FIRO-B
Developed by William Schutz in 1958, Fundamental
Interpersonal Relations Orientation - Behaviour (FIRO-B) is
a theory of interpersonal relations. The basis of his
theory (and in line with Maslow's Hierarchy of
Needs) was that
beyond our needs for survival, food, shelter and warmth;
we have interpersonal
needs that strongly
motivate us. He called these needs in terms of
behaviours: Inclusion,
Control
and Affection.
We both Express these behaviours to others and
Want
these behaviours from others
to different levels. Because these are needs, they motivate us to act in certain ways
until these needs are met.
Unlike MBTI, people's FIRO-B scores can change
over time and the scores do reflect an 'amount' of need.
So a 0 is the lowest and a 9 the highest.
Follow on
from Psycho-Babel No.1 -
‘Open’ Your Eyes
The need of Affection
relates to emotional ties and
warm connections between people, and determines the extent
of closeness that a person seeks. My experience has shown
me that with a certain Affection profile, people don't make
good eye contact. That's one of the reason's I liked the
St. Jerome quote so much. They are unconsciously
communicating their profile through their eyes and it's not
a useful thing for a leader or prospective leader to have.
(Whilst I have not read any empirical research into this
particular feature of FIRO-B it seems pretty consistent to
me.)
This profile occurs when someone has a Low-ish Expressed
Affection score and a High-ish Wanted Affection score. The
first implication of this is that this person is unlikely
to get their Wanted Affection scores met because they are
not Expressing Affection to others. People are likely to
judge them as not wanting close and warm relationships and
will treat them accordingly.
More importantly from a leadership standpoint is what is
going on underneath. I had this profile a few years back
and was amazed to see it. I thought I was really warm and
open but found my scores to be Expressed 2 and Wanted 8.
This profile reflects someone who has been hurt in some way
in the past and who will wait until someone is warm and open to
them before they trust enough to be warm and open
back - there is a guardedness to their first
interactions... This is why this is an important one to
check for leaders - they need these first interactions to
build trust, they are responsible for building that trust,
not the followers.
Whilst this profile does tend to be guarded, those with Low
Expressed and Low Wanted should take note too. Since
your needs are low, you are unlikely to be naturally warm
and open in your interactions. Would it be of benefit for
you to increase this behaviour even though you don't
need
it?
Many of us have had traumatic times at work and there are
sadly more 'caustic' characters in management positions
than we would want. If we have had such experiences then
there is a good chance we may unconsciously be overly
guarded in our initial interactions. Our past experience
here, doesn't really matter though. Our needs don't really
matter either. It's a conscious choice
to be warm and open from the
start not necessarily a behaviour driven by an unconscious
need.