Personal Transformation for Leadership

During the past month we have initiated in the Reception and Diagnostic Center a pioneering program for developing the leadership of inmates in the various cells - the mayors and vice mayors.  This was given by an inmate who has been working with me during the past years in developing the program for Holistic Transformation which we hope will eventually be implemented in full by the Bureau of Correction.  This is a micro version/slice of the whole course adapted here for leaders.

                                   

Personal Transformation for Effective Leadership

Introduction:

          The goal of this seminar-workshop is to provide practical foundation for personal change according to the mission-vision of the Bureau of Correction for prisoner-inmates.

          The mission of the BuCor for inmates is the restoration of dignity of the prisoner as a human person.  This mission will be realized when the vision of a transformed person is realized in each and every inmate that is released to the free society.

          The transformed person is described as one who:

• habitually exhibits habits of mind, heart, speech and action that keep them in good and positive relationship with himself, significant persons in his life, other people, existing institutions, life in general;
• has a personal, vibrant and deepening relationship with God;
• has full understanding and commitment to a definite personal purpose for his life in accordance with God’s will;
• has well-developed skill, talent, proficiency in at least one productive endeavor or career path and prepared to be financially self-reliant.

          The seminar-workshop will include the following topics:

Topic 1. Knowing One’s Self – The Existential Man

Topic 2. The Nature of the Human Person – Fallen Man

Topic 3.  God’s Vision for the Human Person - Restoration

Topic 4. The Power of God’s Love – What God Has Done

Topic 5.  The Power of the Human Person – What Man Must Do

Topic 6.  The Process of Personal Change and Transformation

Topic 7.   Personal Vision of Transformed Life

Topic 8.   Transformative Leadership

Understanding One’s Personality

Personality is the over-all expression or projection of the individual’s behavioral, temperamental, emotional and mental attributes that  characterizes him as a unique individual in a more or less consistent way but which in a general way is shared with others of similar bent.  Personality is judged not so much in terms of their moral value, as in "character," but as to whether they are "pleasing" or "unpleasing."

            One’s personality determines how well one lives and relates with others and the world.

           

            You can find joy and peace with others and the world by understanding your own personality and that of others.

Almost every day we describe and assess the personalities of the people around us though not in a formal or systematic way the psychologists do.


Different Thinkers (www.texcpe.com/cpe/pdf/il/ILHP.pdf) differ in certain aspects of what a healthy personality but are in agreement in following:

§    accepting and taking responsibility for who and what we are

§    rationally directing their behavior

§    being in charge of their destinies

§    being guided by ourselves as opposed to external forces

§    having self-awareness,

§    being anchored in the present

§    living in the moment

§    increasing rather than reducing tension through seeking new challenges, goals and experiences

The above may serve as a guide in assessing the wholesomeness of one’s personality.

Understanding One’s Personal Worldview

          One’s worldview gives an over-all view of the context by which one lives his life.  Changing your worldview can transport you to a new world and way of life.

             Worldview is a person’s fundamental outlook or life perspective which includes perceptions of deity, humanity and the rest of the universe.  It is the main source of one’s moral code, ethics and many other beliefs. Understanding it will help you make sense of your world and help you make choices for living your life. It helps you realize how you differ from other individuals in their approach towards such life issues as abortion.

            People are not normally aware of their worldview or that they have a worldview and as such are rarely verbalized.  But persons’ worldview can be deduced from their actions. A person who is open and trusting of others believe that most people are honest and trustworthy.

When asked, most people are unable to describe their world-view because they remain in their mind as set of feelings and basic attitudes about the world. They are not clearly formulated opinions but rather fuzzy assumptions about people, society, and existence in general. 

Understanding One’s Self-Concept

            We could live our life without fully understanding why we live and behave as we do and therefore fail to act at times or most of the time in accordance with objective standards of right and wrong.

            It is only by understanding how we see ourselves that we will be able to see the reason for the incongruence of our personal behavior, attitudes and actuations with regards to the demands or requirements of an orderly and peaceful life, whether in our personal life, family life, work life, community life and social life.

