About
There are few challenges greater than leading in a changing world. How do you create organizations without boundaries? How do you create a culture that will get everyone on board? How do you inspire effective teams? How do you hold virtual and cross-cultural teams together, working for a common purpose, in complex, matrix-like organizations? How do you manage change effectively in a way that gains a team’s commitment? How do you create high-performance organizations?
We believe that outstanding leadership and high-performance teams are the source of real and enduring competitive advantage. Responsible, ethical, and highly committed leaders will contribute to the development of a committed workforce and more successful organizations.
At KDVI, we address the fundamental questions of what makes an effective business leader and how to create emotionally intelligent organizations.
We focus not only on individual leaders, but also on the dynamics of their teams and their social and professional networks. We conduct leadership audits that provide critical insights and psychological perspectives of the leadership talent within an organization.
We consult to senior teams on reshaping team dynamics to create high-performance cultures and organizations. We combine top business consulting experience with clinical expertise to help organizations improve their strategic advantage.
CASES:
Pharmateutical Firm
The CEO retained Manfred Kets de Vries to help address dysfunctional decision making within the organization and develop a more successful top executive team. After a number of group coaching and individual interventions had brought up many “undiscussables,” team members were more prepared to understand each others’ points of view, creating the basis for a culture of collaboration. The energy that had been previously wasted on intra-organizational turf fights was directed outward, and aimed at the competition.
Bank
Manfred Kets de Vries and Elisabet Engellau were hired by the to conduct a leadership audit of the organization and set the stage for a company-wide succession planning process. Before the removal of the previous CEO and other members of the top executive team, the bank had developed a toxic corporate culture. The new CEO decided to embark on a Leader Within program that allowed the top 50 senior executives to take a serious look at their leadership style, corporate culture, and the future of the bank. As a result of this intervention, the organization changed it’s strategic direction.
Family Business
Elisabet Engellau and associates were retained to help put into place an orderly succession process. After many dyadic and group interventions with family members and management, emphasizing the value of fair process, the family owners arrived at a plan for the future of the enterprise.
Financial Institution
The CEO hired Graham Ward to meet its senior officers and bring to the fore several overt and covert issues concerning a plan to merge the organization with another institution located in a very different country. In a series of workshops, the corporate and national cultures of the two organizations were put under the microscope. This degree of attention to “soft” people issues, not just financial and strategic considerations, resulted in a successful merger integration process.
