Personal autonomy refers to the act of agreeing with self-interests and commitments. Through this independence, an individual’s character is made to emanate from the authentic self. Therefore, human character is a volatile element that can be adjusted based on the prevailing life conditions. Even though leaders directly influence people’s behaviour, their actions can also elicit detrimental effects on the people they supervise. Besides the leadership impact, childhood life, genetic endowment, and VABEs are some of the external factors that have a huge influence human behaviour.
To begin with, childhood is an integral part of human evolution. Therefore, an adulthood character is determined by how early gratification is satisfied. Even though a fetus may be enveloped in another life, it is considered a distinct life on its own. Therefore, whenever an individual is born, there are a host of issues that must be resolved to make him or her proceed into other consecutive stages. Therefore, parenting has a greater influence on the personality of an individual. Based on this aspect, major inspirations can be drawn from a study carried out in France where a lonely baby chimpanzee could not survive even after it was provided with everything it needed (Clawson, 1991). For humans, the improper satisfaction of early gratification drives them to psychological deficiencies which have an impact on their personality. If the personality defects are large enough, they usually tend to dominate people in their adulthood life. As people strive to satisfy gratifications deprived in their childhood, they end up complicating their character more. Therefore, when provided with the obligation to lead people, it is important to understand their true background before engaging in the behaviour shaping course.
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It is also evident that genetic structures can influence human behaviour. Even though social and environmental factors have a major impact on human conduct, some traits are hereditary. For instance, the tendency of people to create hierarchies is a characteristic that is tied to the DNA strings (Clawson, 1991). However, it is worth noting that the genetic impact on human behaviour can be determined by the closeness of parents, family or friends. Culture, age and religion are other external factors that can determine how genetic endowment influences human behaviour. Mostly, as individuals grow, they tend to develop a sense of true self which compels them to abandon some of the behaviours inherited from their parents. Family culture is another major concept that nurtures the principles that people consider key in life. Therefore, it is important for the leaders to take into consideration some of these factors when determining the behaviour of the subordinate members.
Memes can also influence human behaviour. Even though memes are beliefs passed over from one generation to the next, they are the main mental building blocks that dictate people’s behaviour. In this article, memes have been categorized into strategy, distinction and association types. The distinction meme entails developing a given judgmental point of view when differentiating concepts. It is through this predetermined judgment that an individual’s preferences and behaviour are anchored upon. Strategy meme, on the other hand, defines the mechanism that dictates an individual’s action-result linkages. This type of meme describes the tendency of people to harbour some predetermined result before a decision is executed. Therefore, for proper understanding of people’s behaviour, it is important to identify some of the memes governing their lives. It is through this process that proper working relationships can be built between leaders and the subordinate workers.
The concepts elicited in this article can also be applied in professional life. In the business sector, leaders do not understand that they have a major influence on their subordinate staff members. From a professional point of view, employee motivation can be achieved by offering rewards and punishments to the subordinate staff members. However, it is important to acknowledge that a reward can also be a punishment to some employees. Therefore, this type of motivation cannot be effective in shaping behaviour since people have different beliefs and values governing their lives. Mostly, employee motivation is achieved when all the subordinate members are kept happy. If some members consider being punished by the rewards, then a leader cannot influence their behaviour. With this knowledge, it is important for professional leaders to focus on observing the external traits manifested by an individual. Even though values and beliefs are intangible elements, there are certain observed traits that managers can identify to shape the overall behaviour of the employee. However, this process requires leaders to be thorough in their evaluation for their efforts to be rewarded. Since it is a normal occurrence for leaders to rush into conclusions, developing an understanding of the subordinate staff members requires patience and close scrutiny.
Perception and observation are other applicable concepts in a professional domain. Observation involves describing the visualized concepts in an event. However, perception, on the other hand, entails coming up with a judgment of the observed attributes. These are important aspects when it comes to the professional business level. A manager needs to observe the external traits of people, internalize, filter and select the most appropriate one. However, this criterion of leadership is influenced by the high tendency of people to emulate the behaviour observed in others (Clawson, 1991). Since people manifest variations in behavior, it is clear that they harbor different VABEs. Even though people may have slight variations in VABEs, their personality and behavior are unique entities. It is always a manager’s joy if the subordinate staff members harbour no or little gaps in their VABEs. Major leadership challenges are initiated when individuals exhibit huge VABEs gaps. Therefore, it a mangers obligation to understand the VABEs of different individuals for the effective shaping of their behaviour. It is only through this process that leaders can understand why different people behave differently. Even though managers are mandated to learn about human character, it is unethical to use their values to influence the behaviour of others. To achieve this concept, it important to ignore gaps in VABEs and treat each person uniquely.
Also, the concepts explored in this article can be applied on a personal level. Even though the Rational-Emotive-Behavior (REB) model focuses on helping managers shape people’s behaviour, it can also be applied in self-evaluation. Taking into consideration that humans can visualize their image, this model can be beneficial when making self-judgments and conclusions. In a personal perspective, this model provides a chance to visualize and compare the true self with an idealized image created by personal VABEs. It is through this comparison that personality and behaviour can be shaped (Walmsley & Lewis, 2014). To achieve this concept, we will be able to visualize our behaviour rather than pinpointing what is wrong in character of others. With this comparison, it is easy to identify some of the behaviours that are contrary to the idealized self. The process of internalizing self-actions provides a chance to make solid conclusions that are directed towards boosting our self-esteem. In most cases, we are caught up with the challenge of creating our defence mechanism when threatened by what we see. Self-evaluation is the only way to acknowledge if our behaviour is authentic and good for the society. Therefore, this process is very important since it provides viable solutions when there is a need to amend the personality defects created in our past.
References
Clawson, J. G. (1991). Why People Behave the Way They Do.
Walmsley, D. J., & Lewis, G. J. (2014). People and environment: Behavioural approaches in human geography . Routledge.
