Introduction
Through this work, we intend to analyze leadership in general and business leadership in particular, with the tools offered by the myth of the hero as a fundamental archetype, according to Carl Jung.
We will focus on the current leadership, omitting the comparison with the leadership of the beginning of the industrial revolution, since the current one is the evolution of that one. In addition, because the present is about the psychological development of leaders and what complexes must be developed by anyone to reach leadership positions in companies today.
The hero's journey will be taken as the axis to develop and compare the aspects that relate the myth to the person's behavior. How at each stage of the journey the behaviors of current leaders are reflected. What kind of complex comes into play at each stage and how to use it to stay on track.
Development
We are going to develop very briefly the concepts of Archetype, Complex and Myth in order to understand how the topic to be dealt with is approached.
According to Carl Gustav Jung, the human psychic apparatus is composed of a conscious part, a personal unconscious where the complexes that govern us according to the situation we live in are located, and a collective unconscious where the archetypes are located.
Going deeper into each of these stages from the outside to the inside of the human being, we have the following.
The (conscious) self is a complex advisor and guiding center of consciousness, it is loaded with images as a set of representations of what the senses of the external world capture. Provides the feeling of continuity.
The personal unconscious that is individual to each person, is the postponed, the forgotten and what has little slight emotional charge. It would be what people generally call unconscious but it acts like two memories. One that we can go to quickly and when we need it and another that is more deeply guarded or repressed for some reason.
The collective unconscious is given by our "psychic inheritance" no longer personally, but as a species. These are data that we have inherited since the creation of the human being. It is a knowledge with which we are all born, even though we are never fully aware of this. It is from this intrinsic knowledge that an influence is established on all our experiences and behaviors, especially emotional ones; but we only know them indirectly, seeing this influence. There are countless archetypes that govern us. We will name the most common.
- The person: The personality that the individual shows. The Shadow: repressed characteristics that we do not want to recognize. The Anima: the feminine unconscious of the man. The Animus: the masculine unconscious of the woman. The great mother: positive and negative. Loving and hateful mother. The wise old man: Wisdom and reason. The hero: To defeat the forces of evil, he has powers and a weak point. The self: genetic and evolutionary tendency. It tends to unite the rest of the archetypes.
We developed a little more the hero archetype, which is what interests us to understand why the leader can be defined with this archetype.
The hero as an archetype, but also as the protagonist of a journey, on his journey he learns, changes and adapts like the people who accompany him on his journey. Joseph Campbell, a follower of Jung's school, in the book "The Hero of a Thousand Faces" affirms that myths are natural creations of the human mind, so that the stories and legends of different societies have important parallels.
Campbell develops the myth of the hero in stages. These stages that he describes are going to be the guide to start relating the hero's journey to today's business leadership. This development defines it as the cycle of the hero.
1. Separation
to. Call to adventure / refusal to call
b. Supernatural help
c. First Threshold Crossing / Whale Belly
2. Initiation
to. Path of Evidence
b. Encounter with the goddess / woman as a temptation
c. Reconciliation with the father
d. Ultimate grace
3. Return
to. Refusal to return
b. Magic escape
c. Rescue from the outside world
d. Crossing the threshold of return / Possession of the two worlds
and. Freedom to live
General characteristics of the hero. "Person who has been able to overcome his historical personal limitations and has been able to transcend". This is a very good definition of a successful business leader. He is that person who is able to see a little further than the rest and that global vision is what positions him and allows him to transcend.
“The hero himself is exposed to situations similar to those of the Oedipus complex, since he is somehow separated from the protection that his daily life gives him without many problems on the part of the force that he must face. In the long run, he will end up identifying himself with this same force, by sharing his relationship, or by taking the place of the tyrant, or by returning on behalf of those forces. ” This is very common in cases where the leader emerges from the work team. Many people prefer to stay and not ascend, so that they do not lose that protection that the same colleagues give them. The moment the opportunity presents itself, the complex is activated and whoever does not dare to face it will leave it without the opportunity for growth or transformation.It is also often seen in companies that once they assume the risk of leading, they assume the role of tyrant, ignoring their old environment, the environment that at one time gave them comfort and act as tyrants.
