Exploring inner leadership

Citation

Lloyd, B. (2001), "Exploring inner leadership", Leadership & Organization Development Journal, Vol. 22 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/lodj.2001.02222aaa.001

Exploring inner leadership

Exploring inner leadership

Bruce LloydPrincipal Lecturer in Strategy at South Bank University, London, UK in discussion withSimon SmithAuthor of the recent book Inner Leadership: Realize Your Self-Leading Potential, Nicholas Brealey (2000)

BL

Perhaps you could start by explaining the core message of your new book?

SS

We all have within us huge unrealised potential and the book is designed to help anyone and everyone to Recognise and Explore that potential, then Actualise it and use it to take the Lead, wherever they are. This is the REAL model.

The work starts with the assumption that the amount of consciousness, of self-awareness, that we have about ourselves is relatively small compared to our unconscious. Inner Leadership provides a systematic method to assist in the journey of self awareness and self reflection that leads to what Maslow would call greater self-actualisation – a greater ability to express who we are truly are in the world. The essence of inner leadership is that we get to know the diverse parts of ourselves in such a way that we begin to recognise that we all have within us tremendous resources and qualities that we can use, either in a work context, or in life in general.

The book arose from the fact that I had spent 20 years in the City, in finance and venture capital. I felt that most of the people that I came across – and I have met literally hundreds of leaders – were good on a range of business skills and techniques and they usually had strong ideas about where they were going; they also had a strong sense of purpose. But their self-awareness was often quite low. This led to blind spots about their own behaviour, strengths and limitations, unrealistic self-confidence and difficulty seeing the points of view of others. The City's own skills in assessing other people were also undeveloped. When I started to ask entrepreneurs more penetrating questions, my colleagues often considered I was being too personal, even rude.

My own response was to take a five-year training programme in psychosynthesis, which is an applied psychology normally applied to psychotherapy. In fact I trained to be a psychotherapist. This taught me how to look at myself, how to be aware of myself and how to organise the various parts of myself to my best advantage, self-leadership. That is what I use with people in work situations. Inner leadership is a journey of self-discovery that brings individuals to the point where they are able to lead themselves more effectively. Then, once we can lead ourselves, we are in a position to lead others.

BL

So we start with the assumption that the more we know about ourselves the better we are likely to be as a leader. And, if you have a low self-awareness, you usually have a low awareness of the needs of others.

SS

Yes – and a low awareness of the real needs and challenges of a situation you are facing. For example, if the need for security drives your behaviour, but you do not know it, how are you going to react to change and uncertainty? Probably with fear and suspicion. If you know about your need for security, you can at least take that into account without it completely driving your behaviour.

BL

So what happens when you put these individuals into teams?

SS

When you work with individuals in a team this way, they can improve their performance remarkably. There is a multiplier effect. I have recently been working with a company with £200 million of sales. The six directors did not trust each other and therefore found it very difficult to share problems and take criticism. I worked with each of them individually to try to help them become more aware of what they needed to work more effectively. I got them to explore their own attitudes to trust, the extent to which they trusted themselves, and through that the issues between the six of them. After these sessions, when they came back together, they were able to discuss their working relationships openly, admit their own part in it, see how they could support each other and how they could work together to meet the challenges facing the business. They could let go of their patterns of blaming, scapegoating and creating silos between the functions.

BL

And that improved their performance?

SS

Yes, because it raised their level of trust, so they could get closer to the real needs of any situation. They had huge quality problems which were costing them millions of pounds a year in lost business and was threatening the relationship with a major customer. These problems could only be solved when they were prepared to put aside personal issues and work together.

BL

In many ways I find it surprising that individuals like that, especially groups of them, could be successful in the first place. Perhaps that is because everyone in their industry has the same problem? In a situation like that the first company to be able to get its key people to work together well as a team should be able to clean up.

SS

I agree. One of the individuals in this group actually said "We do well despite ourselves".

BL

What is it about the background of the individuals concerned that has led to this situation? It seems to me, in the UK today, we still have two groups of people, those who come up through an educational process where people skills are the only really relevant skills that they have, and those who have extensive technical skills and few people skills. Are you saying that even those who come up through the so-called "people skills" route can still end up by having very little self-awareness?

