Meta-ManagerLearn to Nurture Your Leadership Skills

Thorsten Geck Dipl.-Psych. • TSTA-O Ohlsdorfer Str. 3a • 22299 Hamburg • GERMANY +49 17 55 92 64 05 • tge@me.com

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Table of Content2

4 Leadership 10 Personality

13 Communication 17 Stress, conflict

20 Roles 22 Group

25 Motivation 28 Interventions

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What is TA? Transactional Analysis (TA) is a social psychology. It is also a theory of personality and its development. Moreover, TA explains who people express their personality via communication - the transactions.

Since the development of TA in the fifties transactional analysts as a psychotherapy found many ways and approaches to apply TA in a wide field of contexts.

This workshop emphasizes on the use of TA models in the context of organization, especially how leaders might benefit from the knowledge and application of those concepts in their professional field.

The participants will have the opportunity to

– explore the leadership theory of TA

– the use of psychological concepts in understanding motivation of human beings in the work context

– the use of psychological concepts in self management and improving in social skills

– get an insight in TA concepts of groups and their development

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Why should people do what I want?

The basis of collaboration in an organizational context is the contract.

A contract in TA means an an explicit bilateral commitment to a well-defined course of action; an Adult commitment to oneself and/or someone else to make a change.

When an individual agrees to join an organization s/he becomes an employee. This role comes with tasks, duties and commitment.

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The company / my boss

Me, the supervisor

Them, the staff members

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Levels of contract. Psychological distances in contract

E. Berne suggests that a contract is based on three aspects.

The business contract. What will be the outcome?

The administrative contract. How will it be achieved? Regulations.

The psychological contract. What is the hidden agenda?

In the organizational context these aspects of a contract might be rephrased like:

What is the goal the employee has to achieve? (Outcome)

What are the regulations how this will be done? (Duties)

How is the employee motivated to fulfill her/his task? (Committment)

The three-cornered contract is also helpful to explain imbalances between the parties.

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Power Power means to influence the actions of others, individuals or groups ( R.Krausz).

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Status Pressure Reward

Knowledge Enthusiasm Relationship

People follow orders because they accept the rank of the leader.

People follow orders because the leader can force them.

People follow orders because they await incentive and reward.

People accept the superior (and helpful) experience of the leader.

People follow since they are attracted to the involvement or enthusiasm of the leader.

People are willing to follow due to a stable relationship based on social skills of the leader.

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Leadership styles Leadership styles can be distinguished by the way the leader uses power to influence people. Also, the style of communication forms the style of leadership.

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Visionary

The leader develops a vision and talks about it.

Directive Pacing

Affiliative Participative Training

The leader tells people how to fulfill a task.

The leader talks about the desired outcome and step right into the activity.

The leader emphasizes good relationship and encourages social bonding.

The leader let people participate in developing a vision and engage them in a discussion how to achieve it.

The leader focuses on improvement of skills of her/his employees. S/he gives extensive feedback on performance.

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Leadership theory in TA

E. Berne suggest that in each group there are three kinds of leaders. They power of leadership might be concentrated in one person but it is not necessarily the case.

Responsible leader.

Is responsible and will be held responsible for the outcome of groups activity. The outcome might be a success as well as a failure.

Effective leader.

Finds solutions to groups problems. Organizes resources, gets things done and gets others doing their job. The person whose questions are answered and directions are followed.

Psychological leader.

Gives strokes and contains the group. In the fantasies of the group members this person is able and potent enough to hold the group together and guarantees the survival of the group during crises.

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Attitude TA offers as a central philosophical stance the OK-OK-position towards the person herself and the others. The life-position is a person’s basic beliefs about self and others, which are used to justify decisions and behaviour; a fundamental stance which a person takes up about the essential value he or she perceives in self and others.

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From: Wallgren, K.: The Managerial Corral

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Personality What makes a human being? What distinguishes individuals from each other? What do people have in common?

Personality is a frame of reference to talk about identity, similarity and diversity.

A core concept in TA is the ego state. The three kinds of ego state form our personality.

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Thinking

Feeling

Behaviour

Parent

Adult

Child

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Personality and leadership11

Parent

Adult

Child

What did I learn from others for me being in charge?

What did I find out for myself to cope with situations (as a leader)?

