The mystique of leadership essay. Read the book "The Mystery of Leadership"

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The author comprehensively examines the phenomenon of leadership and shows ways that can improve the ability of a leader to understand himself, motivate and support his subordinates. Problems such as the natural human tendency to resist change are analyzed; the interaction of rational and irrational in the behavior of leaders; the life cycle of the leader and the succession of leadership; loss of enthusiasm and apathy of employees; destructive leadership styles.

Manfred Kay de Vries explores in detail the characteristics of effective leadership and highlights the skills that distinguish an effective leader. Shows how companies can evaluate the leadership abilities of potential candidates and develop leadership skills in those already in leadership positions. The book contains practical exercises and questionnaires that will help you assess the state of affairs in the company, reveal dangerous symptoms and prevent serious problems.

Introduction

I would like to start this book with one story, which is most likely unreliable. It concerns Wilfred Bion, the psychiatrist and psychoanalyst who greatly influenced my judgment. During World War I, Bion was a tank commander. For those who have never been in a tank, I will explain that there is really little “working space” there. During his service, Bion learned a lot about the behavior of people in small groups. After another world war, when he was the head of a hospital for the mentally ill, in which people suffering from military neuroses were treated, Bion got the opportunity to put into practice some of the knowledge gained during military service.

Although by that time Bion had deeply penetrated the problem of the development of military neuroses, he still had many questions. For example, what factors contributed to the problems experienced by patients in his hospital? What led them to neurosis? Why did they suffer from war fatigue? But the more important question at that point was: How can he help them? Bion worked with his patients in small groups and recorded his observations of the psychological process. His work intrigued many, but he wrote in a very condensed style and many of his ideas were too complex.

Many years ago there was a conference in London at which Bion was supposed to be a speaker. There was a lot of noise around his forthcoming speech: people were interested in what he had to say, they were waiting for him to explain his intricate ideas. As the story goes, when Bion walked to the podium, he looked at the crowded audience and said: "Here we are!" And having uttered these words, he departed without saying anything more.

That afternoon, one of the conference organizers approached him during lunch and said diplomatically: “Dr. Bion, many people who have commented on your talk have told me that they were delighted with your ideas. But it seemed to them that the speech was somewhat short. Could you expand on your thoughts? Could you add anything else? Do you mind if we arrange an additional meeting this afternoon?” Bion agreed, and an additional meeting was scheduled for the afternoon. Again the auditorium was full. Bion stepped onto the podium, looked around the room and said (or so the story goes): "Here we are again!" And left.

When I have to give a speech, I am often tempted to do as Bion did. As was probably the case with him, a lot of ideas go through my head before I step onto the podium. I ask myself: Will I be able to express my thoughts clearly? Will I remember everything I wanted to say? Will I live up to audience expectations? I am realistic enough to understand that the answer to each of these questions can be negative, given my own human shortcomings and the interests of the assembled audience. It's no wonder that every time I give a speech, I myself find it interesting to hear what I have to say!

Introduction

INSEAD MBA students , as I say jokingly, walk around the institute with their heads slightly tilted to the left. And it makes them go in circles . Most of my students are "rational" engineers and "logical" thinkers whose left brain is more developed.

Preoccupied with questions of rationality and objectivity , they seem to be interested only in reliable information for the analysis of complex business situations. They tend to perceive intuition, emotion, and subjectivity as something between feeble and dangerously easy, not realizing that "easy" questions can be very "difficult".

Because easy questions can ruin careers, I occasionally tap my students lightly on the head to bring their brain back into balance and help them work both parts of this vital organ. But my efforts last only a short time. Soon, many "lefties" return to their "usual" state - they continue to walk in circles.

In my scientific work, I try to combine two main disciplines. As I sometimes say, I'm trying to combine what John Maynard Keynes called "dismal science" (I was once an economist) and what Sigmund Freud called "an impossible profession" (I also trained as a psychoanalyst). Thus, my interests lie on the border between management and clinical psychology.

She said, “Wise owl, please help me. How can I get across the river without being eaten by crocodiles? The owl replied: “It is very simple. Push off with your paws as hard as you can. This should work. You will fly and you will be able to cross the river, and the crocodiles will not reach you.”

The frog did as the owl advised her, and before falling into the water, where the crocodile grabbed her, she asked the owl: “Why, why did you give me this advice ?! I'm going to be eaten now." To which the owl replied: “Sorry. I'm just thinking. I'm not good at bringing ideas to life."

As history suggests, only a fraction of the strategies that organizations develop are used effectively. Many people are not particularly good at synchronizing action and vision , in aligning ideas and execution.

Anyone who works with ideas must take into account the ability of people to implement these ideas. Deep contemplation alone does not bring fantasy to the drawing board. To succeed, leaders must understand both action and theory.

Our behavior is too complex a thing to be reduced to a few questions on a questionnaire.

Chapter 1. Mysticism of the human factor. Through the lens of the clinical paradigm

Organizations are like cars. They move by themselves only downhill. A company can have all sorts of virtues—good financial resources, an enviable market position, outstanding technology—but if its management fails , all those virtues dissolve and the organization, like a car without a driver, goes downhill.

In this book, I am going to focus on three issues:

— I challenge the claim that "irrational" behavior is a common pattern for the life of an organization, and I will demonstrate that detailed behavior has a "rational" part in it. This "rational" is the understanding of the internal theater of man - those key themes that affect the human personality and leadership style.
— I will try to highlight the dark side of leadership by highlighting some of the most typical behaviors that lead to the collapse of leaders.
— I'll talk about what it takes to be an effective leader, pointing out what effective leaders do to keep the organization performing well and outlining what a successful organization looks like.

Rationale for the irrational

Leaders are not always an example of rationality. “ Emotional intelligence” is what we call the understanding of motivations - one's own and other people's. …people with greater emotional sensitivity are much more likely to become effective leaders.

Unfortunately, this cannot be learned by reading a tutorial. On the other hand, the acquisition of emotional sensitivity is an experiential . Moreover, this is best done with the help of a spouse, friend, colleague or professional who can tell you your blind spots and help you see how you interact with other people.

The Dark Side of Leadership

We can all name at least five politicians corrupted by the dark side of leadership. Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic immediately come to mind. We are much less likely to notice this shadow when we see it in the workplace, although it often ruins the lives of many. … the second point of my plan is to illuminate the dark side of leadership.

Finding the Essence of Effective Leadership

Here I will address the following questions: What is charisma and transformational leadership? What defines a charismatic leader? What knowledge, skills and roles distinguish an effective leader from an ineffective one? What can be done to develop the qualities of an effective leader?

Central position of the clinical paradigm

My work with organizations is based on a clinical paradigm. This means that I use concepts from psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, developmental psychology, family system theory, and cognitive psychology to understand the behavior of people in organizations.

The clinical paradigm is based on the following three assumptions:

1. What you see does not necessarily correspond to reality. The world around us is much more complex than it seems at first glance. Much of what is happening is beyond our conscious awareness. The most effective leaders are those who can look at difficult situations from a different angle. By changing their perception of the problem, they change their vision of it. We rarely think outside the usual framework. If we hear this advice as we grow up—when our out-of-the-box thinking is blunted, our creative spark is extinguished—we begin to see innovation as disruptive, and end up giving everyone the same advice ourselves. But what's worse, we stick to this advice even if we want a different result. In other words, we want change without changing anything! The challenge for an effective leader is to break out of the box.
2. Any human behavior, no matter how irrational it may seem, has a logical justification. The first step towards change is understanding that the behavior is dysfunctional. So feedback is very important.
3. We are all a product of our past. .

The force that holds these three positions together is our vast subconscious . Most motivations and behaviors originate outside of consciousness.

So why use the clinical paradigm? Because thanks to it, we will better understand what leadership is. We will be better informed about what is happening around us and more aware of the constant interaction of past and present.

As T. S. Eliot once said, “The present and the past are both presented in the future. And the future contains the past."

Moreover, we will get another level of understanding: by applying the clinical paradigm, we become emotionally more educated . And people who have an emotional sense are more effective at creating motivations for themselves and for those around them. They also work better as leaders because they can see the rational behind the irrational behavior.

