EMBA
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The leadership
CIrClE
»Manfred Kets De Vries, InSEAD Knowledge
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To complete that circle, leaders are required to leverage their vision and
their skills to create sustainable, results-oriented organisations.
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“Leaders get the best out of followers and followers get the best out of dismount. Many people try to keep on riding the dead horse, but
leaders,” says Manfred Kets De Vries, Clinical Professor of Leadership you have to do something different.”
Development at INSEAD. The connection between leaders and their
staff is only one of many circular connections he sees. That requires teams of good leaders not just a single strong executive
in any successful organisation. “Leadership is a team sport,” he says.
The challenge for leaders multiplies as organisations get bigger and That team needs to have clear goals and values. The leadership
as globalisation makes companies more diverse and more virtual. teams that are most successful know how to get people to buy into
“It’s very hard to manage large organisations, things become so those values and practice those values.
enormous,” he said in an interview with INSEAD Knowledge.
Leaders, he believes, should strive to create better places to work.
Another circular challenge for leaders is to keep an organisation growing Kets De Vries argues that isn’t just an altruistic notion. Work today
over generations. “To me, the real test of a leader is how well his or her is complicated by rapidly changing technology, virtual working
successor does, and very few leaders pass that test,” he says. teams separated by cultural and geographical differences
and the challenges for individuals of managing their
Leaders have to help people re-invent their organisations. Kets De own careers.
Vries imagines this as an ancient mythical serpent that swallows its
tail but is constantly reborn in a circular connection. Workers want jobs that make them want to
come to work everyday and that should be an
To complete that circle, leaders are required to leverage their vision important goal for any executive.
and their skills to create sustainable, results-oriented organisations.
He believes group or team coaching is one of the most effective Leaders who make a deep connection with
ways of achieving that long-term success. their employees will succeed, he says. They
lead in ways that are symbolic – as well as
Kets De Vries, the Director of INSEAD’s Global Leadership literal – to create organisations where people
Centre, recently won a lifetime achievement award from the feel like they can and should do their best.
International Leadership Association for his contributions to the
study of leadership. It was the first time the prestigious organisation “You have to get people’s hearts and minds
had given the awards. and get them to buy into the DNA of an
organisation,” he says. ■
His extensive work in coaching business leaders has led him to
believe that leaders need greater self-awareness: “Many executives
don’t know themselves very well.” Some know the issues but they
Biography
don’t know how to shift direction. Kets De Vries says for those
Manfred Kets De Vries is
executives it’s very difficult to set the right goals and get people to
the Director of INSEAD’s
buy into your values and goals.
Global Leadership Centre
and the Clinical Professor of
“Leaders need to help people think outside of the box,” he says, Leadership Development.
adding: “When you are riding on a dead horse the best thing is to
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