What is the appropriate thing to do in a given situation?

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Biography Script is an unconscious life-plan made in childhood, reinforced by the parents, ‘justified’ by subsequent events, and culminating in a chosen alternative.

Our biography (events, role models) forms our understanding about what leadership means. We learn from significant others how to behave in situations.

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When you were young — what did you want to do for a living?

What were your parents expectations about your professional future?

What is your rank in the birth order of you and your siblings?

What did you learn from our favorite teacher in order to be a grown up person?

What did you learn from your first boss for your own role as leader?

Which living person inspires you and why?

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Communication Communication plays a central role in TA. The term TA comes from transaction. A transaction is a transactional stimulus plus a transactional response: the basic unit of social discourse.

Complementary transaction. People engaged in the conversation found a way to synchronize their communication.

Crossed transaction. People talk about different things in a different way. The need to focus their attention on finding a mutual shared base for exchange.

Ulterior transaction. People communicate unconscious or unspoken messages and create different meaning on the different levels of communication.

The principles of communication are:

As long as people found a common base the conversation can go on forever.

When people experience crossing and misunderstanding, they need to change attitude and behavior to each other in order to maintain the conversation.

The communication needs to be clear. Otherwise misunderstanding precedes surprise and will lead to conflict.

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Productive communication

The concept of the functional model is linked to the concept of communication. The style of our communication (voice, body language, gesture, words, sentences) describes our leadership style as well as our personal style.

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cP nP

A

aC nC

soft, warm tonecare for othersprotect othersencourage

set limitsmaintain standards

firm voicegiving structure

ask questionsanalyze datamake decisionsdiscuss optionssolve problems

cooperateconsider others

socialisecompliant

empathicjoyfulenergeticintuitive

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Dysfunctional communication

The same functional qualities in our communication can be perceived negative and let the person feeling not-ok. This communication shapes the leadership style, too.

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cP nP

A

aC nC

overly protectivetakes over responsibility for others„marshmallowy“

controlpush someone around

talk downdismissive

without emotionno signs of empathy

submissivewhine

complainresistant

self-centeredimmature

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Internal mechanisms to evoke stress

TA offers different concepts to understand internal experience of being not-ok, stress, pressure and the feeling of not being in charge of yourself: Racket-feelings and rackets, drivers and mini-script. The focus here will be on racket theory.

Racket: a set of scripty behaviours, intended outside awareness as a means of manipulating the environment, and entailing the person’s experiencing a racket feeling.

Racketeering: a mode of transacting in which the individual seeks strokes from others for his or her racket feelings.

Racket feeling: a familiar emotion, learned and encouraged in childhood, experienced in many different stress situations, and maladaptive as an adult means of problem-solving.

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My response to stress17

What is a stressful situation for me?

What triggers the stress experience?

What are my emotions as a first response?

How do I feel a few seconds later?

Is this feeling appropriate to the situation?

How do I respond to the stressful situation?

How do I guide myself to deal with my feelings?

How do I feel in the end? Can I let go the negative feelings?

What are my strengths in such a stressful situation?

What might be a disadvantage in the way I respond to stress?

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Transferring stress to others

Communication happens between at least two people. Racketeering is way to cope with the stress (fear, anger …) by involving other people. We might invite others into our own game.

Game: (Joines’s definition) the process of doing something with an ulterior motive that (1) is outside of Adult awareness, (2) does not become explicit until the participants switch the way they are behaving, and (3) results in everyone feeling confused, misunderstood, and wanting to blame the other person.

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Being a Victim

Persecute Rescue

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What happens over and over again?19

How does it start?

What happens next?

What happens next?

How does it end?

How do I feel about it?

How does the other person feel about it?

[The hidden message to the other person]

[The hidden message to me]

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Roles A role is a pattern of

Emotions and feelings

Thinking and attitude

Behaviour

Perspective on reality

Specific relationship.

They come from the four worlds (organizational, professional, private and community). B. Schmid enhanced the concept of ego states in the concepts of roles which we take during the day in different situations.

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Role confusion: No clear understanding of the role.

Role contamination: Mixture of different roles.

Role economy: Being effective in the role without wasting resources.

Role activation: The capacity to active the proper role in the given context.

Role congruity: Feeling and living the role.

