The CEO Whisperer: Meditations on Leadership, Life, and Change

At this critical junction in the history of humankind, leaders that are proficient in magical thinking aren’t going to solve our problems. Creating alternative realities is not the answer. We need a very different kind of leadership―leaders who can resist the calls of regression and whose outlook is firmly based in reality. We need leaders who analyse and draw conclusions from, or use their own experiences as a development tool, face their strengths and weaknesses, and critique their own experiences in order to build new understandings.

Published on 30 Nov, 2020

The Global Executive Leadership Inventory

Designed and authored by Manfred Kets de Vries - the Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chaired Professor of Leadership Development at INSEAD - The Global Executive Leadership Inventory (GELI) is an in-depth leadership development tool for coaching human resource and training professionals who want to invest in programs that improve individual, team, and organizational performance.

Published on 1 Jan, 2005

The Irrational Executive: Psychoanalytic Explorations in Management

The Irrational Executive is a compilation to counter this bias in management theory. Focusing on unconscious as well as conscious internal processes, and strongly influenced by contemporary psychoanalytic theory, the contributors argue persuasively against the rationalist model.

Published on 1 Nov, 1984

Lessons on Leadership by Terror: Finding a Shaka Zulu in the Attic

This book takes us inside the despotic mind to understand what their actions are all about; to comprehend the source of their actions and to recognise the danger signs.

Published on 10 Aug, 2005

Life and Death in the Executive Fast Lane: Essays on Irrational Organizations and Their Leaders

This book presents eclectic advice on how things really work in organisations, by combining the dismal science of management and the impossible profession of psychoanalysis.

Published on 16 Aug, 1995

Quo Vadis? The Existential Challenges of Leaders

A short and reflective book that addresses age-old questions about the human condition in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, it turns an unblinking light on the things we push aside and then turns us to face them.

Published on 20 Dec, 2020

Are Leaders Born or Are They Made: The Case of Alexander the Great

This book is an easy-to-read overview of all the key events and people in Alexander the Great's extraordinary life, and provides lessons on effective leadership.

Published on 13 Oct, 2004

Journeys into Coronavirus Land: Lessons from a pandemic

Our journey together through the pandemic can lead us down a path of division or a more hopeful path of mutual responsibility, reconciliation and true renewal, ensuring healthier organisations and a better society for our children and future generations. In his latest book Journeys through Coronavirus Land, Manfred Kets de Vries takes us through his ruminations during confinement, widening his explorations into group phenomenon, leadership and organisational dynamics and economic and environmental crisis. The central question is, how have each of us responded to this adversity and where will this journey lead us, individually and collectively?

This book is available as a free download. A donation to Unicef Save Generation Covid i strongly encouraged..

Published on 3 Jul, 2020

Reflections on Group & Organizations

Reflections on Groups and Organisations is the third and final book in the On the Couch with Manfred Kets de Vries series. This book examines concepts of organisational health, performance, and change.

Published on 18 Jan, 2011

Reflections on Character and Leadership

In this book, Manfred Kets de Vries offers an overview of his work spanning four decades, a period in which he has established himself as the leading figure in the clinical study of organisational leadership.

Published on 11 Mar, 2009