Dream Journeys: New Territory for Executive Coaching _______________ Manfred F. R. KETS de VRIES 2014/14/EFE Dream Journeys: New Territory for Executive Coaching Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries* * Distinguished Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change at INSEAD, Boulevard de Constance, 77305 Fontainebleau Cedex, France. Email:
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[email protected] Find more INSEAD papers at http://www.insead.edu/facultyresearch/research/search_papers.cfm Abstract Leadership coaches need to understand how their clients think and experience emotions. They have to be skilled at detecting and evaluating the psychological strengths and challenges that can help or hinder their clients’ development as a leader. Leadership coaches need to take a holistic approach to the information clients present, which means considering information from both their waking and dreaming life. To help executives with their journey into their own interior, I suggest that leadership coaches should also pay attention to their clients’ dreamtime. The dreams that occur during their clients’ “night journeys” can offer useful clues about their main preoccupations and concerns. Reflecting on how the feelings in their clients’ dreams relate to what’s happening in their waking life, will help leadership coaches and their clients better recognize and address their internal struggles and challenges, and figure out what is most on their mind. Making sense of dreams can be a very powerful problem-solving and inspirational tool, offering a pathway to out-of-awareness preoccupations.