Chapter 2 Emotional Potential in the World of Work

Brain researchers have found that the left hemisphere is responsible for speech, language, writing, logic, mathematics, science, and the right hand, while the right hemisphere is responsible for spatial construction, creative thinking, fantasy, art, music understanding, and left hand actions. In other words, the two hemispheres are responsible for different thought patterns .

In general, people with a more developed left hemisphere tend to have a more cognitive style of thinking, and those with a better functioning right hemisphere tend to have a more emotional style (Fig. 1).

Rice. 1. Thinking styles

According to the classification of the Harvard psychologist Howard Gardner, intelligence is presented in seven variants: spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, linguistic, logical-mathematical, interpersonal and intrapersonal.

Despite this variety of intelligence around us, many are limited only to the logical-mathematical component - the form of intelligence that can be measured using an IQ test. This is what we value as individuals and as a society and want to instill in ourselves and others.

But IQ (mental development) is not everything. A person who does well in college may fail in life. IQ does not guarantee success, especially in leadership.

First , people with high IQs don't necessarily make the right decisions. In fact, IQ and leadership qualities, such as decision making, are very loosely related. (After all, if high IQ was the deciding factor, employment agents would tear down the doors of math departments to hire mathematicians.)

Second, people with high IQs often fall into the intellectual trap of "intellectualizing" their own erroneous decisions.

Thirdly , people with high IQs are often so good at criticizing others that they pay more attention to it than to finding constructive solutions.

In the world of business, emotional intelligence - a mixture of interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence according to Gardner's classification - is no less important than logical-mathematical. A high IQ ("intelligence quotient") can be beaten by a high EQ ("emotional development quotient").

The three main components of emotional potential are:

1. Understand your own feelings.
2. Learn to manage them.
3. Learn to recognize the emotions of others and manage them.

The three most important support skills that build emotional capacity are the ability to actively listen, understand non-verbal communication, and adapt to a wide range of emotions.

We listen actively …

Most people speak between 125 and 150 words per minute, while they can perceive and process 750-1200 words per minute. Perhaps this imbalance is what makes us such bad listeners. Our brain wanders somewhere in the free time between words. Mind wandering is the most innocuous manifestation of the habit of bad listening .

QUESTIONNAIRE. Are you an active listener?

Answer the following questions "yes" or "no".

Can you let others finish talking without interrupting them?
Do you ask questions if you don't understand what is being said?
Do you pay attention to what is being said and do you maintain eye contact?
Do you understand what is being said to you?
Do you repeat what you have been told to make sure you understand the other person correctly?
Do you think about the meaning of what was said and do you confirm the correctness of understanding?
Are you trying to get into the feelings behind the words?

If you couldn't answer yes to all questions, you may not be a good listener. Whether you answered yes or no, you may want to check your answers with people close to you to see what people think about your listening style.

emotional intelligence becomes (and less important technical skills). While people are more likely to be hired initially for their specific technical skills, at higher levels of an organization it is emotional potential that separates successful careers from career stagnation.

Empathy and introspection are the most important factors that drive a career. High EQ leads to better decision making, adds realism to interactions with others, and prevents frustration.

Let's imagine for a moment that the company is an iceberg. Most of my organizational colleagues pay attention to what is happening on the surface (Figure 2). They pay little attention to the struggle that takes place in the depths, preferring to look only at what is visible. In other words, they avoid fighting the angel.

They study obvious phenomena such as mission, vision, goals, strategies, activities, job description, tasks, roles, selection process, system of control and rewards, and norms of control. In short, they focus on the more rational dimensions of a company's life.

Of course, these factors are important. I pay attention to them too. But I am interested - or rather, I am more interested - in what happens at those levels of the iceberg that lie deep under the water. What informal processes take place there? What is the underlying dynamic? In other words, what are the "irrational" variables that make up a company's culture? How are decisions actually made?

These variables include factors such as the values underlying corporate culture, power and influence structures, group dynamics, interpersonal relationships, responses to stress, and what some psychiatrists call the "main theme of conflict relations" (RTCR) of those in power .

Rice. 2. Processes in the company

Mental health is all about choice.

Warning!

I would like to emphasize that questionnaires are of limited use in measuring emotional development, as many of the factors related to emotional development are sensory based (relating to touch, sound, and smell) and therefore difficult to measure in questionnaires. In addition, the “social desirability factor” affects the results: people answer such questionnaires not truthfully, but in the way they would like to be perceived.

Chapter 3

Silent oysters can tell us a lot about change and stagnation. This clam has only one important decision to make in life: where to "settle". Having decided this, the oyster attaches its head to the stone and remains there for the rest of its life .

I have found that many people behave the same way: they are so resistant to change that they can also cement themselves in one place. If a leader has this trait (if he suffers from what might be called the "oyster syndrome"), the results can be devastating to the organization.

…success can only be sustained if the company is able to adapt to change.

For much of the 20th century, organizations were modeled after the Catholic Church or the army. The company was the main prototype of such a "modern" company - a surprisingly durable prototype.

Alfred Sloan's book My Years with General has become the bible of generations of office workers and business school students. It advocated a pyramidal structure , hierarchical organization, departments, decision-making from above, functional and branch structure, power in accordance with the position.

From three Cs to three Is

Organizations dominated by control, obedience, and hierarchy (the three Cs: control, compliance, compartmentalization) gave way to organizations focused on ideas, information, and interaction (the three Is: ideas, information, interaction).

From the Traditional Psychological Contract to the Employability Paradox

With the advent of the new paradigm comes a change in what is often referred to as the "psychological contract," the tacit understanding of employer and employee obligations in the context of the employment relationship . Under the old model, the consequence of this psychological contract was that in exchange for loyalty to the employer, a person received a job security until retirement and a good pension .

The new companies of the information age, instead, stick to the idea: “We offer you opportunities; you are building your career."

From dictatorial tutelage to new forms of leadership

Jack Welch explained his ideas to followers by saying, "A company with no future is a company that has turned its back on its president and its back on its customers."

Chapter 4

Managers are not as rational people as we think... Let's look at some of the most common reasons that lead to leadership failures.

The desire to avoid conflict

While we tend to think of leaders as powerful and fearless, many of them tend to walk away from conflict. Fearful of doing anything that threatens approval, they are unable (or unwilling) to make difficult decisions and exercise control. They become empty suits , unwilling to face the fact (and it is a fact) that setting boundaries is more important than reconciling differences.

I don't have an exact formula for success, but I do know the formula for failure: try to please everyone.

Treating subordinates.

Micromanagement

Managers pay so much attention to detail that they can not give up part of the control. Not believing that anyone else can do their job as well as themselves, micromanagers are reluctant to delegate authority.

The transition from step-by-step management to general management is one of the most difficult problems for many managers.

manic behavior

Maniacal behavior causes companies to lose sight of the main tasks. Maniacal leaders focus so much on the inner life that they forget about the main component: their clients.

Leaders don't have to look in the mirror; they have to look out the window! Only if they focus on the outer life will they be able to maintain contact with clients.

inaccessibility

Some leaders are so full of their own importance that they don't have time for others. It doesn't occur to them to set an example or walk around workplaces and shops and listen to what their customers have to say.

intrigue

Every company has its own "dealers" - political beings, masters of counting power. They keep their subordinates from shining by using and even abusing them instead of helping them grow and develop; at the same time, they do everything possible to attract the attention of their superiors to themselves.

All of these behaviors form the two Hs of bad leadership: Mistrust and Malaise . An indicator of effective leadership is how much people in the company trust their leadership. If the level of trust is low, then there is some kind of ailment (problems).

Transfer trap

Transfer means that none of our relationships are new ; they are all colored by previous relationships. There are few universals in life, but transference is one of them: an absolutely ubiquitous element of the human condition, it is how each of us processes information and organizes experience. The most common transfer models are idealization and reflection.

world of liars

It would be much better if the leaders said in response to the flattery of subordinates: “Don't tell me what I think. I know what I'm thinking. Tell me what you think!" When the conqueror rode into Rome in a chariot, he always had a slave standing behind him, who told him: "You are a man, Caesar, you are a man."

One of the most important tasks of any company is to create an atmosphere in which people would calmly maintain honest relationships with high-ranking leaders. The effective operation of the company requires from people a healthy disrespect for the boss, freedom in expressing feelings and opinions, calm banter and mutual concessions.

