Reading the Room Group Dynamics for Coaches and Leaders The Jossey-Bass Business & Management Series

In Reading the Room, renowned systems psychologist and family therapist David Kantor applies his theory of structural dynamics to help leaders and coaches understand and improve communication within their teams. He helps readers understand how and why they and their teams communicate differently when faced with low-stakes or high-stakes situations, and he provides a framework to help improve leadership behavior in high-stakes situations.

Acknowledging that early personal history and adult relationships have an impact on individual leadership and communication, the author discusses how leaders? awareness of their personal histories can help them become more effective in their leadership teams.

Armed with the information outlined in this groundbreaking book, coaches and leaders will be able to: intervene effectively to produce positive change in both the group?s dynamics and its outcomes, help people in the room alter their behavior to better reach their aspirations, identify the recurring sequences of behavior taking place in a group, understand why differing individual preferences for boundaries and rules affect their conversation, and much more.

Written to help readers understand the reasons why leaders and teams get along?or don?t?when they communicate in a group, this book will serve as the leader?s ?go-to? resource for insight and perspective in leading their team.

Preface ix  

One Reading the Room: Introduction and Framework 1

Part One A Complete Language for Understanding Leader Behavior 21

Two Level I: Action Stances: The Four-Player Model 23

Three Level II: Domains of Communication: Affect, Power, and Meaning 49

Four Level III: Systems in Control of Speech 79

Five The Behavioral Profile: A Synthesis of Levels I, II, and III 109

Part Two Identity and Leader Behavior in High Stakes 125

Six Level IV: Stories, Identity, and Structured Behavior 127

Seven Narrative Purpose 151

Eight Leader Behavior in High-Stakes Situations 167

Nine The Heroic Leader in Crisis 193

Ten Sources and Signs of Moral Corruption in Leaders 231

Part Three Models and the Ultimate Leader 263

ELEVEN From Personal Model to Leadership Model 265

TWELVE Building a Leadership Model 281

THIRTEEN A Model for Living 315

FOURTEEN Beyond the Behavioral Profile 339

FIFTEEN A Structural Dynamics Analysis of Barack Obama 361

AFTERWORD Where Structural Dynamics Goes from Here 385

Notes 387

Acknowledgments 399

About the Author 401

Index 403

David Kantor, Ph.D., is a systems psychologist, organizational consultant, and clinical researcher. Kantor was formerly the head of Monitor Kantor Enterprises (MKE), a business unit of Monitor Group. Kantor has been a professor at Harvard University, Harvard University Medical School, and Tufts University Medical School. He also founded and served as director of the Kantor Family Institute, a postgraduate training center in Boston, and The Kantor Institute, a training center for consultants, coaches, and leaders.