Harvard psychology of leadership 1508 10 summary

Psychology 1508:
The Psychology of
Leadership

"This is not the end. It is not even the
beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the
end of the beginning."
Winston Churchill


Leadership Development as
Personal Development
“The Ancients who wished to illustrate illustrious
virtue throughout the kingdom first ordered well their
own states. Wishing to order well their states, they
first regulated their families. Wishing to regulate
their families, they first cultivated their person.”
Confucius
“The process of becoming a leader is much the
same as the process of becoming an integrated
human being. For the leader, as for any integrated
person, life itself is the career.”
Warren Bennis


Janusian Thinking

“Paradoxical thinking requires that we embrace a
view of the world in which opposites are joined,
so that we can see the world clearly and see it
whole... The result is a world more complex and

confusing than the one made simple by either-or
thought—but that simplicity is merely the
dullness of death. When we think together, we
reclaim the life force in the world, in our students,


Healthy Synthesis
•
•
•
•

Person AND Situation
Democratic AND Authoritarian
Dogmatism AND Relativism
Tough AND Nice


The Coaching Model

Ac con
ce diti
pta on
nc al
(C e
arl
Ro
ge
rs)

Leadership Development
Daily Life
Relationships

Ap
Parenting
(D pre
av cia
Personal Development
id
tiv
Co e
op I nq
er uir
rid y
er
)


Appreciative Inquiry

“Traditional approaches to problem solving are, by
definition, a way of seeing the world as a glass half
empty. The Appreciative Inquiry is an alternative
process to bring about organizational change by looking
at the glass as half full. Essentially, Appreciative Inquiry
varies from other approaches to organizational change
in that it builds on what works well.”
Gail Johnson & William Leavitt

Authentic Leadership
“Know thyself.”
The Oracle of Delphi

“This above all: To thine own self be true, And it
must follow as night follows day, Thou canst
not then be false to any man.”
Shakespeare

Good teaching cannot be reduced to technique;
good teaching comes from the identity and
integrity of the teacher
Parker Palmer


Strengths

Passions
Zone of
Great
Leadership


Vision

“The first basic
ingredient of leadership
is a guiding vision. The
leader has a clear idea

of what he or she wants
to do—professionally
and personally—and
the strength to persist in
the face of setbacks,


Action Must Follow Words
“Unless a vision is sustained by action, it quickly turns to
ashes.”
Noel Tichy
“What you do speaks so loudly that I cannot hear what
you say.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Be the change you want to see in the world.”
Mahatma Gandhi


Leaders Create Their Environment
Leader’s
Assumptions/
expectations
Leader’s
Behavior

Employees’
Behavior
Organizational
Environment

100 Years of Leadership Development
A Meta Analysis (Avolio & Luthans, 2006)
“The largest developmental impact was raising
the positive beliefs of followers, instilling in them
the conviction that they were better at a
performance task than they thought.”


Choosing Between Right and Right
“The inspirational approach
[to ethics] offers little help
with serious conflicts of
responsibility.... What to do
when one clear right thing
must be left undone in order
to do another or when doing
the right thing requires
doing something wrong?”
Joseph Badaracco


Where have all the leaders gone?
“Where are the Jeffersons and Lincolns of today?
The answer, I am convinced, is that they are
among us. Out there in the settings with which
we are all familiar are the unawakened leaders,
feeling no overpowering call to lead and hardly
aware of the potential within.”
“These are the times in which a genius would

John Gardner
wish to live. Great necessities call forth great
leaders.”
Abigail Adams


Philip Stone