Reflections on Leadership and Career Development -On the Couch with Manfred Kets de Vries

The second book in this series, Reflections on Leadership and Career Development, takes different perspectives on the intimate connection between individuals' personality or 'inner theater' and the organizational context in which they work; how different personality types, in positions of leadership or as members of management teams, affect the functioning and success of organizations. Kets de Vries looks at the way basic psychological processes operate on individual and corporate performance and analyses them in the context of case studies of leaders and organizations. He examines narcissism, dysfunctional collusion between leaders and followers, some new leadership archetypes, and the roles that 'organizational therapists' (coaches or consultants) can play in their interventions. The book includes a lengthy study of Vladimir Putin, as 'CEO of Russia, Inc.,' an assessment of the former Russian president's performance as an organizational leader. The final part of the book examines the career life cycle and how executives cope (or fail to cope) with rites de passage like succession and retirement.