Publisher's Synopsis
"Manfred Kets de Vries has a profound understanding of what drives leaders, how they make sense of personal situations, make decisions, and take action. This book provides leaders with inspiring and helpful lessons learned when reflecting on a global context and having to change in respect of it. His is an innovative and well-founded approach that we also use when training the global leadership fellows at the WEF."
Professor Gilbert Probst
"Manfred Kets de Vries goes straight to the heart of the matter: character! Not the idealized character of a mythical Perfect Leader, but the multifaceted, ambiguous, and often moving result of an individual life molded by mysterious darkness and occasional grace."
Pierre Gurdjian
"We all strive to create a consistent high-performance organization, and that means discovering or creating leaders. These are the people with the ´fairy dust´ that can make the organization special or alternatively can cause untold damage. This is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand and then manage their top executives better."
John Stewart
"An absorbing insight into the personalities and motivation of leaders and their profound impact on organizational success... or failure."
Tony Van Kralingen
"This compelling book unlocks the secrets of character and leadership that individuals need to withstand the pressures of modern business. The reader is given an empowering induction as to the importance of psychiatry and psychoanalysis in understanding creative talent-and in setting achievable personal and corporate goals."
David Ross
"For a seasoned leader, this book gives an o opportunity to see what followers see in him or her but do not dare say. For an aspiring leader it offers a roadmap for success, without sacrificing sanity and happiness. For a follower, it gives a chance to understand otherwise unexplainable behavior in his or her leader. This book makes people think and feel."
Professor Konstantin Korotov
"Manfred Kets de Vries has a deep understanding of the leader´s mind and soul. He brings a unique perspective to the studies of leadership through his knowledge of both business sand organizational behavior, coupled with his perspective of individual psychoanalysis."
Flavia B. de Almeida
