Leadership analysis

Leadership analysis is the art of breaking down a leader into basic psychological components for study and use by academics and practitioners. Good leadership analyses are not reductionist, but rather take into consideration the overall person in the context of the times, society, and culture from which they come. Leadership analysis is traditionally housed in political psychology departments and utilizes the tools of psychology to achieve political ends by exploiting the psyche in the case of practitioners, or to gain knowledge about the building blocks of leadership and individuals in the case of academics. The distinction between the two is not made frivolously; in fact, while academics and practitioners both engage in the overarching act of analyzing leaders, they go about it quite differently. Applied analysts make great use of the psychobiography, while academics tend to analyze transcriptions in search of traits and character clues. Leadership analysis is the art of breaking down a leader into basic psychological components for study and use by academics and practitioners. Good leadership analyses are not reductionist, but rather take into consideration the overall person in the context of the times, society, and culture from which they come. Leadership analysis is traditionally housed in political psychology departments and utilizes the tools of psychology to achieve political ends by exploiting the psyche in the case of practitioners, or to gain knowledge about the building blocks of leadership and individuals in the case of academics. The distinction between the two is not made frivolously; in fact, while academics and practitioners both engage in the overarching act of analyzing leaders, they go about it quite differently. Applied analysts make great use of the psychobiography, while academics tend to analyze transcriptions in search of traits and character clues. In keeping with the goals of psychology (describe, explain, predict, control), a psychobiography is first a description of an individual's life, an explanation or analysis in psychological terms of how the events shaped the individual, and an if/then predictor (if conducting an applied analysis) of the actions the individual might take if given the right situation, leaving the control/change up to the policy-maker requesting the analysis. An if/then predictor is used because no analyst will be able to know the environment that acts upon the individual to the extent of proper analysis. One of the most influential government analysts is Jerrold Post, founder of CIA's Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior. Post's analytical paradigm is below. His background, like many of the earliest applied analysts, was in psychiatry, which utilizes qualitative methods for analysis. Important theorists for a psychobiography would be Gordon Allport, Alfred Adler, Erik Erikson, Sigmund Freud, Urie Bronfenbrenner, Carl Jung, Albert Bandura, John Bowlby, among others. These methods focus primarily psychoanalytic, personality, and developmental theories including the influence of role models, early experiences, heroes and mentors, as well as ego defenses (known more commonly as defence mechanisms), personality types, belief systems, information processing styles, and cognitive factors. The important thing to note about leadership analysis is the consistency of the individual's belief systems, rather than small fluctuations. Personality types (and personality disorders) play a large part in aiding with analysis, as they are often associated with specific cognitive beliefs and processes. For example, extreme narcissists lack empathy, conscience, and will do anything to accomplish personal goals. Lack of accomplishment is usually taken extremely badly and narcissists have low self-esteem. Narcissists have trouble learning from others because they know everything. Leaders who are narcissists make their people give great shows affirming their righteous leadership, demand praise from others, and employ “yes men”, or sycophants. Other common personality types of leaders are obsessive-compulsive, which makes for a hardworking leader with great organizational skills, but also one afraid to make decisions for fear of making a mistake, excessively contentious, and lacking in social grace, and the paranoid; a hypersensitive, easily slighted leader who see the world as full of enemies and will rarely negotiate. Paranoid leaders fall prey to projecting their beliefs (ego defense) on those around them and are therefore largely autonomous and independent. Their enemies are always coordinated and rational actors intent on the paranoid's destruction. In line with developmental psychology, life stages are a particularly important part of analysis, especially during the mid-thirties (when most leaders of coups emerge), or in old age, when leaders, especially narcissists, feel the reins of power slipping and either try to consolidate power, as did Deng Xiaoping, or give it up, as did Charles de Gaulle.