The hero lives in a hut or castle or is a warrior or a demigod or a boy with good feelings who wants to be someone… Everything can be normal in his life, until he is “called”. It may be that he carries some kind of bloodline in his blood and does not know it, but it is discovered to be related to the very cause of his adventure. ” The cases of Henry Ford, John Deere, and the more local Marcelo Tinelli, to name a few, are all with a common denominator. They started poor and from far below and at some point they received "the call" that prompted them to pursue what they had inside that they surely did not know was there. They simply embarked on the adventure of transformation.
Each hero is born according to the needs of an era and a place. He is surrounded by extraordinary events. The tendency has been to deify the hero. His redemption is psychological, but it can also be metaphysical. For this reason, historical heroes are divinized or venerated at that level, since legend must always attribute capabilities or find coincidences with real events to be manifestations of destiny (Once upon a time…) Especially in popular versions, heroes repeat history of the ugly duckling.
The way of the hero.
1. Separation
Campbell tells us that in myths, it is caused by the creative forces of the universe. It is analogous to the "awakening of the Ego", whether for a historical undertaking or the passage to maturity, which is something unknown to the hero. They call him, something attracts him or he takes the first step of his adventure. But either you can accept it and start the long road, or you can reject it and lock yourself in the walls of childhood, where you will always be protected (or even punished for it). Sometimes, the rejection of a person can cause a whole tragedy that must end with the coming of the hero.
From this point we can analyze this with several edges. A Team Leader who is being called by a superior to take over a team, company, branch or whatever. As we said before, the hero may not know that he is the one. This usually happens when a leader of a business unit takes over. At first you might have rejection of this new activity. As Campbell says, another possibility is that the person is interested in taking over a business unit. It is he himself who seeks that satisfaction. Hence, some professionals take as a great career to take more and more responsibility in the companies in which they work. Finally and to continue the Campbell line is the person who takes his first step. Choose to be a leader and begin to develop for that purpose.Just as the hero of myths, training, preparation and dedication are necessary to face the situation. Of the 3 possibilities, the most notable is the third since the prepared man can take the first step and become an excellent leader.
2. Supernatural help
“The hero who starts his business receives the timely help of some supernatural force, as sent by mother nature (the feminine aspect of creation). It can be an animal, a female and / or maternal figure that intercedes for help or a benign and protective old man (a cricket, a teacher…), who will support coinciding with the hero, and if he has a sense of destiny and has responded to the call, of course. And it cooperates so that it reaches the threshold of the adventure itself, that is, that it faces the first monsters or tests to reach the goal ”.
All this supernatural help that the hero receives on his journey is what a supervisor of a group of people can receive from his direct boss or some other manager who sees in him the possibilities of leading. We are not referring to a “black hand” or an “accommodation” but to the genuine impulse of a superior in the company to encourage the development of leadership capacities. This help may also not be recognized by the recipient and take it as an excess pressure by their superiors, but once recognized as such it is an "enlightenment" and if it is prepared, the path to leadership begins.
3. Crossing the threshold
"It deals with the entrance to the unknown, such as jungles, seas, strange lands or associations with libido, parricidal destruction and other unconscious contents. Hence the ogres, the deceivers, the satyrs or the beasts that devour peoples. The old man who helps must always warn of dangers and ask the hero for caution. But the only way to move forward is to face the monster itself. "
Analyzing a little with the experience of years in leading teams, we could say that really taking the helm of a new team one enters strange lands, the new boss does not know the entire team and must face it in order to carry out his company. Although the dangers exist, the true leader faces them and manages to dominate that monster. Controlling the variables with the help of external wisdom and controlling the environment as the hero does in the Campbell myth.
