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What is Ph.D.?PhD is a doctoral degree with an academic focus. A PhD course is usually of three years duration and candidates need to complete the course within a maximum time span of five to six years. However, the course duration may vary from one institute to the other. Aspirants need to possess a master’s degree to be eligible to pursue a PhD programme.Candidates can pursue a PhD programme in any stream. In a PhD course aspirants need to select a topic or a subject and do in-depth research on it and answer any queries related to the topic/ subject.Earlier, candidates could pursue PhD course through the distance mode, however, as per a circular issued by UGC in 2017 it has been informed that a PhD course pursued through the distance education mode would no longer be recognised.Candidates who have cleared entrance exams like UGC NET, GATE, JEST and the likes are usually offered fellowships while pursuing a PhD course. Apart from this, universities such as IGNOU and Delhi University (DU) also offer fellowships to students pursuing full time PhD courses with them.Some popular PhD programmes that candidates can pursue in different streams are listed below:Popular PhD courses in HumanitiesPhD in HumanitiesPhD EconomicsPhD GeographyPhD in Social WorkPhD in EnglishPhD in Social SciencesPhD in Public and Economic PolicyPhD in Humanities & Social SciencesPhD in Humanities and Life SciencesPhD in PsychologyPhD in ArtsPhD in International Relations and PoliticsPhD in PhysiologyPhD in Public PolicyPhD in LiteraturePopular PhD Courses in SciencePhD in ChemistryPhD in Clinical ResearchPhD in SciencePhD in BiosciencePhD in BioinformaticsPhD BiotechnologyPhD in Mathematical and Computational SciencesPhD in Environmental Science and EngineeringPhD in Applied Chemistry & Polymer TechnologyPhD in Applied SciencesPhD ZoologyPhD in PhysicsPhD in Basic and Applied SciencesPhd in MathematicsPhD in ZoologyPopular PhD Courses in CommercePhD in Commerce ManagementPhD in Accounting and Financial ManagementPopular PhD Courses in EngineeringPhD in EngineeringPhD in Genetic EngineeringPhD in Civil EngineeringPhD Program in Quantitative TechniquesPhD in Engineering and TechnologyPhD Electronics & Communication EngineeringPhD Computer Science EngineeringPhD in Electronics and Communication EngineeringPhD in Aeronautical and Automobile EngineeringPhD in Information TechnologyPhD in Ceramic EngineeringPhD in Production EngineeringPhD in Marine BiotechnologyPhD in Chemical EngineeringPhD in Mechanical EngineeringPopular PhD Courses in Business & ManagementPhD Business AdministrationPhD in ManagementPhD in Aviation ManagementPhD in Logistics and Supply Chain ManagementPhD in Accounting and Financial ManagementPhD in Marketing/ Brand ManagementPhD in CommercePhD in Commerce and ManagementPopular PhD Courses in LawPhD in LawPhD in Constitutional LawPhD in Law and GovernancePhD in Legal StudiesPopular PhD Courses in Teaching & EducationPhD in EducationPhD in TeachingRequired Skillset for PhDAny aspirant who wants to pursue a PhD in the subject/ field of their choice needs to have a lot of interest and passion for the topic at hand. A PhD requires aspirants to study a topic in-depth and so candidates need to possess the required skill-set and dedication along with being extremely hard working when pursuing a PhD. Apart from these skills, candidates should be good with performing research and collaborating the findings of research conducted by them.A PhD also requires aspirants to be quick and good with presenting their thoughts and findings and so it is a requirement that candidates be well-versed with written communication and have good writing capacity.Some key skills that an aspirant should possess while pursuing a PhD are listed below:InquisitiveGood at researchDedicatedHard-workingGood writing capacityOrganisedSelf-motivatedKeen observerPhD Eligibility CriteriaAspirants are eligible to pursue a PhD course only if they have completed their master’s degree in a similar course/ field/ stream in which they want to pursue a PhD. Some colleges also specify that candidates need to have completed an MPhil to pursue a PhD course offered by them.Apart from this, many colleges state that candidates meet the eligibility criteria for PhD programmes offered by them if they have cleared UGC NET. Candidates who want to pursue a PhD in Engineering need to possess a valid GATE score.There are various categories of PhD candidates. Some of the types of PhD candidates are listed below:Full Time Research ScholarsGovernment/ Semi Government Fellowship RecipientsPhD scholars who fall under this category are offered financial assistance under Government/ Semi Government fellowship schemes.Institute research Scholars with Teaching AssistanceAspirants falling under this category of PhD scholars are offered Institute Teaching Assistantship as specified by the MHRD.Self-financed Candidates (Indian/ Foreign)Indian self-financed candidates are offered a seat in doctoral programmes offered at institutes depending on their track record and experience. Such candidates are offered admission in PhD programmes offered by the institute by taking part in the normal admission process for PhD courses but such candidates do not receive any financial assistance from the institute.Foreign self-financed candidates are offered admission through the embassy of their respective country only after they get the necessary 'no objection certificate' from MHRD, Govt of India and other necessary approvals from India's Ministry of External Affairs.Sponsored CandidatesAspirants falling under this category of PhD scholars are sponsored by (recognised) Research and Development organisations to do full time research at the concerned institute.Study Leave CandidatesAspirants falling under this category are given study leave by Government institutes/ companies/ educational institutes for a time duration of less than three years to perform research work at the specified institute. A letter of leave provided by the candidate's institute/ company is necessary to secure admission as a PhD scholar in this category.ICCR AwardeesForeign candidates who are sponsored by their respective government are awarded a seat in a PhD course under Indian Council of Cultural Relations (ICCR) award holders’ category if they have been awarded the scholarship by their government.Part Time Research ScholarsCandidates who seek admission under part time research scholars at an institute are offered admission under the below mentioned categories:Research AssistantsInstitute staff/ FacultyProject StaffExternal Sponsored CandidatesPhD Admission ProcessIn order to secure admission in PhD or research programmes offered by the educational institute, aspirants need to go through the below mentioned steps:Step 1: Visit the official website of the educational institute and go through all the details of the PhD courses offered by the institute and select the area of research that the candidate wants to pursue.Step 2: Candidates need to keep an eye out for any admission advertisement in newspapers or visit the official website of the university to fill the application form for admission in the course of their choice. Usually the admission notification is released 4-5 months before the commencement of the course cycle.Step 3: Next, candidates need to fill and submit their application forms for the PhD course as per the schedule shared by the educational institute. Aspirants also need to ensure that they pay the application fee on time and submit all the required documents along with their application form for PhD admissions.Step 4: Some educational institutes also specify that candidates need to submit a research proposal along with their application form. The application form along with the research proposal is submitted at the Research Unit of the educational institute where scrutiny of the application is conducted.Step 5: After scrutiny of the PhD course application form is complete then most of the educational institutes shortlist the names of the candidates who need to appear for the entrance exam and other admission rounds that are conducted for shortlisting aspirants for admission in PhD programmes offered by them.Step 6: Candidates who are selected for PhD programmes on the basis of the admission rounds are then assigned supervisors/ guides for their PhD research.PhD Course StructureSteps that candidates need to follow when pursuing a PhD course in order to be conferred a PhD degree are listed below:Once candidates are selected for PhD courses offered at educational institutes they need to submit their Research Proposal along with their Research Topic.Then, candidates are allocated a research supervisor/ guide.After this candidates are provided details of the Course Work, evaluation methodology and the teaching schedule by the Research Programme Coordinator/ Guide/ Supervisor.While performing research work most educational institutes require aspirants to submit six month progress reports for their research work.Further, as a Research Student one needs to give at least two seminar presentations as part of their tenure as a Research Scholar and thereafter submit a Certificate in the prescribed format to the Research Unit.Next, PhD students need to publish at least one research paper in a peer reviewed/refereed Journal and also submit a Certificate in the prescribed format to the Research Unit before they submit their PhD thesis.Before aspirants submit their thesis, their supervisor or guide will organise a Pre-submission Seminar. This seminar will be open to all. As part of this seminar a report will be submitted which will include suggestions for improvement and the supervisor would ensure that candidates incorporate all these suggestions in the final thesis.Candidates then need to incorporate all the changes and submit a summary of their thesis to their supervisor