Of the means of creating openness in a company that I know, the 360-degree system is one of the most effective. With it, company employees receive feedback not only from their superiors (as is the case with the traditional praise system), but also from their colleagues and subordinates.

Influence of narcissism

Now that we've looked at the transference trap (and honesty is the only sure way to avoid it), let's take a closer look at the narcissism that underlies this trap. Psychologists call narcissism the stage of childhood development that everyone goes through; the stage when the growing child enjoys his own body and its activities.

Monte Cristo Complex

Revenge is a negative way to deal with childhood wounds . A more effective way to cope with the pain of childhood is what we call "correction" (compensation). Behind it is the following idea: "I did not grow up well myself, so I will create a better life for my children."

And while correction usually starts in those close to you, the same principles apply in the workplace. Corrective people try to alleviate their pain by making life better for the company.

Chapter 5

Anhedonia (emotional anesthesia) - the inability to experience pleasure. Top management anhedonia can have a devastating effect on a company, as leadership takes a lot of energy. A dead fish will not have enough energy to lead people to success.

Resurrection of "dead" leaders

What can be done to restore the sense of inspiration?

Feeling the flow. We must discover in ourselves what psychologist Michal Csikszentmihaly calls the feeling of "flow" - a feeling that is made up of animation, concentration and such involvement that we lose track of time.

How to do it? First, we need a challenge. Secondly, intermediate results are needed.

It is very important that each of us understand what activities bring us maximum energy and pleasure. It is even more important to do it regularly.

A short recipe for resurrection

We should look for signs that we:

We continue to strive for a sense of personal growth through self-knowledge.
We surprise ourselves and others.
Balancing work and personal life.
We develop caring and trusting relationships with others.
We stay physically active.
We control our own lives.

Chapter 6

We all think differently, perceive differently, experience emotions differently, have different subjective experience and different models of activity. There is a Spanish proverb about the connection between an ineffective leader and decline: "The fish starts to rot from the head."

In companies where power is concentrated in one hand, the boundary between the person and the company is so thin that any "rot" at the top spreads very quickly. In companies where power is distributed, that is, culture and strategies are determined by several leaders, the relationship between leadership style and company pathology is weaker.

Brief characteristics of the five types of companies ("healthy" firms usually use a mixture of styles):

Dramatic . Characterized by excessive centralization that hinders the development of an effective information system; too simple for many product lines and a wide market; there is not enough influence at the level of second-level managers.
Suspicious . It is characterized by complex information processing, excessive analysis of external trends and centralization of power.
Alienated . Characterized by focus on the inner life; insufficient study of the external environment; imposed barriers to the free flow of information.
Depressive . Characterized by ritualism, bureaucracy, inflexibility, excessive hierarchy, poor internal communication, and resistance to change.
Coercion . It is characterized by immutable formal rules, a complex system of information, ritualized evaluation procedures, excessive thoroughness, precision, and a hierarchy in which the personal status of the leader is directly related to his position.

Closed culture, depressed companies

A company culture dominated by a depressed leader is best described by the term "introverted." The CEO creates a negative and lethargic atmosphere, and second-tier executives imitate him.

In some cases, the personality of the leader alone creates such an atmosphere, in others, external forces, such as the death of a founder or a takeover of a company, make normal leaders lose their sense of control , power, self-esteem and, accordingly, initiative.

In any case, the insular culture infiltrates the company through unmotivated, lazy executives who see it as a mechanism that simply needs to be monitored on a daily basis, and which requires minimal participation from them.

Shifting responsibility and procrastination is a common thing here, as well as the lack of high-quality interaction and communication between managers. Worse, nothing changes, even when the firm gets into trouble.

Depressed companies, because of their cultural isolation, are characterized by passivity, lack of confidence, extreme conservatism, isolation, and aimlessness. Only programmed, typical tasks are performed that do not require special initiative.

Most depressed firms are well organized and operate in established markets, those that have practiced the same technologies and competition patterns for years, with trade agreements, trade restrictions, and stable tariffs. Minor changes, the absence of serious competition and the homogeneity of customers make the task of management quite simple.

Although power is formally concentrated in one hand and based more on position than on personal experience, this is not an important issue for most depressed companies. Control is carried out according to formalized programs and rules, rather than on the initiative of managers.

Suggestions for change and action are met with resistance as top management suffers from feelings of powerlessness and incapacity; leaders do not believe they can control events or somehow resurrect the company.

Firms suffering from depression should take the following steps:

- Resurrect the leader and transfer power to him.
- Reevaluate the strategy.
— Develop and adhere to corporate values focused on high results.
— Simplify the structure and procedures.
— Become more sensitive to customer needs.
- Update products.
- Improve the quality of service.
- Look up to high-performing companies.

Chapter 7

Change is hard to come by, whether we're talking about people or companies. Even those who talk about their belief in the value of change are usually dishonest. They want others , but they don't want to change themselves . It is important that every attempt to change something - in a person or company - be cognitive and emotional; in other words, people must want it with their minds and hearts.

Intellectually, they should understand what benefits the changes will bring, but understanding is not enough. It should also affect them emotionally. Since a company is made up of people, the successful implementation of change in an organization depends on understanding the human response to the process.

The dynamics of individual changes

By examining from a clinical perspective the various stages an individual goes through in the process of change, we can draw parallels for companies as well. Then, by applying the data obtained from observing individual changes to the field of companies, we can start, facilitate, and even accelerate the process of change in the company.

Five C- changes ; from English words: concern, confrontation, clarification, crystallization, change (Fig. 3)

Anxiety: negative emotions; the person must experience a sense of unease associated with the status quo.
Confrontation : decisive event; the image of the last drop is very suitable as an example.
Clarification: public announcement of intent.
Crystallization : an inner journey.
Change : accepting a new attitude; inner transformation occurs only when there is a new way of looking at things.

Rice. 3. Five components of the process of individual change

Dynamics of changes in the company: "pain" of the company, "mourning" of the company (Fig. 4), resistance in the company (changes cause fear, and it, in turn, generates resistance; one way to overcome the resistance caused by fears is to to explain to everyone that maintaining the status quo poses more problems than jumping into the unknown).

Rice. 4. "Mourning" of the company

Downsizing and reorganization

The contraction usually results in a slight increase in the share price at first. However, the long-term impact of a business reorganization is much less likely to be positive. A reduction based on numbers alone is doomed to failure.

Changing corporate mindset

Usually success is achieved by those who break the rules ; those who abide by them remain in the minor leagues. Nothing kills trust faster than a lack of respect. If we want to create an atmosphere of trust in the company, we should not punish the messenger.

Chapter 8. Characteristics of effective leadership

for someone who is not inclined to change to be an effective leader. Modern society does not give the opportunity to choose between peace and change. They are inevitable, and the degree of change is growing every day.

Think, for example, of the difference between your lifestyle and that of your grandparents. In just two generations, we have gone from horse and carriage to spaceships. Or here's another example: one issue of the Herald Tribune contains more information than a person in the Middle Ages would learn in a lifetime.

Engagement Approach

Leaders cannot live without followers, and all the actions of leaders take place in a certain context. It is the ratio of leader, followers, and situation that makes leadership so difficult. In order to successfully combine all the elements, the “interaction” model is most suitable (Fig. 5).

Rice. 5. Areas of Leadership

Situation and Followers as Components of Leadership

We must evaluate the followers. What can be said about their worldview? What do they expect from the leader and from the job? What is their relationship with the leader? For example, do they seek leadership from above, or do they work best in self-managed teams? (Fig. 6)

Rice. 6. Relationship "Head - subordinate"

The main component of leadership: the competence of the leader

A person's leadership style is the result of a subtle interaction between the forces of his or her inner theater and the skills he or she acquires over time (Figure 7). These character traits are manifested through certain patterns of behavior, which we can call competence .

In a particular situation, a certain set of skills increases the effectiveness of leadership. The task of a leader (including a potential one) is to develop a skill set that covers as many cases as possible.

Rice. 7. Components of leadership style

The results of new research on personality traits are promising: they place the behavioral manifestations of desired traits in context . In other words, character traits themselves are less important than what they lead to.

