Therapy for Executives and Emerging Leaders

Therapy for Executives and Emerging Leaders

Curt and Katie chat about how therapists can support leaders. We look at optimal leadership, leadership identity development, barriers for emerging leaders, challenges that executives face, and how therapists can support these leaders. We explore specific interventions and career assessment questions. This is a continuing education podcourse.

Transcripts for this episode will be available at mtsgpodcast.com!

In this podcast episode we explore how therapists can help leaders

During times of turmoil - like a global pandemic, an unstable economy, and social unrest - we want to be able to rely on our leaders to help us weather the storm. We look to our employers, our legislators, and our community leaders to solve problems and remain calm. But who supports our leaders? It’s important for therapists to understand leadership and the unique challenges that leaders face, so they can help. Further, therapists must be available to provide support to emerging leaders who are coming from much more diverse backgrounds and perspectives who may need help navigating a system that doesn’t always accept them or align with their lived experiences. We talk about leader identity development and how leaders develop over time. We look at common barriers and challenges for leaders at all stages of development as well as suggested interventions to address these needs.

What do therapists get wrong when working with leaders?

• Therapists don’t include career assessments and leadership assessment
• Understanding the interrelation between work and mental health
• Bias related to stereotypical leaders and not seeing leadership where it shows up outside of able-bodied, tall, white men
• The calm, peaceful, work-life balance versus optimal performance and ambition
• Cosigning on poor work behavior and overwork

What is good leadership?

• Leadership can be taught and can be beneficial for every client
• Concepts of leadership as a process and a position
• Interdependent, collaborative
• Servant Leadership
• Transformational Leadership

What does leadership identity development look like?

• The 6 stages of the model created by Komives, et al.
• Moving from identifying leaders, understanding positional leadership, then moving to more of a process and interdependent relationship
• How leadership identity development impacts adult clients

What impacts emerging leaders?

• Identities, especially marginalized identities
• Relationships with authority figures
• Resources, privilege within typical leadership development opportunities during childhood and early adulthood
• Relational trauma, boundaries, communication
• Marginalized identities and stereotypes with no sure-fire way to perform acceptably
• Lack of safety and empowerment

Career and Leadership Assessment

• Leadership identity development stage
• Current employment
• Work/life balance
• Role of work in client’s life and within family system

Therapists Working with Leaders

• Life experience that therapists can draw upon
• Identifying what you don’t know
• Understand your own work trauma and leadership development
• The CHAT Model (or Katie’s model: clarify, imagine, simplify, act)

Receive Continuing Education for this Episode of the Modern Therapist’s Survival Guide

Hey modern therapists, we’re so excited to offer the opportunity for 1 unit of continuing education for this podcast episode – Therapy Reimagined is bringing you the Modern Therapist Learning Community!

 Once you’ve listened to this episode, to get CE credit you just need to go to learn.moderntherapistcommunity.com/pages/podcourse, register for your free profile, purchase this course, pass the post-test, and complete the evaluation! Once that’s all completed - you’ll get a CE certificate in your profile or you can download it for your records. For our current list of CE approvals, check out moderntherapistcommunity.com.

You can find this full course (including handouts and resources) here: learn.moderntherapistcommunity.com