Ego States and Leadership; Prodigy or Pathology a Cross Cultural Perspective

1. David P Best August 2008 Johannesburg Ego States and Leadership; Prodigy or Pathology a Cross Cultural Perspective

2. Introduction and Background Leadership Research and literature Approach to this paper 3 Cases of Leaders Conclusions and Implications Agenda

3. How delicate was the touch of ancient rulers. When everything prospered under their administration, the people believed they had done everything themselves, of their own free will. (Wieger) But when they accomplish their task and complete their work, the people say, "We did it ourselves."(Byrn) (both quotes from Lao Tsu; Tao Teh Ching Ch17 s3) Leadership

4. Who is the client? • the client him or herself (that is the person responsible for the engagement and who signs the invoices, and/ or one’s immediate contact); • the function for which he is responsible and which is usually the principal target of the interventions; • The structure within which he resides (division, subsidiary etc.); • his colleagues affected by or affecting the course of the interventions; • the wider organisational environment; • ultimately, the shareholders, owners, or the regulator or equivalent body, and through them the community at large. The Consulting contract

5. Schools of Leadership theory

6. Leading Change Leading scientifically Learning from leadership in context Biography/ Autobiography Leading through imagination Insider accounts Consultants on leadership Leading through religion Leadership literature – specific angles.

7. Leadership, although it includes the ability to plan, organise tasks and activities, to administer people, is more. Leaders; are not distinguished by traits (e.g. physical, cultural or educational); may emerge in situations which others would not expect of them; have some ability to paint a compelling vision that followers not only accept but embrace; have an ability to structure the field to secure their followers; may emphasise moral values and other non- material outcomes, these values however may be counter to the prevailing ethic; may be output focused or long term mission focused and will be heavily influenced by situation and contingent variables. have the quality of charisma (albeit to varying degrees) and this appears to include values, faith and conviction; Finally, there is no particular positive moral valuation necessarily attached to the notion of leadership. What then are Leaders?

8. Vision and Direction Protection and Security Achievement and Effectiveness Inclusion and belongingness Pride and Self respect Focus and Self Direction Gratitude and Loyalty Commitment and Effort Respect and obedience The Needs met by the leader/ follower relationship

10. I have approached the subject from the perspective of the following questions: • What is happening at the process level in the interactions and transactions that I have observed? • What ego states are active in the transactions I observe? • Are there any repeating or fixed patterns evident in these transactions, which might indicate stuck-ness or incongruence in the personality? • What does this imply in terms of ego states, script and/or rackets? • What was the impact on the organisation of these behaviours? I have not attempted the analysis of transactions, script, games as in a conventional TA approach, though clearly I have assessed the patterns of transactions in the cases and have of course been influenced by my Gestalt, cybernetic and systems training and by my exposure to the tenets of relational integrative TA. Approach

11. Leadership behaviour does not differ markedly between different national contexts: European influence on organisational structure is pervasive; hence it is rare to find an “African” or an “Asian” organisation. Cultural norms and values however are different between for example Cyprus and Switzerland or UK and Chile. The behaviour of leaders does not differ, though the expression of the behaviour may appear different if viewed through the wrong cultural filter. In transnational or “global” companies, the corporate culture is often stronger in terms of norms and values than the geographical culture of the employees. Cross Cultural aspects- national cultures

12. Case 1The Chairman.- Aspired to Greatness?

13. The Chairman • Key • Relationship 1 • Chairman to Production Director • 2. Relationship 2 • Chairman to Sales Director • 3. Relationship 3 • R&D Director to Production director • 4. Alliance between three other • Directors CP NP FC 1 2 Other Directors 4 CP CP NP FC FC 3 Sales Director Production Director R&D Director Illustration of Organisational Interlocking Transactional systems Product Development Committee The Chairman (Speculative)

14. Script Beliefs/Feelings Rackety Displays 1. Observable (Stylised and repetitive) behaviours 2. Fantasies 3. Reported Internal Experiences Reinforcing Memories And experiences Fig 2. Basic Racket System (modified after Erskine and Zalcman, Stewart and Joines)

15. Basic Beliefs* Rackety Displays Reinforcing Experiences “Demonstrating Cleverness makes me OK” Wilful but Creative behaviour Allowed to go on with his behaviours, not stopped Chairman Basic Beliefs Rackety Displays Reinforcing Experiences Rewarded by reduction of disturbance Either “sooth away” Or “Stop it happening” e.g.“I’m OK only if you are OK Production Director The Chairman & Production Director *NB although these are labelled Basic beliefs, it is unlikely that those given here are in fact “basic”, given the purely inferential nature of this analysis.

