'Più di quanto possa sembrare'. È con questo sguardo critico e attento che Manfred Kets de Vries ci invita a osservare un team e le dinamiche che lo governano, non limitandoci agli aspetti più superficiali ma ricercando i fattori sottostanti che determinano comportamenti ed emozioni del gruppo come entità. La presente opera porta con sé importanti riflessioni sulle dinamiche individuali e intra-gruppo, valorizzando la necessità di un approccio che oscilli tra l'attenzione al singolo e quella al gruppo, nella consapevolezza che la performance di successo possa essere raggiunta unicamente attraverso l'immediatezza comunicativa, la conoscenza reciproca, la coesione e l'integrazione delle singole individualità piuttosto che attraverso l'impegno e la valorizzazione di poche e sole personalità di spicco in grado certamente di generare risultato ma anche frustrazione e demotivazione in coloro che vi gravitano attorno.

Secondo Kets de Vries, il tema della leadership ha un'alta valenza psicologica e per affrontarlo è indispensabile entrare nel mondo soggettivo degli attori organizzativi, nelle pieghe dei loro sentimenti e delle loro ambivalenze, nei nascondigli dei loro desideri e delle loro paure. Con l'aiuto di esempi tratti dal mondo del lavoro, dalla storia e dalla letteratura, l'autore identifica diversi tipi di leader, esaminando le molte trappole in cui tendono a cadere e i rischi psicologici relativi alla lotta per il potere, alla sua conquista e al suo uso. Nell'esplorare tali rischi (semplificazione, onnipotenza, narcisismo, prepotenza), Kets de Vries ci aiuta a comprendere quanto sia difficile per le organizzazioni maturare ragioni e condizioni per una leadership equilibrata, autentica e positiva.

In questo volume, Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries, attinge dalla propria esperienza nel campo del coaching di gruppo sulla leadership, per fornirci uno sguardo approfondito sul processo di coaching attraverso le lenti della mindfulness psicodinamica, considerando le diversità di apprendimento degli individui e delle organizzazioni. Kets de Vries offre importanti indicazioni su come i coach per la leadership possono aiutare i propri clienti a raggiungere un punto di svolta che li conduca verso un significativo cambiamento personale e professionale. Inoltre, nel presente lavoro illustra i più innovativi strumenti a sostegno di questa tecnica di intervento. Comprensivo di casi di studio e di questionari che facilitano una comprensione profonda delle dinamiche psichiche sottese ai cambiamenti personali e organizzativi, questo libro aiuterà i coach e i dirigenti a trasformare gli atteggiamenti, le credenze e i comportamenti del team e a creare un 'best place to work'.

In The Hedgehog Effect, Manfred Kets de Vries presents the case for leadership group coaching as an experiential training ground for learning to function as a high performance team. His group coaching model, incorporating living case studies, has been developed over more than 20 years of delivering programs to top-level executives and sets the standard in the field of leadership group coaching.

Written for coaches, consultants, leadership development directors, and anyone working in or with teams, The Hedgehog Effect begins with an in-depth analysis of what teams and groups are all about. The intricacies of leadership coaching are illustrated with an elaborate example of a team coaching intervention. In Part Two, the author applies a psychodynamic lens to the dynamics of teams and groups, taking a close look at relationship patterns, how groups evolve, and the phenomenon of the group-as-a-whole. Part Three takes a more systemic perspective, addressing the challenges that change processes pose for people in organizations, and how to create best places to work. Kets de Vries supports the whole with the story of an organizational change initiative accomplished through group coaching.

In this series Manfred Kets de Vries-failed engineer, entrepreneur manquT, reluctant economist, international management guru, psychoanalyst, professor of leadership, wit, and outdoorsmanùoffers an overview of his work spanning four decades, a period in which he has established himself as the leading figure in the clinical study of leadership and organizations.

At a key point in his career, working as he puts it, 'in the twilight zone of economics, management, and psychoanalysis,' he decided to strike out on a little-trodden path and 'bring the person back into the organization.' Today Kets de Vries occupies a unique position in the academic business world, putting leaders and companies on the couch and working at the often intimate interface between the inner theater of the individual and the outer world of the organization.

