The Leadership Mystique: Leading Behavior in the Human Enterprise

"This is a book that any senior executive will find enlightening, as it peels back the layers of self-deception to reveal how our hidden personalities, largely hard-wired since early childhood, affect the way we lead and manage others." Carol Kennedy, Director magazine

"This book is a real gem. The author writes with flair and precision. ... I recommend this book very highly. It is clear, timely and accessible. De Vries is a master of the elusive topic of leadership. For the busy manager and consultant, it is a valuable balance to a growing library that merely idealises and idolises leadership." HR Monthly , Australia

"Your business can have all the advantages in the world; strong financial resources, enviable market position, and state-of-the-art technology, but if leadership fails, all of these advantages melt away." - Manfred Kets de Vries

Organizations are like automobiles. They don't run themselves, except downhill.

Successful leadership today demands very different behavior from the conventional leadership tradition we are used to. It requires leaders who speak to the collective imagination of their people, co-opting them to join in the business journey; leaders who are able to motivate people to full commitment and spur them on to make that extra effort. It's all about human behavior. It's about understanding the way people and organizations behave, about creating relationships, about building commitment, and about adapting your behavior to lead in a creative and motivating way.

So, stop right now and ask yourself what you're doing about the leadership factor. How do you execute your own leadership style? Whether you work on the shop floor or have a corner office on the top floor of a shimmering skyscraper, what have you done today to be more effective as a leader?

There are no quick answers to leadership questions, and there are no easy solutions. In fact, the more we learn the more it seems there is to learn. In The Leadership Mystique, management and psychology guru Manfred Kets de Vries unpicks the many layers of complexity that underlie effective leadership, and gets to the heart of the day-to-day behavior of leading people in the human enterprise. Assess your own leadership qualities with the probing self-questionnaires and learn how to develop your skills for maximum impact as a leader.