Leadership and change - going with the flow can be the shortest path!
06/04/2009, Author: Ruth Williams
Leadership and change – going with the flow can be the shortest path!
This week, only half way through, has been an interesting journey. Travelling on the train always provides me with a great time to reflect, and my current work on leadership has been the main thing on my mind. At Criterion, as you might expect from Psychologists, we place importance on developing the inner self of the leaders we work with. I feel we are on the brink of taking this approach to a new and even more fulfilling depth. So, a little about this:
• The question that often nags away at the back of my mind, and it has again this week, is – how can we draw on other theories, thinking and disciplines outside of Psychology? This can feed into so many areas but particularly leadership development. I’m especially interested in exploring a whole range of personal development tools, especially those outside of the world of business consulting. After all when developing people in any environment we are seeking to understand the current situation and use all appropriate resources available to enable movement in a desired positive direction.
• Then yesterday I was lucky enough to enjoy a charming lunch meeting with a well respected and learned academic who has pointed me in some very interesting directions to address exactly this question. The work of Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, draws links between the psychoanalytic model and leadership development. His writings explain with clarity the need to address hearts and minds to see a change is a leader’s behaviour. Some of his ideas are really inspiring.
• Then, throw into this mix another strand of my experience, what I believe to be, the significant part that creativity and creative play particularly add to the developmental experience. Running a Voice workshop last week, and the response I received, reinforced in my mind how valuable this type of activity can be.
• Finally, these thoughts have been pulled together during a kind of ‘eureka’ moment as I was researching Change and Leadership. The work, by Patricia Shaw, into changing conversations in organisations suggests, in essence, that we need to trust and work with people by really seeking to understand where they are, what they are thinking and feeling and what is right for them at that particular moment. Of course this is not a completely new idea, but the extent to which Shaw suggests we should let go of control is truly refreshing. When we let go of control we have opportunity to draw in aspects of psychoanalysis and to also thread through creativity. You only have to think of the freedom with which children play to realise how creating this mindset could help people deal with change.
So, as seems so often happens in my life, I feel I have taken a couple of small steps in a direction that ‘felt right’ and found that from this new point my view has changed, albeit slight, and I can see a different way forward.
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