Psychology and Leadership

My last class in my MBA program was “Leadership.”  While working through the course, it was amazing how many parallels I found with psychology.  It really makes sense when you think about it.  Psychology is the study of human behavior and leadership is when a person acts in a way to get others to work together to accomplish a common goal.  In order for a leader to be successful, they have to be aware of their followers’ behavior and how they can modify that behavior to meet the organization’s needs.  We look at behavioral (operant) approaches as well as coercive approaches to leadership.  Interesting…..to saythe least.  Obviously the course was much more in depth than what I have written here, but the parallels are obvious.  My advice for those who are in leadership roles, or wish to someday be in a leadership role, is to learn as much as you can about psychology.  Understanding why people behave the ways that they do can help to offer solutions when trying to alter that behavior.