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Title | Coach and Couch: The Psychology of Making Better Leaders |
Author | Manfred F R Kets de Vries, Konstantin Korotov and Elizabeth Florent-Treacy | |
Publisher | Palgrave Macmillan | |
ISBN | 978 0230506381 | |
Usefulness | To executive coaches: 2/5 To those running leadership development programmes: 4/5 |
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assumed from the title that this book was about a psychoanalytic approach to leadership coaching. Indeed, I was intrigued in chapter 1 by the authors’ “Clinical paradigm – a way of exploring a person’s inner theatre”.
Although these are fairly mainstream psychological principles, further sub-sections on defence mechanisms and narcissism in leadership development indicated they were pushing the boundaries. However, I was disappointed by the book being primarily about Insead’s leadership development programme – interesting if you do this work but not radically new. The material is presented in a series of essays so you can read in any order, the connecting thread being elements of their clinical In contrast to many of the unremarkable concepts in the book, I was delighted to come across three terminologies new to me: “liminality” (chapter 7), “mentalising” (12) and “authentizotic” (18) – grandiose business school jargon or language of the future? As they say in a number of chapters, “Given the space available I am unable to give further explanation”! |