or guide at least 45 days before the submission of the thesis.Finally, candidates need to submit their thesis in hard copy as well as soft copy. This thesis will be examined by external experts. In case any expert suggests any modifications in the research paper submitted by the candidate then he/ she needs to re-submit a modified thesis.Next, a viva-voce is conducted wherein candidates can openly defend their thesis and present their point of view before a panel of experts.Candidates who complete all these steps to perfection would only be conferred a PhD degree.Following is the link for newly created space for getting all Indian government jobs updates. Because many students say that they missed to fill the form and now the time has gone. So, let me remind you in a proper time about the jobs, it’s all description, providing link for main website to fill this form, sending link for videos that how to fill this form. So, follow this newly created space and this space is managing from the student of Banaras Hindu University.Link…Following is the link of newly created You Tube Channel- “India tour”. Here, you will find all the videos related to the rich diversity of India. If you like the videos then subscribe the channel because Your one subscribe will make the US dollar, come into Indian Economy. So subscribe the channel…India TourThis is You Tube channel-India Tour. Basically, on this channel you see the all tourism place whatever we hear from any people. We know that looking anything live is the another thing but whenever we go somewhere then which kinds of things are popular on that area, that also matters. So, about the famous things of that particular criteria, you would be able to get information about that particular place. Except, the information about any tourism place in India, you will also also be able to know about the importance of that tourism centre and you will also be able to get the particular information about that tourism centre. Is You Tube channekl par aap sabhi log Bharat ke baare mein sabhi jankari ekatra kar paasyenge aur wo saari jankari Bharat ke prachalit jagahon ke baare mein hogi. 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Encourage contact between students and facultyDevelop reciprocity and cooperation among studentsEncourage active learningGive prompt feedbackEmphasize time on taskCommunicate high expectationsRespect diverse talents and ways of learningWhat are the Seven Principles?How can undergraduate education be improved? In 1987, Arthur W. Chickering and Zelda F. Gamson answered this question when they wrote "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education." They defined what good education means at the undergraduate level. The seven principles are based upon research on good teaching and learning in the college setting.These principles have been intended as a guideline for faculty members, students, and administrators to follow to improve teaching and learning. Research for over 50 years on practical experience of students and teachers supports these principles. When all principles are practiced, there are six other forces in education that surface: activity, expectations, cooperation, interaction, diversity, and responsibility. Good practices work for professional programs as well as the liberal arts. They also work for a variety of students: Hispanic, Asian, young, old, rich, poor.Teachers and students have the most responsibility for improving undergraduate education. However, improvements will need to be made by college and university leaders, and state and federal officials. It is a joint venture among all that is possible. When this does occur, faculty and administrators think of themselves as educators that have a a shared goal. Resources become available for students, faculty, and administrators to work together.The goal of the seven principles is to prepare the student to deal with the real world.Principle 1: Encourage contact between students and faculty.Building rapport with students is very important. The contact between students and teachers are vital to the students' success. One of the main reasons students leave school is the feeling of isolation that they experience. The concern shown will help students get through difficult times and keep working. Faculty have many avenues to follow to open up the lines of communication.For the regular classroom:Invite students to visit outside of class.Know your students by name.Help students with problems in their extracurricular activities.Personalize feedback on student assignments.Attend student events.Advise students regarding academic courses and career opportunities.Seek out students you feel are having a problem with the course or are frequently absent.Encourage students to present their views and participate in class discussions.Have regular office hours.Help students to work with other faculty. Let them know of options, research, etc. of other faculty.Share personal experiences and values.Use the one-minute paper at the end of class to get feedback on what the student is learning and how well they are learning it.Talk to students on a personal level and learn about their educational and career goals.For distance and online courses:Try computer conferencing.Use list serves.Clearly communicate your email response policy.Encourage e-mail correspondence and discussion forum use, especially beneficial for those that are shy or are from different cultures because it allows them a different avenue of communication that might be more comfortable."Chat time" online with faculty (at various times, scheduled weekly).Use pictures of faculty/students.Visit the distance sites, if possible.Have an on-site support person.Maintain eye contact with camera and local students.Arrange for group work at a distance site.Principle in action:A York College (PA) professor has incorporated an invitation in the syllabus to encourage contact during office hours: "You are encouraged to stop in during office hours to talk about any problems or suggestions you may have concerning the course; about careers (especially graduate school or the benefits of majoring or minoring in (Insert your course here); or just about things in general. If you want to talk to me and find the schedule hours to be inconvenient, feel free to schedule an appointment."Faculty at St. Norbert College, Wisconsin, use electronic mail discussion groups. Many instructors find that the students are more willing to participate in a written discussion than to speak up in class. The instructor monitors the discussions and participates along with the students, adding personal perspectives and ideas to those of the students.The Residential College of Winona State University has implemented a "living-and-learn" environment to encourage student and faculty interaction. It is located 12 blocks from the main campus and houses 400 students in large, mostly single rooms. Academic activities at the Residential College include freshman seminars, sophomore common reading seminars, and an in-resident program with notable scholars or artists participating with students in a variety of experiences. Residential College faculty are located there and hold office hours. The interaction between students and faculty are enhanced because of the increased interaction.Technology, like e-mail, computer conferencing, and the World Wide Web/Internet, now gives more opportunities for students and faculty to converse. It is efficient, convenient, and protected. It allows more privacy so that students are able to discuss more openly without fear that other students are going to hear. E-mail also gives student more time to think about what they want to say. With these new alternatives to face-to-face communication, interaction from more students should increase within the classroom.Resources:Building awareness and diversity into student life: Pomona College. (1991). Liberal Education, 77 (1), 38-40.First year experience creates a community of learners: Augsburg College. (1989). Liberal Education, 75 (5), 28-29.Furlong, D. (1994). Using electronic mail to improve instruction. The Teaching Professor, 8 (6), 7.O'Neill, K.L. and Todd-Mancillas, W.R. (1992). An investigation into the types of turning points affecting relational change in student-faculty interactions. Innovative Higher Education, 16, (4), 227-290.Wilson, R.C., Gaff, J.G., Dienst, L.W., and Bavry, J.L. (1975). College Professors and Their Impact on Students. New York, NY: John Wiley.Principle 2: Develop reciprocity and cooperation among students.When students are encouraged to work as a team, more learning takes place. Characteristics of good learning are collaborative and social, not competitive and isolated. Working together improves thinking and understanding.For the regular classroom:Use cooperative learning groupsHave students participate in activities that encourage them to get to know one another.Encourage students to join at least one organization on campus.Assign group projects and presentationsUtilize peer tutoring.Encourage students to participate in groups when preparing for exams and working on assignments.Distribute performance criteria to students is that each person's grade is independent of those achieved by others.Encourage students from different races and cultures to share their viewpoints on topics shared in class.For distance and online courses:Use chat sites and discussion forums for student-to-student communication.Set up teams to interact through e-mail or phone bridges with enough people at each site.Encourage students to respond to each other's work by posting it on the internet.Have a question and answer time online.Use teleconferencing for idea sharing.Encourage online discussion groups that require interaction.Work on group projects through phone and e-mail.Team-teach courses.Include an "ice-breaker" activity to allow students to share their interest and to learn about