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More About This Title Reflections on Character and Leadership
English
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.
English
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.
English
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 family dynamics 17
Case study: The entrepreneur's story 18
Falling into extremes 22
The Medusa women 24
The meaning of work 26
Competition and self-defeating behavior 28
The symbolic nature of the enterprise 29
The process of change 31
The entrepreneurial life cycle 33
Working effectively with entrepreneurs 39
Endnotes 42
2 THE HYPOMANIC PERSONALITY 43
Introduction 43
The Dionysian quality of charismatic leadership 44
Case study: Hypomania in action 46
Elation and its vicissitudes 50
Managing a hypomanic 53
Hypomania in the workplace 55
Possible interventions 56
Self-help measures 58
The plus side for organizations 60
Endnotes 61
3 THE ALEXITHYMIC PERSONALITY 62
Introduction 62
The 'dead fish' syndrome 62
Identifying alexithymia 63
Alexithymia as a communication disorder 64
Where do the origins of alexithymia lie? 66
Degrees of alexithymia 68
Alexithymics in the workplace 69
The Alexithymic CEO 70
Working with an alexithymic manager 72
Managing an alexithymic 73
Searching for solutions 75
Endnote 78
4 THE IMPOSTOR SYNDROME 79
Introduction 79
What makes an impostor? 82
The creative artist as impostor 85
The impostor as national leader 86
The impostor: a character sketch 89
Case study: The impostor as entrepreneur 92
Endnote 97
5 NEUROTIC IMPOSTORS: FEELING LIKE A FAKE 98
Introduction 98
What creates imposturous feelings? 99
The neurotic impostor in the workplace 103
How the fear can become a reality 105
How neurotic impostors can impact on businesses 108
Finding solutions 109
Endnotes 111
6 THE ORGANIZATIONAL FOOL: BALANCING A LEADER’S HUBRIS 112
Introduction 112
The role of the fool 112
The fool as cultural hero 114
The benefi ts of humor 115
What makes a fool? 117
The organizational fool 117
The value of the fool 123
Endnote 123
PART II: THE PATHOLOGY OF LEADERSHIP 125
INTRODUCTION 126
7 PRISONERS OF LEADERSHIP 130
Introduction 130
Case study: The case of Robert Clark 131
Case study: The case of Frederick the Great 132
Externalizing inner confl icts 135
The search for authority 136
Regressive group processes 139
Case study: The case of Ted Howell 141
Distance and aggression in leaders 142
Managing leaders' behavior in organizations 143
Endnotes 145
8 THE SPIRIT OF DESPOTISM: UNDERSTANDING THE TYRANT WITHIN 146
Introduction 146
Setting the scene for tyranny 149
What motivates tyrants? 150
How tyrannies operate 150
How despotic regimes are maintained 152
The despot's toolbox 153
The economic costs of tyranny 158
The need for democracy 159
The dangers of power 160
Why despotism must be fought 161
Unjust deserts 163
Judicial remedy 163
The International Criminal Court 165
Endnote 166
9 LEADERSHIP BY TERROR: FINDING SHAKA ZULU IN THE ATTIC 167
Introduction 167
The life and death of an absolute despot 168
Deconstructing the despot's inner theater 171
The colluding mind 179
A tyranny of self-deception 183
Leaders and followers 186
Shaka's legacy 190
Endnote 191
PART III: TRANSFORMING LEADERSHIP 193
INTRODUCTION 194
10 'DOING AN ALEXANDER': LESSONS ON LEADERSHIP BY A MASTER CONQUEROR 198
Introduction 198
The life of Alexander 199
Alexander's legacy 205
Lessons in leadership à la Alexander 206
Conclusions 210
Endnote 210
11 LEADERS WHO MAKE A DIFFERENCE 211
Introduction 211
The effects of leaders on their organizations 212
Different leaders, same results 213
The architectural aspect of leadership 214
The charismatic role of leaders 223
Conclusions 226
Endnote 226
12 REAPING THE WHIRLWIND: MANAGING CREATIVE PEOPLE 227
Introduction 227
Characteristics of creative people 228
Stimulating creativity 230
Playing in a transitional world 231
Two roads to creativity 233
Creative management 236
Watching for the danger signs 240
Endnote 241
PART IV: LEADERSHIP IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT 243
INTRODUCTION 244
13 THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE LEADER WITHIN THE GLOBAL CORPORATION 247
Introduction 247
A case study in internationalization 248
Forms of global organizations 249
Qualities needed in global leaders 253
Training, transfer, teamwork, and travel 260
A framework for analyzing the development of the
global leader 262
Conclusions 263
Endnote 264
14 IN SEARCH OF THE NEW EUROPEAN BUSINESS LEADER 265
Introduction 265
The challenge of diversity 267
Internal and external competition 270
Is a single model possible? 271
A middle path 272
Dealing with change 273
The making of the European leader 275
Leadership in Europe and beyond 277
Endnote 278
15 LESSONS FROM THE 'WILD EAST': RUSSIAN CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP 279
The Russian character 279
Contextual factors in the formation of the Russian character 282
Russia's transition: from cooperatives to capitalism 295
New leaders and new followers 296
Eight leadership lessons 300
Challenges for global Russian business leaders 302
The end of the beginning 305
Endnotes 305
CONCLUSION: CREATING HIGH-COMMITMENT ORGANIZATIONS 307
The future of organizations 307
Meta-values for great companies 308
Motivational need systems 309
Leaders and meta-value creation 313
Concluding comments 314
Endnote 315
REFERENCES 317
INDEX 333
