Despite the proven benefits of emotional intelligence, organizational life has typically been hostile to the inner world of feeling. Rationality is deemed superior to feeling, which can contaminate judgment. But without feeling there is no passion, and no action. This book sets out to change people and organizations for the better, by revealing the 'dark side' of leadership behaviour and its impact on performance. Tapping into the startling parallels between the journey to emotional intelligence, the process of psychoanalysis, the practice of leadership coaching and the Zen journey to enlightenment, renowned thinker Manfred Kets de Vries helps executives, consultants, and coaches to peel back the layers of self-deception and reveal how inner personality – largely hard-wired since early childhood – affects the way they lead and manage others.
The Leader on the Couch
and over one million other books are available for Amazon Kindle.
Learn more
FREE Two-Day Shipping for students on millions of items. Learn more |
| ||||||||||||||||||
 Sell Back Your Copy for $10.60
Whether you buy it used on Amazon for $18.62 or somewhere else, you can sell it back through our Book Trade-In Program at the current price of $10.60.
Used Price$18.62
Trade-in Price$10.60
Price after
Trade-in$8.02 |
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
"One new book that does deserve praise" (Financial Times Career Point, September 2006)
"As Manfred Kets de Vries, a professor at Insead business school, shows in a new book, the psychological condition of leaders can have a profound impact on all those who work under them." (Financial Times, October 2006)
"Fascinating Freudian look at chief executives and their occasionally rather damaged psychologies. Read this ..." (FTmagazine, December 2006)
"...Manfred Kets de Vries, sets out to change people ... for the better by revealing the 'dark side' of leadership behaviour..." (Professional Consultancy, January 2007)
From the Inside Flap
Why is it worth your time to read this book? Because people worldwide complain that there’s a discrepancy between what leaders say and what they do, and it’s rooted in the leaders’ own lack of awareness of their psychological drivers and mood states. The Leader on the Couch will help you beat self-deception and reveal how inner personality – largely hard-wired since childhood – affects the way you lead and manage others.
Part One describes personality prototypes found in the workplace, and explores their impact in organizational life. Part Two looks at the educational ‘technology’ needed to change executive mindsets, and discusses intervention methods that can lead to change. Finally, Part Three deals with system-wide interventions, including ways of doing a leadership audit. The book closes with a call for ‘authentizotic’ organizations – where leaders ‘walk the talk’, people feel alive and all are called to give their very best.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Clinical Leadership Insights,
By Seth (Biddeford, Maine) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Leader on the Couch: A Clinical Approach to Changing People & Organisations (Hardcover)
This book is a nice compliment to an earlier book by Manfred Kets de Vries, Leaders, Fools and Imposters. It is easy to read, accessible and provides managers and executives important content that should promote self, other and organizational insights. Part One has as its focus leadership pathologies. In particular narcissistic leaders as well as other types such a dramatic, controlling, dependent and self-defeating are described and explained in terms of the workplace problems they generate. Borrowing from Karen Horney, leadership is also examined from the perspectives of moving away and against others. This section is very helpful to anyone trying to better understand life at work that is irrational and at times punishing. Part Two explores ways to change these leadership dynamics including a description of the author's extensive seminar for senior executives aimed at promoting reflective leadership. In particular the chapter on executive coaching reveals the many sobering challenges involved in providing this service and well worth reading. Anyone offering or contemplating providing executive coaching can benefit from reading this chapter including executives who coach others. Part Three describes unconscious group and organizational dynamics that are under appreciated and many times undiscussable without external facilitation. The book concludes with the hope that authentic organizations and leaders can be nurtured into existence. Many elements of an optimal organizational culture are described and are worth noting. They are aspirational in nature. Unfortunately one might wonder if these are attributes are truly realizable in any meaningful way.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Manual for applying the psychotherapeutic approach to organizations.,
This review is from: The Leader on the Couch: A Clinical Approach to Changing People & Organisations (Hardcover)
When Manfred Kets de Vries uses stories - from his own experience, history or Zen parables - to show how you can use psychology to understand the workplace, his points are clear and seem immediately applicable. Admittedly, his discussion of the theories that frame and guide his work vary from instructive to somewhat obscure, and his classifications of personality and organizational types may seem arbitrary, but when he explains the processes involved in change, he is realistic and humane. Philosophically or psychologically inclined readers may really want a more thorough explanation of de Vries' concepts, such as how unconscious structures interact with cultural ones. Those who take a less theoretical approach may not be as intrigued. getAbstract thinks that readers who exert some conscious patience will find the author's core points about the role of the unconscious in the business world insightful and useful.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Clinical Approach to Changing People & Organizations,
By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Leader on the Couch: A Clinical Approach to Changing People & Organisations (Hardcover)
Wow this book takes identifying the office players to a new level. He gives you an understanding of how they got where they are, what they respond to and what they can do to benifit the organization. Also can be a great mirror for the reader if they are able to accept the results. I look forward to his next book and I won't wait this long to purchase it.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
What could an entirely rational being speak of with another entirely rational being? Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Kets de Vries, Basic Books, The Challenge of Leadership, San Francisco, International Universities Press, The Guilford Press, Brief Psychotherapy, John Wiley, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, Shaka Zulu, Sherlock Holmes, Vivendi Universal, Jason Aronson, Karnac Books, The Personality Audit, Adolf Hitler, Butterworth Heinemann, Changing Character, Consulting Psychology Journal, Harvard University Press, Triumph of the Will, Global Executive Leadership Inventory, Harry Caul New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
What could an entirely rational being speak of with another entirely rational being? Read the first page Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, Kets de Vries, Basic Books, The Challenge of Leadership, San Francisco, International Universities Press, The Guilford Press, Brief Psychotherapy, John Wiley, American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, Shaka Zulu, Sherlock Holmes, Vivendi Universal, Jason Aronson, Karnac Books, The Personality Audit, Adolf Hitler, Butterworth Heinemann, Changing Character, Consulting Psychology Journal, Harvard University Press, Triumph of the Will, Global Executive Leadership Inventory, Harry Caul New!
Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 100
books:
See all 100 books this book cites
- The Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud (The Standard Edition) (Vol. 1-24 Volume Set) (Complete Psychological Works of Sigmund Freud) by Sigmund Freud on 6 pages
- Through Pediatrics to Psychoanalysis : The Collected Papers of D. W. Winnicott by Donald Woods Winnicott on 6 pages
- Lessons on Leadership by Terror: Finding Shaka Zulu in the Attic (New Horizons in Leadership Studies) by Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries in Front Matter, page 49, and page 133
- Theaters Of The Mind: Illusion And Truth On The Psychoanalytic Stage by Joyce McDougall on page 19, page 49, and page 80
- Childhood and Society by Erik H. Erikson on page 18, page 49, and page 248
See all 100 books this book cites
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