The most effective leaders have a set of skills in the following three areas:

- Personal skills such as motivation, self-confidence, energy and personal effectiveness.
- Social skills such as influence, political awareness and empathy.
- Cognitive skills such as conceptual thinking and big vision.

Chapter 9. Leadership in a Global Context

With the increasing globalization of business, we can no longer ignore the fact that leadership has a strong cultural connotation. This means that different national cultures have different attitudes about what is acceptable in the manual.

Although a leadership style that is very effective in one country may be completely ineffective in another, people are not always aware of these differences. This is especially true for residents of large countries.

We divide people into groups and call them " others " to define who we ourselves are. In other words, we define ourselves more easily if we are different from others in some way.

Development of global leadership

When effective global leaders are asked what has most influenced the development of their global skills, most people talk about the five Ts (tradition, travel, training, transfer, team learning) of global leadership: tradition, travel, training, transfers, and team education.

Chapter 10 Leadership Roles

Charismatic people and constantly dissatisfied with the current situation. They never take the current situation for granted, they always ask: Can this mousetrap be improved? Can we do it better? By asking such questions, they increase the feeling of discomfort in others and make them think.

But charismatic leaders don't stop there: they provide real options. Complaints may keep people short; before complaints lead to action, the hope of a new beginning . Charismatic people provide this hope by creating a new focus that expresses the collective imagination. By providing possible solutions, true leaders know how to wait.

Effective leaders play two roles - charismatic and architectural. In a charismatic role, the leader envisions a better future and inspires his subordinates. In an architectural role, he addresses issues related to company structure and control and reward systems.

Chapter 11

The life cycle of a CEO is usually divided into three stages: entry into office, approval, and decline.

Realizing that no one is indispensable, the CEO must ensure continuity. In particular, the CEO's monetary compensation should be related to development and succession planning.

Chapter 12

I am often asked if leaders are born or made . Like many other traits, leadership is perhaps a combination of both. In what ratio: 50% to 50% or 60% to 40%, it doesn't really matter... Most leadership education is already completed by the time people choose their careers; basic personality development is almost complete.

Thus, a company that is looking for "great potentials" (as future leaders are often called) is better off starting to select the right person , rather than creating one from someone.

Theodore Roosevelt once said, "The best manager is one who has the intelligence to select the right people for the job to be done and the restraint not to interfere with their work while they are doing it."

It sounds like the best way to prove you're smarter than the people you hire is to hire people who are smarter than you! As the saying goes, “First class people hire first class people. Second class people hire third class people."

But it is very difficult to assess abilities (leadership or any other) on the basis of limited information and a short acquaintance (see questionnaire).

QUESTIONNAIRE. What criteria really matter?

Imagine that now is the time to choose a new world leader. Here are some facts about the top three candidates: Candidate A is associated with dishonest politicians and consults astrologers. He has two mistresses. He is a heavy smoker and drinks eight to ten glasses of martinis daily. Candidate B dropped out of college twice, used opium as a student, now sleeps until noon and drinks a liter of whiskey every night. Candidate B is a war hero. He is a vegetarian, does not smoke, only drinks beer on special occasions and has no extramarital affairs. Who did you choose? If you chose B, you may be surprised by the result: Candidate A - Franklin D. Roosevelt, Candidate B - Winston Churchill, Candidate C - Adolf Hitler

Departing for Timbuktu

When I ask people what made them a leader, many people say things like, "When I was twenty-five years old, my boss sent me to Timbuktu to open a new sales department." Unfortunately, too many companies prevent their young employees from feeling responsible for the project and do not allow them to make mistakes.

You cannot learn to lead without making mistakes, and mistakes are cheaper when people make them when they are young. Mistakes, properly treated, are the bridge between inexperience and wisdom. Failure teaches success. Success does not mean never making mistakes. This means never making the same mistake twice.

Another significant factor influencing the development of a leader is mentoring. People learn about company practices from mentors. More importantly, mentors can teach through constructive feedback .

It is wise to rely on your strengths rather than looking for ways to cope with your weaknesses. Usually the first brings more profit.

Effective leaders in the digital age know how to manage cognitive complexity . Usually this is not an acquired quality, it is a cognitive skill that either exists by adolescence or never will.

This skill is related both to progressive thinking and to reducing the level of interference in the system. Sometimes referred to as "helicopter view", it is, in fact, the ability to see the forest through the trees. People with this skill grasp the essence of a complex idea very quickly, and then they can simplify it for others. To test yourself for this skill, take a complex concept and explain it to your child.

Impression management is also a very important feature. Good leaders always have a bit of an actor and a storyteller, which allows them to convince very different groups of people of the wisdom of their vision and values.

Believe it or not, acting classes often turn out to be a good investment . Recording yourself on video and then "reviewing the performance" with the help of others, such as a coach, can be highly educational. Effective leaders use every tool available to improve their communication skills.

Chapter 13

Authentic companies are “flat”, hierarchical differences in them are minimized (although it is human nature to strive to be different from others), powers and responsibilities are distributed throughout the organization.

This does not reduce the role of the leader, but simply changes the traditional view. The leaders of the authentic organization do not give orders from above. They are available to their employees and attentive to their input. You can tell they are in control just by walking around.

Authentic companies have a lot of "air" (air):

A They give people more autonomy to develop their creativity.

I They encourage interaction ( Interaction ) between different parts of the organization to create a collaborative activity.

R They recognize ( Recognition ) individual contributions to encourage greater responsibility.

Chapter 14

One day I was having lunch with the president of one of the largest banks in Singapore, and he told me that every leader should have a few friends who will always tell him the truth. Friends who will tell him things he or she may not want to hear.

Once leaders are in power, they tend to forget that they are only human. Because of this inclination, they need those who have the courage to point them to the feet of clay of the Colossus.

Let me introduce the four Hs (from the English words: hope, humanity, humility, humor) necessary for the effective activity of a leader: hope, humanity, modesty and humor.

Hope. Leadership begins with hope. The leader must create a sense of hope, otherwise his aspirations will fail. Without hope, the leader has nowhere to lead and his followers to follow.
Humanity. As I noted earlier, a leader should never forget that he is human. The leader's humanity is best shown in his dealings with people from whom he cannot benefit.
Modesty . Humility is closely related to humanity; a true self-perception is based on it. A good leader realizes that no victory belongs solely to him.
Humor. Successful leaders have a sense of humor, even in the face of disaster. They laugh at their own weaknesses. Humor is a good indicator of mental health and will be a valuable asset to any activity.

This book is about leadership qualities and what can be achieved by their owners. By the author's own admission, his interests lie somewhere on the border of management and clinical psychology, which directly affected the content of the book.

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The above introductory fragment of the book Mystic of Leadership. Developing Emotional Intelligence (Manfred Kets de Vries, 2006) provided by our book partner LitRes.

1. Mystery of the human factor

Through the lens of the clinical paradigm

When you find yourself riding a dead horse, it's best to dismount.

SIOU SAYING

Nothing ages people like the absence of thoughts.

Christopher Morley

Sweaty players in life get more pleasure than arrogant spectators.

WILLIAM FEVER

Organizations are like cars. They move by themselves only downhill. It takes people to make them work. And not just people, but the right people. The performance of an organization's employees—especially those in leadership positions—determines the quality of the machine's performance.

Some people are so efficient in their workplace that it makes no sense for managers to improve their work; others are so hopeless that almost nothing can be done to improve their effectiveness. Most are somewhere in between. They do their job satisfactorily and go with the flow, waiting for their leaders to show them the direction, speed and duration of this flow. They need some guidance and advice on where to go and how to get there. Ethological observations of the animal world confirm this human need for leadership. Zoologists have written a great deal of work on the complex leadership structure of the great apes (our direct ancestors) as an illustration of this need.

The etymology of the Anglo-Saxon root in the words "lead", "leader" and "leadership" goes back to "laed", which means "way" or "road". The verb "laeden" means "to travel". Thus, the leader is the one who, going ahead, shows his companions the way. The metaphor of the leader-pilot is still relevant today, although there are different opinions regarding the role of leaders. What we might call the “pilot school” can be divided into two subgroups: those who see leaders as chess players on the field of life, and those who look at the leader as someone who appeals to the collective imagination of people, inviting them to join. to travel. Although the leaders of the first type can make people act, it is the leaders of the second type who are able to captivate employees and induce them to complete dedication.

