Steven Berglas Ph.D.

Steven Berglas, Ph.D., is an executive coach and management consultant who spent 25 years on the faculty of Harvard Medical School’s Department of Psychiatry where he also maintained a private psychotherapy practice in Boston before relocating to Los Angeles. From 1980-1985 he held a Career Scientist Development Award from the Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Mental Health Administration.

Berglas’ seminal views on executive coaching appear in the lead article of the June 2002 edition of the Harvard Business Review. In his coaching practice, Berglas draws upon his training in behavioral and psychodynamic psychiatry to design interventions that are uniquely suited to resolving the problems of A-Players and C-Level executives at risk for career burnout or the consequences of self-defeating (e.g. grandiose) behaviors. Berglas also works with corporations on executive selection; identifying job candidates resistant to “success depression” (the paradoxical suffering that follows major achievements) success-induced burnout, and self-destructive behavior such as white-collar crime.

Berglas has authored or co-authored four books that explain how the consequences of career success cause vocational, interpersonal, and psychological problems, including The Success Syndrome: Hitting Bottom When You Reach The Top (Plenum, 1986), Self-Handicapping (Plenum, 1991), Your Own Worst Enemy: Understanding The Paradox of Self-Defeating Behavior (Basic Books, 1993) and Reclaiming The Fire: How Successful People Overcome Burnout (Random House, 2001). Fortune magazine honored Reclaiming the Fire by naming it one of the 75 Smartest Business Books ever written. Berglas has published numerous articles on the causes and cures of self-defeating behavior, the factors that cause executives to fail, and how to prevent white-collar crime, in The New York Times, The Boston Globe, and major magazines. Berglas is a regular guest on talk shows including The Oprah Winfrey Show, 20/20, Dateline NBC, TODAY, Good Morning America, The CBS Evening News, and The Koppel Report, was profiled in Fortune, TIME, The Wall Street Journal, People and The Times of London.

Berglas’ clients range from Fortune100 CEOs, individuals listed on the Forbes 400, and billionaires who run privately held enterprises, to award-winning professional athletes, Grammy winners, Oscar winners, and internationally ranked chess Grandmasters.

Berglas holds a BA, cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, with high honors in psychology from Clark University, a Ph.D. from Duke University, and he completed postdoctoral training in social psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.