“Self-Awareness”: At the Interface of Executive Development and Psychoanalytic Therapy

Abstract

In the field of leadership development, increased self-awareness is strongly tied to executive effectiveness. With its emphasis on increased self-knowledge, executive consultation would seem to share important common ground with psychoanalytic treatment. This apparent commonality is the focus of detailed exploration in this article, using concepts and experiences derived from both executive coaching and psychoanalytic treatment to add to the understanding of self-awareness in action.

A consideration of the related concepts of self-observation, self-reflection, and self-awareness provides a springboard for describing how a psychoanalytic approach can enrich typical coaching activities to increase executive self-awareness. The critical role of emotional awareness in working with executives is emphasized, and the special role of a psychoanalytic perspective in guiding interventions in this realm is highlighted. Several examples from an executive consultation practice are used to illustrate how a psychoanalyst approaches self-awareness (and emotional awareness in particular) to foster a leader's development.

The final section of this article is devoted to the contrasting contexts and modes of self-awareness in psychoanalytic treatment and executive consultation. Although both coaching clients and therapy patients participate in a journey of self-discovery that requires rigorous self-scrutiny, there are important differences in the two enterprises.

Some concluding thoughts are offered on how interventions to develop executive self-awareness can broaden our perspective on the kinds of insight and self-understanding that are at the core of the clinical enterprise.

Notes

¹This concept of self-observation is closely aligned with Fonagy et al.'s (2005) concept of mentalization and reflective function. Fonagy et al. took a developmental approach to the “understanding of the self as a mental agent,” linking it to the quality of the attachment between the young child and the caregiver. Fonagy et al. used the concept of mentalization, the capacity to understand mental states in others and in oneself, as a broad indicator of mature development and as a goal of the psychoanalytic process, especially with borderline patients.

²Although Goleman suggested that self-confidence is a separate emotional intelligence competency, I view it, instead, as a critical by-product of the internal alignment or integration described previously. Rather than approaching self-confidence as a given, this dynamic approach to self-confidence is more consistent with Kohut's perspective on self-experience, and suggests an avenue for intervention—helping an executive become more aware of the unique gestalt of his or her strengths, values, and goals. Increased self-awareness should correlate with increased self-confidence, as better internal alignment releases inner energy that fosters a greater commitment to action.

³Throughout this article, I use the terms executive coach and executive consultant interchangeably, although there are some differences in connotation. The term coach has a stronger connotation of 1:1 work with the executive to enhance his or her effectiveness. However, especially to psychoanalytically oriented practitioners, it can also connote a more superficial intervention that does not encompass unconscious motivation, resistance and defense, etc.

⁴Laura Huggler, Ph.D. (personal communication, January 14, 2010) has suggested that the psychoanalytic consultant, via the breadth of his or her experience, can help “normalize” for the executive episodes of intense feeling (e.g., internal conflict, doubt, fear, etc.). Huggler has found that this function plays a critical supportive and reassuring role for executives who otherwise don't have someone to talk to about these feelings.

⁵Elsewhere (Axelrod, 2007), I have used the term psychological saturation to describe a dimension of executive coaching cases that combines characteristics of the focal problem with the degree of executive psychological-mindedness. Assignments with high psychological saturation lend themselves to the psychoanalytic consultant's approach to developing executive self-awareness. Consulting assignments are subject to at least an implicit matching process, the more so as one's career progresses. Thus, executives who engage a psychoanalytic consultant may not be perfectly representative of the executive population. Although the cases described in this article are relatively high in “psychological saturation,” I believe the approach I am describing is valid across the spectrum of psychological saturation.

⁶However, the consultant working with an executive is aware of, and frequently makes use of, the organization as a transference field onto which archaic relationship themes are projected (Laura Huggler, Ph.D., personal communication, Feb. 2, 2010.)

⁷Although there is certainly more need than ever before for leaders to be aware of their emotions to effectively influence their followers, there are also strong countervailing forces that can lead to a drive for results at the expense of people and their feelings. Thus, it is all too common to encounter executive leaders who are borderline alexithymic, significantly out of touch with their feelings. For these executives, the chronic experience of high levels of stress in their drive for results and pursuit of personal reward constitute significant barriers to achieving emotional awareness.

⁸In my experience, a lack of the prerequisite ego strength undermines a wide range of organizational interventions, from executive coaching to conflict resolution and team-building exercises.