Behavior-Based Leadership
and Followership
Training
Founded 2010
We support
AUGUST 1, 2025
Schemas and how they are used in leadership and followership
We’re not talking about a “schemer” or “someone who is coming up with a devious or secret plan…” We’re talking about “Schema”… or “a cognitive framework or concept that helps organize and interpret information.”
O.K., so what does that have to do with leadership and followership? Well, schemas can be useful because they allow us to take shortcuts in interpreting the vast amount of information that is available in our environment. However, these mental frameworks also cause us to exclude pertinent information to instead focus only on things that confirm our pre-existing beliefs and ideas. This is important when we look at our internal and external organizational environment, change, and resistance to change, etc. It is a basic nature of how we think as people, so understanding it will help us understand how we can influence these things. Both leaders and followers may be saying the same words, but with a different life's experience about what that word means.
Where do schemas come from? The use of schemas as a basic concept was first used by a British psychologist named Frederic Bartlett as part of his learning theory. Barlett's theory suggested that our understanding of the world is formed by a network of abstract mental structures. Theorist Jean Paiget introduced the term “schema” and its use was popularized through his work. According to his stage theory of cognitive development, children go through a series of stages of intellectual growth. In Paiget’s theory, a schema is both the category of knowledge as well as the process of acquiring that knowledge. As experiences happen and new information is presented, new schemas are developed and old schemas are changed or modified.
Let's look at how this works:
Let’s say you are walking with a toddler who has never seen a horse, or a dog before…. First you come across a horse… You show the toddler the animal and you explain that a horse has four legs, a long nose, hair all over, a tail, and can be many different shapes and sizes, and can run fast. The toddler listens and watches and learns how to say, “Horse.”
Then you walk along a little farther and encounter this animal...
Now the toddler sees this animal, which has four legs, a long nose, hair all over, a tail, and can be many different shapes and sizes, and can run fast. So the toddler points to the dog and calls it a “horse.” Why? That is the mental schema the toddler has for a horse based on what it learned. Now, you tell the toddler, that is a dog, and try to explain the difference between dogs and horses. “Horses are big and can carry a person, dogs are smaller and we can play with them.”
You walk a little farther and then see this animal:
Now the toddler looks at this animal and thinks about what they have learned…then says, “Look at the cute dog.” Consider now how you will again have to explain the difference and why this is a horse and not a dog! Let’s see…. has four legs, a long nose, hair all over, a tail, and can be many different shapes and sizes, and can run fast, and horses are big and can carry a person…right? Now the toddler has to change their schema once more to understand the concept that some horses can be miniature, yet still be a horse, and not carry people, or could be a large dog that is bigger than a miniature horse. Every time the toddler got new or different information it changed how they had to change their mental image and understanding of what is a “horse” or a “dog.”
How this Impacts Leadership and Followership
Leaders and followers often operate with different mental schemas or internal frameworks shaped by their experiences, roles, expectations, and perspectives, which can cause them to interpret the same word, concept, or process in divergent ways. For example, a leader may use the term “accountability” to imply empowerment and shared responsibility, while a follower may interpret it as blame or micromanagement based on past experiences. These mismatched schemas can lead to misunderstandings, misaligned expectations, reduced trust, and communication breakdowns, ultimately impeding collaboration and performance. Without deliberate efforts to align interpretations through dialogue and clarification, these cognitive gaps may foster conflict or disengagement, especially in dynamic or high-pressure environments.
How to Avoid Mismatched Mental Schemas:
Leaders and followers can avoid mismatched mental schemas by explicitly defining the behaviors they associate with key terms, expectations, and processes, rather than assuming mutual understanding. By grounding abstract concepts like “respect,” “initiative,” or “accountability” in observable actions, both parties can align their interpretations and reduce ambiguity. Additionally, practicing active listening, fully concentrating, paraphrasing back, and withholding judgment, allows individuals to truly understand each other’s intent and perspective. Clarifying questions such as “Can you give an example of what that looks like in action?” or “What do you mean when you say…?” can help uncover hidden assumptions and bridge interpretive gaps, fostering more accurate communication, stronger alignment, and a more collaborative leader-follower relationship.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER…
So, as leaders if we want to get our people working towards the same goals, don’t they have to have the same schema of what those goals are? Or if we are trying to enact change, wouldn’t it be easier if we all had the same “abstract mental structure” of what that change should look like? If we describe our vision, or mission, or change project, does it look like a horse to one person, a dog to another, or a miniature horse to the third? Wouldn’t it be better if we all had the same “mental image” and mental structure” of what we were trying to accomplish in our organizations also? If you understand how people gain knowledge through “schemas” then you can better influence that knowledge.
Quotes to Put into Practice…
-
“Prejudice is one example of a schema that prevents people from seeing the world as it really is and inhibits them from taking in new information.”
-
– Kendra Cherry, Author and former Psychological Rehabilitation Specialist
-