Callan, Victor J.; Latemore, Greg --- "All the world's a stage - Leadership programs" [2008] MonashBusRw 31; (2008) 4(2) Monash Business Review 38

All the world's a stage
Leadership programs

Victor J. Callan, Greg Latemore

The experience of leadership is often like ‘theatre in the round’ in that the leader is always ‘on show’. As management educators, Victor J. Callan and Greg Latemore discuss the leadership program they’ve developed that takes this concept one step further.

In designing leadership and development programs and workshops, we have applied the metaphor of the inner and the outer theatre. This metaphor opens up some new ways of thinking about many well-established learning tools that we use as management educators. Effective leaders develop a balance between acute self-awareness (inner theatre) and genuine connection with others (outer theatre).

Strategies for developing this inner theatre include structured reflection, journaling and feedback. Processes for developing the outer theatre are just as important and include case studies, coaching, walk–talk pairs, panels and debates, executives-in-residence and action-learning projects. We find that this mix of instructor-directed and learner-directed strategies, combined with the continued support for managers back in the workplace, is assisting many managers to change and grow as leaders.

Our aim in this paper is to look at some of the strategies that assist managers explore, at a number of levels, new ideas and behaviours about their managing and leading.

Developing the inner theatre

How can one think successfully as a leader about what is salient without personal reflection and self-insight? Reflection has been shown to foster insight, spontaneity and mindfulness. Critical reflection is a major learning element in executive education. In our programs, it is one of the major devices used to construct and to explore the inner theatre. Reflective approaches help managers free themselves of old mental models and question perspective-limiting assumptions. The process of self-disclosing and questioning leads many managers to embrace opportunities to develop fresh perspectives about their leadership habits.

Driving reflection is the powerful use of appropriate open-ended questions (What did you do when you were at your best as a leader? How did you feel? or Why would anyone want to be led by you?); feedback from many of the diagnostics tools that are now available, including 360 degree feedback; the use of memorable stories from articles and cases; and journaling. As Socrates wrote: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” We encourage managers to explore their inner theatre by writing about their thoughts, experiences, feelings, dreams and decisions. This process is akin to what actors do when they learn a new script for a play or movie. They are expected not just to learn the words of the script but also to explore the character of the role and develop insight about the thoughts and feelings of the character.

Successful leaders, like successful actors, must learn to respond to fame and ego inflation. Followers and fans can displace their hopes and fantasies onto leaders, leading some to see themselves as perfect and infallible. The metaphor of the inner theatre serves to open up for discussion the concept of false personae. In Jungian psychology, individuation or wholeness is best achieved by being aware of and removing such personae. In the Greek mystery plays, the actors wore masks and spoke through (per) the sound hole (sona). Similarly, in talking about the inner theatre, leaders are encouraged to become more aware of the various masks they wear. One irony is that leaders play a role and need to play it well, but that is not all they are as people. Like the character Stanley Ipkiss (played by Jim Carrey) in the film Mask, leaders need to avoid over-identifying with their role, least they become trapped in it.

Psychodrama is another valuable device to help a leader confront the inner world of their self-talk and their patterns of behaviour. It’s like counselling with props. In the same way actors spend hours rehearsing their roles, leaders can rehearse for encounters in the workplace such as an AGM or a major presentation to the board.

Developing the outer theatre

Our Business School has developed the concept of live case studies or live theatre. The theatre begins with a well-known CEO providing the background behind a major decision that his or her business had to make, quite often in response to a crisis (e.g. a public recall of an unsafe product; a major financial crisis). The audience is asked what they would do in these circumstances and, with hindsight, how the organisation might have done it differently.

In exploring the outer theatre, coaching offers ‘deep support’. In the theatre, actors have a variety of voice and dramatic coaches who create a safe, trusting climate where the shared life-world of leaders can be supported and challenged. We encourage the use of novel challenges that take managers into what we call, “the theatre of the real world”. One manager developed a new energy for leadership by volunteering on weekends with street people; another learnt to listen more effectively by sitting, talking with and reading to older citizens and dementia patients in a retirement home; another further developed his creativity by engaging in parallel play with his grandchildren; and a group of senior leaders assisted several community not-for-profit groups to write business plans and funding proposals.

Storytelling is one theatrical role that a good leader often employs. We encourage participants to tell stories that reinforce the core values they want in their organisational cultures. Using movie scenes in leadership development can also powerfully and succinctly illustrate important messages for leaders. For example, scenes from the movie What Women Want can illustrate the need for leaders to become more aware of their own blind spots. The battle speech by William Wallace in Braveheart shows the importance of clear, confident language to capture the hearts of followers.

Finally, the reality of the challenges facing managers can be brought into the program through the use of action-learning projects. These projects honour all styles of learning: creative discussion, information gathering, practical instruction and self-discovery. They bring the theatre of the organisation into the program, as action-learning projects typically involve solving organisational problems using teams that move through a cycle of action, reflection, learning and renewed action. These projects work best when small groups of managers dedicate time outside the program, working on an issue that is meaningful to their organisation (content), while also learning to work with and influence a team of peers (process). Action learning is supported by evidence that most managers learn about leadership on the job, from observing good and bad role models and from resolving organisational challenges and personal hardships.

To view this academic paper in full, see www.buseco.monash.edu.au/industry

Cite this article as

Callan, Victor J.; Latemore, Greg. 'All the world's a stage'. Monash Business Review. 2008.; Monash University ePress: Victoria, Australia. http://www.epress.monash.edu.au/. : 38–39. DOI:10.2104/mbr08031

About the authors

Victor J. Callan

Victor J Callan is Professor and Cluster Leader, the University of Queensland Business School.

Greg Latemore

Greg Latemore is Industry Fellow, the University of Queensland Business School, and Director, Latemore and Associates.