Diego Vicente Cortés

Professor of Practice of Organisational Behaviour and Leadership at IE University.

“You need to be a psychologist in the business world, because, when all is said and done, work is carried out by people”. With these words, Professor Diego Vicente describes the philosophy that has guided his 25 years of experience. He specialises in personal leadership, leadership of teams, and change management, and now he wants to tap this knowledge to research management styles and team management more deeply, an area in which he is already very involved.

In his own words: “I want to carry out a good dissection of management styles, but from the point of view of collaborators. Management is always evaluated from a ‘top down’ perspective, but not the other way round”. This focus has enabled Professor Vicente to detect different styles of management. Each one is valid for a specific moment or phase of a project. “I am also deepening my research into essential roles within an efficient work team, and how much they are needed in each situation”.

Professor Vicente holds a degree in Social Psychology from Madrid’s Universidad Complutense. He also has extensive experience in teaching and as a training consultant, which he is now using as a platform on which to base his research. “For example, I’ve worked on many 360º feedback processes, enabling me to detect gaps in companies between their actual situation and that the one they aspire to. Hence I can now gauge far better the kind of training needed”. Some of the companies with which he has worked are: Adecco, Airbus, Banesto, Bankinter, BBVA, Centre for Nuclear Security, Ferrovial, Grupo Santander, Inditex, Indra, Iberdrola, Nuffield College (Oxford), Pfizer, Sanitas, Ternium, Universidad de los Andes o Uralita.

All this experience is serving him well in the two new cases he is now preparing on management and conflict in teams, combining this work with his responsibilities managing IE Business School´s Centre for Leadership and his teaching of leadership and organisational behaviour at IE Business School. Moreover, he has studied a master´s in Gestalt Psychology to help directors in their personal and professional development, bringing them an awareness of their behaviour as a base on which to build the personal changes that they need and/or that are required of them.

ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE

• Recognition Awards for excellence in teaching in the Executive Programs of IE Business School consecutively from 2006 to 2022

• Recognition Awards for excellence in teaching in the MBA programs at IE Business School 2010

• Visiting Professor to the University of los Andes (Colombia), 2006 – Present

• Visiting Professor to Nuffield College (Oxford), 2019 – Present

• Professor of Practice in the Area of Organisational Behaviour, IE Business School, 2004 Present

• Professor of Practice at the Leadership Centre of IE Business School, 2004 – Present

• Professor of Development Programmes for the Community of Madrid, 1995 2004

• Professor of Development Programmes at the Instituto Municipal de Empleo y Formación Empresarial, 1995 – 2004

• Author of numerous case studies and articles, the latest being a study of Management Styles

Academic Background

• Ph.D., Social Psychology. Universidad Complutense de Madrid

• Bachelor Degree in Psychology, specialising in industrial psychology, Universidad Complutense de Madrid

• Master in Gestalt Psychology, Instituto de Psicoterapia Gestalt. Madrid

CORPORATE EXPERIENCE

• Executive Coach, 2000 – Present

• Head of IE Leadership Centre, 2004 – 2010

• Director of training and consulting projects, Madrid branch of St. Gallen Management Centre from the Swiss University of St. Gallen, 2003 – 2004

• Coordinator and specialist in consultancy, training and selection of Knowledge Engineering for the Public Administration, 1997 – 2003

• Supervisor, Burger King, London, 1996 – 1997