Leadership & The Act of Will: Part 2
This is the second in a series of five blog articles on the act of will. The act of will is the art of getting personal things done. All leaders, ultimately, have to get things done and this is why it’s so helpful for them to understand that the act of will is a process with six stages.
The act of will is not just a matter of deciding or choosing, as some people think. There is more to it than that. Roberto Assagioli outlined the six stages of the act of will in his book, The Act of Will nearly fifty years ago. His six stages were:
1. Purpose (or aim or goal)/evaluation/motivation/intent
2. Deliberation
3. Choice and decision
4. Strengthening faith/conviction/certainty
5. Planning
6. Directing the execution
In this article, we’ll look at the first stage: Purpose / Aim/ Goal – based on Evaluation, Motivation and Intent.
The act of will always involves a purpose, a vision or a goal you want to reach. But although this is the beginning, it’s not yet will in action as it remains in the realm of imagination.
If you are to act on the purpose, you must evaluate it – meaning you will assess how important it is to you. And for you to act, the evaluation must arouse motives strong enough to create a powerful intent to achieve the goal.
What arouses the motives? Your values. Your values are beliefs about what is important to you, what you care about most and, therefore, what naturally motivate you. Thus, your values are the mould on which sit your most naturally motivating goals.
This first stage is more complex than it looks as it can come about in more ways than one, which Assagioli explained when he wrote:
“In the … [first] stage, four elements have been grouped because they are interrelated in such a way that they should not be treated as different stages. In fact, a purpose is the will to reach a goal, an objective; but a goal is not such if it is not regarded as valuable. Similarly, a motive is not a motive if it does not “move,” if it does not impel toward a goal. And the direction of the motive is given by intention.
Moreover, these aspects do not always succeed each other in a fixed order. Sometimes a motive or an intention appears first to the consciousness, for example, a prompting toward some ideal not yet clear or defined. Or one becomes aware of a moral, social, aesthetic, or religious value, which only later becomes connected to an aim, a specific goal to be achieved. At other times the vision comes first, the intuitive flash, the illumination that reveals a goal or a task to which a value is then attributed; and this arouses the motives which urge toward actualisation and the intention to achieve it. Thus there can be a variety of dynamic relationships among purpose, evaluation, motive and intention.”
( The Act Of Will by Roberto Assagioli, Psychosynthesis & Education Trust, 1974, pp.140-141.)
This stage is crucial, yet few leaders understand it. For if they are to engage others commitment to act, they must connect with others values. The goal or vision or mission or whatever you want to call it must be something that their colleagues care about, it must motivate them. Failing to choose a purpose or goal that others don’t really care about is the first step towards failure. Yes, you can use force or deception to motivate others for a while, but what happens when they encounter obstacles? The chances are their motivation will dip and they’ll abandon you.
In part 3 we will look at the second stage: Deliberation.
The author is James Scouller, an executive coach. His book, The Three Levels of Leadership: How to Develop Your Leadership Presence, Knowhow and Skill, was published in May 2011. You can learn more about it at www.three-levels-of-leadership.com. If you want to see its reviews, click here: leadership book reviews. If you want to know where to buy it, click HERE. You can read more about his executive coaching services at The Scouller Partnership’s website.