            It is our self-concept that affects how we behave, how we regard ourselves and others and how we see others. What is significant about self-concept is that we have the potential to develop realistic but positive self-concept, which will improve our behavior, our self-regard and our regard for others.

            A more practical way of understanding self-concept is to view it as a ‘collection  of self-representations’. An exercise to help us discover or clarify our own self-concept is to represent ourselves or aspects of ourselves using animate or inanimate things.  We can represent the following aspects of ourselves using things, for example:

§        Physical representation

I see my physical self like a Narra tree because I have always been strong and with stamina to withstand the physical demands of living.

§        Relational representation

I am like a Bamboo tree in the way I relate with other people; I am always willing to bend at the pressure of other people, but always bounce back to my true standing at the proper time.

§        Performance representation

In my activities, I am like a climbing vine that proliferates and climbs fast; I am a fast worker and achieve much in relatively shorter time.

§        Spiritual-moral representation

In my spiritual life, I am like a tall straight tree alone on top of a hill, rising up to sky as high as I can.

Our self-concept is something we should not take merely as a matter of fact. Together with our past and our worldview, our self-concept needs to be evaluated in terms of more enduring and more life enhancing truths about ourselves.

Encountering Personal History for Personal Change

Reviewing your personal history leads to self-discovery and understanding. When you review your life with attention and care you discover diamonds within mountain of dirt.
 
Life is fundamentally a creative process, meant to bring about more and better manifestation of living reality. Human life then is a process of bringing about better and improved expression of the human person.

All of a person’s experiences are embedded in the memory cells of the brain which are always ready to be retrieved upon recall. Reviewing one’s life re-awakens and brings to present reality past events and experiences along with the energies that brought them about.

For personal change to happen in a way that positively influences the totality of a person, there is a need to make a journey of remembrance back to the landscape of one’s life.

There are a lot of things that comes to mind when reviewing one’s life. While your eventual focus is on events that may have a bearing on the problematic area you are concerned with it is good to be open to all remembered experiences as possible source of energy and perspective for positive change.

Thus reviewing one’s life can reveal significant moments when life direction changed (turning points in life), when critical events, dark moments, meaningful experiences and important things happened in one’s life. Coming back to these experiences is necessary to understand the root cause of what one need or want to change in one’s life.

Reviewing your life will also reveal those who are God’s messengers sent to help you; persons most influential in your life; the people who influenced you for good. It will also reveal that which you fought against: your personal nemesis, your Achilles’ heel (chief weakness) and those who led you astray.

Reviewing your life reveals your cherished dreams and your spiritual journey; it reveals your life story and enables you to discover and understand your past; and knowing your past, you’ll come to understand your present as well.

Example

"He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress."   Anwar Sadat

To start the inmate in the road to personal transformation, they need to be given a head start in their life ahead inside the penal institution. Interestingly, I discover from among inmates who have been here for quite some time and most who are ready to leave, the capacity to contribute towards giving their fellow inmates this much needed head start, through the different Orientation Sessions. An example of what they can share is given below, from an inmate who is now giving the final remarks of the three-day orientation. Following is translation of his sharing:

3 Most Important Things Prisoners Need To Learn

I stand before you as a fellow inmate with more than eight years of prison time, and task to share with you some insights that can be useful to you as  new inmates and for the rest of your stay.

These past few days you have been briefed about formal things you need to know and understand about living inside as prisoner and things you need to know and do to facilitate your eventual release from incarceration and when you may be eligible for this.

What I will be sharing to you are important things you need to know, understand and act upon not only at this time or at various time but at all times all throughout your stay inside so that your stay will be worthwhile, meaningful and fruitful.   But before we go into each of these things, let me start by asking you a few questions: How do you feel now that you are here?  Feel free to share to everybody how you feel when you first arrive and now that you have been here for some time.   (He allowed some time for responses).

And now, how would you want to feel all throughout your stay? Do you want to be happy while here? Is it possible to be happy while serving your sentence? My answer to that is yes! And what I want to share now may be summed up into three things: acceptance of your present reality, knowing the true reason for your present reality and making right choices about your present reality.  When I speak about your present reality, it is primarily the reality of your imprisonment and all that it means.