SS

I think remarkable few people really have a high level of self-awareness. That is not a criticism, it is just the way it is. We have not been taught to see ourselves. People often have a very narrow view of themselves. If you ask people: "Who are you?" you normally get a very narrow answer like: "I am an engineer", or "I am a manager". We tend to identify strongly with a few parts of ourselves. We pigeon-hole ourselves far more than other people do it to us. One benefit of inner leadership is that it expands your view of yourself tremendously. The job you do and the way you perform it is a direct result of how you see yourself.

BL

But how far is that raising of expectations matched by an increase in an individual's confidence in the reality of those expectations? Is there any evidence that these processes make people happier?

SS

My own experience is that self-awareness and self-reflection make life far more interesting and fulfilling. My view of leadership is that everyone can be a leader within their own sphere of influence, by having a leader's attitude. We know when we meet such people in even the simplest of jobs. Some people just do a job, others do it to the very best of their ability and as though it is really important, even if it is just serving coffee. Customers notice. This is what companies desperately need; they need people to take the initiative wherever they are; they need people to be capable of taking decisions. I did a survey recently of human resource managers in big companies, including PowerGen, ICI, Barclays Bank, SmithKline Beecham and American Express. When asked what is the biggest current issue in leadership development, the most common answer was to push leadership down the organisation and enable decisions and creativity to take place at the appropriate places. In blaming and fear-based cultures, and where people do not have realistic self-confidence, decision-making rises to the top.

BL

But if the underlying culture at the top is that no one trusts each other, it is very difficult to see that really happening. How do you improve that sense of trust?

SS

First, by getting people to trust themselves. It needs to change from the top down. By gaining realistic self-confidence, based on self-knowledge, people can start to trust themselves and so can withstand conflict and disagreement with others, enabling subjects to be discussed which at the moment are not. You have to focus on those people in the company who can change it; those who are able to feel vulnerable and take personal risks.

BL

Does that have to start at the top?

SS

I certainly prefer to start at the top.

BL

Is it very difficult to initiate these changes in the middle of an organisation?

SS

You can still enable individuals to respond to situations more openly and with awareness. Each of us has a past history, patterns, drives and psychological wounds. These are largely out of our everyday awareness. Without our knowing it, they strongly influence our behaviour and our decisions. We also have our deepest longings, hopes, possibilities and aspirations, of much of which we are also unconscious. In our everyday life we have a whole range of skills that are essentially driven by the unconscious. Behind my work is a desire to expand our consciousness, so that we can better understand our motives and our behaviour. Once we know what influences our behaviour we are in a better position to make our choices and to direct ourselves from our centre of identity, the representative of Self.

BL

What is the secret to improving the effectiveness of our learning through this process of reflection?

SS

It is about being able to respond more positively to what the situation really needs, rather than just reacting because a particular button is pushed. Many people still approach learning with phrases like: "I am not a good learner", or "I have a terrible memory". These comments are usually based on something that has happened in their past – at school or at home – which has influenced their view of their basic relationship to learning. If people can start by opening up their view of what their qualities are, people would then have a much more positive approach to learning. Then you can begin to improve their learning capability enormously.

BL

What can institutions, such as schools or universities, that are supposedly in the learning business, do in order to improve the effectiveness of these learning processes?

SS

They could work with people in a different way; a way that is much more open in terms of how people see themselves in the context of what they are trying to do. I normally work with people in business situations, but I do have some personal experience of children coming home with a mindset that is repeating phrases such as: "I am no good at maths", which is usually reflecting something they have been told at school. The child has got itself into a mindset that keeps retelling them that they cannot do something. So it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. On our courses we ask people to make a drawing of themselves. Always a number of people immediately say they cannot draw – a legacy from their past.

BL

That is such a pity as people need encouragement just as much as children. In the educational environment there is a general assumption that you are genuinely concerned with the development of the individual, but in a managerial context that is frequently just a gesture, even when it happens at all. The reality of really developing your people is very rare. To get the benefits you have to really believe in what you are doing and that does not appear to happen very often.

SS

That is true and it is a major area that many companies are concerned about. Companies want their people to be stronger, more creative, more dynamic, more considerate and collaborative, but so often view personal development as outside the corporate remit.