In addition to the two-faced "pilot school", there is another view of leadership. People who adhere to it consider the leaders to be figureheads - puppets controlled by the forces around them. Those in this camp say that it makes little difference who is in charge; only social forces are responsible for what people do. They believe that leaders have very little control over where they go and even less over followers; which means that leadership is just an illusion.

Fully convinced of the power of human will and action, I wholeheartedly reject the leadership-illusion position. But while leadership is nothing , it is not everything . Effective leadership is never limited to the actions of one "hero"; rather, it exists in the context of employees and business, industry, and the wider social environment. Leaders who understand the intricacies of this context and lead their followers in the right direction give their companies an extra boost. And as broad research has shown, leaders differ from one another. Even in the stock market, corporate leadership is under scrutiny, as the stock prices of organizations depend on the performance of this group of leaders.

Thus, it is clear that anyone who wants to build or lead an effective organization needs to understand the dynamics of leadership. This is not to underestimate the impact of factors such as economies of scale, a company's market position and its technological capabilities. These factors are certainly important, but not in the same way as leadership. If the leadership is not up to par, the company simply cannot succeed. A company can have all sorts of virtues—good financial resources, an enviable market position, outstanding technology—but if its management fails, all those virtues dissolve and the organization, like a chauffeurless car, goes downhill.

If the guiding factor is not up to the mark, the company simply cannot be successful.

To understand leadership, we must be willing to go beyond mere observation. We must pay attention to the existing internal and social dynamics, to the complex relationships between leader and followers, to the unconscious and invisible psychodynamics of processes and structures that influence the behavior of individuals, couples and groups in an organization. People who miss the complex clinical side of their analysis of organizations may not get beyond a simple understanding of what the life of an organization is.

In other words, if we want to understand what leadership is, we will have to take a three-dimensional view of the life of an organization—when we look in depth to reveal unconscious fears, hopes, and motivations. Although some people may deny my daytime work (to paraphrase Freud) - stating that dealing with human needs, stimuli, desires, hopes, fantasies and dreams is unscientific - I can dream at night. Subconsciously, these factors become part of the equation (Questionnaire 1.1).

Presentation of key issues

In this book, I am going to focus on three issues:

1. I challenge the claim that "irrational" behavior is a common pattern for the life of an organization and demonstrate that such behavior has a "rational" element to it. This "rational" is the understanding of the internal theater of a person - those key themes that affect the human personality and leadership style.

2. I will try to shed light on the dark side of leadership by highlighting some of the most common behaviors that lead to the downfall of leaders.

3. I'll talk about what an effective leader needs by pointing out what effective leaders do to keep the organization performing well and outlining what a successful organization looks like.

QUESTIONNAIRE 1.1

How do you understand leadership?

Read the following statements and say if they are true or not.

1. Effective leaders make rational decisions.

2. Only highly qualified people achieve leadership positions.

3. Becoming a leader, you always remain one.

4. In today's organizations, leadership doesn't matter much.

5. Good leaders lead balanced lives.

6. Now we need managers, not leaders.

7. Leaders are born, not made.

Rationale for the irrational

Like it or not, leaders aren't always the epitome of rationality. (After all, they are people!) However, I will show that this irrationality has its own rationale. And he must be reckoned with. Well-thought-out and useful plans are destroyed daily in offices around the world due to the influence of forces unknown to us on human behavior. The boiling cauldron of various motivations that is the human subconscious finds different outlets - it can even lead to the disruption of a presentation, or a promotion, or a long-nurtured globalization plan.

Leaders are not always an example of rationality

While our minds are intimately connected to some subconscious behaviors, this connection is ambiguous. Especially in the first important months and years of life (and also in the later ones, although to a lesser extent), the change in these relationships occurs as a response to the developmental factors to which we are exposed. The interaction of our motivations with environmental factors (especially with the human factor in the form of nannies, relatives, teachers and other important people) determines our uniqueness. Together, these elements create the stage and script for our inner theater.

A unique mixture of motivations defines the nature of each of us and forms the triangle of our mental life - a close relationship of cognition, affect and behavior. None of the components of this triangle can be considered separately from the rest. It is the holistic form that is important. Cognition (that part of our mind that is responsible for thinking, reasoning and intelligence) is extremely important, but no less significant is the affect, the emotional shades of which make us unique; cognition and affect together determine behavior and action.

“Emotional intelligence” is what we call the understanding of motivations – one’s own and other people’s. Given the importance of the internal theater of each person, consisting of cognition, affect and behavior, emotional potential (sensitivity) plays a major role in the issue of leadership. The fact is that people with greater emotional sensitivity are much more likely to become effective leaders. Unfortunately, this cannot be learned by reading a tutorial. On the other hand, the acquisition of emotional sensitivity is an experiential . Moreover, this is best done with the help of a spouse, friend, colleague, or professional who can tell you your dead spots and help you see how you interact with other people (see Chapter 2 for more details).

The Dark Side of Leadership

Much of the literature on leadership describes the leader as a model of merit and speaks eloquently of the qualities that make a leader. I would like to remind the reader that there is another side to the coin. We can all name at least five politicians corrupted by the dark side of leadership. Adolf Hitler, Idi Amin, Joseph Stalin, Pol Pot, Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic immediately come to mind. We are much less likely to notice this shadow when we see it in the workplace, although it often ruins the lives of many.

Therefore, the second point of my plan is to highlight the dark side of leadership . While it can be argued that ineffective leadership is a contradiction in definition, since only true leadership can be effective , many organizational leaders fail. The questions we need to ask ourselves are: Why is this happening? What can be said about the failure factor in leadership work? Can you find warning signs? What impact can poor leadership have on corporate culture, organizational structure, and decision-making patterns? In the following chapters, I will provide explanations for several leader failures, discuss the psychological pressures that often lead to abnormal behavior, and examine the relationship between personality, leadership style, corporate culture , and organizational decision-making.

The failure factor in leadership is not a very pleasant question. Not everyone likes what I have to say, especially when I address certain myths about leadership and point out human limitations on the path to leadership. I'm not as optimistic as many leadership manuals that say there's an abundance of leadership in everyone. Years of experience have taught me that not everyone has this potential; that, like it or not, the collapse of leaders is a reality, and a fairly typical one.

It can be argued that ineffective leadership is a contradiction in the definition

Obviously, talking about failed leadership can be painful for those who want to be leaders but understand their own shortcomings. It's hard to say goodbye to a dream. But it's just as hard to talk about failed leadership if we don't want to see our heroic leaders as colossi with feet of clay.

Finding the Essence of Effective Leadership

The third theme of my book is what it takes to be an effective leader. Here I will address the following questions: What is charisma and transformational leadership? What defines a charismatic leader? What knowledge, skills and roles distinguish an effective leader from an ineffective one? What can be done to develop the qualities of an effective leader? In addition, I will discuss the psychodynamics of personality and organizational change, addressing questions such as: What influences lead to successful change? What are the characteristics of a good performing organization?

By discussing these issues, I will show that an individual leadership style - a synthesis of the various roles that a person takes on - is a complex result of the interaction of his internal theater (manifested in key issues influenced by character traits and temperament), skills that a person develops in the course of life, and the context in which the person operates.

Central position of the clinical paradigm

1. What you see does not necessarily correspond to reality.

2. Any human behavior, no matter how irrational it may seem, has a logical justification.

3. We are all the result of our past.

The force that holds these three positions together is our vast subconscious. Most motivations and behaviors originate outside of consciousness.

Proposition #1: Perception is not always reality

The first position of the clinical paradigm is that what you see does not necessarily correspond to reality . The world around us is much more complex than it seems at first glance. Much of what happens remains outside of our conscious understanding, and we do not fully control the process of our perception. When we look at something, certain rules of subconscious cognition are at work, and these rules affect what we perceive, often leading us to incorrect conclusions about reality. Drawn into the process of imagination, we perceive things incorrectly. Now we are talking only about cognitive distortion. If we add the emotional distortion as well, we get a mixture that refutes the phrase "rational decision making", giving the first place to intuition.

We are so accustomed to either-or conditions that paradoxical situations baffle us. But paradox can be a great coach: it teaches us to go beyond the boundaries of our habitual way of thinking, a lesson that has great payoffs in the life of an organization. The most effective leaders are those who can look at difficult situations from a different angle. By changing their perception of the problem, they change their vision of it.

