Carlos Rey García: "Leadership is a dynamic process"

Leadership and motivation are two essential ingredients in the success of any project, and both are necessary for the personal and professional development of an individual.

But, can the ability to lead be trained? How important is emotional management when leading teams? How important is motivation when making a change in our lives?

• Related article: "Types of Leadership: The 5 most common types of leaders"

Interview with Carlos Rey García, co-founder of UPAD Psychology and Coaching

To resolve the above doubts and some more, we spoke with Carlos Rey García, co-founder of UPAD Psychology and Coaching, one of the most important therapy and personal development centers in Madrid.

Good morning Carlos! It is common to find the popular belief that psychology is focused exclusively on the abnormally negative part of the human psyche, that is, to the treatment and prevention of disorders mental. However, you have made a strong commitment not only to that part traditionally linked to the work of the psychologist, but also to the part that appeals to the population without diagnosable mental problems or I would even say the abnormally positive population, as an example of self-improvement and excellence psychological. What motivated you to do it?

Indeed, we have never liked that cliché of problematic professionals, and we also come from a field, that of sports, which is more oriented towards this type of overcoming plots.

Positive and humanistic psychology have had a lot of influence on our methodology, we like to think that the People do their best when they approach their “problems” as challenges to be overcome and not as problems themselves. themselves. In this way, and after years of working with athletes, we understood the importance of working by objectives and we came to the conclusion that that there are many areas of our experience that may require the advice of a professional to optimize its operation, but that at a psychological level all these areas share psychological variables and objectives to be met, in our case it all comes down to three; performance (behaviors), well-being (feelings) and satisfaction (thoughts). Aligning and optimizing them is our biggest challenge.

When you talk about different areas of action that may require your professional advice, what exactly do you mean?

I basically mean that normally, as in sport, we tend to act in competitive settings, in interaction or opposition with other people and, therefore, there are parallels when it comes to addressing the challenges of different types of users.

At UPAD we have worked with athletes of all kinds, with professionals from different fields who wanted to improve their skills or better manage different situations. We have also prepared opponents to face a challenge as complex as overcoming opposition. Musicians, artists, dancers, professional poker players, introverts and insecure people who wanted improve their way of relating to others... I don't know, endless scenarios that, after all, share a common base. The way in which we manage our thoughts, feelings and behaviors. That is where we offer our help and try to generate value.

In your work you advise athletes and workers helping them to improve themselves, and surely one of the most important psychological variables in personal growth is motivation. In fact, if a person is not motivated to change, it is impossible for them to do so. But what role does motivation play in achieving our goals, both personal and professional? Why are there people who, despite wanting to change, never take the step to do so?

That's how it is. Personally, I like to compare the motivation with a vehicle engine. We all have one, but we don't always know where we want to go. Sometimes, even knowing it, we choose the wrong gasoline that we administer to it. If we fill the tank with pressure, we will be subject to a negative motivation, because we will do what we have to do to avoid something unpleasant. However, if we learn to fill it with hope, we can focus more on the positive nature of the motivation and come to enjoy the journey, even before reaching our goals. Knowing how to manage this gasoline well is essential to persevere and enjoy, whatever our destination.

Regarding those people who, wanting to change, do not end up doing it, the case should be analyzed in question, but we usually find that openness to change is subject to expectations underlying. Based on these expectations, we can find people who face these changes as opportunities to achieve something better (motivation to obtain success), in front of others who may consider them a potential threat to themselves (motivation to avoid failure – zone of comfort). In this sense, it is very important for the final decision we make, where we perceive the balance to lean, whether it is towards motivation or towards fear.

One of the services that you offer at UPAD is business Coaching, and one of the most talked about topics in companies is leadership. Research on work stress concludes that the relationship between superiors and subordinates can be a stressor or, on the contrary, can increase the performance of a worker and maintain it motivated. What characteristics do you think a good leader should possess?

Normally we find a clash between different styles of leadership within the organizational world, which invites us to opt for the suitability of some styles over others. The excessive control exercised by a manager over his team of experts can be as negative as the absence of clear guidelines that an apprentice needs. What I mean by this is that leadership is a dynamic process, changing from person to person and from goal to goal.

Each situation has different characteristics and will require the leader to adopt one position or another to achieve the objectives set. Therefore, I personally believe that a good leader has to meet some requirements, among others, such as proactivity (sow to reap, follow to be followed), consistency and integrity. (lead by example and be aligned with what is said and done), flexibility in your style (to adapt to the changing needs of situations), communication (to project credibility and influence and transmit faith in the achievement of objectives), emotional intelligence (to manage difficult situations and manage conflicts), listen and delegate (to generate commitment, contemplating different points of view and involving the team in decisions or actions), and giving feedback, providing direction and motivating them so that they feel part of the achievements reached.

There are many courses and workshops on leadership, but... can this ability be trained or is it basically innate?

Well, as in any other field of knowledge or any skill, I believe that we all come with a talent. serial potential, although this needs to be developed in the social sphere, that is, in coexistence with the the rest. As we are essentially born alone and we necessarily need others to be able to lead, I consider nativism in this case as a inappropriate approach, since it is during situations of social interaction where we can increase learning about the action of lead.

Another thing is how we define leadership. If we consider it as a mere ability, in a certain static or innate way, or on the contrary, as a dynamic and interactive process.

In my personal case, I am inclined towards the second option, that is, I consider leadership a process that is made up of a series of underlying skills and of course, susceptible to development, although there are different levels of potential in each person.

Perhaps there is more and more information about how to lead others, but what about self-leadership? It is undoubtedly a key element in personal and professional development, which allows us to overcome adversity and stay organized and motivated over time. How can we improve this mental capacity?

I would even say that necessarily to be able to lead others you have to start with yourself. If you are not in a position to offer it to yourself, how could you offer it to others?

The requirements for its development also imply an effort of self-knowledge, of setting goals and persevering in their achievement. All of this aligned with the previously indicated characteristics.

One of the great paradigms of today is Emotional Intelligence, which plays a key role in our personal development. And in the company, what role does he play? There is more and more talk about emotional leadership.

Emotional intelligence is a basic ability to achieve adequate self-regulation. Knowing how to interpret the situations I face and based on this, what feelings I experience and the consequences that they have on my final attitudes and behaviors, it is fundamental to reach any type of goal that raise.

Sometimes it is necessary to learn to modify my thoughts about a certain situation in order to adapt to it in a positive way. functional or valid, renouncing other types of thinking criteria more focused on the criterion of veracity than on functionality. In those cases, in which people find justifications for their dysfunctional reactions when it comes to achieving certain objectives, I like to comment on the following words… “It is TRUE. You're right, and what's the point?" If the answer is “to keep me from my goals”, emotional leadership is failing.

In an increasingly individualistic society, companies value the ability of their employees to work as a team. Why do you think teamwork is so important in the workplace?

We could enter into a fabulous “conspiracy” debate about the interests of creating societies centered on the individual, but that is surely not the objective of this interview. I will limit myself to recommending for this the documentary by Adam Curtis, The century of the self for a better understanding of prevailing individualism.

Regarding the importance of teamwork, I think my answer may even be trivial, but basically I will limit myself to exposing the concept of synergy here. Synergy is a concept taken from biology, which reflects the importance of the joint action of a series of elements on a function of a general nature. Any self-respecting company acts like the human body to find an example. We have a head, lungs, heart, kidneys and a long list of organs that perform certain functions. It is of no use to us to have the best heart, if it does not execute its performance jointly with the rest of the body's organs. Well, the same thing happens in an organization, if there are no synergies, the general objective of the body is lost sight of, which is none other than to survive and function as adequately as possible.