4. The belly of the whale
“It becomes the entrance to the kingdom of the unknown, which was guarded by the monster. It is dying and then being reborn to a higher degree or entering the state of deep sleep, where the forces of the unconscious rule, from where we will wake up. ”
It is the stage in which the new leader, regardless of how he has emerged, begins to exercise that leader / hero responsibility. When he realizes that the person he was is no longer adapting to this new stage. When you take responsibility for the leadership and management of the business unit, leaving behind and even giving in personally to certain things. The leader must be lonely so that people know they are in another dimension.
5. The female figure
“She is the princess who must be saved and who is finishing all barriers, where the center of the world is located. Sleep It is beautiful and it is perfect. It is like the latent and permanent idealized cognitive model at the bottom of our unconscious, based on the maternal figure, so it can either be sweet, or on the contrary, aggressive, or a forbidden desire (Oedipus). It also symbolizes the primary and final state of things (grave: belly) and brings together good and evil. Those who are not prepared to know such a revelation can suffer horribly. But initiates can discover universal truths. "
At this stage we consider the beautiful woman as the organization itself. It is the one that puts the barriers between the role of leader and the real life that is outside of it. As Jung describes it. Represents the mother figure. It can be with the sweet or aggressive leader. This ambiguity generally occurs based on the results that the leader shows. If the leader fulfills her objectives, the organization venerates her and if she does not achieve it, they sacrifice her. It also punishes improper relationships with the company (theft, deception, falsehoods). To end this comparison, we can say that, as stated in the hero's path, it symbolizes the beginning and end of the leader's activity in the organization. This image is difficult to assimilate for those who are not prepared to be leaders.Those who have imposed the path of the leader and have not developed the necessary skills for the position.
6. Encounter with the father
“The chief to be ultimately defeated becomes the father figure, or the masculine side of the cosmic forces and of our unconscious. The father in myths is sometimes sensible or forgiving, but despite this, those who have not started well tend to fail. Other times it is a similar figure, which must be overcome because it has been corrupted (a tyrant king, a patriarch addicted, a black knight). Or he is also an ogre father, jealous of someone dethroning him, or taking the love of the mother (Layo) ”.
In any case, the father becomes the initiator of the hero, because he acts as a “priest”, so that the protagonist changes from childhood to maturity. He is the one who is going to prepare him, to culminate with baptism or circumcision and thus change his state physically and, above all, psychologically. The test is painful during the performance of the test. If he survives her, the hero will now be someone else.
This stage of the journey goes through an internal struggle of the leader. It occurs when the leader has the power, has the confidence and has the approval and is tempted to be a tyrant. To send, not to drive. Today there are many, many leaders of organizations that allow the leader to develop only up to that point. The total ignorance of this current and the disbelief of psychology make the leader who has not yet overcome his fight with the father to be adopted as a model to follow. That leader who has not been able to overcome his internal corruption that, transformed into tyranny, returns it to the business culture. This tells us that in many organizations the hero has not yet been transformed and has not evolved. Proof of this is that, even perhaps without knowing it, companies like Google,3M and Hp have fully developed leaders as individuals. The problem of the current organization is that it does not allow the development of the person, they try to develop the leader but they do it from the position of the beautiful woman who punishes him and the father who has not been able to overcome.
7. Apotheosis
That is, the hero, when he has matured after walking the path, faces the final duel. He becomes a god in the sense that he realizes that his triumph will solve problems, not only his own, but also that of his world (Christ, Buddha), symbolized by defeating the evil that terrified others. His victory is before the forces that have put him on this adventure, and he consecrates himself as the savior of the world. Get the "ultimate grace" (wisdom, eternal life, freedom, peace, redemption…)
As we said, in the struggle / reconciliation with the father the leader who does not go through this illumination of his being, cannot be seen as a true current leader. As the industrial system has evolved, leaders have to evolve. A leader who does not have this "grace" cannot obtain true success. Your own success and that of your people. That the sum of the contributions is greater than the contribution of the team.
