"Future Leader Experiences and Psychological Theories and Leadership" Please respond to the following:
- Experiences play an important role in how future leaders will run the organization. Give three examples of how effective competencies, relationships, and learning capabilities can be measured as factors in future leadership development.
- Choose one (1) of the psychological theories listed in Chapter 8, and outline its contributions to the development of leaders. Describe the type of behavior that would characterize the application of this theory in an organization.
Changing Behavior One Leader at a Time 353 Table 8.1. Contributions from Psychological Theory Theory or Approach Lessons for the Practitioner Psychodynamic view 1. Behavior is often driven by a person ’ s internal dynamics, which the person is unaware of or does not accurately understand. 2. People are likely to be defensive when confronted with the need to change. Expecting and recognizing resistance and constructively confronting defensiveness can facilitate successful individual change. Behaviorism 3. Reinforcing (for example, supporting, praising) success or efforts to change strengthens the likelihood that an individual will repeat and persist at those behaviors. 4. Successful behavior change can be accomplished by shaping or guiding the individual through a series of steps that over time more closely approximate the desired outcome or behavior. 5. The events or circumstances that trigger a particular behavior or reaction can be managed or changed to increase the likelihood that positive behavior or reactions will occur. Cognitive behavioral psychology 6. People ’ s thoughts infl uence the way they feel and subsequently behave. Change the way people think, and they will change the way they act. Person - centered psychology 7. People will become more open to change when they are in a trusting, respectful, and supportive relationship (with a coach or consultant). (Continued ) c08.indd 353c08.indd 353 10/1/09 9:10:48 AM10/1/09 9:10:48 AM C o p y r i g h t 2 0 1 0 . P f e i f f e r . A l l r i g h t s r e s e r v e d . M a y n o t b e r e p r o d u c e d i n a n y f o r m w i t h o u t p e r m i s s i o n f r o m t h e p u b l i s h e r , e x c e p t f a i r u s e s p e r m i t t e d u n d e r U . S . o r a p p l i c a b l e c o p y r i g h t l a w . EBSCO Publishing : eBook Collection (EBSCOhost) - printed on 4/30/2020 7:03 PM via STRAYER UNIVERSITY AN: 300763 ; Dowell, Ben E., Silzer, Robert Frank.; Strategy-Driven Talent Management : A Leadership Imperative Account: strayer.main.eds-live 354 Strategy-Driven Talent Management acknowledge that his ideas are useful to them in some way. For example, HR professionals, psychologists, and executive coaches may often fi nd themselves working with someone they believe is “ defensive ” about the ideas, suggestions, or feedback they offer to try to help them change and improve. Psychodynamic theory proposes that behavior is the result of competing internal impulses and instincts. The id, the ego, and the superego all drive behavior in conscious and unconscious ways. The id propels an individual to seek pleasure and avoid pain, the ego makes a realistic assessment of what is possible, and the superego compels a person to live up to societal or parental ide- als. Defense mechanisms protect the individual from dangerous Table 8.1. Contributions from Psychological Theory (Continued ) Theory or Approach Lessons for the Practitioner Adult learning and development 8. People want to control or decide what they will learn or try to change. 9. Adults learn primarily through their experiences. Practitioners can help people learn by helping them make sense out of their experiences, especially when an experience is overwhelming or causes dissonance. Work motivation theory 10. Setting effective goals for behavior change (those that are specifi c, challenging, and achievable) will facilitate learning and development. 11. People cannot change without practice and feedback. Feedback helps people adapt and adjust their efforts so they can be more successful. Social - cognitive theory 12. Confi dence or self - effi cacy is strongly related to a willingness to try new things. Practitioners need to help build clients ’ confi dence that they can do new things. c08.indd 354c08.indd 354 10/1/09 9:10:48 AM10/1/09 9:10:48 AM EBSCOhost - printed on 4/30/2020 7:03 PM via STRAYER UNIVERSITY. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use Changing Behavior One Leader at a Time 355 thoughts or harmful impulses; they give people a way to inter- pret, adapt to, or ignore certain aspects of reality. Many of these forces and defense mechanisms operate in unknown ways; indi- viduals are simply unaware of or do not accurately understand what drives their behavior (Peltier, 2001). Confronted with a need to change, many people can become defensive. They make up explanations and excuses to defend against or resist changing their behavior. Consider the exam- ple of the CFO in a multibillion - dollar enterprise who had pro- gressed in his career by being the brilliant expert with all the right answers. Convinced of his own superior intellect and afraid that showing any doubt or weakness would “ prove ” some lack of competence, he routinely ignored ideas from others and treated his staff as intellectually inferior. He was so defensive that to him even considering a coaching process implied that he was inef- fective. Only when his executive coach (who was a psychologist) could help him see the relationship between his unconscious fears and his impact on people was he able to consider changing his behavior. By expecting resistance and constructively confronting defensiveness, psychologists can help individuals become aware of unconscious forces that drive their behavior so they can then make better choices as leaders and learn to behave more effectively. Behaviorism and Behavioral Approaches Behaviorism is familiar to most people. It is based on the idea that behavior is a function of its consequences. With roots in the work of Pavlov, Watson, and Thorndike, modern behaviorism was primarily shaped by Skinner and is based on Thorndike ’ s law of effect, which states that behavior that is reinforced or praised is more likely to reoccur. Reinforcement is pervasive and power- ful in work settings: it affects, strengthens, or changes behavior daily. Other important behaviorist concepts are stimulus control (manipulating the circumstances so that desired behaviors are more likely to occur) and shaping behavior by successive approx- imation (reinforcing and rewarding small steps toward acquiring more complex, new behaviors). c08.indd 355c08.indd 355 10/1/09 9:10:49 AM10/1/09 9:10:49 AM EBSCOhost - printed on 4/30/2020 7:03 PM via STRAYER UNIVERSITY. All use subject to https://www.ebsco.com/terms-of-use