Why is restructuring so important? There are three types of leaders in our world: those who make the rules; those who carry them out; and those who violate them. It is the latter category, that is, leaders who go beyond the existing rules, revising each problem as it arises, achieve outstanding results in their work. Richard Branson of the Virgin Group belongs to this type of leader. A master of restructuring, he is very successful in turning situations that are disadvantageous for the client into something advantageous for him. He did it in the aviation and entertainment business. People like Richard Branson always ask: What if? And what will happen next? They are jiu-jitsu masters and they love it. On the other end of the spectrum are those who follow the rules and can't see a chance until it appears in a competitor's business.

Sometimes looking at a problem from a different angle yields unexpected results. Take, for example, an employee who is annoyed by an unpleasant, almost abusive boss. After years of constant stress, she decides she's had enough. Although she likes the organization she worked for, she does not want to waste her life on a person who is unpleasant to her and whom she does not respect. Returning home one evening, she told her husband that she wanted to change jobs. He persuaded her to stay at her old job, noting that a new job could mean moving to another city. He reminded her that his work was both rewarding and fulfilling, and that the children enjoyed their school.

Despite her husband's advice, this woman turned to a recruitment agency to find out about existing vacancies. During the conversation with the agent, it dawned on her that she could reconsider her attitude to the current situation so that there would be a solution that satisfies everyone. She immediately changed her tactics: instead of emphasizing her own merits, she began to talk about the fantastic qualities of her boss. She praised his abilities; talked a lot about his talented management of the department, about what a wonderful leader he is. The hiring agent, intrigued by the characteristics of her boss, contacted him and offered him a job at another company. The chief agreed. After he left, this woman received a promotion. A successful new perspective on the situation gave her not only the opportunity to get rid of an unpleasant boss, but also to get a job. She successfully used both hemispheres of her brain!

The challenge for an effective leader is to break out of the box.

We rarely think outside the usual framework. If we hear this advice as we grow up—when our out-of-the-box thinking is blunted, our creative spark is extinguished—we begin to see innovation as disruptive, and end up giving everyone the same advice ourselves. But what's worse, we stick to this advice even if we want a different result. In other words, we want change without changing anything! The challenge for an effective leader is to break out of the box.

Proposition #2: Irrationality is based on rationality

The first tenet of the clinical paradigm, as we have just seen, is that reality does not always match what you see. The second provision says that any human behavior, no matter how irrational it may seem, has a rational justification. If you combine the two positions, it turns out that all human behavior - including our individual cognitive and emotional distortions - have a rational justification.

Recognizing this helps to understand all forms of behavior, even those that seem irrational. If we do not understand a pattern of behavior in ourselves or in others, we can try to determine its origins. If we can gather enough background and contextual information, even the most incomprehensible behavior will make sense. I am a complete rationalist: I believe that there is a rational justification for everything we do (think or say). However, finding it is not so easy. In corporate life, you must become a company detective to find out what is behind the strange behavior of one manager or the impudence of another manager. But with discernment and a healthy dose of perseverance, anyone who is emotionally sensitive can conduct this investigation. Typically, irrational behavior is associated with transference reactions—reactions involving confusion about time and place—a process that I will describe in more detail in Chapter 4. about a bad job, because as a child he had an unpleasant experience of conflict with his mother.

It will suffice for now to say that transference reactions are a form of unconscious motivation . Many of our desires, fantasies and fears are unconscious. But even beneath the surface, they can spur us to action. The catalyst for many of our behaviors is indeed in our subconscious. Many people do not like this statement because they consider subjugation to subconscious motivations as a sign of weakness. They can be understood. It's quite frustrating to be influenced by parts of your personality that you don't even know about. Many of us would rather be in complete control of what we do. But, like it or not, we all have blind spots, and our job is to learn as much as we can about them.

Poets, novelists, and philosophers have written quite a bit about the importance of unconscious processes. Sigmund Freud, however, was the first to construct an orderly psychological theory around the problem of the unconscious. Freud noted that unconscious fantasies - pictures with emotions associated with them - play a crucial role in human behavior. According to his theory, conscious motivations guide conscious behavior, while unconscious impulses govern behavior in general. Thus, many of the associations that we have about people and events develop outside of our knowledge.

We may not know about the traits of our character, good and bad. Since we have a protective structure that controls spontaneous (impulsive) thoughts and ideas, we may be completely unaware of our true nature. We may not be aware of the fact that our usual activities irritate people, for example, even if we hide our anger. When we are completely blind in this regard, psychiatrists speak of a "disorder of character." But people with such a diagnosis do not see the problem themselves; they do not take responsibility for it. On the contrary, they feel quite well. We call their behavior "consistent with the person's self-image." They do not feel uncomfortable, although they often make others feel uncomfortable. One could say that a personality disorder is a secret that you keep without even knowing it. This is an unconscious process.

Character is a form of memory. This is the crystallization of the inner theater of man, the outlines of the main points of personality. As in the case of a healthy person, people with character disorders reflect everything they have heard, seen, done or been. Although each person's temperament and personality disorders are unique, similarities can be found. They are recorded in The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the Mental Disorders, which lists 10 types of personality disorders. This classification is used in making diagnoses and developing recommendations for dealing with the vicissitudes of life. Let's take a look at the most commonly mentioned types you'll encounter in the workplace.

Narcissistic (narcissistic) personality . People of this type are characterized by a sense of grandiosity, a need for admiration, and a tendency to exploit others.

paranoid personality . People of this type are overly alert, suspicious, fearful, preoccupied with ulterior motives, cautious and anxious. They always think that someone can fool them.

Individuals suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder . People of this type are very conscientious; they are preoccupied with neatness, perfection, control, and canonicity. They respect others, but can be cruel and peremptory.

Theatrical personalities . People of this type are very sociable. Their behavior is spectacular, they seek attention, show excessive emotions, they have a small amount of attention, they easily converge with other people and form very warm relationships. They can be self-centered and sexually attractive.

Dependent personality . People of this type are submissive, keep a low profile, obedient, ingratiating and constantly seek the approval of others. Since they are afraid of being alone and helpless, they love to be cared for and therefore gather in organizations run by a patriarchal leader. They are often found in family businesses.

Depressive Personalities . People of this type are unusually pessimistic about life. They suffer from feelings of worthlessness and self-denial and are usually in a sullen mood.

Schizotypal Personalities . People of this type find it difficult to enter into relationships with others. They feel uncomfortable in society because they seem to many to be "eccentric" or strange (due to their suspicion, unusual way of thinking, strange speech and inappropriate emotions).

Borderline Personalities . Such people are impulsive and unstable in their emotions. They may periodically threaten or attempt suicide. Usually they feel empty and tired, afraid of loneliness and unsure of themselves. Being prone to loneliness, they avoid close relationships, including sexual ones. They have a rather limited set of emotions; they seem to be indifferent to praise and criticism, although they can often express inappropriate anger.

closed personalities . Their behavior is similar to that of borderline individuals, but sometimes takes on more extreme forms. Having social complexes, they want to get close to others and cannot. They suffer from feelings of inadequacy, are very shy and very sensitive to negative evaluation.

Personality of the schizoid type . Unlike closed personalities, schizoids absolutely do not want to get close to people. They are indifferent, self-contained and lead a reclusive lifestyle. They have difficulty making friends, preferring remote or limited interaction with others, and seem to have an aversion to social work.

Antisocial Personalities . Such people are characterized by a low level of frustration, they are rather unreliable and irresponsible. They like to despise authority and rules, and sometimes they get involved in a life of crime.

Sadistic personalities . The behavior of people of this type is often fearful and annoying. They love power, are smug, and tend to offend others.

Personalities of the masochistic type . People of this type are always offended. They tend to keep a low profile and slander themselves, displaying a respectful and selfless demeanor that reveals a deep sense of undeservedness.

Passive-aggressive personalities . People of this psychological type cannot say "no", even if they really want to; they agree and then do nothing. Because of this behavior, they do not stay in organizations for long.

Cyclothymic personalities . This type can be recognized by mood swings (which is why this type is classified as a mood disorder and not a personality disorder). The excitement created by their behavior can be highly contagious.

