Dr. Katharina Balazs holds an associate Professorship in the Management Department of the European School of Management (ESCP Business School) in Paris, France. She is also Executive Coach and runs her private coaching and executive development practice, working with executives in global organizations in various countries, specializing on maximizing performance and driving value at C-suite level, working with both teams and individuals.

Katharina’s expertise is in leadership, with a particular focus on leadership communication and presence, women leaders, power and influence, developing high performance cross-cultural teams in organizations and organizational change.

She has worked with, among others, Boehringer Ingelheim, Akzo Nobel, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, EDF, KMPG, Merck, Pernod-Ricard, Randstad, Siemens, Societé Générale, Sonova, Vivendi, TUV and Umicore, Unicredit the World Economic Forum.

With a background in humanities and business administration, Katharina holds a PhD from HEC Paris, as well as an MBA, an M.Sc. and an Executive Master’s degree in Coaching and Consulting for Change (CCC) from INSEAD.

Prior to getting involved in leadership development, Katharina worked as a strategic consultant in Scandinavia and Eastern Europe specializing in cross-cultural issues in international M&As.

She is the author and co-author of several books, scientific articles, cases, and research papers on leadership, executive coaching and development, organizational excellence, downsizing, and organization transformation and change. 

Of Hungarian/Austrian origin, she has been working and living across Europe, and resides in France since 1993. She is a member of the ISPSO (International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations) and the International Coach Federation, as well as a Certified Advisory Board member by Sciences Po/IFA Paris. Her working languages are English, French, German, Hungarian and Swedish.

See Katharina Balazs' video on her book, Ils ont décroché les étoiles (Pearson Village Mondial, 256 p., 2009) (in French).

See Katharina Balazs' video Leadership in Crisis.

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31 publications

Other Intellectual Contributions

2018

BALAZS, K., M. , F. R. KETS DE VRIES

Understanding Why We Overreact at Work

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW, Sept 6, 2018

Other Intellectual Contributions

2017

BALAZS, K.

The most powerful man in the world

THE EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW, January-February 2017

Chapters

2016

BALAZS, K.

Forgiving: The Hidden Dimension in Exceptional Leadership Success

In: Keys to Leadership Success, European Business Review EBR Media limited The European Business Review - EBR Media Limited

Other Intellectual Contributions

2016

BALAZS, K.

Forgiving: The Hidden Dimension in Exceptional Leadership Success

THE EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW, November 2016

Other Intellectual Contributions

2016

BALAZS, K.

What Leaders Can Learn from Both Clinton and Trump

THE EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW

Academic Articles

2013

BALAZS, K., M. , F. R. KETS DE VRIES

The Art of Forgiveness

EUROPEAN BUSINESS REVIEW, Sept-oct 2013, 13-16

Chapters

2012

BALAZS, K.

Coaching in a Family Conundrum

In: Tricky Coaching: Difficult Cases in Leadership Coaching, KOROTOV K., FLORENT-TREACY E., KETS DE VRIES M. F.R., BERNHARD A. (eds) Insead Business Press / Palgrave MacMillan

Chapters

2011

KETS DE VRIES, M. F. R., K. BALAZS

The Shadow Side of Leadership

In: The Sage Handbook of Leadership, BRYMAN A., COLLINSON D. L., GRINT K., JACKSON B., UHL-BIEN M. Sage, pp. 380-390 11 p.

Chapters

2010

BALAZS, K., M. KETS DE VRIES

The Shadow Side of Leadership

In: Handbook of top management teams, BOURNOIS F., DUVAL-HAMEL J., ROUSSILLON S., SCARINGELLA J. L. Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 183-190 8 p.

Books

2009

BALAZS, K.

Ils ont décroché les étoiles !

Pearson Education, 214 p.