InLeading Wisely: Becoming a Reflective Leader in Turbulent Times, renowned leadership expert, psychoanalyst and executive coach Manfred Kets De Vries delivers an insightful and unique exploration of what it means to lead with wisdom. The book demonstrates that exclusive reliance on knowledge, data, and information yields a superficial leadership style lacking in depth and discernment. What's more important in the wisdom equation is possessing humility, judgment, empathy, compassion, and night vision.

With eleven chapters full of anecdotes and tales from a variety of spiritual and cultural traditions that enrich and lend a deeper significance to the choices we make as leaders and members of organizations, Leading Wisely provides readers with:A thorough exploration of dealing with negativebut entirely natural motivations, like envy and greedAn emphasis on the Golden Ruletreating others as we like to be treated ourselvesAn opportunity to be courageousto consciously and intentionally pick our battles, saving energy for what really mattersLessons on how to listen intently and actively, truly hearing what our colleagues, friends, family, and followers are saying before reactingFinding happiness within ourselves

Leading Wisely: Becoming a Reflective Leader in Turbulent Times is a startlingly incisive book, filled with messages that make the book required reading for anyone in a position of leadership or power. It also belongs in the libraries of well-being and health practitioners who frequently deal with businesspeople as clients or patients.

MANFRED KETS DE VRIES brings a different view to the much-studied subjects of leadership and the psychological dimensions of individual and organizational change. His specific areas of interest are leadership (the bright and dark side), entrepreneurship, career dynamics, talentmanagement, family business, cross-cultural management, succession planning, organizational and individual stress, C-suite team building, executive coaching, organizational development, transformation management, and management consulting.

The Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change at INSEAD, he is Program Director of INSEADs top management program, The Challenge of Leadership: Creating Reflective Leaders, and the Founder of INSEADs Executive Master Program in Change Management. He was also the Founder-Director of INSEADs Global Leadership Center. As an educator, he received INSEADs distinguished teacher award six times.The Financial Times, Le Capital, Wirtschaftswoche, El País, andThe Economist have rated Manfred Kets de Vries among the worlds leading management thinkers and among the most influential contributors to human resource management.

Kets de Vries works as a consultant on organizational design/transformation and strategic human resource management for companies worldwide. As an educator and consultant, he has worked in more than forty countries. In his role as a consultant, he is also the founder-chairman of the Kets de Vries Institute (KDVI), a boutique strategic leadership development consulting firm.

Preface vii

1 Not knowing 1

2 Beyond book knowledge 19

3 Wisdom and sorrow 37

4 The Golden Rule 51

5 Forgiveness 61

6 Envy 73

7 Greed 85

8 Listening 95

9 Choose your battles wisely 109

10 Courage 121

11 Happiness 135

12 Conclusion 151

About the Author 159

Index 163