Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:
ISBN 978-1-119-30265-0 (Hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-119-30271-1 (ePDF)
ISBN 978-1-119-30266-7 (ePub)
Foreword
It has been said that man is a rational animal. All my life I have been searching for evidence which could support this.
Let me open this foreword by saying that I really enjoyed reading this book. As is often the case, good books help you understand and make you feel understood. Whenever we read a good book, it opens many doors; it stimulates our imagination. In a very clear, understandable way – using a well-written and very realistic case study as red thread – Claudio Feser helps executives understand that there is more to organizations than merely strategy, structure, and systems. Masterfully, he brings the person back into the organization. And given the impact of a firm like McKinsey in creating better places to work, it is such a pleasure to see these important themes about leadership developed by one of its senior partners, in particular the head of its leadership development practice.
At its heart, leadership is about human behavior – what we do, and why we do it. More specifically, leadership is about the way people behave in organizations, and effective leaders are those who understand human behavior. Effective leaders are those who can calm the anxieties of their followers, arouse their hopes, increase their aspirations, energize them, and inspire them to positive action. We should always keep in mind that rational thoughts never drive people the way emotions do.
However, most definitions of leadership, methodologies for studying leadership, and recommendations for leadership development address observable and conscious behaviors. They are restricted to a mechanical view of life in the workplace, and they subscribe to the myth that the only thing that matters is what we see and what is directly measurable. Behind this myth hovers the irrepressible ghost of Frederick Taylor, the premier advocate of scientific management. Many researchers and executives hang on to the mistaken belief that behavior in organizations concerns only observable, rational, conscious, mechanistic, easy-to-understand phenomena. The more elusive psychological processes that take place “below the surface” are often ignored.
Human beings in organizations are not just conscious value- and benefit-maximizing machines, but also people subject to many (often contradictory) wishes, fantasies, conflicts, defensive behaviors, and anxieties – some conscious, others beyond consciousness. Our everyday lives consist of webs of constantly shifting and irrational forces that underlie seemingly “rational” behaviors and choices – and life in organizations is no exception.
Unfortunately, the view that concepts taken from such fields as psychoanalysis or psychotherapy might have a place in the world of work is not a popular one. Historically, many practitioners and researchers have avoided treading in the psychological realm of corporate life, fearing the messy but real-life complexities and the relationships within. The result is that many organizations and people working in them perform well below their potential. They are punching well below their weight.
I have repeatedly put forward the view that to build great organizations – organizations in which people realize their full potential – requires leaders to go behind the observable and measurable behaviors. It requires them to understand the dynamics of human behavior. It requires leaders to understand what goes on “below the surface” – the underlying currents and forces of human psychology such as emotions, values, and personalities. In surveying 165 organizations and 370,000 employees, McKinsey & Company has confirmed this view. The research summarized in this book shows that emotionally intelligent and psychologically sensitive leaders are necessary to build organizations with great health – organizations that outperform competitors, organizations that attract great talent, organizations that engage and energize their employees, and organizations that generate exceptional shareholder returns.
The psychodynamic approach to human behavior in organizations helps leaders understand and harness what is happening “below the surface” – the dynamics that are not immediately observable and measurable. This approach acknowledges that people are unique, complex, and paradoxical beings with rich and myriad motivational drivers. The Clinical Paradigm is the framework through which I (and many others) have applied the psychodynamic lens to the study of human behavior in organizations. It makes sense of people’s deeper patterns of thoughts and emotions, and it shows how these cognitive and emotional patterns drive observable behaviors in organizations (and beyond).
The Clinical Paradigm is based on four premises.
First, it argues that there is a rationale behind every human act – even those that are apparently irrational. Because that rationale is often elusive – inextricably interwoven with unconscious needs and desires – one has to do “detective work” to tease out hints and clues regarding perplexing behavior. More importantly, finding meaning in seemingly irrational behavior requires emotional intelligence.
Second, it argues that a great deal of mental life – thoughts, feelings, and motives – lies outside of conscious awareness. People are not always aware of what they are doing, much less why they are doing it. Even the most “rational” people have blind spots, and even the “best” people have a shadow side – a side that they do not know, or do not want to know. Moreover, people work to increase their blind spots: they develop defensive structures over time that make them blind not only to their motivation for a certain dysfunctional behavior but also to the behavior itself, even though that behavior may be obvious to everyone else. Accepting the presence of unconscious processes, however, can be liberating, because it helps us understand why we do the things we do and how we might change for the better.
Third, it argues that nothing is more central to a person’s identity than the way he or she expresses and regulates emotions. Emotions color experiences with positive and negative connotations, creating preferences. Emotions form the basis for internalizing mental representations of the self and others that guide relationships throughout one’s life. Furthermore, emotions serve people in many adaptive and defensive ways, depending on the personal “script” in their inner theater. Experiencing our emotions and those of others enables us to come into greater contact with others (and with ourselves), to find out what they feel (as opposed to what they think), what they like and dislike, and what they want and do not want.
Fourth, it argues that human development is an inter- and intrapersonal process. We are all products of our past, influenced until the day we die by the developmental experiences bestowed on us by our early caregivers. Childhood experiences play a crucial role in personality development, particularly in the way people relate to others. The psychological imprints of primary caregivers – particularly our parents – are so strong that they cause a confusion in time and place, making us act toward others in the present as if they were significant people from the past. Though we are generally unaware of experiencing “transference” reactions – the term given by psychologists to this confusion in time and place – this mismatch between the reality of our present situation and our subconscious scenario may lead to what many may experience as irrational behavior.
This book by Claudio Feser is a practical introduction to many of the concepts that form the fundament of the Clinical Paradigm – an understanding of patterns of thought and emotion, underlying assumptions, values, emotions, personalities. It aims at making leaders more emotionally intelligent and psychologically sensitive. It provides them with easy-to-apply frameworks and tools that can help them to better understand themselves and others, and to harness the power of human behavior in organizations.
However, acquiring higher emotional intelligence – that is,