8. Ultimate grace
If the hero carries out his adventure with relative ease and / or daring, then he becomes of a superior nature (he is a king by right). And grace is beyond the castle, beyond the depth of consciousness where all existence dissolves (deep sleep), or the "Axis Mundi" or axis of the world, where it performs its feat (the cross, the Ash of Odin), or the center of all existence and source of what the hero was going to look for. The rival is not the goal, but what he guards (an "elixir"). And from the moment he succeeds, he becomes a different, transcendent and eternal being. And it is when all creation applauds that triumph. The hero deserves glory and is deified, knows glory
This stage depends on, as we said, on the call as the hero has started on the road. Whether it was a leader called out of necessity, one who had been preparing for many years or a parachutist who placed himself in a position for the convenience of the "mother" or organization.
9. The return
The return is the last part of the cycle, and it is just as complex as the other phases, since, with the completion of his adventure and his transformation, the hero will have trouble returning with the product of his feat and showing it to others. It is the process of returning to the conscious state after deep sleep.
As Campbell points out, it is very difficult to return from the unconscious to the conscious state. The years it takes to develop a leader of excellence, make this lighting very difficult to transmit when carrying out this excellence. It often happens that when the leader tries to communicate, the collaborators, not having that internal fire necessary to lead, do not understand what the leader says.
It is in the Leader's Journey that he meets his shadow. Where he discovers a lot of himself and manages to accept himself in pursuit of a certain result or end. If you do not accept that you fear or have shortcomings, you may suffer the consequences. Another issue that is often discussed in leaders, especially the elderly, is that of secession of power. How to choose another leader if he is not going to do it as he does. This theme is closely related to the myth of the leader of eternal life. It is well known that even today the possibility of physical immortality fascinates. What is very difficult for an ancient leader to think is that he will not die when he leaves his post, but must strive on his "journey" to leave a legacy to be remembered forever in his corporation. Work so that people remember him and thus he will be the possessor of the eternal flame.
conclusion
The hero is one of the things that are about to be done, the one that will make the change. The monsters defend the established order, they defend the classic paradigms of driving people where the boss orders and the employee obeys. These times are developing more hero leaders, in fact, more hero leaders are needed who understand the value and importance of the position they occupy. Being a leader carries a great responsibility of self-knowledge, of integrating as a person and managing the complexes that govern us to be able to adapt to each situation and be able to get away without a high personal cost. Know our weaknesses and our points of support, such as the beautiful woman and the support of the father. During this wonderful journey that poses the myth of the hero, one leaves behind the person he was. As Jung says it,the cycle of recognizing yourself in one stage of evolution and letting yourself die in order to move on to the next and continue evolution. They are monumental custodians and must be removed for that, to evolve as a company and as human beings.
The tyrant is oppressive, abusive and, apparently, indestructible, that makes him a very proud person, which will be his downfall. The hero however knows perfectly how to destroy it.
The other edge of the conclusion is the typical question. Leader of does or is born ?.
Analyzing a little Jung's development of the human psyche we can say that we all have the hero in our collective unconscious. All humans have in our unconscious the hero, the mother, the anima and animus so we could say that hero is born. All of us come to the world with that "ancestral knowledge", we all have the same bases in our unconsciousness, concluding in an adequate way that a hero is born.
At the same time, Carl Gustav Jung tells us in his description of the psychic apparatus that we are led by a complex that governs us according to the situation in which we find ourselves. On this basis of the theory we can say that if we do not innately possess the competences of a leader, we can develop them by exposing certain complexes that are going to make us extract from our unconscious and put it in the conscious and in this way we can act appropriately. in situations where we must lead. Particularly in this situation we conclude that what must be learned in order to be a current leader is that we must not let complexes control us and thus avoid reactions that do not suit leadership.
Then we can conclude, also adequately, what leader is made.
In short, we are all born leaders despite the fact that some are more developed than others, some complex to lead. We are all born leaders and we can all become one. At least start with being the leader of yourself.