others.Principle in action:Students in communication courses at Miami University develop a group "code of conduct" to help facilitate cooperative learning. A sample code is given out as a model. The sample code includes: respect each other, criticize ideas instead of people, listen actively, seek to understand before being understood, contribute to group discussion, keep an open mind, share responsibility, and attend all meetings. Students are encouraged to customize the code to address other shared concerns the group may have. Students refer to the code after each class or group session to assess their performance and identify areas for improvement.At Naugatuck Valley Community-Technical College, students are tested both individually and collaboratively. Students are given a test date but are not told in which fashion they will be tested. Group tests are highly structured and a unanimous decision must be reached for the answer. The collaborative testing method helps students experience a sensitivity for diversity and others' point of view; develop and refine skills in persuasion, listening, and reading; and share responsibility and accountability. This method also reduces test anxiety among students.In a first-year composition class at University of Minnesota students videotape themselves discussing apprehensions before taking the course, their feelings when they received their papers back, and what they learned from the class. Next quarter, the video is shown to new students in the course to show that the feelings they are experiencing are shared by others and helps motivate them to succeed.Cooperative learning has several benefits. Students care more about their learning because of the interdependent nature of the process. Retention is higher because there is a social and intellectual aspect on the content material. Students also find the method more enjoyable because there is no competition placed upon them. Cooperation, not competition, is more effective in promoting student learning.Resources:Cassini, C. (1994). Collaborative testing, grading. The Teaching Professor, 8 (4), 5.Grading student projects: A project in itself. (1994). Adapted from For Your Consideration, 3 (3), by The Teaching Professor, 8 (2), 3-4.Johnson, D.W. and Johnson, R.T. (1985). Cooperative Learning: Warm Ups, Grouping Strategies and Group Activities. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Co.McKinney, K. and Graham-Buxton, M. (1993). The use of collaborative learning groups in the large class: Is it possible? Teaching Sociology, 21, 403-408.Prescott, S. (1992). Cooperation and motivation. Cooperative Learning and College Teaching, 3 (1).*Special note: The National Center on Post secondary Teaching, Learning, and Assessment has developed a source book on collaborative learning. Contact: NCTLA, Penn State University, 403 S. Allen St. Suite 104, University Park, PA 16801.Principle 3: Encourage active learning.Learning is an active process. Students are not able to learn much by only sitting in classes listening to teachers, memorizing pre-packaged assignments, and churning out answers. They must be able to talk about what they are learning, write about it, relate it to past experiences, and apply it to their daily lives. Students need to make learning a part of themselves.For the regular classroom:Ask students to relate what they are learning to something in real life.Use journaling.Give students concrete, real-life situations to analyze.Encourage students to suggest new reading, projects, or course activities.Ask students to present their work to the class.Use of simulation software to run "what-if" scenarios allows students to manipulate variables and circumstances.Practice role modeling and use web-based case studies to practice new thinking skills.Encourage students to challenge your ideas, the ideas of other students, or those ideas presented in readings or other course materials in a respectful matter.Set up problem solving activities in small groups and have each group discuss their solutions with the class.For distance and online courses:Allow flexibility in choosing material so that it is more meaningful to the learner (e.g. students choose their own topic, project format, etc.).Have an interactive web page.Debate on-line.Present students work for other students to review.Talk about what students are learning by creating a learning group through e-mail, telephone, chat room, or conferencing.Use e-mail for group problem solving.Principle in action:At Iowa State University, history students interview prominent historical individuals during a press conference. After the press conferences, students work in groups identifying the main ideas and creating headlines and news articles that highlight those ideas.Structured journal writing is a major part of several classes at Lesley College. Each journal entry has two parts: the first paragraph emphasizes points for recall and retention; the second part emphasizes application of the content to the student's life experience and observation.An education professor at the University of Wisconsin-LaCrosse has created a hypothetical school system, complete with administration, teachers, pupils, and families. The goal is to help the students learn the legal aspects of special education. During the semester, the students take on all roles as they participate in legal cases involving students with disabilities. Students gain an understanding of the law as it applies to special education and students with disabilities, and they develop a human understanding of the human side of the cases.Promoting active learning in higher education is a struggle because of the learning background that many students come to classes with. This is due to the fact that the norm in our nation's secondary schools has been to promote passive learning. A large amount of information needs to be covered with not enough time, so teachers resort to lecture in order to economize their time to cover as much material as possible. Students progress from topic to topic with no real understanding of the content and how it relates to their life. Effective learning is active learning. The concept of active learning has been applied to curriculum design, internship programs, community service, laboratory science instruction, musical and speech performance, seminar classes, undergraduate research, peer teaching, and computer-assisted learning. The common thread between all these events is to stimulate students to think about how they as well as what they are learning and to take more responsibility for their own education.Resources:Gabennesch, H. (1992). Creating quality class discussion. The Teaching Professor, 6 (9), 5.Hands on experience in course's focus: Temple University. (1989). Liberal Education, 75 (4), 33-34.Harrison-Pepper, S. (1991). Dramas of persuasion: Utilizing performance in the classroom. Journal of Excellence in College Teaching, 2.Interdisciplinary approach to technology. (1998). Liberal Education, 74, (2), 23-24.Nalcolmson, P. and Myers, R. (1993). Debates: Techniques for improving student thinking. The Teaching Professor, 7 (3) 6.Principle 4: Give prompt feedback.By knowing what you know and do not know gives a focus to learning. In order for students to benefit from courses, they need appropriate feedback on their performance. When starting out, students need help in evaluating their current knowledge and capabilities. Within the classroom, students need frequent opportunities to perform and receive suggestions for improvement. Throughout their time in college and especially at the end of their college career, students need chances to reflect on what they have learned, what they still need to know, and how to assess themselves.For the regular classroom:Follow-up presentations with a five minute period for students to write down what they have learned in class.Provide informative comments that show the students' errors and give suggestions on how they can improve.Discuss the results of class assignments and exams with the class and individual students.Vary assessment techniques (tests, papers, journaling, quizzes).Offer on-line testing, software simulations, and web-based programs that provide instantaneous feedback.Have question and answer sessions.Use audio and/or video recordings to assess performances.Return grades for assignments, projects, and tests within one week.For distance and online courses:E-mail gives instant feedback instead of waiting for the next lesson.Use on-line testing, software simulations, and web-based programs that provide instantaneous feedback.Monitor bulletin boards regularly and give specific information feedback to students.Use pre-class and post-class assessments.Schedule a chat group where you, the instructor are present. Use it as a question and answer session when appropriate.Send acknowledgment e-mails when you receive a students work.Post answer keys after receiving assignment from all students.Use of hyperlinks within text to provide feedback to questions raised within the text.Principle in action:At the University of Scranton, a management professor, used computer scored multiple choice tests and quizzes which allowed the professor to have the tests graded during the break that followed the test or quiz. The students immediately received their results and were able to discuss the exam in detail. Students were able to understand the material better through the class discussion that occurred after the test.Hollins College students taking the Critical Thinking course submit two copies of their papers. The second paper is critiqued by another student.Faculty at Winona State University in the Communication Studies Department have to evaluate as many as 30 speeches a day. They developed a system of codes for the most common comments on speeches. These codes were programmed into a computer program and instructors were able to listen to the speech and type