The Counseling Psychologist in Business and Industry

Abstract

Leadership like everything else that is vital, finds its source in understanding. To be worthy of management responsibilities today a man must have insight into the human heart, for unless he has awareness of human problems, a sensitivity towards the hopes and aspirations of those whom he supervises, and a capacity for analysis of the emotional forces that motivate their conduct, the projects entrusted to him, will not get ahead, no matter how often wages are raised.Improving interpersonal relations should be a major goal of all managerial education and development … a formidable task that involves attitudes, behavior, and the skills in human relations that are probably the most hard to teach and to learn.The most essential step in achieving this task is to know and to understand ourselves as a requirement for understanding others. This involves self‐analysis, self‐awareness, and self‐development as primary conditions for effective leadership.All genuine learning is essentially personal. It depends upon self‐motivation and is derived from the felt needs of the student; it is in the last analysis, self‐learning; it is largely an emotional experience.Constructive learning involves change and adjustment of attitudes and behavior. This kind of learning is stifled by authority; it requires participation in creating the learning environment and a permissive atmosphere in which participants are free to discuss real problems in which they have a sense of personal involvement.Listening with understanding is the gateway to real communication and it can be an effective means of altering personality structure.