Individual Development, EQ, Jung, Pearman Personality Integrator

A number of leadership oriented thinkers suggest that the fundamentals of leadership mean that an individual has articulated a direction, facilitated alignment of perspectives and resources with that vision, and motivated others to work in a committed fashion to realize that vision.  And when you ask the next question--what does direction, alignment, and commitment really look like?--you open Pandora's box of potential solutions.   Regardless of the "big" answer, the "small" answer resides in how leaders attend to their everyday interactions with others and with their environment (and by that I mean how they use symbols to influence the psychological environment).  The smallest of interactions with your employees, peers, team members, or stakeholders can have an enormous influence on how they perceive you as a leader -- and help you reach your business's goals.  I've used the following example a number of times to make this point. As 49-year-old Car...

Resentment: A Case Illustration While walking down the beautiful Malecon walkway in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico during a recent vacation, I overheard two individuals in an animated conversation discussing how much they resented what another person had said to them several years ago. Their expressiveness was such that it was unavoidable to hear their conversation. Their resentment toward an individual not present was strong and prompted a considerable amount of disclosure with one another.  This prompted my own reflection on the number of times I’ve worked with teams and resentments eroded teaming and just how powerful emotions can be such that an individual is imprisoned—literally “captured” by the emotion so that they are less free to choose how to respond in, much less enjoy, the moment. There are many aspects to the emotion of resentment, which have been written about by others. Nelson Mandela famously said, “Resentment is like drinking a poison and then hoping it will kill...

Your computer alert prompts you that you have ten minutes before your next meeting.  Looking at your calendar you realize that you need to print the minutes from the last meeting which was last week.  As you locate the email and print the file, you reach for the file on your desk with all of the notes from previous meetings.  A quick scan prompts your memory on the issues last week and what is likely to be discussed this week.   As you stand and reach for the special ink pen your teenage daughter gave you last week, you say out loud to yourself that you are enjoying the elegance of her gift and her recognition that you would enjoy it.  You walk to the meeting and immediately upon entering the room begin to talk to each person, telling a joke or asking about their previous weekend.  To the team member who was ill last week you ask how he is doing.  When the boss walks in and asks if everyone is ready, you ask if we can list all of the agenda i...

“Won’t this be confusing to people who have learned about their type as a four letter code?,” was the question put to me as I was talking about the Pearman Personality Integrator.   Of course, there are loads of assumptions and questions behind this question which are worth considering if you want to approach psychological type from a different frame. Let’s celebrate the use of well developed and substantial self-awareness strategies that invite an individual to consider how he or she behaves and affects the world around them.  And, most importantly, let’s celebrate any self-awareness strategy that enhances how an individual perceives and judges events in everyday life. The four letter code produced by the MBTI ® and similar tools approach psychological type from a very specific perspective.  Keep in mind that the assessment tools are NOT the same thing as Jung’s theory of psychological types. The four letter code tools seek to provide a fundamental sort between...

A Growthful Conversation One of the many splendid outcomes of Carol Dweck’s work on Fixed and Growth mindsets is that she provided guidance as to what these are all about and how to shift the perspective.  She points out that a “fixed” mindset is one where intelligence is perceived as fixed and so are other traits or qualities.  The view is you have a certain amount of an attribute and that’s what you have—-there isn’t any good reason to try to grow.  Challenges are avoided in that these may expose a ‘lack of the intelligence’ required. Effort is seen as fruitless. Getting things wrong and receiving feedback reveals limitations or problems that must be avoided.  A “growth” mindset seeks feedback because learning is assumed to be possible and achieved with effort; is patient with discomfort while learning; is more interested in learning than “checking the box”; enjoys complexity, and asks more questions than declares answers.  For sure, as Dweck notes, there...

Thinking—Logical, Analytical, and Outcome Oriented (or so the rumor goes) Ever wonder what all the fuss was about when it comes to being analytical?  Some folks are very basic in their use of thinking—-meaning they are quick to see gaps or problems and they think their job is done.  A more complex use of thinking is to begin with a perspective of multi-variate factors and exploring the underlying and intersecting systems in a situation.  It isn’t so much about finding the gaps as understanding the logic of factors, or as Jung put it, “following its own law s, [Thinking] brings the contents of ideation into conceptual connection with one another” (pp:830, page 481).  You have these ideas that you connect in a way that seems logical. Judging functions serve to provide a way to evaluate information and experiences so there is a basis for action or conclusion.  While the completeness and quality of all decisions begin with the kind of information that is u...

                                            What does empathy have to do with judgment?                                         A look at the engine of judgment: Thinking and Feeling. For many years I’ve had participants in psychological type workshops say to me, “How can Feeling be a rational judgment?”  “What does Feeling have to do with making decisions?”  “How is empathy related to making a choice or in judging something?”  When I’ve been with experienced long time consultant or facilitator users of psychological type assessments, I’ve asked the following and usually get silence in response:  “If Thinking is a rational judging process, how is Feeling rational?”  I’m willing to bet there are a number of readers of this blog who have had the ...