in the codes for the appropriate comments. This gave extra time to make specific comments on the individual speech and also gave students complete and prompt feedback on the entire speech.The importance of feedback is so obvious that it is often taken for granted during the teaching and learning process. It is a simple yet powerful tool to aid in the learning process. Feedback is any means to inform a learner of their accomplishments and areas needing improvement. There are several different forms that feedback can take. They are oral, written, computer displayed, and from any of the interactions that occur in group learning. What is important is that the learner is informed and can associate the feedback with a specific response.Resources:Brinko, K.T. (1993). The practice of giving feedback to improve teaching. Journal of Higher Education, 64 (5), 574-593.Dohrer, G. (1991). Do teachers comments on students' papers help? College Teaching, 39 (2), 48-54.Enhancing instructor-class communication. (1994). The Teaching Professor, 8 (3), 3-4.More on student self-assessment. (1992). The Teaching Professor, 6 (10), 7.Svinicki, M.D. Four R's of effective evaluation. (1993). Reprinted from The Center for Teaching Effectiveness Newsletter at the University of Texas as Austin, in The Teaching Professor, 7 (9), 3-4.Principle 5: Emphasize time on task.Learning needs time and energy. Efficient time-management skills are critical for students. By allowing realistic amounts of time, effective learning for students and effective teaching for faculty are able to occur. The way the institution defines time expectations for students, faculty, administrators, and other staff, can create the basis for high performance from everyone.For the regular classroom:Expect students to complete their assignments promptly.Clearly communicate to your students the minimum amount of time they should spend preparing for class and working on assignments.Help students set challenging goals for their own learning.Have realistic expectations (don't expect 10 papers in 10 weeks).Encourage students to prepare in advance for oral presentations.Explain to your students the consequences of non-attendance.Meet with students who fall behind to discuss their study habits, schedules, and other commitments.Be careful that time on task is real learning, not busy work.Do not use technology for technology's sake. It must be relevant and useful to the topic.Have progressive deadlines for projects and assignments.Teach time management.Discussion topics from class posted in a discussion group on the web .For distance and online courses:Understand that there will be problems with the distance and technology along the way.Identify key concepts and how those will be taught. Given the amount of time, decide what realistically can be covered.Each distance class should involve some kind of achievement expectation that is laid out at the beginning of the course. Assign some content for out of class time.Give up the illusion of doing it all as you might in a regular classroom.Vary the types of interaction. In creating an interactive environment, it can be overwhelming to the students and teacher if the types of interaction required are too time consuming.Consider both in and out of class time.Make sure you know what your goals are and that the learners understand them as well.Have regular discussions that require participation.Principle in action:At Fort Lewis College in Colorado they have an "Innovative Month". Students are offered a series of five week summer domestic and foreign travel experiences that help them relate what they learned in the classroom to real life. The groups are limited to eight to fifteen students pre faculty member. Examples of Innovative programs include, "Management in Action", "Native American Schools", and "Music and Theater in England".At Lower Columbia College, the Integrative Studies Program is a block of 15 to 18 credit hours, organized around a theme. Students enroll in "traditional" courses, ut must enroll in the full block. This lets the faculty reorganize the day from the traditional fifty minute classes to include whatever schedule of lectures, seminars, conferences, and discussion groups needed to achieve learning objectives for that week.Wake Forest University teaches time management and study skills in their Learning Assistance Program and in the Learning to Learn class. Through a counseling/teaching model in the Learning Assistance Program, students are individually encouraged to learn and develop strategies to improve their academic performance. In the Learning to Learn Course, first and second year students study learning theory with emphasis on demonstrating how good time management and appropriate study skills positively affect outcome.An easy assumption to make would be that students would be more successful if they spent more time studying. It makes sense but it over simplifies the principle of time on task. Student achievement is not simply a matter of the amount of time spent working on a task. Even though learning and development require time, it is an error to disregard how much time is available and how well the time is spent. Time on task is more complicated than one might assume.Resources:Britton, B.K., and Tesser, A. (1991). Effects of time management practices on college grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83 (3), 405-410.Earth-sea-sky course combines art, science: Mississippi State University. (1988). Liberal Education, 74 (2), 29-30.Geiger, K. (1994). Rethinking school time: New, Better, and different...as well as more. The Washington Post, June 12, 1994. p. C3.Ludewig, L.M. (1992). The ten commandments for effective study skills. The Teaching Professor, 5 (10), 3.Terenzini, P.T., and Pascarella, E.T. (1994). Living with myths: Undergraduate education in America. Change, pp. 28-32.Principle 6: Communicate high expectations.Expect more and you will get it. The poorly prepared, those unwilling to exert themselves, and the bright and motivated all need high expectations. Expecting students to perform well becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy when teachers and institutions hold high standards and make extra efforts.For the regular classroom:Give a detailed syllabus with assignments, due dates, and a grading rubric.Encourage students to excel at the work they do.Give students positive reinforcement for doing outstanding work.Encourage students to work hard in class.Tell students that everyone works at different levels and they should strive to put forth their best effort, regardless of what level it is.Help students set challenging goals for their own learning.Publicly acknowledge excellent student performance.Revise courses when needed so students remain challenged.Work individually with students who are struggling to encourage them to stay motivated.Encourage students to do their best instead of focusing on grades.For distance and online courses:Give a detailed syllabus with assignments, due dates, and a grading rubric.Call attention to excellent work in bulletin board postings or class list serves.Show examples of your expectations with previous students' work.Publish student work.Provide corrective feedback. State what you did and did not like.Be a role model to students. Model the behavior and expectations that you expect from students.Expect students to participate.Try to make assignments interesting and relevant to create interest.Ask students to comment on what they are doing.Suggest extra resources that support key points.Principle in action:At Bellevue University (Nebraska), students in the Introductory Psychology course are given a guide for answering essay questions on their syllabus. The suggestions are designed to provide direction to answering a broadly stated essay question. Three exams are given throughout the course. The list of suggestions as well as the essay question are included on the first two exams. On the final exam, only the essay question is given. Students are allowed to practice their writing skills until the assistance is no longer needed.In order to understand how students at SUNY-Plattsburgh learn and develop and how the school can help them to do so, students are required to take the College Outcomes Measures Project examination of the American College Testing Program (ACT COMP) as freshmen and again at the end of their sophomore year.Clayton State College requires students to exhibit seven different writing styles. Several levels of proficiency are present for each of the seven criteria. All students must pass writing assessments on four different occasions.Although it is often only discussed at the instructional level, high expectations also includes the students' performance and behavior inside and outside the classroom. College and universities expect students to meet their high expectations for performance in the classroom, but also expect a personal and professional commitment to values and ethics. They include the discipline to set goals and stick with them, an awareness and appreciation of the diversity of society, and a philosophy of service to others.Resources:An American Imperative: Higher Expectations for Higher Education. An open letter to those concerned about the American future. Report on the Wingspread group in Higher education. (1993).Defining what students need to know: Clayton State. (1988). Liberal Education, 74 (3), 29-30.Gabelnick, F., MacGregor, J., Matthews, R.S., and Smith, B.L. (1990). Learning communities: Creative connections among students, faculty, and disciplines. New Directions for Teaching and Learning, (4), San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Nuhfer, E.B. (1993). Bottom line disclosure and assessment. The Teaching Professor, 7 (7), 8.Williams, J.H. (1993). Clarifying grade expectations. The Teaching Professor, 7 (7), 1.Principle 7: Respect diverse talents and ways of learning.There