Role competence: Understanding what is needed in the role.

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What are my roles?21

Private WorldProfessional WorldOrganizational World Community World

What are my standards and principles?

What are my obligations, my rank, my room for decision? (What am I paid for)

What is important to me in relationship to family? Where and how do I refresh my energy?

How am I connected to other people in the society?

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The individual in the group

People come into a group and look for their place. In their fantasy they are occupied with how they fit in the internal image of the group leader and how the relationship to the leader is shaped and maintained.

Each person has a different internal picture how the group is organized and structured. Of course, people will share some aspects of their perception of the group — that is the group imago.

For being a productive member of the group the individual needs to feel save and perceive clear boundaries of the group and the task. There needs to be trust (reduction of complexity) and pragmatic rules.

The group members are concerned with (1) the survival of the group, (2) with clarification about hierarchy and leadership and (3) outcome of the group activity.

Groups might shift from being a task group - process group — combat group.

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Development of a team

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(1) Provisional imago

(2) Adapted imago

(3) Operative imago (4) Secondarily adjusted imago

(5) Clarified imago

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Me, the group leader24

What do I do to facilitate contact and encounter in the group?

What are functional / dysfunctional rules in the group?

How do I perceive the relationship between the group members? Professional, cordial, ok-ok?

What boundaries do I create and maintain?

What is the main activity in the group? Is this activity related to the task of the group?

How do we as a group deal with success / failure?

What kind of protection does the group need? How do I provide for that?

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Motivation TA offers a motivational theory which is based on relationship as well as basic needs of an individual.

Hungers. The need for physical stimulation and the need for structuring the time.

People structure their time in order to meet their needs for strokes and stroke patterns.

Stroke theory. A stroke is the unit for recognition.

Organizational culture is often based on the pattern of strokes people in this organization give or refuse to give.

Resilience and stress resistance in teams is significantly shaped by the way how team members give each other strokes for being there and the performance delivered.

Drives. F. English developed the theory of the needs of an individual for (1) survival, (2) self expression, (3) quiescence.

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Effective Meetings Leaders lead meetings. They improve their effectiveness by considering the time structuring of the group. Berne suggested that people in order to meet their stroke needs start to structure their time in a certain way they are used to it.

Withdrawal

Ritual

Pastime

Activity

Rackets, Games

Closeness

By analyzing the time structuring in the group the person in charge might help the group members to get the strokes need met. This will happen through change of activities and formats, feedback, allowing members to have time for themselves or involving in stimulating activities.

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Strokes in the team27

#1 #2 #3 #4 #5

When did I give this person a significant stroke?

What was the reason?

Did I invite OK-ness, no-OK-ness?

How was it perceived?

When did I get a significant stroke from this person?

What was the reason?

How did I perceive it?

What will I change with this person?

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Intervention landscape during change

The following model was developed by R. Balling. It is helpful to understand interventions in organizations and planning those interventions. It is mainly designed for consultants who work with organizations but it is useful as well for leaders.

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Person Organization

Interpretation

Facts

Personality Organizational culture

Body, education, training, skills

Organizational structure, contracts, process, routines,

business model, laws

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Questions for understanding the landscape29

In which areas will the intended

interventions might have an

impact?

What will be main effects, which

collateral effects are expected?

What undesired collateral effects

need to be prepared for? How to

minimize undesired effects?

Where will be negative

interdependencies?

Where on a time axis is the impact

located?

Which effects might be imposed

on the whole system and are part

of the whole change process (and

not singular actions)?

How can we demonstrate and

visualize the collaboration of

singular actions and their

impacts?

How will we evaluate our success?

Will we have a cost-benefit-

analysis for each intervention

and impact?

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Literature Balling, R.: Das Doppel-Spagat-Modell in der Beratung (Article)

Berne, E.: Structure and Dynamic of Groups and Organizations. In: Growth and Change for Organizations.

Krausz, R.: Power and Leadership in Organizations (TAJ)

Mohr, G.: Workbook Coaching and Organizational Development

Schmid, B.: Transactional Analysis and Social Roles. In: Growth and Change for Organizations.

Stewart, I. & Joines, V.: TA Today

Wallgren, K.: The Managerial Corral. In: Transactional Analysis in Organizations

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