Situational Leadership® came about as the result of a lifetime of study by Dr. Paul Hersey on the complex issue of human behavior and human behavioral management. Professor Hersey is a world class leadership and development trainer. He is also a published author, a superior keynote speaker, the creator of Situational Leadership® and the founder of the Center for Leadership Studies. In this post, Dr. Hersey takes an in-depth look into what he likes to call "A Healthy Personality."
All people behave from these three ego states at different times. A healthy person has a personality that maintains a balance among all three; particularly, according to Abe Wagner. Nurturing Parent, Adult, and Happy Child. This means that these people are able, at times, to let the Adult ego state take over and think very rationally and engage in problem solving. At other times, these people are able to free the Child ego state and let their hair down, have fun, and be spontaneous and emotional. At still other times, healthy people are able to defer to the Parent ego state and learn from experience; they do not have to reinvent the wheel every time. They develop values that aid in the speed and effectiveness of decision making.
While a balance among all three ego states seems to be most healthy, some people seem dominated at times by one or two ego states. This is especially a problem when the Adult ego state is not in the "executive position" and a person's personality is being dominated by the Critical Parent or the Destructive Child. When this occurs in people, it poses problems for their managers in the world of work.
More specifically, Child-dominated people who are mainly coming from Destructive Child do not engage in much rational problem solving. They learned in their early years that they could get things by screaming, hollering, and being emotional. It's very difficult to reason with them in many situations. Instead of solving their own problems, these people want their managers or some other person to tell them what to do, where to do it, and how to do it – or what's right, what's wrong, what's good, and what's bad.
Parent dominated people, who are mainly coming from Critical Parent, also do not engage in much rational problem solving because they already know what's right and what's wrong. They seem to have an answer for everything. These people we would characterize with the comment, "Look! Don't confuse me with the facts. I've already made up my mind." It really doesn't matter how much real information anyone brings to these people – they've already decided "it's bad," "you should," or "you shouldn't."
Even Adult dominated people can be troublesome, because they can be very boring people with whom to work. They are often "workaholics." They don't seem to act like other people. They are never able to let down their hair and have fun. Thus, a balance between the three ego states makes for a healthy person.
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