are many different ways to learn and no two people learn the same way. Students bring different talents and learning styles to the classroom. Students that excel in the seminar room may be all thumbs in the lab or art studio and vice versa. Students need the opportunity to show their talents and learn in ways that work for them. Then, they can be guided into new ways of learning that are not as easy for them.For the regular classroom:Use Web technologies to allow students to pick and choose learning experiences that fits the way they learn.Encourage students to speak up when they do not understand.Use diverse teaching activities and techniques to address a broad range of students.Select readings and design activities related to the background of students.Provide extra material or activities for students who lack essential background knowledge or skills.Integrate new knowledge about women, minorities, and other under-represented populations into your courses.Use learning contracts and other activities to provide students with learning alternatives for your courses.Encourage students from different races and cultures to share their viewpoints on topic discussed in class.Use collaborative teaching and learning techniques and pair students so they compliment each other's abilities.Give students a problem to solve that has multiple solutions. Guide them with clues and examples.Consider field trips.Be familiar with Howard Gardner's research on multiple intelligences.For distance and online courses:Encourage students to express diverse points of view in discussions.Create learning activities filled with real-life examples and diverse perspectives.Provide Saturday lab experiences by contracting with local high schools or community colleges.Some CD-Roms are available that offer a simulated lab.Balance classroom activities for all styles (some books, some hands on, some visual).Explain theory from a practical approach first then add the structural approach.Principle in Action:Realizing that students can interpret exam questions in different ways, students at Georgia State University in the nursing program are given the chance to modify multiple choice exam questions that they find confusing. This student input lessens test anxiety and gives the student an opportunity to demonstrate what they know.Western Washington University's Fairhaven College has a cluster college with an interdisciplinary curriculum and an emphasis is place on student-centerd approaches to teaching and learning.At Kalamazoo College, the K Plan gives students an on and off campus study that allows them to spend a significant amount of their time in college on career-development internships, foreign study, and individualized projects.The meaning of diversity is very clear from effective institutions. They embrace diversity and systematically foster it. This respect for diversity should play a central part in university decisions, be apparent in the services and resources available to students and resources available to students, be a feature of every academic program, and practiced in every classroom.Resources:Hill, P.J. (1991). Multiculturalism: The crucial philosophical and organizational issues. Change, 38-47.Jacobs, L.C., and Chase, C.I. (1992). Developing and Using Tests Effectively: A Guide for Faculty. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Kolb, D. (1981). Learning styles and disciplinary differences. In The Modern American College, edited by A.W. Chickering and Associates. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.Lynch, J.M., and Bishop-Clark, C. (1993). Traditional and nontraditional student attitudes toward the mixed age classroom. Innovative Higher Education. Winter, 109-121.National Institute of Education. (1984). Involvement in Learning: Realizing the Potential of American Higher Education. Final report of the study group on the conditions of excellence in American higher education. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education News.

A psychological fact is that manager development means change in the manager’s self-concept. Each of us, whether we realize it or not, has a self-image. We see ourselves in some way—smart, slow, kindly, well-intentioned, lazy, misunderstood, meticulous, or shrewd; we all can pick adjectives that describe ourselves. This is the “I” behind the face in the mirror, the “I” that thinks, dreams, talks, feels, and believes, the “I” that no one knows fully. In this article we will explore the meaning of the self-image, particularly in relation to changing behavior in growing managers, and how changes in self-concept come about.One reason this self-concept is crucial is that it has a great deal to do with manager development—with being a growing person and eventually realizing one’s self-potential. Note the term manager development rather than management development; the purpose of such development is to help individual managers to grow. After all, they have to do most of the job themselves. As a member of a firm of consulting psychologists to management, I can report that fact from experience—and add the further observation that no one can tell managers exactly how to grow. Rather, the most one can do is to help managers understand themselves in their own situations, and then trust them to find the best directions themselves.Filters for RealityIn the first place, the self-concept is important because everything we do or say, everything we hear, feel, or otherwise perceive, is influenced by how we see ourselves. For example:A businessman, who had traveled in many parts of the world, was incorrigibly curious about the customs, speech, local places of interest, history, and traditions of any place he visited. However, on a one-week visit to London—his first—on a delicate mission for his company, he might just as well have been in Indianapolis for all he learned of English ways of life. Being on a business trip, he saw himself as a businessman, and actually perceived little of what was around him. But as a vacationer in London he would have seen England in depth, because he would have seen himself coming to London for that purpose.Photographers often slip a reddish filter over the lens when snapping pictures of clouds on black and white film. The filter prevents some of the light rays from reaching the film, so that the final picture shows much darker skies and more sharply whitened clouds. The self-concept is like a filter that screens out what we do not want to hear and see, passes through what we do want to see and hear. In the reverse direction, it gives an idiosyncratic flavor to our behavior. Don’t we all usually pick our name out of a jumble of words on a page? Or hear our name announced at an airport amidst all of the other announcements that we fail to hear? This is called selective listening, and it is a function of our self-concept. Thus, how we see ourselves determines generally what we react to, what we perceive, and, in broad terms, how we behave in general.And this shows up in business situations too. Imagine two executives, A and B, in identical situations. Each calls in a subordinate and delegates an assignment. The italicized words below give partial indications of their self-concepts. Executive A says:“Tom, I’m concerned about our relations with the XYZ Company. Its purchases from us have fallen off lately and rather abruptly. You know our history with it. Will you investigate and find out the cause of the reduced volume? Let me know if you run into anything you don’t understand.”Executive A is confident of her ability to handle the situation. She sees herself as unthreatened, able to cope with whatever Tom’s investigation discloses, and willing to delay action until the facts are gathered and studied.Executive B, on the other hand, says:“Jane, the XYZ Company has cut back its purchases from us for the third month in a row. We’ve got to get on this and quick. Now, you go visit it. I wish I could but I’m tied down here. Talk to the purchasing agent—uh, what’s her name again? Uh…(shuffling papers)…here it is… Bailey. See Bailey. Oh…and you’d better see the chief engineer, a nice guy…named…uh…his name slips me for the moment…you can get it from Bailey. But don’t go near Sam. Awful—he’ll cover up whatever’s happening anyway, and might use your visit as a sign we’re scared of old XYZ. I’ve got to have some answers on this one, Jane. The boss is on my neck but good. So…”Executive B is obviously less confident. He feels threatened by the situation. He doesn’t trust Jane to use her own common sense—as indicated by his explicit “do”s and “don’t”s—probably because he himself lacks confidence.Continuing ChangesAlthough the self-concept is important in understanding human behavior generally, it becomes critically so in understanding manager development, where changes in behavior are the objective. As a matter of cold, hard, psychological fact, a change in behavior on the job, for better or worse, means a change in self-concept. Thus, we are dealing with an immensely and immediately practical consideration.Human beings constantly change their behavior, as we see if we examine ourselves (and others) critically enough. It is a superficial observation to say that so-and-so is the same person she was five years ago. Technically, she isn’t exactly the same today as she was even yesterday. For one thing, she is one day older. She has learned something new, however negligible, that becomes incorporated in her apperceptive mass. As a result, her perception of today’s events is different, however slightly and undetectably, from what it was yesterday. She may have had nothing “significant” happen to her—no promotion, no accident, no soul-searching upset—but she will be different, even though only a person with Solomon’s wisdom would know it. Change in behavior is constant.The difficulties managers have in thinking about changes in behavior come from their