{"id":20397,"date":"2018-11-15T21:53:36","date_gmt":"2018-11-16T05:53:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=20397"},"modified":"2018-11-15T21:53:36","modified_gmt":"2018-11-16T05:53:36","slug":"even-kets-de-vries-agrees","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/even-kets-de-vries-agrees\/","title":{"rendered":"Even Kets de Vries agrees…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m pleasantly surprised again this week! Kets de Vries has written a poignant leadership book \u2013 Leadership Mystique <\/em>– full of practical and culturally competent leadership wisdom.\u00a0 Even better, Kets de Vries is a psychologist and \u201cspeaks my [social work] language\u201d.\u00a0 There are so many parallels to past themes in prior readings in Kets de Vries text\u2026including the importance of emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence (David Livermore), psychoanalytic theory (Nitin Nohria and Rakesh Khurana), systems theory (Friedman), and cognitions (Robert Quinn) in forming a quality leader.\u00a0 When Kets de Vries started discussing the clinical paradigm of examining your past to understand your future (and subsequently examining problematic behaviors in leaders) I was sold on this book.\u00a0 It also reinforced the importance of the Personal Leadership Development Plan assignments each semester (rooted in self-reflection and self-evaluation) \u201cThis dimension of human action needs attention if one wants to engage in preventive maintenance and successful intervention.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n

It was more challenging this week than most to find external resources (book reviews, podcasts, online references) for Leadership Mystique.<\/em>\u00a0 I did find a short interview with Manfred Kets de Vries by Workforce Management<\/em> magazine and learned in this interview that Kets de Vries has a very strong and positive lens on women in leadership:<\/p>\n

WM: What do you mean by a more androgynous organization?<\/p>\n

Kets\u00a0de\u00a0Vries<\/u><\/em>:\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>Basically it’s more gender-free. Despite all the affirmative action, women have not made much progress at the\u00a0leadership<\/strong>\u00a0level. And I believe that women at senior positions are much more capable than men. Women are less narcissistic. And women have a more humane, more balanced orientation to life.[2]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

WM: What is a different style of leadership needed to regain trust?<\/p>\n

Kets\u00a0de\u00a0Vries<\/u><\/em>:\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>When you talk about best places to work, they usually are more women-friendly, and they usually have a more coaching culture. People want to have a voice. They want to be listened to. If you want to get the best out of people, give them a voice. And, unfortunately, that has been too little the case.[3]<\/strong><\/sup><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

When a man is willing to acknowledge the value and worth of a woman in leadership, his support challenges the inherent biases of his peers. The phenomenon of gender bias is prevalent in the secular and Christian culture.\u00a0 It\u2019s affirming that a leadership expert (Kets de Vries) validates, through thirty years of research and experience, women\u2019s capacity to lead well.<\/p>\n

This begs the question, then, \u2018why is the Christian community still unable to reconcile its beliefs around women in ministry leadership?\u2019 Typically the response connects back to biblical interpretation\u2026specifically, themes of authority, submission, leadership, and ministry.\u00a0 \u201cGood interpretation requires that any universal principle be found in the whole of scripture and not just drawn from proof texts that have been taken out of their cultural and literary contexts.\u201d[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

If you prescribe to the \u201cno women in leadership\u201d biblical interpretation, you essentially negate approximately half of the available church congregants from preaching, serving on council, etc. Instead, you channel women into \u201cministry roles\u2019 deemed appropriate, ie. teaching Sunday School.\u00a0 In today\u2019s world, such a policy seems misguided, inequitable, and archaic.<\/p>\n

When reading and evaluating New Testament teachings regarding women in the church, I see a very different biblical emphasis.\u00a0 In the early church, saved women and men ministered together as equals.\u00a0 They were equally called to go out into the world to make disciples.\u00a0 There was no distinction based solely on gender in this role. \u201cSuch an egalitarian stance impacts how ministry is understood and promulgated. Here there are no second-class believers. Additionally, there are no artificially imposed restrictions on which less esteemed groups, based on humanly contrived, artificial standards, are sequestered to the periphery of church life and ministry.\u201d[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

How do we move forward, both secularly and most especially in Christianity, from this polarizing gender barrier?\u00a0 Utilizing Manfred Kets de Vries\u2019 leadership model, men\/women need to \u201copen the curtains of their inner theatre\u201d by trying to find the deeper meaning behind their actions (in this case an implicit bias towards women). Because of \u201cunconscious processes they neither see, understand nor accept\u201d the suppression of women in Christianity continues.\u00a0 As a DMin. student in LGP8, I challenge you to evaluate your own inner theatre. After all, every leader, at whatever level, is to some extent a kind of psychiatric social worker, a \u201ccontainer of the emotions of his or her subordinates\u201d.[6]<\/a><\/p>\n

As an emerging, growing, and changing leader it\u2019s imperative to heed Kets de Vries observation\u2026it’s all about human behavior. \u201cIt’s about understanding the way people and organizations behave, about creating relationships, about building commitment, and about adapting your behavior to lead in a creative and motivating way.\u201d[7]<\/a> As a woman, Christian, and leader I vow to follow this wise and relevant leadership advice.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> de Vries, Manfred F. R. Kets. \u201cThe Leadership Mystique.\u201d\u00a0Academy of Management Executive<\/em>\u00a08, no. 3 (August 1994)<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> NARCISSISM IN THE C-SUITE.\u00a0Workforce Management, 15475565, 12\/15\/2008, Vol. 87, Issue 20<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> NARCISSISM IN THE C-SUITE.\u00a0Workforce Management, 15475565, 12\/15\/2008, Vol. 87, Issue 20<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Brower, Kent & Serreao, Jeanne. \u201cReclaiming the Radical Story, Part II\u201d.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Lioy, Daniel. New Testament I & II feedback<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> de Vries, Manfred F. R. Kets. \u201cThe Leadership Mystique.\u201d\u00a0Academy of Management Executive<\/em>\u00a08, no. 3 (August 1994)<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> https:\/\/www.leadershipnow.com\/leadershop\/0273656201.html<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m pleasantly surprised again this week! Kets de Vries has written a poignant leadership book \u2013 Leadership Mystique – full of practical and culturally competent leadership wisdom.\u00a0 Even better, Kets de Vries is a psychologist and \u201cspeaks my [social work] language\u201d.\u00a0 There are so many parallels to past themes in prior readings in Kets de […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":99,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[536],"class_list":["post-20397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-kets-de-vries","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/99"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20397"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20397\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20398,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20397\/revisions\/20398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}