{"id":24596,"date":"2019-10-26T05:25:01","date_gmt":"2019-10-26T12:25:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=24596"},"modified":"2019-10-26T05:35:51","modified_gmt":"2019-10-26T12:35:51","slug":"the-end-is-key","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/the-end-is-key\/","title":{"rendered":"The End Is Key"},"content":{"rendered":"

Manfred F. R. Kets De Vries[1]<\/a>, a distinguished Professor of Leadership and Development and organizational change, an economist, management expert and a psychoanalyst, takes us through the pathology of the everyday life of a leader and illustrates it so well using the analogy of the rabbit hole. It\u2019s the journey that takes an unexpected fall into a seemingly endless vertical hole with all manner of things along the way that are anything but predictable. It\u2019s a journey not for the faint-hearted but for those that are arm themselves with readiness and a positive mindset. It is a journey that has many casualties of those that enter unprepared, but it is full of triumphant heroes that have been on the journey and emerged victorious and give us the courage to soldier on.<\/p>\n

Going by his introduction of what “Down a rabbit hole” means is in itself sobering and scary to anyone with a phobia of falling but its an awakening call to leaders to alive to the myriad of issues to encounter and deal with in leadership, both positive and negative and to realize the very important role of a leader in society. Referring to the story of Alice\u2019s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll[2]<\/a>, Manfred points to the fact that the leader has enough time even in the free fall to look at these issues and deal with them. In tumbling down the rabbit hole, despite all the nonsensical things that a leader encounters, Manfred takes us on a journey to become enlightened, to find the truth, to understand what is happening around us[3]<\/a>. As leaders we cannot hide our heads in the sand like the African proverbial ostrich, but we must pay attention because they all affect us as leaders and ultimately, those that we lead as our followers. We are thus invited in the first part of the book to investigate \u201cthe Psycho-dynamics of leadership in both business and political context, to project and displace our neuroses into the public sphere\u201d. In the second part, we are invited to focus on \u201cthe psychopathology of everyday life in organizations and look at the seemingly endless ways that people can make a mess of things\u201d[4]<\/a>. It is therefore in navigating through these maddening landscape with understanding that you can be a good leader, gain wisdom, and leave a legacy.<\/p>\n

Manfred concludes powerfully by asking us to ask a very critical question, The Epitaph Question. This is cited as the second habit of The Seven Habits of Highly Effective people by Dr Stephen Covey[5]<\/a>, having the end in mind from the beginning. This critical question is, “What you would personally like to be written on your epitaph>” This question helps you to choose the kind of life that you should live today. As he illustrates by the example of one Alfred Nobel who decided to institute the famous Nobel price after reading about his purported death after being mistaken for his brother[6]<\/a>. The Newspaper article headline, \u201cThe Merchant of Death is Dead\u201d was a sobering and harsh awakening of how he would go down in history, its severity made him to rehabilitate his name by changing his will to donate most of his fortune to the Nobel Prize Foundation. His Memory lives on today, bot as a merchant of death but for the better course of the Nobel prize. What will be your Legacy?<\/p>\n

As leaders its important to ask how we want to be remembered because thinking of one\u2019s legacy will influence the trajectory of our life. It will influence how we face the myriad of issues that we face in the course of our leadership journey. The essence of making this long-term perspective of your life as a leader is to help you understand what is most important in your life, it helps you have more clarity of what really matters in your life. I personally believe and as Manfred also emphasizes, that positively impacting people\u2019s lives is of higher value that accumulating earthly possessions, it is the true legacy to strive for. This will certainly be a key consideration in pursuing my Dissertation and what I will do with it in future. As Christian Leaders, we have a stewardship responsibility for a Legacy that brings Glory to God.<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Manfred F. R. Kets De Vries (2019). Down The Rabbit Hole Of Leadership: Leadership Pathology In Everyday Life. <\/em>Palgrave Macmillan. Cham. Switzerland.<\/em><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Lewis carroll (2010). Alice\u2019s Adventure in Wonderland. <\/em>William Collins. Glasgow, Scotland.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Manfred F. R. Kets De Vries (2019). Down The Rabbit Hole Of Leadership: Leadership Pathology In Everyday Life. <\/em>Palgrave Macmillan. Cham. Switzerland. Loc 172, Kindle.<\/em><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Ibid,\u2026<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Stephen Covey. The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. <\/em>Free Press. November 9, 2004. Tampa, Florida.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Manfred F. R. Kets De Vries (2019). Down The Rabbit Hole Of Leadership: Leadership Pathology In Everyday Life. <\/em>Palgrave Macmillan. Cham. Switzerland\u2026Loc 2722, Kindle.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Manfred F. R. Kets De Vries[1], a distinguished Professor of Leadership and Development and organizational change, an economist, management expert and a psychoanalyst, takes us through the pathology of the everyday life of a leader and illustrates it so well using the analogy of the rabbit hole. It\u2019s the journey that takes an unexpected fall […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":126,"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":[1321,1665,35,1594,1068],"class_list":["post-24596","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dminlgp9","tag-down-the-rabbit-hole-of-leadership","tag-leadership","tag-legacy","tag-manfred-kets-de-vries","cohort-lgp9"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24596","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\/126"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24596"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24596\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24599,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24596\/revisions\/24599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}