inability to detect change, and from fuzzy thinking behind such comforting, though fallacious, notions as, “You can’t teach an old dog new tricks,” “He was born that way,” or “She’s been like that ever since I’ve known her.”On the other hand, sometimes superficial behavior changes are erroneously thought to be basic. For example, consider the simplest level of change in behavior, which is brought about by increased knowledge or skill:The newly appointed foreman learns his new duties, dons a white shirt, delegates jobs he used to do himself, and learns to participate in his superintendent’s meetings. His company provides him with instruction through manuals, books, conferences, sessions with his boss, and management training courses. He joins the National Foremen’s Association, attends lectures, and may even be sent to a two-week seminar at the local university. He learns much and becomes suitably skillful in discharging his new functions. This new way of life changes the foreman’s behavior, of course; but only peripherally, just as living in a new house does not basically alter the marriage relation. He knows more, sees more, has more and better skills.If companies do want such “simple-level” changes, and only these, then management training is called for. The new zone manager learns the policy manual, and the new vice president of manufacturing learns how the company’s controller figures costs. These specific learnings are the objectives of training, and can become changes in behavior produced by training.Keystone for GrowthIf, however, a company wants growth in the deeper sense, then something more subtle and basic in its impact is called for in the manager development effort. Such deeper growth is, of course, a change in self-concept. Managers who once were unreliable in their judgment or who lacked drive grow toward reliability in judgment or toward stronger drive. Growth in this sense brings observable changes in outward behavior, because each person is now inwardly different—different, for example, in self-perception, in attitude toward job and company as both relate to his or her own life, or in a feeling of responsibility for others.But experience shows that such growth is as difficult to achieve as it is desirable. It demands the full-fledged participation of the manager. Actually the trite expression, “Management development is self-development,” is psychologically sound. Growing managers change because they want to and because they have to in response to new insights and understandings gained on the job. They do not change because they are told to, exhorted to, or because it is the thing to do.Such growth implies changes within people—in how they use their knowledge, in the ends to which they apply their skills, and, in short, in their view of themselves. The point is clear that growing people examine themselves; and as they do so, they emerge with new depths of motivation, a sharper sense of direction, and a more vital awareness of how they want to live on the job. Growth in this sense is personalized and vital. And such growth in self-concept is at the heart of a real manager development effort.But growth in self-concept is not always simple and clear.Conflicts in Self-conceptEach human being is several selves, living comfortably in the role of father or mother, husband or wife, business person, president, golfer, bridge player, the life of the party, and so on. But if there are conflicts among any of these roles, then discomfort arises. And such conflict brings with it such dynamics as tension, guilt feelings, and compensation. Let us illustrate with a familiar example:A person sees him- or herself both as a good parent and a good business person. As a parent, he or she spends time with the children; but as a business person, the time demands can be overwhelming. Now what can be done? It obviously is not possible to be home most evenings with the family and also be out of town on necessary business trips. Both self-concepts cannot be realized simultaneously. So what happens? The business gets the time Monday through Friday, and the family gets the weekends.This seems like an easy resolution. What, then, is the problem? The person in our example has had to modify both self-concepts and may feel deeply dissatisfied with such a necessity. So the dissatisfaction, the psychological discomfort, the basic conflict in self-concepts, may show in his or her behavior—being unduly critical of business associates (or subordinates) who will not follow this example and give up their family life during the week; resenting the children, who blithely go about their own activities on the weekend, ignoring their parents. And if by chance the teenage child develops any emotional problems which are ascribed to “parental neglect,” our person really hits the ceiling! “Neglect? How can that be? Haven’t I given my children every weekend?”In the deeper sense, conflicts lie behind many self-concepts, but it is beyond our scope to explore them. In an individual case, this is a matter for professional study and expert handling. By definition, effective, consistent behavior is integrated behavior, while unintegrated behavior is the behavior of conflict.Unrealism in Self-conceptIn addition to conflicts between self-concepts as a cause of ineffective behavior, there is the crucial matter of disparity between “how I see myself” and “how others see me.” Unrealistic self-appraisal has cost many a manager his or her job. Think of people you know who have been fired, eased out, or moved laterally because they no longer “seemed up to the job.” Has there not been in many such cases the subtle flavor of unadaptability, of a rigid inability in a manager to adjust his or her sights to a new role as times have changed?Most familiar are the unnecessarily tragic cases of those who cannot grow old gracefully. Next are those uncounted misfits who fail through lack of realistic insight into their true worth. For example, take the good vice president who flunks as president because he never realized his inability to endure the rigors of being top person. There are endless instances of failures owing to a disparity between “who I am” and “who I think I am.”Unfortunately, not only outright failure may come from disparities in self-concept; more insidious is the effect of partial or fuzzy self-appraisal. In fact, if the proposition is right that realism in the individual’s self-view has a one-to-one relationship with effectiveness on the job, then it surely follows that all of us can improve our effectiveness by the simple expedient of developing a more realistic, more accurate self-concept!In short, the more realistic one’s view of oneself, the more guaranteed is personal effectiveness. Here is an example that underscores this point:George H., the vice president of sales for a $50-million company with a staff of 250 sales and service people, was in serious organizational trouble. The group had increased in size so rapidly that it had long since outgrown its organizational pattern. There were constant complaints such as: “Whom do I work for?” “Nobody knows whether I’m doing well or poorly.” “We haven’t any system to follow in service to customers.” The executives under George tried valiantly to do twice and three times as much as they had always done. The situation was, frankly, a mess.George as a person was well liked and respected. He was democratic, attentive to others, soft-spoken, unlikely to “order,” always likely to “suggest,” and unsure of himself as an administrator. In general he was a person who saw himself as a stimulator and coordinator of his people, an excellent personal salesperson, but not a supervisor. Somehow he had completely missed sensing that his people waited for directions from him. He felt that a sensible district sales manager should know what to do. His own perception of himself and his people’s perception of him as vice president of sales were poles apart.The impasse was breached when an outsider on whom George relied heavily (and who also had the confidence of the top people in the department) finally told him bluntly, “George, your people are waiting for you to clear the air. They’ll follow any organizational plan you want them to. This step only you can take. They respect you and want your leadership. They value you. Don’t ask them; tell them, for goodness’ sake, how you’re going to organize their activities.”George tried to integrate this new dimension into his self-concept. At first, he swung to one extreme and “got tough”: He made explicit, directive demands; he swore; he told everybody, in effect, “I want what I want when I want it—and that’s right now!” But soon he abandoned his pretense and absorbed into his self-concept the new “take-charge” aspect of his functioning. He defined an organizational plan, set up policies and procedures which sorted out sales and service duties, discussed them fully with all involved, and said, in effect, “This is it. Let’s go.”This example is, of course, an oversimplification; it highlights the fact that disparity in perception can reduce managerial effectiveness. What George saw himself to be in the office of vice president of sales precluded his seeing the needs of his people. And this blind spot nearly cost him prolonged chaos, if not the loss of his job.Finally, it is manifestly clear that change in self-concept as a function of executive growth has a payoff. Recall situations where a critical appointment has to be made. Who gets the nod? Usually it is the one who as a person is thought to have potential and who is able to make a contribution to the “mix” of key executives. Consequently, many companies, in selecting their handpicked future executives, feed in “trainees” with liberal arts degrees. They are looking for the people, not their knowledge or special skills. By the same token, as the young people grow, it is their self-concept that will change and come