The third book in this series, Reflections on Groups and Organizations, broadens Kets de Vries's canvas and examines concepts of organizational health, performance, and change. Material ranges from studies of high-performance teamsùbased on time the author spent with the pygmies of central Africaùto the study of organizational stars, to the use of coaching interventions to improve personal and organizational functioning.

Reflections on Groups and Organizations looks at the interpersonal and group processes that determine how organizations work within specific contexts, including family firms. It includes studies on dysfunctional leader-follower relationships, downsizing, and organizational transformation. Kets de Vries introduces his concept of the authentizotic organizationùa creative, healthy, well-functioning workplace that offers fun and meaning to its members.

'Once again Kets de Vries and the INSEAD team deliver a fantastic book. Beautifully written and accessible, they take complex, cutting-edge concepts and translate them into compelling, usable information and interventions. This book is inspiring, theoretically sound and a great read.' ù Carol Kauffman PhD, ABPP PCC, Director, Institute of Coaching, Assistant Clinical Professor, Harvard Medical School

'This marvellous book is brought to you by some of the greatest minds in coaching. It contains the essential ingredients for a must read coaching book û and so much more. Research based, provocative, and pragmatic, it is written in such a splendidly immediate style that it seems one has been invited into a thoughtful and highly enjoyable discussion on the why and how of outstanding coaching. You cannot help but emerge a stronger coach and implementer of coaching interventions from reading it.' ù Susan David PhD, Co-director, Institute of Coaching, McLean Hospital/Harvard Medical School; Research Affiliate, Yale University; Director of Evidence Based Psychology

'Manfred Kets de Vries, a pioneer of the clinical study of leadership and organizations, takes us once again under the surface of a popular corporate phenomenon û executive coaching. Drawing on their unique approach and vast experience, Kets de Vries and his colleagues from the INSEAD Global Leadership Centre lift the veil on what good coaching is, how it works, and how it enhances individual and organizational performance. The volume is packed with insight from scholars and practitioners at the forefront of this field. Whether you are already involved in coaching or considering it, you'll find this book both useful and inspiring.' ù Gianpiero Petriglieri, Affiliate Professor in Organisational Behaviour, INSEAD

'At INSEAD Manfred Kets de Vries runs inspired coaching and consulting courses that have no parallel at any other business school or university. When it comes to writing, he has a track record of producing extraordinary, incisive books that create ripples in the worlds of business and academia. In The Coaching Kaleidoscope he brings these aspects together: coaches and scholars of international standing, many of whom work with him at INSEAD, have û under his editorship û written this wonderful and thoughtful book. If any confirmation were needed, this volume reminds us why Kets de Vries occupies such a unique position in the coaching field.'ù Professor Mark Stein, Chair in Leadership and Management, University of Leicester

This book deals with how coaching interventions can drive a journey of transformational change at individual, team, and organizational levels. As a result, coaching interventions serve to create more reflective people, who in turn create better organizations. The group coaching methodology, used by the INSEAD Global Leadership Center (IGLC) and adopted by the Center for Leadership Development Research (CLDR) at the European School of Technology and Management (ESMT), Berlin, is the basis for developing the theoretical assumptions behind the chapters. Through sharing research methodologies, and describing intervention and change techniques used in the leadership development and education of executive coaches, the book sheds light on how the 'magic' of coaching works, what coaches actually do, and how their clients respond.

This book is a joint project between the IGLC and the CLDR. In compiling it, we have involved academics who conduct research, teach, and consult; leadership development coaches; change consultants; and executives who adopted IGLC methods for reflection on leadership development opportunities and challenges. We have also included people who have experienced IGLC methods in the process of their developmental journeys. They have collaborated, consulted their research and practice notes, analyzed data from inquiry projects, and shared their personal experiences in individual chapters.

Manfred Kets de Vries is The Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chaired Professor of Leadership Development and the Clinical Professor of Leadership at INSEAD, France, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi. He is also the Distinguished Professor of Leadership at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin (ESMT), Germany.

Laura Guitten is Assistant Professor at ESMT, European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, Germany, as of September 2010. Prior to joining ESMT, she was the recipient of a Marie Curie IntraEuropean Fellowship for post-doctoral studies from the European Commission (2008-1010), during which she conducted research at INSEAD.

Konstantin Korotov is Associate Professor at ESMT, European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, Germany, and a senior researcher fellow and executive coach with the INSEAD Global Leadership Center in Fontainebleau, France.

