• Overview
• Objectives
• Profiles
• Learning Experience
• Faculty
• Dates & Fees

Creating Effective Leaders

In business, executives often focus on models of rational analysis paying far too little attention to the idiosyncrasies and irrational processes that make up individual human behaviour. At the heart of success however, lies a true understanding of the emotional side of decision-making.

The Challenge of Leadership programme aims to improve your understanding of how human behaviour affects the functioning of an organisation. By focusing on conscious and unconscious behaviour, as well as rational and irrational action, you will learn to manage irrational and dysfunctional processes in your company. You will explore your personal leadership style and address ways of dealing with processes that fall outside recommended models.

Key Benefits

1. Reveals the forces behind authority and power increasing your confidence at the most senior levels
2. Develops your leadership style to improve the health and effectiveness of the organisation
3. Builds your capabilities to diagnose toxic organisational cultures and dysfunctional processes in companies, enabling enhanced group dynamics and the creation of high performance teams
4. Creates a better work-life balance

Throughout the Challenge of Leadership programme participants are encouraged to consider their behaviour, learn to reflect and then refocus, leading them to become ‘reflective practitioners’. Participants develop a leadership style that improves the performance of their organisation and, most importantly, leads to a better balanced life.

Group discussion is used extensively to share the personal experiences of the esteemed peer group. The programme then employs a clinical framework, which draws upon disciplines including psychoanalysis, development psychology, cognitive theory, and applies this to business. Areas of study include:

• Organisational diagnosis and change
• The executive life
• Practical problem solving and career planning

Participants of this select programme are senior leaders from large and medium-sized firms; entrepreneurs, or senior executives in the public sector. Typically CEOs and board members, participants hold top level positions and are in the mature phase of their career.

In the confidential application form, candidates are required to detail their objectives and personal profile. Acceptance is very much influenced by the quality of responses to these questions. Candidates will be interviewed by the Programme Director. It should also be noted that acceptance to the programme implies a full commitment to be present for the duration of the four modules.

From participants to alumni 

All participants leave The Challenge of Leadership programme as a full member of the INSEAD alumni community. Only graduates of our world-famous MBA, Executive MBA and PhD programmes, together with selected Executive Education participants, are eligible for this status. The elite worldwide network consists of over 39,200 alumni in around 160 countries, many with very active National Alumni Associations.

“Extremely rewarding. Gives you a better understanding of underlying motives in both your private and occupational environment.”

CEO
De Friesland Zorgverzekeraar
The Netherlands

“This programme afforded me the opportunity to view my life through the lens of various industry thought leaders, whom I had the privilege to engage with and learn from. Life just has new meaning now that I understand the impact that I have on people, through this process of deep reflection and learning. This is certainly the best investment that I have ever made into my own growth. I have come out a more sensitive and rounded leader. The game plan for me has now changed from Success to Significance.”

Executive Director
ABSA Group
South Africa

Great minds don’t think alike

INSEAD’s professors represent many cultures, disciplines, and perspectives. Led by acknowledged world experts in their own particular fields, this programme faculty remain intimately close to business and most are engaged in cross-disciplinary research.*

Manfred Kets de Vries Programme Director Clinical Professor of Leadership Development The Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chaired Professor of Leadership Development Director, INSEAD Global Leadership Centre (IGLC) Manfred Kets de Vries brings a different view to the much-studied subjects of leadership and the dynamics of individual and organizational change. Bringing to bear his knowledge and experience of economics (Econ. Drs., University of Amsterdam), management (ITP, MBA, and DBA, HBS), and psychoanalysis (Canadian Psychoanalytic Society and the International Psychoanalytic Association), he scrutinizes the interface between international management, psychoanalysis, psychotherapy, and dynamic psychiatry. Read more...

Sudhir Kakar Adjunct Professor, INSEAD Member of the International Psychoanalytical Association and Training Analyst with the Indian Psychoanalytical Society

*programme faculty may change
 

Dates & Fees

Modules are not interchangeable.

Participants are advised to arrive the evening before as the programme starts early in the morning.

Please click here for more information about the terms and conditions.

For full details on how to apply, accommodation, and cancellation conditions please visit the Practical Information page.

* Fee subject to change. For programmes delivered in France, VAT (19.6%) to be added for companies based in France, or for European companies where no VAT number is supplied. For programmes delivered in Singapore, GST (7%) to be added for Singapore-registered companies.