WIL would like to congratulate Irène Papaligouras, founder of Leaders Excellence Partners, on the publication of her great book “The Black Sheep of Management: Dysfunctional Bosses and Managers”, (published on 13 November 2013 in French: Les Moutons Noirs du Management, Edition EMS), co-authored by Hugues Chevalier, Senior Corporate Advisor to TAYLOR COMPANIES. The book analyses dysfunctional leadership, providing guidance on how to identify and mitigate dysfunctional leaders while understanding what qualities compose effective leadership.

Everyone has crossed, at some point during their professional life, a dysfunctional manager or leader. Such a person can be dangerous or even fatal for a business, bringing about perilous positions or, perhaps, scandal. This book is about the portrait gallery of braggarts, megalomaniacs, tyrants, Machiavellian toxics and other ‘black sheep’ of leadership.

Based on observation of various situations encountered along their career as consultants or senior executives, the authors were able to detect warning signals and help identify, manage or even remove leaders with such behavioural disorders. Through the analysis of these black sheep, the features requested for effective leadership become clearly visible. This book does not claim to give the recipe to cure dysfunctional leaders, but it is meant to be a guide to help detect efficient leaders and neutralize incompetent or dysfunctional ones. Indeed, economic and human disaster generated within companies by the ‘black sheep’ of management should and can be avoided.

The Authors

A specialist of the History of Economics and a Political Science graduate, Hugues Chevalier started his career as a professor at the political sciences faculty of Bordeaux before developing his own consultancy in business strategy development. He has been an international consultant for more than 20 years advising major international companies as well as SME’s and start-ups. Hugues Chevalier is Senior Corporate Advisor to TAYLOR COMPANIES (www.tay.com ) for mergers and acquisitions in Europe.

Irène Papaligouras is the founder of Leaders Excellence Partners, a strategic human resources start-up, focused on a leadership development methodology specifically designed to fit top managers’ and entrepreneurs’ competencies and needs in a 21st century economic, societal and geopolitical environment.

Irene has 30 years operational experience in human resources, strategy, organization and information systems acquired while working with large global industrial corporations (metals, chemicals and energy).

In the last ten years, she was human resources director in a major energy corporation with specific responsibility for strategic career management for high-potential directors and executives. She also focused extensively on the issue of female leadership and international executives.

Irène comes from a multicultural background and holds dual Greek and French nationality. She studied science and economics in the US, the UK and France. She holds respectively a Bachelor of Science from Brown University, a Master of Science from the London School of Economics and a PhD from Paris-Dauphine.

Irène speaks five languages (modern Greek, French, English, Russian and German). She is on the board of two NGO’s: Geochina which promotes geopolitical links between France and China and the Greek Cultural Centre in Paris.