Doctor Paul Hersey
Thomas Harris "Life Position Theory" - Situational Leadership Training Series
Doctor Paul Hersey created the Situational Leadership® Model and founded the Center for Leadership Studies. Professor Hersey has spent the vast majority of his life studying, writing about and teaching the subject of human behavior and behavior management. There have been a number of human behavior studies that have influenced Doctor Hersey's thinking and ultimately his writings about leadership and leadership training and development. He is particularly fond of the writings and theories of Thomas Harris. This article is dedicated to sharing the centerpiece of the Thomas Harris writings and theory.
In the process of growing up, people make basic assumptions about their own self-worth, as well as about the worth of significant people in their environment, that may or may not be generalized to other people later in life. Thomas Harris calls the combination of an assumption about oneself and another person a life position. Life positions tend to be more permanent that ego states. they are learned throughout life by way of reinforcements for, and responses to, expressed needs. These assumptions are described in terms of "okayness." Thus, individuals assume that they are either OK or not OK, or that as people they do not possess value or worth. Further, other individuals are assumed to be either OK or not OK.
Four possible relationships result from these life positions: )1) neither person has value ("I'm not OK, you're not OK"); (2) you have value, but I do not have value ("I'm not OK, you're OK"); (3) I have value, but you do not ("I'm OK, you're not OK"); and (4) we both have value ("I'm OK, you're OK").
"I'm not OK, you're not OK" people tend to feel bad about themselves and see the whole world as miserable. People with this life position usually give up. They don't trust other people and have no confidence in themselves.
People with an "I'm not OK, you're OK" life position often come from their Compliant Child ego state. They feel that others are more capable and generally have fewer problems than they themselves do. They tend to think that they always get the sort end of the stick. This is the most common life position for people who have a high deference for authority. They see their world as "I don't have any control or much power, but those people (folks with authority or position power) seem to have all the power and rewards and punishments."
People who feel "I'm OK, you're not OK" often come from their Critical Parent ego state. They tend to be down on other people as sources of criticism. They feel that if they're not exactly perfect or right, people will be excessively critical of them. Second, they want to break away or reel from some authority figure and become more independent, but they're either not sure how to go about this or they have had unpleasant experiences in attempting it in the past.
This is a life position in which the person has had a few "zaps" along the road and feel, "I've got a lot of self-confidence and autonomy but I sure don't want to be open, honest, and sharing with others in my environment or I'll get punished." With this life position, listening often tends to stop even when someone is still trying to communicated with this person. Harris found in his work that people with an "I'm OK, you're not OK" life position, while acting self-confident and under control really were hiding "not OK" feelings about themselves. The way they play out their "not OK" feelings often is expressed in the need for power and control.
"I'm OK, you're Ok" is suggested as the healthy life position. People with these feelings express confidence in themselves as well as trust and confidence in other people in their environment. Their behavior tends to come from their Nurturing Parent, Adult, and Happy Child ego states, while seldom being evoked from their Destructive Child of Critical Parent.
To learn more about Situational Leadership® and the Center for Leadership Studies, please call our Escondido, California offices at 1-866-545-4951. CLS conducts monthly Situational Leadership® Workshops and in fact has a workshop scheduled for February 22 - 26. If you are interested in securing a seat for one of our upcoming Leadership events, please call us at 1-866-545-4951 or email us at info@situational.com. The Center for Leadership Studies team will be at the ASTD conference scheduled for May of 2010. Please take time to drop by our booth and meet our team.
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