Behind the Executive Door: Unexpected Lessons for Managing Your Boss and Career

Sigmund Freud meets Peter Drucker … Behind the Executive Door is a revealing look at the behavior of top business leaders―and how the next level of aspiring managers can learn to navigate the political and personal landscape. Based on over 25 years of psychotherapy and consulting experiences, as well as extensive empirical research, Karol Wasylyshyn has identified a dynamic continuum of executive behaviors that are manifested in three specific types of business leaders – Remarkable, Perilous, and Toxic. She describes these types in accessible terms with the intertwined goals of helping readers (1) recognize these behaviors and leadership types and (2) leverage this information to increase their savvy and effectiveness in the workplace. In the wake of Sarbanes-Oxley and the increased scrutiny of business executives, we have learned that how they lead is often their undoing – or at least it is a pressing development need and/or potential derailment factor. In short, despite financial or strategic smarts, ineffective leadership behavior de-motivates talented employees, has adverse effects on productivity, and jeopardizes positive business results. Conversely, we can recognize the qualities of effective leadership behavior, which is largely a function of emotional intelligence, the ability to tap into the needs and motivations of others and bring out their best performance. In Behind the Executive Door, the author provides a wide variety of tools and exercises to help the reader identify the behavior traits of their organizations’ leaders –and hone their own approaches to achieve positive results. In the process, readers will also gain insights and skills to manage laterally and down, as well as up the organizational ladder. The concepts can be applied in any type of organization – private or public, for-profit or non-profit. The result is not only a better understanding of organizational politics and leadership behavior, but a practical guideto making important career decisions, such as whom to work for and how to develop one’s own leadership style.

Karol M. Wasylyshyn’s business career has evolved through the disciplines of journalism, psychology and management consulting. These merged disciplines provide the theoretical and experiential foundation of her consulting firm, Leadership Development Forum. This firm specializes in customized leadership development services for senior executives and high potential employees. As a teacher, coach and strategist, Dr. Wasylyshyn has distinguished her work on three fronts: (1) executive coaching particularly CEOs, CEO successor candidates and other corporate executives, (2) the design and implementation of succession processes and high potential development programs, and (3) advancing the application of emotional intelligence in business. Dr. Wasylyshyn, a licensed psychologist, began her career as a journalist in the publishing industry. She combines this business experience with her clinical training to create practical applications of psychology in business. Typically, her work involves long-term collaborations with senior executives and human resources professionals on issues of leadership effectiveness. A frequent speaker on the subject of executive development, Dr. Wasylyshyn has coached hundreds of executives representing every global sector. She was honored by Hahnemann University as “Alumna of the Year” for her application of psychology in business, and received similar recognition from the Institute of Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener University in 2002. Dr. Wasylyshyn's clients include or have included Bristol Myers Squibb, Campbell Soup, Colgate Palmolive, Dupont, FMC, GE Aerospace, GlaxoSmithKline, Henkels & McCoy, Johnson and Higgins (now MARSH), Johnson & Johnson, Norfolk Southern Corporation, PECO, Pfizer Int’l, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Revlon, Rohm and Haas Company, Sunbeam, U.S. Steel, and The Vanguard Group. Her board activities have included The Painted Bride Arts Center, The Girl Scouts of Southeastern Pennsylvania, WomensWay, The Opera Company of Philadelphia, Leadership, Inc., and The Farmers Market Trust. Currently she is Vice Chair of the Widener University Board of Trustees where she is a member of the Business School Advisory Board and also chairs the University’s Academic Committee; Executive Committee member of the SE Pennsylvania Chapter Board of the American Red Cross; and a member of the Stockton Rush Bartol Foundation Board. She is a former Board President of The Forum of Executive Women. Dr. Wasylyshyn’s current academic appointment is Adjunct Professor of Clinical Psychology, Institute for Graduate Clinical Psychology at Widener University. She is also a past member of the coaching faculty in The Wharton School’s Advanced Management Program. She has lectured ("Coaching at the Top") in a Wharton executive coaching program. In 2000, she established The Center for Applied Emotional Competence at Widener University and has been piloting the use of emotional intelligence in recruiting. A recognized pioneer of executive coaching, her publications focus on best practices and methodological considerations, as well as on individual behavior as a critical dimension of leadership effectiveness. With recent writing and consultation, she has pioneered the use of original poetry to open deeper considerations of leadership behavior.