How self-concepts inhibit leadership
We start developing concepts about ourselves in our early childhood. Do you remember your child saying things like ‘I want to be a fireman’? The intriguing question here is how self-concepts define the direction of our motivation and the choices that we make in life. Let’s ask that kid a question:
‘Why do you want to be a fireman?’ ‘I want to save people.’
‘Why do you want to save people?’ ‘Because I can. I’m strong and brave.’
The latter is a simple example of how a self-concept influences the motivation and choices that we make. Self-concepts provide us with a handle, a fixed point on reference in our personality that we can fall back on. Why do we need to? Because we’re naturally looking for security and belonging.
Self-concepts are defined as “An idea of the self-constructed from the beliefs one holds about oneself and the response from others” [reference]. As we’re trying to make sense of ourselves and our place in the world we’re constantly forming beliefs. These beliefs are either approved or disapproved by our environment.
Here is where the problem lies with self-concepts: We’re letting our past choices influence our future decisions. This may especially be the case with choices we make in our careers. Once we thought “I’m a consultant. There is nothing else for me to do except to be a better consultant.” This self-concept will be the new anchor point against which we evaluate any new stimuli from our environment. To either accept or discard it. When something conflicts with our knowledge, we usually choose to discard.
Leaders
Leaders are occupied with realizing their vision. Leadership is generally not displayed by title, but by actions. Leaders are going after the unknown, an uncertain path towards a vision. Leaders require the rare combination of persistence and flexibility. Making the first successful steps in the right direction is not a guarantee that any other resulting steps will be correct. Therefore a leader needs to incorporate and objectively weigh all new information.
To ensure objectivity, successful leaders process new information by incorporating a strong self-reflection mechanism in their daily routine. They are well aware that one person cannot foresee everything, so they organize a circle of people around them that provide them with honest feedback.
Self-concepts will inhibit leaders from developing a realistic vision of themselves and their current position in their environments. And all new information will be colored by that self-concept. The only way to become a successful leader is to think of yourself as a dynamic organism in your environment exemplified by answering the question “What do you do?” with “I am.”
Once another person has discovered what your self-concepts are, you can be manipulated by that person by allowing them to reinforce that self-concept or create a new self-concept that suits the manipulator. The reason that good leaders are less prone to manipulation is that they simply don’t have self-concepts. Leaders evaluate the situation and act/react based on what action is required to move ahead without letting their actions be influenced by self-concepts or manipulation. Tailoring your behaviour to the situation requires being a personality chameleon, which will be explained in another post.
You can easily identify or discover self-concepts by 360 degree feedback from your environment. Discover how your self-concepts color the information you receive and try to change your environment. For it will only be with change that you’ll truly discover yourself. Are you a leader?
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How self-concepts inhibit leadership was originally published on Reyndert Coppelmans