Does it mean that all people who fall under this classification are placed in a lunatic asylum? Of course not. Representatives of each type can be found in the workplace around the world (and, to tell the truth, they are in all of us). And they are all capable of vengeful deeds. But because these character disorders, as mentioned earlier, are compatible with the person's self-image (i.e., they are part of the person's character, and therefore they are outside of consciousness), they are very difficult to change.

The first step towards change is understanding that the behavior is dysfunctional. So feedback is very important. But even if a person has become aware of their dysfunctional behavior patterns, change cannot happen overnight. People are armed with a strong defense developed over many years, which is difficult to budge. The internal theater of a person can also be characterized by the type of protection.

Defensive reactions are different, from primitive to complex. Some are pretty harmless. For example, the Turkish Sultan Abdulaziz had a rather sweet defensive reaction: every morning he, weighing 350 pounds, looked in the mirror, which made him slim. Other reactions can be destructive both for the person himself and for others.

End of introductory segment.

Scientific editor A. Kunitsyn

Technical editor N. Lisitsyna

Proofreader P. Suvorova

Typesetter A. Fominov

Cover artist M. Sokolova

Russian translation based on The Leadership Mystique, 2nd edition, under license from Pearson Education Limited

All rights reserved. No part of the electronic version of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including posting on the Internet and corporate networks, for private and public use, without the written permission of the copyright owner.

* * *

In memory of my grandfather, Florian Hutmann, who showed me the way

about the author

Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries takes a fresh look at the widely studied issue of leadership and the dynamics of individual and organizational change. Drawing on his knowledge and experience in Economics (Ph.D. in Economics, University of Amsterdam), Management (M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard Business School) and Psychoanalysis (Psychoanalytic Society of Canada and International Psychoanalytic Association), he conducts research at the crossroads of several sciences: international management, psychoanalysis , psychotherapy, cognitive theory and functional psychiatry. He is particularly interested in leadership, career dynamics, employee stress, entrepreneurship, family business, succession planning, intercultural management and the dynamics of organizational change.

Independent researcher in leadership development, Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries is the head of the Department of Human Resources Management. Raoul de Vitry d "Avocourt at INSEAD University, Fontainebleau, France and has received five awards for outstanding teaching from this institution. He leads the leadership program "Leadership Challenge: Developing Your Emotional Potential", which takes place at INSEAD. In addition, Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries is co-leading the INSEAD/HEC Coaching and Advising for Change program and has held professorships at McGill University, Montreal Graduate School of Business, Harvard Business School and lecturer on He is a member of 17 editorial boards and a founding member of the International Society for Psychoanalytic Organizational Research and a member of the Academy of Management Financial Times, Le Capital, Wirtschaftwoche and The Economist named Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries one of Europe's leading thinkers in the field of management.

Kets de Vries is the author, co-author and editor of 21 books: Power and the Corporate Mind (1975, last edition 1985, with Abraham Zaleznik), Organizational Paradoxes: Clinical Approach to Management (1980). , republished 1994), The Irrational Executive: Psychoanalytic Explorations in Management (1985), The Neurotic Organization: Diagnosing and Changing Counter-Productive Styles of Management (1984, republished 1990 jointly with Denny Miller), Unstable at the Top (1988, with Denny Miller), Prisoners of Leadership (1989), Handbook of Character Studies (1991, with Sydney Perzow), Organization of Couch (1991), Leaders, Fools and Impostors (1993), Life and Death in the Executive Fast Line: Essays on Organizations Leadership (1995, won the Critics' Choice Award in 1995–96), Family Business: Human Dilemmas in the Family Firm (1996), The New Global Leaders: Percy Barnevik, Richard Branson, and David Simon (1999, with Elizabeth Floren -Tracy), Struggling with the Demon: Perspectives on Individual and Organizational Irrationality (2001), Meditation on Happiness (2001), The New Russian Business Leaders (2004), Are Leaders Born or Are They Made? The Case of Alexander the Great (2004), Lessons on Leadership by Terror: Finding Shaka Zulu in the Attic (2004) and Leaders on the Couch (2006).

In addition, Kets de Vries has published over 200 scientific papers in various books and journals such as Behavioral Science, Journal of Management Studies, Human Relation, Administration & Society, Organizational Dynamics, Strategic Management Journal, Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Journal of Forecasting, California Management Review, Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, Academy of Management Executive, Psychoanalytic Review, Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, European Management Journal, Harper's and Psychology Today. He He has written many case studies and video cases, six of which have won the annual award for best European teaching video.Kets de Vries is a regular columnist for several journals.His work has appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, Fortune, Business Week, The Economist, Financial Times and The Herald Tribune His books and articles have been translated into 16 languages.

Kets de Vries is an organizational design/transformation and strategic human resources consultant for leading companies in the US, Canada, Europe, Africa and Asia. He has provided executive training and consultancy to companies in more than 30 countries. Among them are Volvo Car Corporation, NovoNordisk, KPMG, Novartis, Heineken, Air Liquide, Alcan, Alcatel, Shell, BP, Unilever, Standard Bank of South Africa, ABB, General Electric Capital, Aegon, HypoVereinsbank, LM Ericsson, Lufthansa, Nokia, Bonnier, Rank Xerox, Investec, SEDCO, SHV, Accenture Consulting, Bain Consulting, Bang & Olufsen, Goldman Sachs International and Lego. In addition, Kets de Vries is a member of the New York Explorers Club. He spends his free time in the jungles of Central Africa, in the Siberian taiga, the Pamir Mountains and the Arctic.

Thanks

I would like to express my gratitude to those people who helped me gain clarity in understanding such a confusing topic as leadership: my students of the leadership course at INSEAD. Without their willingness to openly discuss their most personal problems with me, this book would never have been written. For several years, they kept me on track by telling their life stories while discussing selected leadership issues that I used as research material.

As always, I would like to thank the INSEAD research department, in particular Anil Gaba and the always helpful Alison James. No matter how strange the path I took - and this happened several times - they always supported me in the process of research.

Special thanks go to my secretary, Sheila Lockham, who, thanks to her sense of humor, was always able to show me the positive side of things. Equally valuable was her help as Cerberus, who freed me from everyday administrative burdens. In addition, I would like to express my gratitude to my colleague, Elizabeth Floren-Tricy, who is always ready to take a break from her work and help me resolve current research issues. Finally, I'd like to thank my editors, Katie Reigstad and Sally Simmons, who I consider to be true wizards of the text. They willingly rewrote the business jargon and gibberish I inserted into more readable material.

Paris, France
February 2006

Introduction

The hardest thing in life is to understand yourself.

I learned one thing: the people who know the least talk the most about what they know.

You can see a lot if you just look.

YOGI BERRA

One of the conference organizers approached him during lunch that day and said diplomatically, “Dr. But it seemed to them that the speech was somewhat short. Could you expand on your thoughts? Could you add anything else? Do you mind if we arrange an additional meeting this afternoon?” Bion agreed, and an additional meeting was scheduled for the afternoon. Again the auditorium was full. Bion stepped onto the podium, looked around the room, and said (or so the story goes): "Here we are again!" And left.

I teach at the largest business school in the world, an institute called INSEAD located in France and Singapore. The main campus is located in the forest of Fontainebleau, not far from Paris. What used to be the hunting grounds of the French kings is now a gathering place for students from many countries. Most of them, as I say jokingly, walk around the institute with their heads slightly tilted to the left (as do the teachers). And it makes them go in circles.

Most of my students are "rational" engineers and "logical" thinkers whose left brain is more developed. Preoccupied with questions of rationality and objectivity, they seem to be interested only in reliable data for the analysis of complex business situations. They tend to perceive intuition, emotion, and subjectivity as something between feeble and dangerously easy, not realizing that "easy" questions can be very "difficult." Because easy questions can ruin careers, I occasionally lightly tap my students (and colleagues) on the head to bring their brain back into balance and help them work both parts of this vital organ. But my efforts last only a short time. Soon, many "lefties" return to their "usual" state - continue to walk in circles.

In my scientific work, I try to combine two main disciplines. As I sometimes say, I'm trying to combine what John Maynard Keynes called "dismal science" (I was once an economist) and what Sigmund Freud called "an impossible profession" (I also trained as a psychoanalyst). Thus, my interests lie on the border between management and clinical psychology.