more into line with what they are becoming in relation to their potential. It is on the basis of their self-concept that young people emerge as top executives. To twist an old adage, it isn’t what you know that finally counts; it’s who you are.Natural ResistanceBut there is still one big question to answer. If changes in the self-concept of the executive are desirable, just what brings them about? In fact, are changes in self-concept possible? Of course changes are possible, but there is one obvious block to growth.Even when executives want to change, the lurking suspicion that such effort is futile tends to vitiate the process of change. Faint mutterings of self-discontent tend to get quashed by the notion that “an old dog can’t learn new tricks.” And the basic comfort of the status quo seems to outweigh the value of the new mode of behavior.One reason for such feelings of resistance is that, psychologically, the mature person resists change. By definition, the self-concept is an organization or patterning of attitudes, habits, knowledge, drives, and the like. And also, by definition, the fact of organization means a cementing together of all these complex components.For example, people who for many years have been highly and aggressively competitive cannot, except with difficulty, either suddenly or gradually become insightfully cooperative; they will still tend to see themselves as needing to surpass others. They retain a pattern, a consistency, and basic characteristics; and in this sense resist change. Indeed, this is a good thing, or we still would all be going through the throes of “finding ourselves” as we did as adolescents.When mature people change, therefore, they do so against a natural resistance; but whether this resistance is a deeply stabilizing influence that helps them to retain their basic direction and character, or whether it is a cocoon that makes them unreachable, is a moot question. Resistance, though built in, may thus be either a roadblock or a gyroscope.We have noted that changes in the self-concept of executives are “gut-level,” not peripheral. They are changes in perception and attitude and understanding, not changes in knowledge or experience or skills. So our exploration of how change occurs must include those factors which seem to operate more deeply within the individual and which polarize new directions and behaviors. We are looking for those basic vital factors which, as they operate, really change people beyond their power of dissimulation or pretense. This is change in the fundamental makeup of people, not change in their apparel. When such changes occur, the person is different.Steps to MaturityLet us be clear about one point. Growth does not proceed in clear-cut, discrete, logical steps. Sometimes it occurs in inexplicable spurts; at other times, with agonizing slowness. There are cases where real learning is so deeply unconscious that no overt behavior change shows up for a long time. Even regressions will occur, as when an adolescent, perhaps troubled by a day’s activities, will sleep with a special blanket as he or she did at age six. The process of growth is a nebulous, multifactored, fluid, dynamic process, often astounding, and usually only partially controllable.But for the sake of discussion, and understanding, we can postulate a sequence of steps.Self-examinationIf we were to attempt a systematic analysis of what happens when growth in managers occurs, we would need to begin with self-examination. For here individuals first know that they don’t know or first get an inkling that they wish their behavior were different in some respect. They are forced, either by circumstance or their own conscious introspection, to look at themselves critically. This is what happens when golfers see movies of their swing, or when a parent scolds a child by saying, “Just look at yourself—all dirty.” Or when the supervisor’s thickly veiled anger over a subordinate’s sloppy work finally becomes known. People see themselves every time they look in the mirror, but do they really examine what they see? Do they appraise and evaluate and study what manner of people they are?The function of self-examination is to lay the groundwork for insight, without which no growth can occur. Insight is the “oh, I see now” feeling which must, consciously or unconsciously, precede change in behavior. Insights—real, genuine glimpses of ourselves as we really are—are reached only with difficulty and sometimes with real psychic pain. But they are the building blocks of growth. Thus self-examination is a preparation for insight, a groundbreaking for the seeds of self-understanding which gradually bloom into changed behavior.Self-expectationAs individuals raise their sights for themselves, as they get insights into the direction in which they want to grow, as they “see” themselves in a particular respect they do not like, then they are changing their self-expectations. (This is the next step.) New demands on themselves are set up, not by anyone else, just by themselves. This is another way of saying what the theologians insist on, namely, that a conviction of sin precedes salvation. Or, as the psychologists put it, first accept the fact that you have the problem—not anyone else—and then you are ready to find a solution. Here are two cases that illustrate the importance of self-expectation through insight:Mary D. was a chronic complainer. Nothing was ever her fault. She frequently and self-pityingly inveighed against her boss, her subordinates, her peers, and the competition. She was capable, knowledgeable, a hard worker, critical. And never once, when she sang the old refrain, “Why does this always happen to me?’’ did an inner voice whisper back, ‘‘It’s no different for you, old girl, than for anyone else. It’s just the way you take it.”Efforts by her boss and her friends to develop some insight in Mary seemed wasted. Logical explanations, patiently made, were of course futile. Anger toward her only proved to her she was picked on. Gentle tolerance only gave her a bigger pool to wallow in.One day in a meeting of executives to find answers to a particular crisis that had hit everyone (an unexpected price slash by a major competitor), she held forth at length on the uselessness of market research, on the futility of keeping a “pipeline” on the competitor’s situation, on how her department (sales) couldn’t be blamed for not anticipating the vagaries of the competition’s pricing policy, and so on. She finally stopped. And, as though by prearrangement, the whole group, perhaps in complete disgust at her immaturity and irrelevance, sat in stony silence.At length the silence became so oppressive that it suddenly dawned on the complainer that she was just that—an immature complainer. She recalled the words of her colleagues and her own dim awareness that she did complain a lot. Insight finally occurred.At long last she was ready to begin to grow out of her immaturity. She saw (and disliked) herself at this point. Now her growth could become self-directed; she could easily find many opportunities to quash feelings of self-pity and to face reality in a more stateswomanlike fashion, because now she expected more stateswomanlike attitudes of herself.Pete B., age 58, was vice president of engineering of a company that made fine-quality capital goods equipment. He had been with his company 35 years. He was a good engineer, who knew the product inside out; and through the years he had learned to know the customers, too. He felt proud of and personally involved in each installation of the product. It was not unusual to see him on an evening, coatless and with his tie loose, perched on a stool before a drafting board, surrounded by young engineers, digging at a tough installation problem. While some thought Pete did too much himself, others felt that with him on the job the customer would be satisfied.About four years ago, however, the president, whose family owned the company, sold it to a large corporation, and the company became a wholly owned subsidiary. One allied product line was acquired, then another. Finally Pete’s department was asked to do the engineering work for several subsidiaries that were not set up to do their own.Now Pete’s job had changed, subtly but surely, and trouble began to brew for Pete because he couldn’t seem to change with the situation.Psychologically, Pete saw himself as a one-person department (with assistants as trainees) who personally engineered the product for the customer, his friend. He resisted the impersonality of working on engineering problems of “sister companies” whose customers and products he barely knew and cared less about. The new fangled system of a “home office” engineering vice president who was “staff” seemed to him just another unnecessary complication. Nothing worked the way it used to. He saw himself bypassed by progress and change.So, unconsciously, he began to resist and to fight. His yearning for the “good old days” subconsciously forced him to run faster and faster in order to know more customers and more product lines; to work more evenings; to press new systems into the form of old procedures. And, of course, he began to slip, and badly. Gradually, Pete was viewed by his superiors as “good old Pete, but let’s not get him in on this matter or he’ll have to take it over himself and we’ll get bogged down,” and by his subordinates as a fine fellow, but stodgy and old-fashioned.Fortunately, before the situation compelled a major organizational shift, Pete took stock of his situation, and really saw himself as he was. He got the insight that his self-image of a kind of personal engineer was no longer applicable to the corporation’s greatly expanded needs. And right then, with this new glimpse of himself (and the courage and self-honesty to face it), he began to change. He started by focusing on how his years of experience could be applied to the coaching