144 REFLECTIONS ON CHARACTER AND LEADERSHIP
Top executive management development programs (including the
kind of group coaching practiced at INSEAD and the European School
of Management and Technology) are another way to prevent regres-
sive forces becoming prevalent (Kets de Vries, Korotov, and Florent -
Treacy, 2007 ). Such programs offer participants the opportunity to
exchange ideas, give and receive feedback, and discuss various courses
of action in a relatively non - threatening setting. Doing so enhances
reality - testing.
Boards of directors can play a critical role in monitoring the dis-
tribution of power and authority in an organization. With the increasing
legal accountability of board members, acting merely as a rubber stamp
has become a risky business. More than ever, board members are in
an ideal position to become the countervailing force to check the
excesses of leadership. Their role in planning for orderly management -
succession can be crucial in defusing the pathology of power. Other
countervailing powers that can prevent the excesses of leadership
are stakeholders such as large institutional investors, the government,
the press, unions, and even bankers.
Despite the existence of possible countervailing forces and organi-
zational inertia, we should not underestimate the regressive pulls
described earlier. Leaders can wield enormous power and can easily fi nd
ways to sidetrack these preventive measures. Moreover, paradoxically
enough, these regressive forces that may give rise to irrational, even
pathological behavior and which in normal circumstances would be the
cause of disqualifi cation, will in specifi c situations be exactly the quali-
ties needed for leadership.
The leader ’ s limited view of reality, the unrestrained abandonment
to a certain aim, distorted as it may be, or his or her way of acting out
aggression, at times, may be very functional. Paranoid reactions, the
notion of a threatening menace that warrants struggle and sacrifi ce, can
feed very well into this type of situation.
But such circumstances are highly unusual and may lead (at least in
the long run) to questionable results. In general, it is therefore essential
that suffi cient safeguards are in place to prevent excess. And here the
burden is on both leader and followers. Both parties have a tremendous
responsibility to monitor their own behavior and, in spite of the opera-
tion of defensive processes, should make efforts to recognize their own
particular way of acting. Individuals who are unable to do so are very
likely to become prisoners of their own leadership. Leaders should never
forget that their primary task is to defi ne reality. To paraphrase Winston
Churchill, quoting an old Chinese proverb, ‘ Poor leaders ride on hungry
tigers they dare not dismount. ’