In this book, I have addressed several leadership topics using the clinical paradigm as a microscope through which I view the world. (By clinical paradigm I mean a specific perspective of psychoanalysis and other related disciplines, but more on that later.) Unlike many of my colleagues in the study of organizations, I am not simply interested in organizational structures and systems. While I take these factors into account when studying an organization, I'm more interested in the people who make it up.

The main objective of my study of leadership is the return of the person to the organization. Despite the obvious importance of the human factor, much of the research on organizations stands out for its apparent lack of attention to the people who are the main actors of these organizations. Too many professionals prioritize structures and systems over people. In general, the world of organizations is dominated by positivism and objectivity. Key takeaway: What you can't see doesn't exist. One explanation for this approach may be the fact that it is much easier to study structures and systems than people. People are more complex. Moreover, it is more difficult for people to change. (As I sometimes say, it's easier to change people than it is for people to change.)

The clinical approach to management costs me dearly. While my interest in the stories people tell me enriches my research, it makes my life difficult in many ways. After all, structures and procedures are far more tangible than personality and biography. Moreover, my focus on human factors has generated a flood of condemnation among organizational researchers. For most of them, storytelling is not a serious occupation. For them, real life consists of "rats and numbers"; in their opinion, only controlled experiments based on objects that do not cause any emotional reactions and give unambiguous statistics make the phenomenon a reality. Naturally, this approach greatly facilitates both work and life. The inner, subjective world of a person (a complex of influences of one person on another) is more difficult to control.

In my work, I pay a lot of attention to the inner world of people, to each person individually. I ask myself questions like: What are the main questions on this individual's mind? What has an emotional resonance for him/her? What is the script and scenery of this man's inner theater? But not only the inner world of the individual is important. Man is part of social conditions. We can adequately talk about a person only in the environment of others. No one is an island in itself (as many would like to think); people function in interaction with others. Thus, I also pay attention to the interpersonal aspect. I am interested in the relationship of one person to another, especially how leaders affect the lives of those who work (and live) with them.

In the process of getting to know the individual in the working atmosphere, noting both personal and social aspects, in the process of working with people in the conditions of their organizations, I always try to adhere to the basic rule of journalists: I focus on 5 W. When I communicate with people, I ask the following questions : Who? What? Where? When? Why?

This leadership book is based on a series of lectures I gave to various audiences in many countries, the exact number of which I do not remember, over a long period of time. Although the observations and conclusions contained in this book are based on extensive research material, it is not my intention to write a highly theoretical book. This book was conceived as a workbook, a book containing practical exercises for leaders who want to learn more about leadership and its vicissitudes, that is, for people who want to improve the effectiveness of their leadership.

However, despite the practical bias of this book - this is not a simple "guide to action." It is also an attempt to reflect on what leadership is. Many of the observations you will find in this book are based on research I have done over many years studying organizations and their leadership. Those readers interested in deepening their understanding of the clinical approach to organizational analysis may refer to the original sources. (At the end of the book, I have compiled a list of some of my scientific papers and those of others on which this book is based.)

I would like to warn readers that much of what I say in this book is not new; some of the ideas I've put forward have been around for some time. Moreover, many of them may seem rather obvious. However, do not ignore ideas that lack the brilliance of novelty. Ideas with a long history are not necessarily worse than trendy ones. (But neither will they necessarily be better, I must say.) What matters is how these ideas work in practice, in the lives of real leaders and their followers. Therefore, I advise you to look at my ideas in the light of your own experience and critically evaluate this experience. Ask yourself what you are doing with the leadership factor. How do you implement your own leadership style? Whether you work in a store or an office on the top floor of a glittering skyscraper, what have you done today to become a more effective leader? Are you trying to be as efficient as possible?

There is a story about a frog that was lying on a log in the river. Because there were crocodiles around the log, the frog did not know how to get across the river unharmed. Suddenly she looked up at the tree and saw an owl sitting on a branch. She said, “Wise owl, please help me. How can I get across the river without being eaten by crocodiles? The owl replied: “It is very simple. Push off with your paws as hard as you can. This should work. You will fly and you will be able to cross the river, and the crocodiles will not reach you.” The frog did as the owl advised her, and before falling into the water, where the crocodile grabbed her, she asked the owl: “Why, why did you give me this advice ?! I'm going to be eaten now." To which the owl replied: “Sorry. I'm just thinking. I'm not good at bringing ideas to life."

As history suggests, only a fraction of the strategies that organizations develop are used effectively. Many people are not particularly good at synchronizing action and vision, aligning ideas and execution. Anyone who works with ideas must take into account the ability of people to implement these ideas. Deep contemplation alone does not bring fantasy to the drawing board. To succeed, leaders must understand both action and theory.

I hope that this book will help leaders to act effectively. To do this, we turned to the following topics:

Chapter 1, The Mystery of Human Factors, first discusses what leadership is and then introduces the concept of the clinical paradigm (which, as I noted earlier, is the basis of my approach to the theory and practice of organizations).

Chapter 2, "Emotional Potential in the World of Work," focuses on emotional potential, identifying ways that can improve a leader's ability to understand himself and motivate and support his followers.

Chapter 3, The Oyster Syndrome, looks at the natural human tendency to resist change—a tendency that fails both individual leaders and the organization as a whole. In addition, it analyzes the changes taking place in the world of organizations.

Chapter 4, The Failure Factor in Leadership, examines the interplay between the rational and the irrational in leadership behavior, examining the influence of phenomena such as narcissism and transference on leadership and suggesting ways to counteract them.

Chapter 5, Succession, introduces you to the leader's life cycle and looks at some of the issues that make leadership succession difficult.

Chapter 6, "The Dilbert Phenomenon," describes how an organization drains the vitality of its employees and suggests ways to "revive" lethargic people.

Chapter 7, The Evils at the Top, introduces you to a particular "neurotic" leadership style—a style that occurs when a new leader emerges but ultimately has a "poisonous" effect on the organization as a whole—and offers options for reconfiguring these "neurotic" styles. .

Chapter 8, Changing Ourselves and the Company, explores the dynamics of the process of change in relation to the people and organizations they make up.

Chapter 9, "Characteristics of Effective Leadership ," looks at what leadership requires from a person and highlights some of the skills that distinguish an effective leader from others.

Chapter 10, Leadership in a Global Context, focuses on cultural differences and their impact on business, examines the specific requirements of international leadership, and highlights ways organizations can select and develop leaders who will operate effectively in a global environment.

Chapter 11, The Roles of Leaders, focuses on the two dichotomies—leadership vs. management, and charismatic leader vs. architectural leader—and advises on how to balance these contrasting but necessary strengths.

Chapter 12, Developing Leadership Qualities, looks at how companies can evaluate the leadership abilities of potential candidates and develop leadership skills in those already in leadership positions.

Chapter 13, Improving Organizations, defines a new type of workplace and the challenges companies face in the new model.

Chapter 14, Closing Comments, talks about the jester in the company and offers some final reflections on leadership.

As I have already noted, this book was conceived as interactive. Therefore, in it you will find many riddles, self-assessment exercises and questions. I hope these exercises will help leaders to reflect on themselves. However, keep in mind that while all of these exercises are based on extensive research, neither the questions nor the interpretation of the answers have been tested. For this reason, the results of the exercises should not be used as a basis for making decisions. Moreover, they should be taken only as instructions that will help the leader to think and improve his leadership abilities. These results should be considered as part of the total, consisting of personal experience, life circumstances and other factors. Our behavior is too complex a thing to be reduced to a few questions on a questionnaire. Exercise is valuable, but it's only part of the puzzle. The results should be taken as indicators, not absolute indicators.

To facilitate reading, I have refrained from listing reference literature in the text. If you would like to continue reading about my research and the work of other authors, please refer to the list of recommended reading at the end of the book.

Mystery of leadership. Developing Emotional Intelligence Manfred Kets de Vries

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Title: The Mystery of Leadership.
Development of emotional intelligence Author: Manfred Kets de Vries
Year: 2006
Genre: Management, recruitment, Foreign business literature, Personal growth, Foreign psychology

About the book “The mysticism of leadership. Development of Emotional Intelligence Manfred Kets de Vries

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