Going Beyond the Tip of the Iceberg: Manfred Kets De Vries on Leadership

Manfred Kets De Vries in his book The Leadership Mystique: Leading Behavior in the Human Enterprise argues that successful leadership is correlated to one’s ability to understand how organizations and individuals behave. According to De Vries, the typical books on leadership don’t account for how a deep understanding of organizations and people’s behavior (including our own) is a crucial trait of effective leaders. He states,

 

Most of my management colleagues, in looking at the organization, focus on what happens at the top of the iceberg …. They pay little attention to the struggles that take place in the depths, preferring to look only at what’s readily visible. They study manifest phenomena such as mission, vision, goals, strategies, operations, job descriptions, tasks, roles, selection processes, control and reward systems, and spans of control. In short, they concentrate on the more rational dimensions of organizational life. (p.38)

 

De Vries does not deny the importance of the study of such aspects of an organization. However, his particular interest lies with what happens at the submerged level of the iceberg. Thus his focus lies on understanding, “the underlying values of a corporate culture, power and influence patterns, group dynamics, interpersonal relations, stress reactions, and what some psychiatrists call the ‘core conflictual relationship theme’ ….” (p.39)

 

There is a connection between emotional intelligence and to what De Vries calls the submerged part of the iceberg. According to De Vries emotional intelligence is made up of three components:

 

·         Getting to know our own emotions

·         Learning to manage those emotions

·         Learning to recognize and deal with the emotions of others (p.25)

 

De Vries identifies “core conflictual relationship theme” (CCRT) as one chunk of the submerged part of the iceberg. I found the concept of CCRT of particular interest since gaining insights into our own CCRT and that of others is a way to increase our emotional quotient (EQ) and has potential to help a person become a more effective leader. According to De Vries the CCRT is made up of three components:

 

·         A wish in the context of a relationship.

·         Our anticipation of how others will react to us in the context of this wish.

·         Our own reaction to this response, be it behavioral or affective. (p.39)

 

Obviously determining one’s CCRT is not that easy. One has to look at multiple “relational episodes” and discern a behavioral pattern. In the book he guides you in the process of determining your CCRT.

 

Reflection Question:

1. What are the consequences of not reflecting on the “submerged part” of a church? (Or are there any?)