The deeper work of executive development

Kaiser, R.B. & Kaplan, R.E. (2006). Outgrowing sensitivities: The deeper work of executive development. Academy of Management Learning and Education, 5, 463-483.

Often overlooked in management theory and education, how leaders function in an intrapersonal sense—the “inner game of leadership”—is pivotal. We develop this idea in a specific application by describing how psychological wounds sensitize executives to be anxious about getting hurt again. These vigilant and unconscious concerns distort perceptions of organizational reality and lead to unnecessarily intense emotional reactions like anger, fear, and panic. In turn, this kind of emotional perturbation can cloud judgment and hamper performance. We present a practical psychology of the inner world of distorted beliefs, anachronistic assumptions, and anxious fears that often lurk beneath counterproductive behavior. Considerable attention is given to what management educators and developers can do to work at this deeper level by helping leaders become aware of, manage, and, ultimately, outgrow being hyper-sensitive to failure, inadequacy, rejection, dependency, and the like.

Article in copyrighted peer-review journal: Reprints available by request.

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