of his subordinates. He put himself in the shoes of the staff vice president and could then see how to mesh gears better. Then he stopped resisting the new fangled data processing and automation procedures. His growth began with a new self-expectation.Change in Self-expectationHow do people get a new self-demand, a new self-expectation? How do they find out that their self-concept is inadequate? How do people know not only that they can be different but should be as well? Unfortunately for those who like recipes or formulas, such questions are perennially bothersome because there is no one best way.What can be done to stimulate change in self-expectation besides honest, realistic, self-appraising introspection? In the business context, the constructive pointing up of executives’ needs for growth by their superiors is a tremendous source of insight. The emphasis, of course, is on the word constructive, which means helpful, insightful ideas from the superior and not, as so often happens, a ceremonial, judgmental, “I’ll tell you what I think about you” appraisal.A further source of insight is husbands and wives—the perceptive ones, that is. Perceptive ones have unique ways of jerking spouses up short when their self-images become distorted.In fact, anything which enables people to get a new perception—reading, observing, studying, going to conferences, attending meetings, and participating in clubs—can provide insight into themselves. Out of insight comes change in self-expectation.And, of course, life situations which are kaleidoscopic always enable perceptive people to see themselves in a new light. Here is another example:Katherine W. was acutely self-critical, often to the point where her fear of failure immobilized her. She delayed decisions, fussed endlessly with details, and generally strained to be perfect. In time her relation with the psychologist, who genuinely accepted her without criticism, praise, blame, or hostility, enabled her to “see” how her self-critical attitudes really stemmed from her self-pride. She felt she had to be perfect because it was “safer” to be free from criticism and failure. But she finally “rejoined the human race” and demanded of herself only that she do her best. The insight that she was human after all freed her to change her self-expectations.Self-directionPeople are masters of their own destiny in the sense that they take charge of their own development if they want to grow. Nothing can be done to them to make them grow; they grow only as they want to and as their own insights enable them to.The changes in self-concept that executives undergo must continue primarily through their own self-direction. It is clear that many development programs miss their mark badly at this point. They make the naive assumption that exposure to experiences or people or books or courses is enough to produce growth. Not so. They effect change in the participants only as they reach out and appropriate something—a bit of wisdom, a new idea, or a new concept—that stretches them, and gives them answers to their own self-generated problem.Put another way, we might say that, just as learning is impossible without motivation, so real executive development is impossible unless executives seek it. Furthermore, the strength of their desire is infinitely stronger if they seek development because they want to develop than if they are merely trying to please their bosses or do what is expected of them. As any teacher knows, the pupils who listen and learn merely in order to pass the course are far poorer learners than those who want to learn.Fundamentally, this is the age-old problem of motivation, of keeping steam up in the boiler. The maintenance of a growing edge, as executives emerge from insight to insight to realize their potential, is a consequence of intrinsic motivation. They are driven toward unrealized objectives, perhaps toward unrealizable goals.After developing insight into themselves in relation to what they want to be, the power that keeps executives growing is the veritable necessity of doing things that to them are intrinsically, basically, and lastingly worthwhile. Growing executives are so because they derive their strength and desire and drive from inner, unachieved goals; and their satisfactions from self-realization. This is intrinsic motivation as it relates to self-concept.Broadened perceptionsThe dynamics of this factor of growth are very clear: people must see themselves in relation to their environment, both personal and impersonal, and must develop their image of themselves partly in response to what they see around them. So if they see a very small world (as a child does), their concept of themselves must necessarily be narrow; if they seem themselves as citizens of the world (as a world traveler might), their self-concept embraces the world. This is the difference between the real provincial, such as a hillbilly, and the true sophisticate.A most common complaint of superiors is that subordinates are too narrow in their outlooks. For example, the sales manager promoted to vice president of sales irritates her peers in manufacturing or research by having “only a salesperson’s point of view.” The former production supervisor, now a vice president, is derided by the people in sales for his attitude of “We’ll make it at low cost; it’s up to you to sell it, and don’t bother me with special runs for special customers or model changes—sell ’em.” Both people suffer from constraint of the self-concept: they perceive their jobs (and themselves) too narrowly. For instance:A vice president of sales was brought in from outside the company to gear up the effort of merchandising a new line of products. He did a magnificent job, old pro that he was, of shaping up and vitalizing a sales force. Volume of sales picked up excellently, and he was the hero of the hour.But after a year, when he felt on top of his job, some of his attitudes and habits reasserted themselves, annoying others and stalling progress. For instance, he persisted in making frequent references to his former (and larger) company. He climbed on manufacturing for delivery delays, and on research and engineering for perfectionism before releasing the specifications for what he felt were needed product changes. The time it took to explain to him, pacify him, and argue with him was ill-spent and futile. He was rapidly becoming a block in the path of progress.One day the president approached him directly. “George,” said the president, “what’s your title?”“Why,” said George, puzzled, ‘‘vice president of sales.’’“Right. And what does vice president mean to you?”George paused. What was the president getting at? “Well,” he said, “it means a lot of things, I guess. Responsibility for sales, building a…”“Stop right there,” interrupted the president. “Responsibility for sales, you say. True in a way. But sales managers also have this responsibility, don’t they?”“Well, yes.”“Then what do the words vice president mean in your title?”“Oh, I see… Well, I guess they mean seeing or having responsibility for the sales function of the company from the point of view of the company…that part of your office.”“You got my point before I mentioned it, George,” said the president. “Vice presidents speak from the company point of view, not just of their departments. They try to keep the overall good of the company in mind.”George thought this conversation over. He got the point. He realized the narrowness of his own view. He had been thinking of himself as “on loan” from his former employer to straighten things out here. As he pondered the president’s comments, he broadened his perception of job—and of himself. And sometime later he began to act as an office of the total company.Self-realization PowerIt is not enough, however, just to see ourselves as we are now. Such understanding is a necessary starting point, or basis on which to build. But we must also see what our real selves could be, and grow into that.The strong people of history have had one psychological characteristic in common: they seem always to have been themselves as persons—…Beethoven, continuing to compose after he became deaf;…Milton, who didn’t allow blindness to interfere with his writing;…Keller, becoming a lecturer on opportunities for the handicapped despite being both deaf and blind.Such people have given meaning to the phrase, “fulfilling one’s destiny.”In less dramatic form, strong executives fulfill themselves as they live lives that are an unfolding of their potential. They must be themselves. In this sense, the self-concept of the strong executive is a constantly evolving, changing thing as they continuously realize themselves. This is, indeed, genuine growth and the kind that continues until senescence sets in.Can all people aspire to be this strong—to accomplish such a self-realization? Of course not. But growing people (by definition) have unrealized power if their self-concept, their self-expectation, their self-direction, and their constantly broadening perceptions (wisdom) allow them to find it. The difference between a strong person and a weak person may not be a difference in ability, for many clerks have keen intelligence; or in drive, for many ambitious people get nowhere; or in opportunity, for somehow, strong people make opportunity. No, the difference lies in self-concept. How much do I value my life? What do I want to do with it? What must I do to be myself? Strong people have emerged with clear-cut answers to such questions; weak ones equivocate and temporize and never dare.Thus growth, finally, is the evolvement of personal goals and the sense of venture in pursuing them. This is the meaning of dedicated people. Their personal goals, their company goals, and their job goals have coincidence to a great extent; and their personal power is directed singlemindedly toward seeing themselves in relation to the fulfillment of their executive potential.