Self development and the spontaneous expression of leadership behaviors

Bruce Chester McCollum
Order No. 9971790

Efforts to develop leadership consistently fall short of the hopes and needs of students, trainers, and society. One approach to achieving larger gains in leadership development is to develop the leader from within, to develop the leader's consciousness, the leader's underlying basic awareness.

Although anecdotal evidence supports the value of personal development for leadership development, little systematic research has documented its effectiveness. However, in an eight- month pretest-posttest control group study in one company, fourteen employees including both managers and subordinates, learned a standard self development program, the Maharishi Transcendental MeditationÎ program. Results indicated that the practitioners of Transcendental MeditationÎ grew significantly more than ten employee controls in their expression of leadership behaviors (all ps < .05). This growth was measured by the Leadership Practices Inventory and was expressed in individual and group interviews. The Leadership Practices Inventory measures five leadership behaviors: Challenging the Process, Inspiring a Shared Vision, Enabling Others to Act, Modeling the Way, and Encouraging the Heart.

The conclusion of this study indicates that individuals can develop leadership behaviors easily, spontaneously, and quickly through the Maharishi Transcendental Meditation program. This growth was experienced by employees at all levels of the organization indicating that this technology is a powerful means for developing leadership throughout an organization. The theoretical consequences of this study are that leadership may be easier to develop than previous experience has shown. Further research is needed to explore the practical consequences of this Consciousness-Based^SM approach to leadership development. Source: DAI, 61, no. 04A (2000): p. 1509

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