So let us start with the First.  You must accept your present reality. And what is that reality? You are a prisoner serving your specific sentence.  (He asked how many have sentences for reclusion perpetua? Life  sentence?  40 years? 20 years?  15 years? 10 years? 5 years? ) The sooner you accept that in your heart and stop wishing that it is otherwise, the greater the inner settlement to a sense of ease. When you accept the reality of your present imprisonment the more you can focus your attention of how you can make the most of your time.  The reality is that you are a prisoner. What does it mean?  This whole orientation has given you the formal knowledge of what it means and how you should live here.  Of course these are not the only thing you need to learn. They are just the basic. What you need is to have openness to learning. That will give you more understanding.
      Another aspect of your present reality that you need to know and accept is the reality that you are a person with open possibilities and of this place as laden with possibilities for good to happen in your life.  There is a tremendous potential for good that can happen in your life and in this place, even if it is a prison.  And this attitude can make a whole difference for good in your life. Anything good can happen and many good things can happen in your life here.  And the remainder of what I will share will show you how this can happen. But before we go on let me just share to you the story of Og Mandino who discovered a new possibility for his life at a time when he was at his lowest.

     Second, you must know the reason why you are here. There are two answers:

1. What you think is the answer.
2. The true answer:  Has two sides like the side of a coin.

     The person side: You chose to be here! You are here because of the choices you made in your life, not because of other people. You may not want to be here, but you will not be here if you had not made choices in your life that eventually led you to be here. Unless you see that, you will not see that the good possibility for your life is your responsibility.

     The eagle side: God wants you to be here. God loves you so much to prevent the worse thing that could happen to your life, and to enforce his will for your life, to corner you like in a chess game, so that you eventually will resign to his will. And his will is good. What does it mean, since God is the one who brought you here, he must have a purpose for you here. 'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the LORD, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.' Jeremiah 29:11. And you will only experience the maximum good you could ever have here if God will have his way in you.  

Third, you must make the right choice about options you have on how you will spend your time here. You have the choice to either live according to the way you have learned to think and live up to this time (or how other prisoners  think and live here, which is pretty much like the way you think and live, only different in degree)  or you can choose to live with a desire to be a new person, and have a new hope for the future, and that means choosing to change the way you think.

Former Egyptian President Anwar Sadat, who made the decision to turn around centuries of war with Israel to give space for the possibility of peace, wrote:  

    

“He who cannot change the very fabric of his thought will never be able to change reality, and will never, therefore, make any progress.”

                                                                                  The best way to change the way you think and be a new person with a future full of real hope is to seek God and be in a right relationship with him throughout your life here and to let him change your mind and heart. That means spending your life here in real spiritual search (over and above all the daily things you need to do to live). And when I say, spiritual search, it is not just a matter of becoming member of religious group, though that is a first step you can make, but rather make this a long spiritual retreat.  Every day you have to take time to pause and think, reflect and search your heart before making decisions and choices about things that will come into your life here. It means, not making decisions the way you used to do (simply by force of habit) but waiting for and considering other options, that may come from listening to God in your heart, reflecting on  the things that are happening now, reading the words of the scripture or from just simply taking time to think it over first and considering what you can do differently from what you used to do. As you day by day make right choices, you continue to change your way of thinking for good. And this new way of thinking will prepare the new life and opportunities ahead of you.

                                                                       

Expectation

"Treat a man as he is, he will remain so. Treat a man the way he can be and ought to be, and he will become as he can be and should be."   Johann Wolfgang von Goethe


 One of the great discoveries I have in my years of working with and working for inmates is the experience of seeing a good number of them rise up to expectations and witnessing them slowly but definitely manifesting transformation in their behavior, performance and character simply because that is what I expected them to manifest.

No matter what past experiences they have gone through or what wrongs they have done, those things  were not powerful enough to hold them back from living up to new expectations. I believe it is simply because they know I believe in their potential for goodness as well as capacity to achieve; and they too believed.

And when I think of those who truly lived up to expectations - those who were gone and others who were here with me - I can not help but smile and experience a warm joy in my heart.