Intrapsychic Impediments to Effective Leadership

Abstract

The psychological underpinnings of effective leadership depend on the synergy of the id, ego, and superego. Effective leadership requires an ego that is flexible, resilient to changing situations, and sensitive to interpersonal cues, with cognitive and intellectual capacities to understand business and corporate challenges. It must channel drives, especially active ones, into assertive, but thoughtful, action. As well, the ego must be able to regulate impulse expression, tolerate frustration, and work toward goals. The superego contributions include goal setting, aspiring to ideals, and playing by the rules. It must help maintain a consistent, but not overly harsh, attitude toward the self and its actions. Leadership grows, too, from learning and from identifications, both conscious and unconscious, with significant models from both childhood and adulthood. It includes a healthy regulation of narcissism that can maintain stable self-esteem in the face of failure and criticism, both from within and without. Sound object relations are also necessary, especially those that allow for an experience of objects that includes awareness of their actual (as opposed to their transference distorted) qualities. The object representations should be multifaceted enough to allow recognition simultaneously of the assets and limitations of the same person.

This synergy on which effective leadership depends can be shaped and distorted by intrapsychic conflict and unconscious fantasies. Freud (1916) and Abraham (1948) explored the ways an organizing intrapsychic constellation can shape character. These analyses included the individual's experience of reality and other people, concern (or lack of it) for the self, the inclination to work (or not) in one's own best interest, and patterns of choice and action.