Elizabeth Florent-Treacy is the Associate Director for Research at the INSEAD Global Leadership Centre

Nei momenti difficili ce ne rendiamo conto. La vita non ruota tutta intorno ai simboli del potere e della posizione sociale. La carriera è un'entità sfuggente. La fama una casualità. La ricchezza instabile. Da questo punto di vista, a ben poco servono le teorie formulate - e insegnate - nelle business school e nelle università. Ciò che veramente conta sono le relazioni umane, che fanno la differenza e creano significato. Riflettendo sui quattro pilastri fondamentali dell'esistenza - Sesso, Denaro, Felicità e Morte - e forte della sua esperienza come clinico, psicoanalista, coach e docente, Kets de Vries conduce il lettore alla scoperta delle paure e delle aspirazioni che appartengono a ogni persona, e indica una via per il superamento dei conflitti attraverso la conoscenza di se stessi e la costruzione di relazioni significative con coloro che ci stanno intorno. La prospettiva originale e unica con cui vengono affrontati gli argomenti fa di questo libro un percorso nella mente dell'uomo moderno, lungo il quale ciascun lettore (manager ma non solo) potrà trovare punti di contatto con la propria esperienza personale e affrontare con nuova consapevolezza le sfide della vita.

The challenge faced by family businesses and their stakeholders, is to recognise the issues that they face, understand how to develop strategies to address them and more importantly, to create narratives, or family stories that explain the emotional dimension of the issues to the family. The most intractable family business issues are not the business problems the organisation faces, but the emotional issues that compound them. Applying psychodynamic concepts will help to explain behaviour and will enable the family to prepare for life cycle transitions and other issues that may arise.

Here is a new understanding and a broader perspective on the human dynamics of family firms with two complementary frameworks, psychodynamic and family systematic, to help make sense of family-run organisations. Although this book includes a conceptual section, it is first and foremost a practical book about the real world issues faced by business families.

The book begins by demonstrating that many years of achievement through generations can be destroyed by the next, if the family fails to address the psychological issues they face. By exploring cases from famous and less well known family businesses across the world, the authors discuss entrepreneurs, the entrepreneurial family and the lifecycles of the individual and the organisation. They go on to show how companies going through change and transition can avoid the pitfalls that endanger both family and company. The authors then apply tools that will help family businesses in transition and offer their analyses and conclusions.

Readers should draw their own conclusions from careful examination of the cases, identifying the problems or dilemmas faced and the options for improved business performance and family relationships. They should ask what they might have done in the given situation and what new insight into individual or family behaviour each case offers. The goal is to avoid a bitter ending.

What makes a great leader? Have you got what it takes? And how can you improve your leadership skills to get the most out of yourself, the people you manage and your business? In this new paperback edition of The Leadership Mystique, acclaimed management guru Manfred Kets de Vries answers these questions and more.

• All ambitious managers want to become leaders and are keen to learn how to get there.
• Many managers/leaders suffer from what Kets De Vries has coined  'neurotic impostor syndrome', the fear of being exposed as a 'fake', and are seeking tips and guidance on how to become more effective and confident in their roles.
• First edition was extremely successful internationally.
• Manfred Kets De Vries is a major name and an accomplished writer. As well as being the author /editor of 17 books, he publishes widely in journals, newspapers and professional magazines, for instance recent (September 2005) articles in the Harvard Business Review and The Guardian.
• The second edition will be shorter, punchier and a lower-priced paperback taking the book to a wider audience.
• Includes clever diagnostics that get you thinking such as: If your company/team is drowning and you can save only 5 people, who would you save?

 

La dinamica delle carriere, lo stress dei manager, la capacità imprenditoriale: l'autore esplora il lato 'nascosto' dei processi e dei comportamenti organizzativi. Con un occhio attento ai risvolti emozionali e affettivi di individui e gruppi sulla scena organizzativa, Kets de Vries riflette sulle dinamiche di ambivalenza e competizione, di invidia e collusione, di disagio e disillusione che mettono alla prova le scelte di ciascuno, singolarmente e collettivamente. Far emergere e riconoscere questi aspetti è, d'altra parte, una strada obbligata per tutti coloro che sono alla ricerca di una migliore qualità del loro rapporto con l'organizzazione e di una maggiore capacità di far fronte all'incertezza dei cambiamenti.