It is absolutely imperative that the leaders of an organization understand the psychology of themselves and their people, for these are the tools that will facilitate greater success.

The more successful a leader has been the more difficult it is to accept faults. When the standard strategies that have won a leader his success don't work, it is easy to become defensive, and the ability to act objectively is shut down when they need it the most. It is here that an intensive insight is imperative insight into their own actions and insight as to why others act and react the way they do.

The process begins with the leaders cultivating a full understanding of why communication might breakdown, why people develop beliefs about the company and how it affects them, and how ones own beliefs affect others and the overall culture. They arm themselves with the weapons to navigate through the calm and turbulence of human emotions, emotions that determine culture, productivity and dedication.

Human beings are emotional creatures! This is a fact. Our brain feels 30,000 times faster than it acts, and it acts 30,000 times faster than it thinks. We are conditioned to react in certain ways based on our surroundings, our past experiences and the associations attached to them, and our developed expectations. The things we pursue are often not the things we really want, it is what we associate to the things we go after that really make the difference. The process that originate our beliefs, emotions and motivations is as follows:

The brain processes information in one of three ways, Visual (thinks in pictures), Auditory (thinks in sounds and words), and Kinesthetic (thinks in feelings and sensations). While we have all three, we are usually dominated by one that guides our external and internal communication. This communication is then filtered based on previously developed associations that have created defenses against potential hardships. These now filter what we don't want to accept or deal with such as the idea of failure.

Everything that does get through is measured against our expectations and values. Example: a high expectation can cause a situation to be less motivating if that expectation is not met, while the same situation can be very motivating with a lower expectation. Or we may have a value that smoking is a disgusting habit and our expectation of those who smoke would follow that image.

Once our expectations and values are established for that situation, we then compare it to our learned associations, the links to circumstances and behaviors that we have determined will either give us joy or give us grief. Example: if we have talked to the boss on two or three separate occasions and each time we have gotten scolded, we might associate talking to the boss is equal to getting scolded and therefore equals grief. While it may not be a permanent condition, our associations have made it permanent in our mind, how many of us have thought, "they'll never listen" about another person they work with, and yet is it really "never"?
After all this, our brain arrives at a feeling or emotion about the event. This is the ultimate determining factor for our motivation, and the actions we take. As these emotions reoccur regularly, they become anchored to similar circumstances and create patterns that we interpret as beliefs.

In a company's culture, the specific set of patterns or beliefs can create a Self-fulfilling prophecy within the organization. For example: once a person believes that the boss is "unfair", even if the boss tries to be fair, a persons subconscious will initiate actions and statements that will affect the boss to act in the way that the person expects, in this case - unfairly.

Additionally, it is useful to know the three basic categories of how people gain fulfillment in their perception of the world around them. These classifications are:

Relaters are people oriented individuals whose fundamental gratification is being admired by their peers, they achieves this by being accommodating to those around them, and often by having the latest stuff, for guys it might be gadgets, and for ladies it might be fashion, if its new and improved and makes you a hit with your friends, the relater will want it.

Factorers are data oriented people whose basic gratification is interacting with data or objects; they achieve this by researching and information gathering, they will never buy state of the art, only things that have been proven and tested. They believe data reinforced systems over people or ideas.

The Concepters are idea-oriented individuals and get their gratification from interacting with themselves. They try to achieve this through trying to maintain control without involvement. Their ideal life is to come up with ideas and get other people to implement them. They want to "do their own thing" and will buy whatever will help them accomplish this. They are also great bargainers and are prone to buying things that are good deals whether they need it or not.

The final step is in the retrieval of Feedback through a facilitator who will consolidate the issues of the management, the subordinates and the leader and translate them into segments and psychological foundations that can be dealt with individually.

Once the leader is aware of the psychology of his group and the triggers that create unwanted responses, he/she must delve into his/her own mind and thought processes, so as to understand how these affect the organization and the type of culture that it has created. Only then can the change process begin.