Manfred Kets de Vries

The Dysfunctional Leader

© 2003 by Michael Finley

Manfred Kets de Vries' style is a one-man tour de force of psychology, comedy, and common sense. He speaks with a noticeable French accent, at a rapid-fire, standup-comic pace. Occasionally a word or a phrase gets mowed down in the delivery, and participants inch forward in their seats, trying to get the words right. But mostly we are rewarded by a humane look at the pressures imposed on leaders by a business world that in many ways has defused its own humanity.

As he acknowledges from the onset, Kets de Vries is an obvious right-brainer (creative, intuitive) in a world of left-brains (analytical, logical). And that gets at the basic predicament leaders nowadays face:

Either leaders have been prescreened for leadership according to personalities and skill bases that were once relevant to running businesses, but are now less relevant or effective. Kets de Vries likened the analytical managerial personality to the wild boars that frequent the forest surrounding Fontainebleau, where he teaches at the European Institute of Business Administration (INSEAD).

Or leaders somehow get through the screening process with intact, balanced personalities, but are made miserable by the strictures their organizations impose and the crashing boars of the business world they must run with.  

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Kets de Vries