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The Gestalt Review Focuses on Leadership Book

Cleveland, Ohio -- The internationally recognized Gestalt Review, a journal published by The Gestalt International Study Center, recently reviewed Tim Warneka's best-selling book, Leading People the Black Belt Way: Conquering the Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today (Asogomi Publishing International, 2005).

The review, written by well-known Washington, D.C.-based Gestalt practitioner & teacher Jody Niniita Telfair is featured in the 2007 edition of The Gestalt Review, Volume 11, Number 1, pages 78 - 82.

Read the full text of the review here, or download a complimentary PDF of the review:

Commentary on Leading People the : Conquering the Five Core Problems Facing Leaders Today by Timothy H. Warneka Asogomi Publishing International (2005)

By Jody Niniita Telfair

Let me start by sharing something of myself so that you have a little background on the perspective and life experiences of the commentator. I am, by profession, a clinician in private practice, in particular a Gestalt body process therapist. I have been a professional staff member at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland (GIC) since 1981 and I collaborated in the early 1980’s with Jim Kepner and Tom Cutolo in designing the “Working with Physical Process” training program at the Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. At the time, I was eagerly devouring various trainings and workshops in mindbodyspirit approaches to personal growth, health and healing, including Aikido. I studied and taught Aikido for fourteen years in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, earning a 3rd degree black belt and learning a great deal about myself, Eastern philosophy, interpersonal skills and conflict resolution. I found that the principals of Aikido and Gestalt therapy complimented one another beautifully, and I used exercises from my Aikido training in workshops and Gestalt training programs. Through the years, I shifted my study from Aikido to the original of all the martial arts, Tai Chi Chuan, and find it extremely helpful as a practice in exploring more deeply what it means to be strong and open, clear and flexible in both body and mind. The integration of these daily disciplines into my psychotherapy sessions, has greatly deepened, enriched and embodied the work.

I am NOT a coach or organizational consultant, and have spent little time on the inside of organizations, particularly in the for profit world. My experience with organizations lies in years of rubbing shoulders with my Gestalt-trained OD friends, teaching OD professionals in GIC training programs and, perhaps most significantly, spending a great deal of time counseling clients dealing with various challenges in the work place. From waitresses or employees at Starbucks to teachers, lawyers, health care professionals, and mid- and high-level managers, in everything from small non-profits to major corporations such as Fannie May and Freddy Mac, and various federal departments including the Pentagon, I have heard stories of poor or abusive leadership. I have empathized with my clients as they have struggled to survive with some level of wholeness and integrity in toxic environments. I have offered support and therapeutic coaching to some who have been promoted to a position for which they had little or no training. And I often felt outraged at the belittling and disrespectful ways in which my clients, including those in high-level management positions, have been treated and disempowered by their leaders.

In the wake of these experiences, Tim Warneka’s book, Leading People in the Black Belt Way comes as a breath of fresh air. First it is written in plain English, rather than academic prose or Gestalt-ese. But even more important, its message is empathetic toward the dilemmas of leaders, and constantly positive and upbeat, where I find myself wanting to bop someone upside the head in response to their misuse of power. Warneka is offering inspirational Buddhist, Taoist, and martial arts quotes and stories, humorous analogies and one-liners, and concrete suggestions and exercises to gently nudge and guide those in leadership positions in new directions, emphasizing respect, listening skills, and collaboration. For me it is exciting and stimulating to follow his use of story and physical metaphor in applying teachings from the martial arts to organizational life.

Warneka does an artful job of interweaving Gestalt principals, Zen and Taoist stories, scenarios from his own work, and documented research from published colleagues in the OD field to support his teaching points. His style is engaging, with a generous use of colorful analogies and humor. Warneka has chosen a rhythm and structure for the book that grew on me. As I read further into the book, I found myself looking forward to the Zen or martial arts story at the beginning of each new chapter. And I became expectant and curious about the summary and exercises with which he ended each chapter.

A dominant theme throughout Leading People the Black Belt Way is that leaders ignore or deny at their peril the fact that all humans are fundamentally emotional beings. Warneka makes the point often in the book that the bottom line is negatively affected by workers who are not emotionally engaged. He goes a step beyond most writers on this topic to emphasize that our emotions are an aspect of our embodiment. I would state this even more strongly and say that emotions are patterns of sensation that manifest in various physical ways through our bodies. Anger is a very different somatic experience than sadness or joy. I cannot know what I am feeling simply through the emotional centers in my brain; I must be in touch with my bodily experience. I would have liked to see Warneka go into more depth in this area, but perhaps that is not appropriate to his audience or to a first book on the subject (more on this later). In any case, Leading People the Black Belt Way is persuasive about the negative impact of disregarding “the emotional culture” and embodiment of one’s workplace on productivity and worker longevity.

As one follows this theme through the book Warneka weaves in lessons in Gestalt theory and practice in simple but effective and non-threatening ways, beginning with the point that there is a difference between leadership that treats people as objects, and leading people. He then describes the importance of self-awareness and presence, including one’s physical stance and movement, breathing and sensation. By the time the reader is three-quarters of the way through the Leading People the Black Belt Way, s/he has explored issues of emotional engagement (contact). The importance and usefulness of holistic listening skills (attending), and collaboration, staying open to polarities as a stance of “both – and, ‘ the impact of habitual patterns of behavior and the need to understand creative adjustment, as well as the usefulness of staying with “what is” through embracing the paradoxical theory of change. Warneka smoothly and humorously moves into presenting the Gestalt Cycle of Experience, Suggesting “…the tool can help leaders navigate the rocky waters of process.”

