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Palgrave Macmillan

Leadership Unhinged

Essays on the Ugly, the Bad, and the Weird

  • Book
  • © 2021

Overview

  • Written by a pioneering practitioner and world-renown business guru in the field of psychodynamic-systemic executive coaching
  • Provides specific analyses of contemporary leaders like Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, pointing out the danger of unhinged leadership
  • Discusses the need for moral, value driven leadership, courage in making the hard decisions, and creating a legacy for future generations

Part of the book series: The Palgrave Kets de Vries Library (PKVL)

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Table of contents (7 chapters)

Keywords

About this book

The recent proliferation of populist movements worldwide — along with the often dangerous, demagogic leaders that accompany them — have prompted questions about the underlying conditions that give rise to such troubling developments. Leadership Unhinged: Essays on the Ugly, the Bad and the Weird examines what is going on at a deeper level, both collectively and individually, between leaders and followers. Employing theories derived from psychoanalytic psychology, developmental psychology, neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, these essays help to unravel and expose the pathological leader-follower dynamics that generate such movements.

The book is infused with Kets de Vries’s now famous and inimitable style of analysis, which draws from myths, creates fairy tales, and uses irony and metaphor to bring his conclusions into greater relief and trigger new insights.

As Kets de Vries explains, effective leaders have the capacity to bring people together and even make them better, stronger. Doing so suggests that those leaders are value driven, able to set a moral tone. Yet, when such a tone is absent or, at worst, twisted toward the destructive, leadership quickly becomes dangerous. History has shown the devastation left in the wake of unhinged leaders who have gone unchecked. To become fully conscious of the conditions that allow for the emergence of such leaders has become a moral requirement of our time. In ways both moving and entertaining, Kets de Vries’s new contribution puts us in a better position to fulfil that requirement.

Authors and Affiliations

  • INSEAD, Fontainebleau, France

    Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

About the author

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries is the Distinguished Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change at INSEAD, the Founder of INSEAD’s Global Leadership Centre, Program Director of INSEAD’s top management program, “The Challenge of Leadership: Developing Your Emotional Intelligence” and the Founder of INSEAD Executive Master’s program in Change Management. He is also the Founder-Chairman of the Kets de Vries Institute (KDVI), a boutique leadership development consulting firm.

The Financial Times, Le Capital, Wirtschaftswoche, Harvard Business Review, El Pais and the Economist have rated him among the world’s leading management thinkers. As a global consultant in executive leadership development, his clients have included many of the most important global organizations. He is the author of more than fifty books and hundreds of articles, the recipient of numerous awards, including two honorary doctorates. He is a Fellow ofthe Academy of Management.



Bibliographic Information

  • Book Title: Leadership Unhinged

  • Book Subtitle: Essays on the Ugly, the Bad, and the Weird

  • Authors: Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries

  • Series Title: The Palgrave Kets de Vries Library

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-79345-6

  • Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham

  • eBook Packages: Business and Management, Business and Management (R0)

  • Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-79344-9Published: 02 September 2021

  • Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-79347-0Published: 03 September 2022

  • eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-79345-6Published: 01 September 2021

  • Series ISSN: 2730-7581

  • Series E-ISSN: 2730-759X

  • Edition Number: 1

  • Number of Pages: XIII, 147

  • Topics: Business Strategy/Leadership, Personality and Social Psychology

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