By Manfred Kets de Vries Many of the challenges leaders face are timeless. Asked what was most difficult in the world, the Greek sage Thales is said to have answered: “Know thyself.” More than two millennia later, the advice remains as relevant as...
Tintin first appeared in 1929. The world Hergé drew for him: dictators, arms dealers, propaganda, corrupt officials. Not a difficult world to recognise in 2026. In this essay, Professor Manfred Kets de Vries asks what this peculiar, blank-faced,...
By Manfred Kets de Vries The idea that a single extraordinary individual determines the success or failure of an organisation, the classic “Great Man” or “Great Woman” theory, still lingers in popular imagination. Yet most contemporary scholars and...
A 360° Leadership Development Assessment Tool By Manfred Kets de Vries Executives in the twenty-first century must cultivate capacities that earlier generations rarely needed to master the global stage. Leadership now unfolds in a world that moves...
By Manfred Kets de Vries In Alexander Pushkin’s Boris Godunov (1825), one of the most psychologically charged moments occurs when the tsar addresses his young son, Fyodor. On the surface, the speech reads like a manual of prudent governance: a...
What Plato and Aristotle Still Teach us about Leadership By Manfred Kets de Vries Contemporary discussions of leadership development tend to favour the reassuring language of competencies, toolkits, metrics, and measurable outcomes. Leadership is...
Reflections from the KDVI team at the 2025 ILA Conference in Prague Oriane, Liz and Paul were very pleased to be in attendance at this years’ conference. The event was a great success and lots of great conversations were had. The team share their...
By Manfred Kets de Vries Among the many afflictions that trouble executives like insomnia, strategic overload, performance anxiety, executive loneliness, and the quiet fear that everyone else is coping better, procrastination is the most quietly...
By Paul Vanderbroeck Crucial conversation lessons Following the Oval Office meeting on 28 February between Presidents Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky that had a disastrous outcome for Mr Zelensky, I identified seven lessons for leaders entering...
By Paul Vanderbroeck, author of "Lead Like Julius Caesar" Caesar's ascent to power was remarkable, but his fall was equally dramatic, and unexpectedly, it was his very excellence that played a role in his downfall. In the end, being too good for...
Oriane Kets de Vries is CEO and owner of the Kets de Vries Institute. She leads a global team of coaches, consultants and educators dedicated to developing reflective, emotionally intelligent leaders and cultivating workplaces where people can thrive. In her faculty role, she draws on extensive experience designing and directing leadership programmes for senior executives, contributing her expertise in psychodynamic coaching, organisational culture, and transformational leadership development.
Oriane has served as consultant, coach, and programme director for clients including Pictet, Deutsche Bank, Merck, UBS, Mishcon de Reya, and Engie, and she has taught on open-enrolment programmes with leading institutions such as Cambridge Judge Business School, Oxford Saïd, INSEAD, ESCP, ESMT and CEDEP. Her interests centre on the human side of leadership, particularly identity, creativity, entrepreneurship and gender dynamics. She holds an MBA and Executive MA in Coaching and Consulting for Change from INSEAD, has trained at the Harvard Kennedy School, and brings more than a decade of professional experience in creative and entrepreneurial industries into her work with leaders.
Manfred Kets de Vries is a pioneering authority in leadership development, coaching, and organisational change. He is a founder and director of the Kets de Vries Institute (KDVI) and served as Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organisational Change at INSEAD. With academic credentials in economics (University of Amsterdam), management (MBA and DBA, Harvard Business School), and psychoanalysis (trained in Canada), he brings a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective to leadership. His work bridges management theory and clinical insight, establishing him as a global thought leader in executive coaching and transformation. At INSEAD, he founded the Global Leadership Centre and led the flagship programme The Challenge of Leadership for 31 years. He also served as scientific director of Coaching and Consulting for Change, an 18-month Executive Master’s programme that has shaped over 3,000 senior leaders and executive coaches worldwide. He has advised and coached senior executives at global firms including Goldman Sachs, BP, Shell, Unilever, McKinsey, and Volvo. A prolific author of over 60 books and 400 articles, his work appears regularly in The Financial Times, The Economist, and Harvard Business Review. Recognised by Le Capital, Wirtschaftswoche, and The Financial Times as one of the world’s top 50 management thinkers, he is widely regarded for advancing more human-centred approaches to leadership.
Senior Adviser (Luminary) at Accenture and executive coach with over 12 years of board experience. Formerly a banker and McKinsey consultant, Yulia has led banking transformations in digital, agile, organisational change, and talent development. Her coaching spans the finance, tech, and consumer goods sectors, blending technological insight with emotional intelligence to guide leaders through transformation. Recently, she advised BBVA on agile methodologies and senior talent development. Influenced by thought leaders such as Manfred Kets de Vries and Gabor Maté, Yulia brings an analytical, reflective approach to leadership. She has lived and worked across the UK, Spain, the US, and Russia.
Elizabeth has worked closely with Manfred Kets de Vries for many years and has served as a Senior Lecturer and Research Fellow at INSEAD. Her extensive background in leadership development spans organisational consulting, executive coaching, and academic research. She holds advanced degrees in Organisational Development and Clinical Organisational Psychology and is a certified Coaching Supervisor through the Tavistock Institute. Her doctoral research explored experiential domains in executive education, and she has authored or co-authored numerous academic articles, case studies, and books on leadership and organisational dynamics. Elizabeth led the development teams behind KDVI’s diagnostic instruments, including the GELM, OCA™, and ITI. Drawing on her diverse training and global experience, she brings deep cross-cultural insight to her work with leaders worldwide. Originally from California, Elizabeth has made France her home for over 30 years.