1. Cashman, K. (1998), Leadership from the Inside Out. Provo, UT: Executive Excellence Publishing.
2. Rogers, C.R. (1942), Counseling and Psychotherapy. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
3. Rogers, C.R. (1969), Freedom to Learn. Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill Publishing Company.
4. Rogers, C.R. (1980), A Way of Being. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Rogers' (1980, p. 39) 'home-grown brand of existential philosophy' provides the "necessary and sufficient conditions" for significant personality change. His ideas on relationship and its importance for the growth and development of individuals were built over years of genuine self-reflection and observation of his interviews with his clients. Rogers has repeatedly highlighted the importance of personal attitudes over professional training in these writings. Although these characteristics such as genuineness, caring and empathy might be thought of as being subjective, relationship inventories designed by Barrett-Lennard (1962, quoted by Rogers, 1969, pp. 116-117) have found that individuals who possess high degree of these traits score high on these inventories and are able to bring out the best in people they interact with.
Cashman's (1998) book, Leadership from the Inside Out, has its foundations on the principles of interpersonal relationships enunciated by Carl Rogers since his first writings in 1937-1938. I think Cashman relies more on 'name dropping' to validate various ideas in his book. Cashman (1998, p. 15) in his introduction to his book proposes that the reader 'will take a reflective journey to foster the personal awakening needed to enhance our leadership effectiveness'. I will elaborate below my readings of Rogers to validate this statement.
In this first book Counseling and Psychotherapy, Rogers underscores his conviction that the potential for enriching oneself lies with the individual. Rogers (1942, p. 436) concluded that among other changes, the client "of his own choice selects the 'more weighty satisfactions', around which he can integrate his activities, implements his new choices by means of positive plans and acquires the confidence in his ability to direct his own life".
He developed his ideas on non-directive counseling further with his numerous publications and shifted the focus away from tests, cumulative records and counselors to the learner and conditions that can facilitate learning. In this book Freedom To Learn Rogers (1969, pp. 105-304), argues that the aims of education should be the facilitation of learning and development of individuals who are open to change. At the present time, a knowledge-based economy that relies more on globalization and efficient dissemination, access and analysis of information has replaced the old industrial economy based on assembly-line production. By focusing on personal change and growth, leaders and individuals will be able to cope reasonably with the challenges of this information era.
This paradigm shift globally, away from an industrial era, makes these Rogerian principles, which enunciate the concepts of interpersonal relationships, human development and significant learning assume added significance because they attempt to develop the whole person. In his book A Way of Being, Rogers (1980, pp. 194-195) argues that the values that individuals experience are likely to be enhanced over those which are imposed. Instead of seeking to control by authority, if individuals are provided the right conditions, they will be 'more effective and constructive'. (ibid, p. 201).