Kate’s Leadership Development work with her colleague Jonty Leicester is currently featured on the Association for Business Psychology website in a new feature ‘Evidence in Action – How Business Psychologists are having an Impact’.
Evidence in Action – How Business Psychologists Are Having an Impact
After delivering a highly regarded development programme for emerging leaders, we found ourselves reflecting on an important question. What was it that genuinely created movement within this group?
As is often the case in our work, the most significant shifts seemed to happen when participants were encouraged to look more deeply at the psychology underpinning their leadership.
One of the approaches we frequently draw upon is Eric Berne’s (1972) Transactional Analysis (TA). In particular, the “drivers and blockers” framework, developed from Berne’s concepts (Kahler & Capers, 1974), helps individuals explore the underlying beliefs, motivations and protective patterns influencing how they lead, relate and respond under pressure.
As participants begin examining these patterns and assumptions, we often notice a distinct shift in the atmosphere of the group: greater reflection, moments of insight, emotional honesty and, frequently, a sense of stillness as people recognise something important about themselves. We then encourage participants to translate these insights into practical goals and behavioural changes, helping new awareness become something tangible and usable.
For example, one participant, Sara, recognised that her tendency towards micromanagement was linked to a strong “Be Perfect” driver alongside an underlying fear of failure. Through facilitated small-group discussion and reflection, she began reframing some of these assumptions and experimenting with a more trusting and empowering approach. In later sessions, she shared evidence of positive changes both in her team’s performance and in her own effectiveness and workload.
Used thoughtfully, TA can help people understand how long-held beliefs and internal narratives shape their leadership behaviour and relationships at work. At the same time, we are mindful of its limitations. TA emerged from psychoanalytic traditions and has not had the same evidence base for behaviour change as approaches such as cognitive behavioural therapy have. We also believe that introducing psychologically informed approaches into leadership settings requires considerable facilitator skill, strong ethical boundaries and appropriate care.
Nonetheless, in our experience, this kind of psychologically informed reflection can be highly powerful in developing self-awareness and growth. Participants often describe gaining deeper insight into their automatic reactions and feeling they have more choice in how they respond to people and situations.
Kate Williams and Jonty Leicester are Business Psychologists who support organisations in developing leaders, teams and organisational effectiveness.