BL

Do you know of companies that do take these issues seriously and do them well?

SS

There are companies that put much effort into this area. Many more companies are beginning to realise that an individual's ability to manage their emotional life is an important factor in how well they work. Inner leadership gives practical steps towards achieving what is now called emotional intelligence, our ability to understand and work with our emotions, and spiritual intelligence, our ability to realise our full potential. I call the combination of the two self intelligence.

BL

There are those – and I would consider myself as one of them – who believe that the obsession with competence over the past decade or so has tended to result in us not being sufficiently concerned with the areas of commitment and motivation – which, of course, overlaps closely with issues around meaning and emotion, even spiritual issues in the broadest sense. This is becoming much more critical in some areas of management but is considered as threatening by others.

SS

Top management in traditional companies have got to where they are on the old system and, in many cases, they cannot see the need to try new things. It is extremely helpful if top management takes part in inner leadership, but, by working with people between the ages of 25 and 45, we can make a start on these radical changes.

BL

That is badly needed in many organisations, But are not the people who take this on board likely to be an even greater threat to top management, if these techniques are effective?

SS

The most difficult challenge is to involve top management and make sure they do not feel threatened by it.

BL

Is there a risk that these ideas will encourage people to become over self-obsessed, rather than more "others" focused?

SS

People have to understand themselves in order to understand others. You have to go through some self-reflection in order to get to the other side. You have to understand yourself well before you can really look outwards. It is part of the process people go through to reach their greater inner potential. But this does not create self obsessed people. It enables people to see where they are and then act on it. One example is Jeff, who I worked with recently. Aged 60, he is a director of a highly successful medical research company. When I asked him how many hours a week he worked he replied, with great pride, over 70. But after further discussion it became apparent that this was causing great strain on both him and his wife. She had suddenly become obsessed with the security of their home. After some discussion Jeff wondered if she was afraid he could have a heart attack at any time and so was planning how she could live and feel secure if he was not around any more. That was his fear. As a result of reflecting on this situation, he decided he would not work more than 50 hours a week. You could argue that the company would lose out over this, as he was now working less than previously. But he increased his effectiveness by delegating more, which helped to develop his younger members of staff, who it turned out had previously felt demotivated because of both his style and his attitudes. Now he is much more focused on developing and supporting his staff and this is much better for everyone, including the company.

BL

There is a paradox here. If people are concerned about letting go as they come towards retirement, the developmental role you mentioned in your example is one that can be continued much later in life so the pressure to retire early can be reduced. People now need to be much more focused on working smarter, even working wiser, rather than just working harder. But in the case you mentioned how did you get involved? How did that individual come to change his view of himself?

SS

The organisation decided that something needed to be done about the fact that there appeared to be too many demotivated people in the company and that changes had to start at the top. They felt it was blocking their capacity to be creative (their greatest need) and to embrace change and new thinking.

BL

He was in the situation where, although being highly motivated, he was actually demotivating the people under him. The usual argument is that the cultural pattern established at the top is reflected further down, not the opposite.

SS

Essentially he was hyper-active, whirlwind operator. I think other people were intimidated by that, and they felt they could never match his standards, so they reacted against it. But he did change his self-identity through a much deeper understanding of the situation and through that he was able to change his behaviour and allow others to shine, which had been too risky for him previously.

BL

What did you have to do to make that happen? How long did it take?

SS

I had six one-hour sessions with him. I reflected back to him what he was putting out and through that got him to think about things more deeply by asking questions which would help him to understand what he was doing, such as: "What did working 70 hours a week mean to you?" or "What would be at stake for you if you don't work 70 hours a week?"

BL

Was there anything specific that made him suddenly realise what was going on and what needed to be done?

SS

Yes, he saw what he was doing to himself and the effect that was having on other people, especially his wife and the team of people who worked for him. It was quite a sudden realisation in this case. Often with this work people see something about themselves in this way, and go "A-ha". The penny drops.

BL

He was a sufficiently competent individual to be able to make the change effectively once he saw what needed to be done.

