The Deeper Work of Executive Development: Outgrowing Sensitivities

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 such as 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 misplaced fears that often lurk beneath counterproductive behavior. Considerable attention is given to what management educators can do to work at this deeper level by helping leaders become aware of, manage, and, ultimately, outgrow being hypersensitive to failure, inadequacy, rejection, dependency, and the like. ........................................................................................................................................................................