Dr. Gordon Wolf's research and applied interests have always been the two WHY's: Why do we act in Self-defeating and Self-destructive ways? And Why is it so hard to be different when we want to be different?
After
receiving a Bachelor of Business Administration from Tulane University in 1964,
he had built a small but successful advertising agency by 1972. In 1972, Dr.
Wolf's Self-experienced short-comings as a leader and manager, and his
recognition that just reading another management text would not magically make
him the leader/manager he wanted to be, sent Dr. Wolf to New York University for
further education. He studied self-esteem and social behavior in the Department
of Psychology, and came to understand the potential application of
Psychology to business processes and entered a Doctoral program. Dr. Wolf's
Master's thesis examined distortions in self-esteem. His Doctoral dissertation,
at California School of Professional Psychology, examined the relationship
between deficits in self-experience, interpersonal competency, and
self-defeating and self-destructive behaviors.
Following graduation, Dr. Wolf worked for the Dayton VA and taught at Wright State University as adjunct faculty in the Schools of Medicine and Professional Psychology. His focus was on treating chronic pain patients. This work created an epiphany for Dr. Wolf, "I remember sitting in my very small office after having seen a day's case load of veterans with chronic pain complaints. I realized that I was probably a good enough therapist, as a traditional therapist, but that I was helping no one really. So many of the patients seemed to need the pain to complete their lives. The pain was the result of how they thought about themselves, and how they thought about themselves helped create the pain. I was in a situation that showed me the answers to the Two Whys, at a very practical level. I also found that the typical Doctor-patient relationship didn't work either in helping people quickly realize who they are. Rather than "treat" patients, I began to educate adults in how they were creating their pain complaints as a way of expressing who they experienced themselves to be, and coach them to believe and act differently. It worked."
In 1983, Dr. Wolf returned to his business roots and started a consulting group. Wolf Consulting Group in Napa,CA. The focus of the group's consultations apply what Dr. Wolf has learned about the two Whys to business activities such as management and leadership development, team building, and organizational development. Very recently, Dr. Wolf made the decision to provide Personal BluePrint™ related services to the general public.
In searching for an answer to the two Whys, Dr Wolf discovered that "we all create a life that is consistent with how we feel about ourselves at the deepest level," and that how we feel about ourselves at the deepest level is represented by our "Personal BluePrint™. "Dr. Wolf developed and validated the Personal BluePrint™ after assessing over 10,000 job applicants seeking managerial and professional jobs over 19 years. He has repeatedly shown the relationship between a leader's Personal BluePrint™ and the organizational and work-group culture that the leader inadvertently develops, and between a leader's Personal BluePrint™ and goal-directed or self-defeating behaviors at work and at home. Dr. Wolf has developed focused coaching processes that allow people to understand and modify their Personal BluePrint™, and has coached thousands of leaders and managers in the interpersonal skills of leadership and management. Recently, Dr. Wolf has begun to work with individuals interested in personal growth.
Dr.Wolf's book, Your Personal BluePrint™ Creates Your LIfe™ will be available in the fall of 2004. The book will apply findings from research on the Personal BluePrint™ to personal relationships, and family life.
Dr. Wolf has presented his research to numerous regional, national, and international conventions. Wolf Consulting Group's Clients span the public and private sectors.
Dr. Wolf is a witty and informative interview guest, and a highly credentialed expert on: