Читать книгу Becoming an Invitational Leader - William W Purkey - Страница 18

A third, vital cornerstone for Invitational Leadership is a particular thought process which we have named the “whispering self.” This inner voice is the internal monologue or dialogue that sounds off in our heads the moment we think about something. It is this internally audible voice that we listen to in our heads, which in turn influences what we do as leaders.

According to A.N. Sokolov, expert in the study of the power of internal dialogue, in all instances, people think, remember, and imagine through the use of private conversation: “Inner speech is nothing but speech to oneself, or concealed verbalization, which is instrumental in the logical processing of sensory data, in their realization and comprehension within a definite system of concepts and judgments.” Leaders who are aware that they talk to themselves are in a much better position to monitor and alter their inner voices. Those who are unaware of the whispering self have lost control of it. It is vital to be aware of our internal dialogue and to know where these voices lead.

The whispering self is the narrator who at every waking moment of our lives tells us who we are and what we should be about. In attempting to solve problems, make decisions, select a course of action, or understand a situation, we enter into internal dialogue with ourselves. During these inner conversations we look at options, consider their results, and then select what appears to be the best and safest course of action based on our internal constructions. Sometimes these constructions can be counter-productive. The following story was provided by our friend Bill Stafford:

A young man was driving his girlfriend home to the suburbs after an evening out. On his return trip back into the city, he had a flat tire in a remote section of the highway. When he went to get the car jack, he remembered he had taken it out of the car and had not replaced it. He recalled that there was a farm house about a half-mile away, and even though it was late at night he decided to walk to the farm house to borrow a jack from the farmer. As he walked he kept talking to himself about how angry the awakened farmer would be and how dumb he would feel for even asking. His self-talk continued as he walked up the path to the front door. He knocked on the door loudly, and the upstairs room lit up. The farmer leaned out the window and shouted: “What do you want?” The young man’s reply was immediate: “Keep your damned jack! I’ll figure out another way to fix my tire.”

Internal dialogue can be productive or counter-productive.

As highly esteemed behavioral researcher Shad Helmstetter explains, all of us talk to ourselves all the time. We are thinking machines that never shut down: “At times our self-talk comes in feelings that can’t quite be put into words. At other times it comes in little flashes, flickers of thought which never quite catch fire or glow bright enough or last long enough to become ideas, clearly thought out and understood.” It is this inner voice that allows us to respond to and actively manipulate both our internal and external environments.

The more intentional our thinking, as measured by clearly articulated, internal dialogue, the more likely it is to be acted upon. This hypothesis has been supported in our own research, with the help of our esteemed associates Stacy Hockaday and Keith Davis. Together, we found that by re-framing general, internal cognitions into clearly stated internal dialogue, individuals are in a better position to reach their goals and are more likely to do so.

Surprisingly, internal dialogue is that part of human consciousness that has been neglected by those who have written about leadership. Far more books have been written about understanding and controlling the outer world than on how to understand and control the inner self. The fact that internal cognitions serve as a guide for action has been largely overlooked. The whispering self seeks to fill this void. Invitational Leadership is in large part the product of internal dialogue regarding what we say to ourselves, about ourselves, others, and the world.