Читать книгу Becoming an Invitational Leader - William W Purkey - Страница 13

The ability to examine and monitor our perceptions is essential to Invitational Leadership. Being aware of past and present perceptions and being able to imagine future possibilities permits the development of a deeper level of understanding of self, others, and the world. As Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, former head the University of Chicago’s Department of Psychology pointed out, reflection can lead a person to develop a more differentiated and integrated self; that is, a personality with many creatively harmonized interests..

Reflection also provides optimism because there is no inevitable future as long as we have the power to examine our lives. Although we cannot change the past, we can change our perceptions of previous events and consequently open more possibilities for the future. Such introspection goes beyond “I feel”; it is also “I think,” “I know,” “I reflect,” “I monitor,” and “I imagine.” At this point, real change becomes possible.

So far, we have emphasized that people behave according to how they see things. We explained that these perceptions are learned and can be reflected upon. Now we come to that paramount perception of personal existence: the self-concept.