Locus
of Control
Within the Path-Goal Theory of leadership lies a
concept known as “locus of control”.
Basically this concept holds that if a person has an external locus of
control, then they believe that they have little to no control over the events
or things that happen to them in life.
In other words, the “forces” that shape their lives are external to
them. Conversely, people with an
internal locus of control tend to believe that they have a significant degree of
control over what happens to them in life, whether or not they succeed in their
endeavors, etc. This becomes important
in Path-Goal Theory in that leaders need to be directive in nature toward
people with an external locus of control, and supportive in nature toward those
who have an internal locus of control.
So what about this locus of control concept? Is it real?
Does it matter? I believe that it
is real and it does matter and in this reflection I will explain my beliefs and
hope to at least cause you to think about the matter as it pertains to your own
experiences and perceptions.
I took the Rotter’s Locus of Control Scale Test and,
not surprisingly, I scored a 67%, indicating that I tend to favor the external
locus of control perspective. As I said,
this is not surprising. I have come to
believe in life that a person can control very little of what happens to them;
the only thing that they can control is how they respond to those external
forces. I used the word “respond” on
purpose. I have also learned that it is
better to respond than to react to external forces or events. One who responds does so with thought,
reasoning, and a calm demeanor. What one
does, therefore, is a rational act as opposed to an emotional (often angry)
reaction. It has taken several classes in Boundaries by Cloud & Townsend
and some therapy sessions to learn this material. I used to react to what I perceived were “unfair”
or “inappropriate” things that happened to me; now I try to respond and the
outcomes are much more favorable in terms of my own peace of mind and what
happens next as life unfolds.
When I graduated from college in 1984, the Air Force
Officer who commissioned me was a young Captain. This man had arrived at Michigan
Technological University (MTU) Air Force Reserve Officer Training Corps
(AFROTC), Detachment 400 (Det 400) two years prior to my graduation as a First Lieutenant. Shortly thereafter, he pinned on Captain and
was my AFROTC instructor during my junior and senior year of my undergraduate
program. He used to say back then that
he was unsure of just how long that he would stay in the Air Force, and that he
may very well serve his four years and get out.
Ironically, today, he is the only person associated with the MTU AFROTC
Det 400 class of 1984 who is still on active duty, and he is a Lieutenant
General. No one, including him, ever
imagined that he would go this far in the Air Force.
A couple of years ago, I talked to this 3-star about
how he got to where he is, and he said very simply to me, “Dan, it was about
99% pure luck. I ended up working for the right people, in the right place, at
the right time. There is no magic
formula for getting to where I am”. Now
obviously, he is an intelligent, hard-working officer who always gave (and gives)
his best effort in every assignment that he has had. But that is exactly my point. The best that anyone can ever do is to get
well educated, perform well and learn all that you can in each and every job
that you have, and generally work hard in life.
Those things are within your control.
However, getting to the top of the pyramid is pretty much the result of
what happens to you, and not within your control.
I have met and talked to several Medal of Honor
recipients and every one of them has stated that the only reason they received the
Medal of Honor, as opposed to someone else in their unit, is because they didn’t
get killed in the process of doing their job well on the battlefield. Like the 3-star I mentioned above, these
Medal of Honor recipients put their achievement down to “good fortune”.
Conversely, I have seen people who were so focused on
controlling their careers that they very nearly drove themselves insane in the
process. I would also add that they
usually turned out to be the exact opposite of what they tried so hard to
achieve (for their own sake). These “careerists”
were generally poor leaders and their own worst enemy as they tried again and
again to rack up “points” and get to the top.
I remember attending Squadron Officer School (SoS) in residence in
Montgomery, Alabama, in 1988. One day,
we were out at a site on Maxwell Air Force Base where they had set up several “stations”,
each with a different mental and physical problem-solving challenge. We were divided into groups of six people (teams
of six) and rotated through these stations where we were given the problem, and
then as a team we had to solve it and perform.
Each problem (each station) was timed and scored, and the leadership and
followership of each team member was observed and recorded by the
instructors. About halfway through the
exercise (called “Project X”), there was a huge commotion a few stations away
from where I was involved with my team.
One guy and one gal (both young Captains) had completely lost it because
they so desperately wanted to become Distinguished Graduates of SoS that when they
say their team failing one of the challenges, they knew that their point score
was taking a nosedive. The guy was
yelling and cursing; the gal was sobbing uncontrollably. Two prime examples of what happens when you
attempt to control everything in life.
Needless to say, they ruined their chances of being recognized as top
performers in our class. A strong internal
locus of control can get you into all kinds of trouble. It took me several
years to learn this lesson, and to this day I would refer to myself as a “recovering
controller”.
So what does this mean in terms of how I perceive leaders? Well, I do appreciate directive leaders (a
nod toward my external locus of control) but only to a point. If I feel that I am being “talked down to” by
a leader and that his or her words reflect a perception on their part that I am
of low intelligence, I get angry. If the
problem is complex, I do indeed like clear direction. But the longer that I have spent in
leadership and followership positions, I have come to prefer a supportive
leader who encourages you, challenges you, rewards you, and works alongside you
as part of the team. Overly directive
leaders seem to me to have a tendency to be distant or detached; they therefore
don’t usually seem to truly appreciate their people. Directive leadership may be fine if you are a
restaurant manager of shift supervisor.
But I much prefer supportive leadership in professional settings, even
though I tend toward an external locus of control. I suppose this is true because if leadership
is supportive, then I am content that my external environment is in good shape.
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