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Exploring the Reservoirs of Drivers and Blockers (Conscious and Unconscious): Worldviews and Emotions

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Abstract

In this chapter, we review the role of worldviews and emotions in influencing people’s responses to change and acting as drivers as well as blockers. Worldviews impact how an individual perceives and analyzes events, and the way he or she comprehends and engages with reality. They define the space in which people function, shaping their reactions as per their “beliefs and assumptions”. Emotions, on the other hand, play a critical role in the working of the mind and brain in dealing with issues, especially when one is faced with the uncertainties of circumstances.

Keywords

  • Leadership development
  • Self-awareness
  • Conscious and unconscious
  • Drivers
  • Blockers
  • Drivers and blockers
  • Immunity to change
  • Insightfully aware leadership
  • Leadership transformation
  • Individual change
  • Leadership development objectives
  • Coaching approaches and tools

…our souls may be consumed by shadows, but that doesn’t mean we have to behave as monsters.

Emm Cole, in the ‘The Short Life of Sparrow’

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Ontology refers to our assumptions on the nature of reality and what we think reality is, whether it exists, what its components are and their interdependency.

  2. 2.

    An example from our research (see Sect. 10.1, Example 3).

  3. 3.

    Daniel Goleman (1996) introduced the term “amygdala hijack” in his book Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. He builds the construct of “amygdala hijacks” on the work of LeDoux (1992) on emotions and the amygdala.

  4. 4.

    Former CEO of eBay.

  5. 5.

    Former CEO of Microsoft.

  6. 6.

    An example from our research (see Sect. 10.1, Example 4).

  7. 7.

    Like Freud, we use the terms “conscious” and “unconscious” interchangeably in our work. An interesting article on the use of these terms by Michael Miller (2010) of Harvard Health Publishing can be found at: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/unconscious-or-subconscious-20100801255

    We also recognize that there is debate about the terms in scholarship. For example, Malim & Birch (1998, p. 205) define subconscious as “one level below conscious awareness” and believed that unconscious is “a total lack of awareness” (Malim & Birch, 1998, p. 204).

  8. 8.

    An example from our research (see Sect. 10.1, Example 5).

  9. 9.

    An example from our research (see Sect. 10.1, Example 6).

  10. 10.

    An example from our research (see Sect. 10.1, Example 33).

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Woodward, I.C., Shaffakat, S., Dominé, V.H. (2019). Exploring the Reservoirs of Drivers and Blockers (Conscious and Unconscious): Worldviews and Emotions. In: Exploring Leadership Drivers and Blockers. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-6276-7_4

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