in turn is a success for my supervisor.

My current supervisor is Jean. She does a very good job at recognizing the individual personalities and motivational patterns of her team members. She supervises nine people, and tailors her approaches to each of us to accomplish the tasks at hand. We work for a state government office, in particular an assistance office, or what many would call “welfare.” We are responsible for evaluating people’s eligibility for benefits, processing applications, renewing benefits, acting on changes, and more. It is a complex job that has many different aspects and deadlines that are imperative to be met. If deadlines aren’t met or mistakes are made, our state government could lose funding for certain programs. Needless to say, it can be a stressful job and as we know, everyone reacts differently to stress. Jean has to make sure that her team is meeting their deadlines, and processing cases correctly.

Luckily, Jean seems to recognize the basic factors of the Psychodynamic Approach. She recognizes our individual personalities and seems to be able to guide each of us slightly differently to get the job done. One team member, Kevin, is very defensive when it comes to being told pretty much anything, often blows certain things out of proportion, and has a temper. Jean has adapted to this over the last few years. It is apparent that she has changed her tone of voice and her choice of words when instructing him on what to do next or what needs to be done. Since she has done that, the defensiveness and quick to anger has definitely decreased. Jean has tailored her communication and motivation strategies towards all of us as she recognizes our differences and has grown to realize what drives each of us.

It is obvious that Jean is more of a successful leader when she knows her subordinates and uses the information she knows to guide her processes. Leaders are more successful when they are both reflective of themselves, and aware of their followers’ emotional and motivational patterns. The Psychodynamic Approach towards leadership delves into the idea that if one tries to understand a person’s behavior and the driving forces behind it, one can use that information to lead more effectively. Any organization will have more success if it employs leaders and followers who are more introspective and can recognize the experiences that have shaped them and their reactional patterns.

References

Northouse, Peter G. (2016). Leadership: Theory and Practice (7th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA:

SAGE Publications, Inc.

Pennsylvania State University. (2017). Lesson 3: Psychodynamic Approach. In

PSYCH485: Leadership in Work Settings: Spring 2017. Retrieved from:

http://psu.instructure.com.

Self-Assessment and its Benefits

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While I do not personally agree with many aspects of the Psychodynamic Approach, there are many parts that I consider useful, such as self-assessment and its effect on leader-follower relationships. “Psychological, social and emotional processes between leaders and followers have a great influence and need to be taken into consideration (Northouse 2016).

Understanding oneself helps us recognize when we are reacting to a situation in a negative or ineffective way. Through self-assessment, a leader can be cognizant of their shortcomings and try to better themselves through reflection and training.

There are many tools available for free or for a small fee, that allow you to understand your traits, your style, your values, your strengths, etc. Using these tools, a leader can start to understand what drives them to react to situations in different ways.

Values in Action by the VIA Institute on Character offer a free survey that helps define your character strengths. This knowledge can then be applied in a positive way towards your leadership style. Knowing these strengths can help you overcome obstacles and improve your interactions. For example, my VIA strengths are:

  1. Creativity
  2. Curiosity
  3. Hope
  4. Humor
  5. Judgement

The VIA category that best represents my greatest character strengths is Wisdom and Knowledge. As I am fascinated by learning, I have a wide variety of skills. Having a dynamic skillset and knowing how to apply that makes me invaluable to my company because they could use me where they needed support most. It also helps me with my work relationships. My higher ups know they can count on me to pick up new tasks quickly and it helps me with subordinates because they can come to me with a question and I can usually help them answer it.

In addition to learning things like your strengths, values and characteristics, some assessments help you understand your weaknesses or learned behaviors. Unlike the Psychodynamic Approach, these assessments believe that you can change you negative personality characteristics and help you do so in a positive manner. For example, the Center for Positive Psychology Realise2 Model will show you your weakness, unrealized strengths, realized strengths and learned behaviors. Again, just like with the VIA survey, this assessment will help you overcome obstacles and improve your relationships. For example, my assessment explained:

  • Weakness: Impatience, waiting for other to complete their thoughts
  • Unrealized strength: Perspective, providing wise counsel to others
  • Realized strength: Creativity, conceptualizing solutions
  • Learned behaviors: Dedication, desire to complete a task at the risk to my physical or mental health

Upon learning about my impatience, I became more aware of this downfall. Once I recognized it, I could train myself to be more patient with others. This had a huge impact in my relationships with others. Coworkers and bosses often conveyed to me that I had matured greatly in the last year and I received better scores on my annual reviews.

There are many more assessments like these that can help guide an individual to be a better leader. Understanding your shortcomings and your strengths is the first step into improving your leadership. Once you recognize them, you can play to your strengths and help overcome your weaknesses.

 

Works Cited:

Northouse, P. (2015). Introduction to leadership: Concepts and practice (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications Inc.

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