Guest: Manfred Kets de Vries
- 4 August 2026
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Every executive has experienced it.
A strategy looked sound. The data was convincing. The leadership team agreed. Yet the outcome still fell short.
Why?
According to renowned leadership scholar Manfred Kets de Vries, the answer isn’t in the strategy itself, but in the psychology of the people making decisions.
In this thought-provoking episode, Maureen Metcalf sits down with one of the world’s foremost experts on leadership psychology to explore how unconscious patterns, executive blind spots, and the dynamics of power quietly shape organizations.
Together they discuss:
- Why self-awareness is one of a leader’s greatest competitive advantages
- How micromanagement, hubris, and executive blind spots spread throughout an organization
- Why many executive teams remain misaligned despite strong talent
- The hidden cost of leaders who stop receiving honest feedback
- Practical ways boards and executive teams can build trust, alignment, and psychological safety.
This conversation offers powerful insights into the human dynamics that determine whether strategies ultimately succeed or fail.
Jonathan Reams is Chief Creative Officer at the Center for Transformative Leadership and the author of Maturing Leadership: How Adult Development Impacts Leadership.
Host Maureen Metcalf
Maureen Metcalf, Founder and CEO of the Innovative Leadership Institute, is a highly sought-after expert in anticipating and leveraging future business trends to transform organizations. She has captured 30 years of experience in an award-winning series of books used by public, private, and academic organizations to align company-wide strategy, systems, and culture using Innovative Leadership techniques.
Maureen shares her hard-won insights through public speaking, industry publications, interviews, and video presentations. She is a regular contributor to Forbes.com, host of the top international radio show, Innovating Leadership, Co-creating Our Future, and author of the award-winning Innovative Leadership book series. The series includes: Innovative Leadership Fieldbook; Innovative Leaders Guide to Transforming Organizations; Innovative Leadership Workbook for Global Leaders; and Innovative Leadership for Health Care, among others.
She is a Fellow of the International Leadership Association.
About Innovating Leadership: Co-Creating Our Future
The pace of change in the world is increasing exponentially. Leadership must evolve. And that gets to the heart of our mission: To bring you the latest thoughts on leadership so you can innovate, learn, and evolve…growing your team, your business, and yourself! This series features a new interview every week. Host Maureen Metcalf interviews world leaders, global business and NPO executives, thought leaders, and researchers in a wide range of industries. It’s a breadth of perspectives unavailable anywhere else. Become an innovative leader in your own right!
Innovating Leadership is proud to partner with the International Leadership Association on a yearly series of episodes on global leadership with special ILA speakers, members, and guests.