As a woman and feminist who has worked to help integrate women’s ways of knowing and being (yin qualities) into our culture, I particularly enjoyed the chapter on “Doubling Your Leadership Power,” in which the reader is invited to incorporate both yin and yan approaches to his/her leadership strategies. This is another way of presenting the Gestalt principal of working with the resistance, staying open and listening to get the whole picture and gather all the energy before choosing a direction and taking action. Warneka states that most leaders use “…only the yang form of power that shoots out, moves forward, and gets ahead.(p. 194). He then cleverly turns our cultural myth of aggression as strength upside down with the statement: “Yin power is the side that draws upon the authority of yielding, flexibility and flow” (p. 194). He uses the example of taking a step backwards in Aikido, which can create “…the greater potential for me to redirect the attackers energy so he ends up defeating himself” (p. 175). This harkens back to Chapter 2 and the physical metaphor of “Pulling Leaders and Pushing Leaders,” both of which are yang styles. “While the Pulling Leader overuses external punishments through statements such as, ‘Do this and that won’t happen.” The masterful leader is open to taking in and sharing information, willing to see things form another’s point of view, yet ready to be directive when the environment is ripe for action and/or change.

Warneka’s use of humor to make his points reached its peak for me in his chapter on “Leading with Harmony.” He uses the character Scrooge from Dickens’s A Christmas Carol as an example of: “…dissonant leadership in all it’s glory.” After emphasizing that leaders need friends and that “Executive power isolates.” He speaks of Scrooge’s former partner Marley as: “…the closest thing Scrooge ever had to a friend, and so Marley was sent to confront Scrooge, by the powers of Heaven… The powers of Heaven, like us, are required to work with what they have.” He then continues using Scrooge as an example to make the point that leaders must take risks, and to show how often leaders often put off taking a risk:

Scrooge did not waste time by asking (the ghost of Christmas Past) how long the trip would take, or if any other executives in this position had undergone a similar process, and, if so, what their outcomes had been. He did not ask how this transformation would be statistically measured or with which instruments. He did not ask if there might be more popular ghosts who could teach him the process.

I found the tongue-in-cheek style enjoyable and most powerful.

My only discomfort with Leading People the Black Belt Way is that, especially in the early chapters, it reads a bit like a quick fix, particularly regarding issues of embodied leadership. Having been on an intentional path of exploring and developing my own embodiment and embracing my body as self at ever more subtle levels for over thirty years in a culture that thoroughly denies our physical nature, I am well aware of the psychic challenges involved. I have studied and taught the mindbodyspirit disciplines of Aikido and Tai Chi, and watched a high percentage of students drop out as their habitual patterns of moving and being are challenged. Resistance to both the deeper learnings and how to work is involved arises, and we place little cultural value on patience. I have done in-depth, body-oriented therapy with numerous clients, and taught students in the “Working with Physical Process Program” who were already well versed in basic Gestalt therapy principals; yet found it challenging to truly experience themselves as bodies. The work of becoming embodied is challenging and slow. It is not something we can learn from a book, even if we explore many of the well designed body exercises that Warneka includes at the end of each chapter.

On the other hand, we must start where the client is, and certainly Warneka’s target audience, leaders in organizations, are typically desensitized and “heady” group. Leading People the Black Belt Way moves into issues of embodiment through the use of martial arts analogies and a focus on emotional intelligence and engagement that are less foreign to Westerners than the area of our physicality. The book opens the door to the importance of truly living in and being home in ones body in order to be a successful leader, and perhaps that is enough to stimulate further interest and exploration in a number of readers. And many who would not open the door to a martial arts or meditation studio will open a book.

How they might pursue that interest beyond the book’s guidance is an open question. One of the difficulties in seeking wholeness in this culture is that we do not have mindbodyspirit practices to guide us. We have gyms and sports, but no culturally established disciplines with a clear methodology for historic development. I have always felt the lack of practice in Gestalt therapy. A client who is on path of deep inner transformation has no discipline to follow at home between sessions (nor does the therapist!). Thus, so many Gestalt practitioners and clients find themselves complementing their Gestalt work with yoga, meditation, or martial arts. I give Warneka credit for opening the door of embodiment a crack, hoping to get people intrigued. He incorporates exercises that include attention to one’s sensation, stance, and movement at the end of every chapter. And he speaks to the need for a path of practice (my words). In the Introduction he states: “…Effective leaders become masters of their art by practicing the discipline of self development.” Toward the end of the book, he reemphasizes the need for practice. In his chapter on “Leading Conflict,” one is instructed that in order to become a world class leader, one must train like Olympic athletes (p.213). And in his last chapter, he quotes the founder of Aikido: “Progress comes to those who train and train; reliance on secret techniques will get you nowhere” (p.234).

Early in Leading People the Black Belt Way, Warneka states: “Effective Leadership is fundamentally about the appropriate and ethical use of power.” I do not want to conclude this commentary without stating that the martial arts, like the teachings of Gestalt therapy, are about a different kind of power than we typically use in the Western world. A true student of the martial arts doesn’t go looking for a fight to prove his skill, but is prepared if the need to resolve a conflict arises. An old Samurai saying states: “Expect nothing; be prepared for anything.” Tim Warneka does an admirable job of using analogies and applications from the Eastern philosophy and Aikido to paint a picture of a leader who is more powerful because he/she is flexible and open as well as firm and directive. True power comes through “…basic respect, being sincere about who you are, and both allowing and encouraging other people to become more fully who they are.” How desperately we need this kind of leadership on every level of system in our chaotic and violent world today.

In his acknowledgements, Warneka refers to me as his “Aikido Grandmother.” I say, “Well done, Grandson! Your book is a real contribution to a world in desperate need of a changing paradigm of true leadership. And an enjoyable read in addition!”

-Jody Niniita Telfair, PH.D.