Anil Behan runs a great site over at Orgdyne as well as the Orgdyne mailing list. Orgdyne is the place to go for discussion about the often hidden, unspoken and sometimes, ugly, dynamics in organisations.
Anil’s latest posting is an interview with Manfred Kets de Vries entitled What makes a leader great? published in Strategic Direction Vol. 20, Number 8, July/August 2004. In Anil’s words “It is a fascinating account of the leadership style of Alexander the Great”. Kets de Vries also looks at several other modern leaders and anilyses their style by reference to Alexander the Great.
This is a must read for anyone truly interested in the nature of leadership in modern corporations.
The first lesson Kets de Vries would like us to take away is
One of the clear warnings here is of course that power corrupts… You also find young leaders use many principles of leadership in order to become really effective but then, as they get older and attain more power, narcissism takes over and they start to self-destrcut.
Kets de Vries goes on to describe the styles of several leaders in the light of their background and often how their driving force is not success as such but what they are trying to prove to the world. He examines the need for these leaders to become reflective, put people around them who are prepared to challenge them and telling them “in a constructive way, how things are.”
In an interesting side line, he advises “Never hire a hungry coach or consultant as they will tell the executive what he wants to hear and I don’t think that’s in the best interests of anybody.”
In typical Kets de Vries style he combines wisdom, experience and deep thinking with an ability to communicate to all of us.