Reflections on Character and Leadership is the first of the
three books in the Manfred kets de Vries on the Couch
series.
Here, Kets de Vries looks at entrepreneurship, the pathology of
leadership, and the personality of the leader. The reader will
visit the disturbed inner worlds of leaders like Alexander the
Great, Shaka Zulu and Robert Maxwell, discover how to distinguish
between a cold fish and a live volcano, and identify impostors,
despots, organizational fools and global leaders.
The book highlights the basic principles of the clinical
paradigm--the process of putting organizations and the
individuals who lead them on the psychoanalyst's couch. It
includes studies of personality archetypes and the effects they
have on organizational life and culture--and the effects that
organizations have on them. Referring frequently to key management
concepts, Kets de Vries looks not only at what happens when things
go wrong, but also at how to create the psychological and
organizational space to make sure that things go right.
About the series:
The series offers an overview of Kets de Vries's work
spanning four decades, a period in which he has established himself
as the leading figure in the clinical study of organizational
leadership.
The books in this series contain a representative selection of
Kets de Vries' writings about leadership from a wide variety
of published sources and cover character and leadership in a global
context, career development and leadership in organizations. The
original essays were all written or published between 1976 and
2008. Updated where appropriate and revised by the author, they
present a digest of the work of one of the most influential
management thinkers of the present day.
Autorentext
Manfred Kets de Vries brings a much-needed fresh perspective to the subjects of leadership and change, drawing on his knowledge of economics, management, psychology and psychoanalysis.
He is Clinical Professor of Leadership at INSEAD where he holds the Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chair of Leadership Development. He has also held professorships at McGill University, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales in Montreal and Harvard Business School, and has lectured at management institutions all over the world. He is the author, co-author, or editor of m ore than 30 books including The Leader on the Couch and Family Business on the Couch, and over 300 articles and papers.
In November 2008, Manfred Kets de Vries was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the International Leadership Association in Los Angeles. He and six others were inducted into the leadership legacy project as "founding professionals of the development of leadership as a field and as a discipline." Previously, in 2005, he was the first non-American recipient of the ILA Leadership Award for his 'Contributions to the Classroom and to the boardroom." The Financial Times, Le Capital, Wirtschaftwoche and The Economist have also judged him one of the world's leading thinkers on leadership.
Klappentext
"Manfred Kets de Vries has a profound understanding of what drives leaders, how they make sense of personal situations, make decisions, and take action. This book provides leaders with inspiring and helpful lessons learned when reflecting on a global context and having to change in respect of it. His is an innovative and well-founded approach that we also use when training the global leadership fellows at the WEF."
Professor Gilbert Probst
"Manfred Kets de Vries goes straight to the heart of the matter: character! Not the idealized character of a mythical Perfect Leader, but the multifaceted, ambiguous, and often moving result of an individual life molded by mysterious darkness and occasional grace."
Pierre Gurdjian
"We all strive to create a consistent high-performance organization, and that means discovering or creating leaders. These are the people with the 'fairy dust' that can make the organization special or alternatively can cause untold damage. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand and then manage their top executives better."
John Stewart
"An absorbing insight into the personalities and motivation of leaders and their profound impact on organizational success... or failure."
Tony Van Kralingen
"This compelling book unlocks the secrets of character and leadership that individuals need to withstand the pressures of modern business. The reader is given an empowering induction as to the importance of psychiatry and psychoanalysis in understanding creative talent-and in setting achievable personal and corporate goals."
David Ross
"For a seasoned leader, this book gives an o opportunity to see what followers see in him or her but do not dare say. For an aspiring leader it offers a roadmap for success, without sacrificing sanity and happiness. For a follower, it gives a chance to understand otherwise unexplainable behavior in his or her leader. This book makes people think and feel."
Professor Konstantin Korotov
"Manfred Kets de Vries has a deep understanding of the leader's mind and soul. He brings a unique perspective to the studies of leadership through his knowledge of both business sand organizational behavior, coupled with his perspective of individual psychoanalysis."
Flavia B. de Almeida
Zusammenfassung
Reflections on Character and Leadership is the first of the three books in the Manfred kets de Vries on the Couch series.
Here, Kets de Vries looks at entrepreneurship, the pathology of leadership, and the personality of the leader. The reader will visit the disturbed inner worlds of leaders like Alexander the Great, Shaka Zulu and Robert Maxwell, discover how to distinguish between a cold fish and a live volcano, and identify impostors, despots, organizational fools and global leaders.
The book highlights the basic principles of the clinical paradigmthe process of putting organizations and the individuals who lead them on the psychoanalyst's couch. It includes studies of personality archetypes and the effects they have on organizational life and cultureand the effects that organizations have on them. Referring frequently to key management concepts, Kets de Vries looks not only at what happens when things go wrong, but also at how to create the psychological and organizational space to make sure that things go right.
About the series:
The series offers an overview of Kets de Vries's work spanning four decades, a period in which he has established himself as the leading figure in the clinical study of organizational leadership.
The books in this series contain a representative selection of Kets de Vries' writings about leadership from a wide variety of published sources and cover character and leadership in a global context, career development and leadership in organizations. The original essays were all written or published between 1976 and 2008. Updated where appropriate and revised by the author, they present a digest of the work of one of the most influential management thinkers of the present day.
Inhalt
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xiii
PREFACE xv
Psychoanalysis and organizational life xv
First case: an entrepreneur xix
The clinical paradigm xxi
About this book xxii
PART I: LEADERS, FOOLS, AND IMPOSTORS 1
INTRODUCTION 2
Playing the organizational fool 4
1 THE ENTREPRENEURIAL PERSONALITY 6
Introduction 6
Entrepreneurship: views from other disciplines 8
Common psychological themes in the entrepreneurial personality 10
The effects of fam…