16. Basic Beliefs Rackety Displays Reinforcing Experiences Wilful but Creative behaviour Praised for creativity Innovation etc. “I’m OK when I do what I want” Chairman Basic Beliefs Rackety Displays Reinforcing Experiences Rewarded for support Favoured son status e.g “If I’m Dad’s favourite I’m safe.” Play up to Dad Sales Director The Chairman & Sales Director

17. Case 2The unintended Leader- had it thrust upon him? .

18. Chairman Chairs For Board Members Chairs For Board Members Interviewee The Company X Board Table

20. Basic Beliefs Rackety Displays Reinforcing Experiences Remains uninformed staff keep secrets Persecutory and Bullying behaviour I’m OK only if you are not OK Leader Basic Beliefs Rackety Displays Reinforcing Experiences ““they “ find out and then I suffer” I’m not OK You’re OK “ I had better look good” Subordinate Fig 7: The Unexpected Leader CEO and the Director

21. CP 1 CP CP CP CP AC AC AC AC • Key • Racket • CEO with Directors • 2. Racket • Directors t o Senior Manager • 3. NB No analysis of Director to • Director Relationship 2 AC Illustration of Organisational Interlocking Transactional systems The Interview (Speculative)

22. CEO CP 1 • Key • Racket • CEO to Director • 2. Racket • Director to Project Manager • 3. Functional Adults - Team Director 2 AC 3 NP PM Illustration of Organisational Interlocking Transactional systems The unintended leader (Speculative)

23. A mature considered and balanced leader; effective concerned, and aware: The fact that his was a banking family and banking and the old fashioned virtues were strongly maintained; The culture of the Bank itself, was to do with integrity, honesty, respect, honour and tradition; The upbringing and education of the man. Born into a banking family, educated at very good schools and almost, one would say, bred for purpose; the development of the Adult Ego was extremely carefully inculcated Case 3 The Mature Leader – Born to greatness?

24. Conclusions and Implications

25. The basic system – field, figure and characteristics of the environment and the system set up by the founder or Euhemerus, results in: • Relational needs of leader and followers met through authentic and healthy interaction around a set of functional activities designed to achieve a shared goal underpinned by equally shared values and common beliefs; • Complex series of transactions between leader-follower pairs may lead to discontinuity or a sudden discontinuity may occur, through death, disruption or takeover. • There is a possibility for the process to become dysfunctional; • if deliberate efforts (psychological profiling, skewed selection of new joiners, sudden elevation of an immature individual etc) result in the emphasis on the dysfunctional, then • Rackets operating at individual and group level , Institutionalisation of “bad behaviour” together with the decline of value based culture may lead to descent into corrupt or otherwise inappropriate behaviours, and • Maintenance of the culture through recruitment and development reward structures (which may act to the good or the bad). Organisation, Culture and Ego functioning

26. Recruitment and progress through the organisation New applicants interviewed by senior “successful” members. Chosen for thinking capacity “functional adult”; subscript of congruence with organisational norms Become leaders in their Turn, removal of constraint results in emergence of rackety displays & hence influence Success results from performance of adult activities – (norms,) but promotion is determined by cultural congruence and “one- of-us-ness” recruitment policy consistent with the behavioural norms. This includes the use of tests and other normative Instruments that select for existing values and culture, inevitably because the scale is based on the profile of existing successful members of the organisation

27. Adulthood Young Adult Childhood Family and Educational Roles Follower roles Leadership Roles Role removes some constraints creates scope for unlimited behaviours within the scope of the previously established “norms”. In turn reinforces experiences for followers Development related Decisions; Script beliefs, formation of fixed Gestalten, developmental arrests or misses of varying severity, repetitiveness, and outcome. Determination of attachment model Racket development – when and at what stage? commencement of externally generated reinforcing experiences? Unconscious development of strategies to maintain and perpetuate script and racket – eventual establishment of Rackety display as “normal corporate/family behaviour”. Direction of increasing environmental and personal stress Life line direction NB This is shown as a linear diagram but of course each & every element is iterative

28. First, I believe that each individual in these cases, whether leader or follower is behaving as they do in order to get their relational needs met Second, there is not necessarily any link between integrated behaviour as a leader and reward or longevity in the role; Thirdly the underpinning of the system of leadership and followership is to do with culture. Maintenance of a particular culture through time is profoundly interconnected with leadership; The legitimate social position held by the leader (positional power, or referent power) can enable the emergence of rackety or other script based behaviours from predominantly functional behaviour . This may happen because the constraints of a functionally based structure are relaxed in the role of leader; the leader is legitimately free of many of the constraints affecting the follower; Once established in the organisation the culture gradually shifts to the new dynamic until recruitment and other supporting processes are actively supporting the development of a culture in which the “new” but dysfunctional behaviour is the norm. Conclusions

29. “No institution can possibly survive if it needs geniuses or supermen to manage it. It must be organized in such a way as to be able to get along under a leadership composed of average self-aware and self-developing human beings.” Modified after Peter Drucker.