Bizarre Bosses Unmasked

Know any managers who act quite strangely? Or even downright dysfunctionally? Do you ever find yourself doing something you wished you had not, and then wondering, "What came over me?"

Humans behave oddly at times, even in the workplace; even at the top of the hierarchy. And no one, it seems, is quite who they seem to be. Did you know that family entertainment mogul Walt Disney made a habit of eating donuts drowned in whiskey—for breakfast!

A veritable smorgasbord of engaging tales and insights are chronicled in a recent book, The Leadership Mystique: An Owner's Manual (Pearson Education Limited, 2001), by Manfred F.R. Kes de Vries.

De Vries knows much about executives' strange behaviors because he's a psychologist who interacts with senior managers the world over. A clinical professor of leadership development, he is program director of a top management program at INSEAD in France. De Vries also taught at McGill University in Canada, the Harvard Business School in the U.S., as well as lecturing and consulting around the world.

De Vries chronicles and explains a wide variety of counter-productive executive maladies such as: excessive narcissism (self-centeredness); unusual—even inappropriate—responses to associates; excessive compulsions; extreme need for control; self-defeating behaviors; and on and on. Flip through the book, land on any page and your sure to recognize a description of someone you know (perhaps even someone who stares back at you from the mirror).

The book provides a fascinating glimpse into the vagaries of human behavior, especially by people who have been conferred with organizational power. De Vries offers up many insightful examples, interesting anecdotes, some wit, and very approachable explanations of psychological concepts in lay terms, along with some self-assessment exercises (of varying usefulness).

The book is not held together by a discernible thesis; it doesn't provide you with many actionable skills. But if you'd like to know more about why you and other otherwise very bright and capable people do odd things, this book provides a delightful peek into the executive skull.

Order it here.

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