Riding the Leadership Rollercoaster ─ An Observer Guide

A collection of short, bite-sized nuggets of insight into the psychological ups and downs of the leadership journey from one of the world’s top thinkers on leadership.

Leadership often means living on the edge, living a life less ordinary, leaving the straight and narrow to take a more exciting path. Like riding a roller coaster, there will be moments that take our breath away but it is in those moments that we feel truly alive. Although we may not know what is coming round the next bend or after the next rise, we have a great time on the ride.

Kets de Vries’s examination of the “inner theatre” pushes leaders and their coaches to become a personal and organizational detectives, to look beyond the obvious and discover the deeper meaning of their own and others’ actions. Doing so can prevent leaders becoming prisoners of their own past, failing to recognize the repetitive patterns in their behavior, making the same mistakes over and over again.

Leaders are more likely than followers to experience ups and downs, successes and failures, happy days and sad. The intensity of the experience depends on the “rider.” They can scream or enjoy the ride—or, indeed, do both. They can make the best out of the beginnings and endings, the good times and bad, or they can sink beneath them. In Riding the Leadership Rollercoaster Kets de Vries provides leaders and their coaches with the insights that can help them take some control of the ride.

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, and program director of INSEAD’s top management program, “The Challenge of Leadership: Developing Your Emotional Intelligence,” and Scientific Director of the Executive Master’s Program “Consulting and Coaching for Change”.

The Financial Times, Le Capital, Wirtschaftswoche, and The Economist have rated Manfred Kets de Vries among the world’s top 50 leading management thinkers.

As a global consultant in executive leadership development Kets de Vries’s clients have included ABN-AMRO, Aegon, Alcatel, Accenture, Bain Consulting, Bang & Olufsen, BP, Deutsche Bank, Ericsson, GE Capital, Goldman Sachs, Heineken, KPMG, Lego, McKinsey, Novartis, Shell, and Unilever.

The Dutch government has made him an Officer in the Order of Oranje Nassau. He was the first fly fisherman in Outer Mongolia and is a member of New York’s Explorers Club.