Putting Leaders On The Couch

When Professor Manfred Kets de Vries coaches leadership teams, he effectively puts them on the couch - treating them not so much as rational actors but as emotional ones. A clinical professor of leadership development, Kets de Vries says "the autocratic leadership style doesn't work so well any more in a knowledge society." Organizations are made up of people, he says, and he believes there's a great deal of truth in the saying, "Fish start to smell from the head"." So if the top management creates a toxic environment that will have an effect on the rest of the organization."