SS

Yes, he was an extremely competent individual. We worked together so he could see he did have the skill base to operate very effectively in the alternative way, skills which he used in other parts of his life, with his children for example, but which he had never thought of using at work. Inner leadership also gives an experience of being listened to and understood at a deep level, which can then be taken out to other relationships.

BL

Do you have to change peoples' values when they go through these processes?

SS

No. We are much more concerned with revealing what their values really are and how these can be effectively used to influence, if not drive, new patterns of behaviour. It is concerned with the ego, and how individuals perceive other people see them. I work with people on their life purpose and values; on what really motivates them. I come from the point of view that everyone is intrinsically good – and that is not a religious view in any way. But everyone has a tremendous amount of good within them that is often submerged under more superficial views that "we have to win", or "we have to succeed", without really understanding what is going on inside ourselves.

BL

There are those who believe that the explicit consideration of values is becoming more important.

SS

Yes, values are being taken much more seriously by companies today. They are an important unifying force. Companies have been preoccupied with strategy, goals and actions in a rather mechanistic way. If these are combined with values and behaviours you can then have a strong sense of direction which is supported by a positive emotional response. Today people want work that is more consistent with their values; they are not just motivated by the size of their salary. In my view values are tremendously motivating. In the Inner Leadership model people have a number of parts of their personality, which I call "constituents". Each of these is connected with a quality and value. If these are in conflict then we tend to subjugate some of them, causing stress and usually with damaging consequences, as they find their way to come out as conflicts without our being aware of them. This is why you sometimes find people doing inexplicable things and then saying "I just don't know what came over me". Well, a repressed part is what came over them. In inner leadership you become more aware of the various parts and learn how to live with them.

BL

I have always tried to argue that strategy is not a technical subject – people make strategy happen and it is vitally important that these values related issues are considered within a strategy context. We tend to compartmentalise things too much, strategy is one area and human resource management is another. In addition, learning is too often considered to be more a technical issues, rather than one that involves issues around motivation, commitment and values. Rarely is it sufficiently recognised that all our decisions are ultimately values driven.

SS

And if we feel that we are applying our values we are much happier with what is going on.

BL

I did notice that you did not appear to consider the word "performance" sufficiently important for it to be included in your index. In the end your ideas have to be justified on the grounds that they make people more effective – that is they perform better at work. Although I am sure it is easy for us all to believe the ideas are valid intuitively, is there any objective evidence to support the link with performance?

SS

Performance is important and I focus on personal effectiveness. It is difficult to measure, but I have certainly seen the positive benefits in many cases.

BL

If we could really show that it all worked that would be very useful. Without that it is still a hard slog.

SS

Yes. Numerical measurement is difficult, but I have seen it really work at the individual level and from there be translated into teams. I have seen real benefits within the working environment. The six directors I mentioned earlier were able to tackle issues which had been impossible before. Jeff was able to build a motivated team and solve a succession problem. A manager who came on a course said that he had found new ways of working which had simply not occurred to him before. Inner leadership is about personal transformation, transforming the way we see ourselves and, as Dr Deming said: "Nothing changes without personal transformation".

BL

But, even if you do not measure it, the concept of performance needs to be overtly recognised as a key issue.

SS

I do say in the book that if reading the book does not improve your personal effectiveness then it has failed.

BL

Can you get your money back, if you come to that conclusion?

SS

Why not? The ideas in the book are only important to the extent that they improve individual effectiveness. The ideas in this book are based on those of Roberto Assagoili, the founder of psychosynthesis. He wrote two books, Psychosynthesis: A Manual of Practice and Techniques and The Act of Will. These are both practical books. My book reflects a very practically driven approach to the application of his work.

BL

But how far do you find that spending time reflecting on the past, almost becoming obsessed with it, gets in the way of focusing on the future?

SS

Inner leadership is not obsessed with the past. We spend most of the time looking at where we are now, but also understanding how the past has brought us to that position. The bridge we are looking to make is between where you are now, and where you aspire to be. If you do not reflect on the past you can easily become too influenced by your unconscious. If you become more aware of these issues it gives you more control over your life. If you over-focus on the future, you can become paralysed. By focusing on the present, with awareness of the past and the future, you can use your will, your inner power, to make the right choices and implement them effectively.