Death and the Executive: Encounters with the ‘Stealth’ Motivator

Death and the Executive: Encounters with the ‘Stealth’ Motivator

Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries 

INSEAD – Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise
January 30, 2014
INSEAD Working Paper No. 2014/11/EFE

Abstract: 
Death anxiety is a primary motivational force that drives much of our behavior. It puts our defenses on high alert, and we make strenuous efforts to repress or deny the unwelcome truth of our inevitable end. The way each of us denies death not only affects life in its broadest sense but also influences the way we behave in organizations. Death anxiety underlies much executive behavior and action. However, traditional motivational theories do not acknowledge the influence of death anxiety on our behavior. Although they attempt to help us better understand employee motivation, they are not sufficiently inclusive. This article takes a clinical lens to explore death anxiety as a motivational force, how it affects behavior in organizations, and how we metabolize the feelings death evokes. In addition, I examine the various ways we deal with our knowledge of death. Some of us go into overdrive in trying to suppress it, while others fall into a state of resignation and depression. To deal with the ultimate narcissistic injury that death represents, we resort to a variety of immortality strategies to create permanent or enduring meaning. Furthermore, from an organizational perspective, three maladaptive responses to death anxiety are explored: the manic defense, succession issues, and the edifice complex.

Dream Journeys: New Territory for Executive Coaching

Dream Journeys: New Territory for Executive Coaching

Manfred F.R. Kets de Vries 

INSEAD – Entrepreneurship and Family Enterprise
February 14, 2014
INSEAD Working Paper No. 2014/14/EFE

Abstract: 
Leadership coaches need to understand how their clients think and experience emotions. They have to be skilled at detecting and evaluating the psychological strengths and challenges that can help or hinder their clients’ development as a leader. Leadership coaches need to take a holistic approach to the information clients present, which means considering information from both their waking and dreaming life. To help executives with their journey into their own interior, I suggest that leadership coaches should also pay attention to their clients’ dreamtime. The dreams that occur during their clients’ “night journeys” can offer useful clues about their main preoccupations and concerns. Reflecting on how the feelings in their clients’ dreams relate to what’s happening in their waking life, will help leadership coaches and their clients better recognize and address their internal struggles and challenges, and figure out what is most on their mind. Making sense of dreams can be a very powerful problem-solving and inspirational tool, offering a pathway to out-of-awareness preoccupations. This relatively unexplored territory is the main focus of this article, in which I also take into consideration various theories about dreaming.

Woman collapses at train station exit; dies after 50 mins without receiving first aid

Woman collapses at train station exit; dies after 50 mins without receiving first aid

Wednesday, March 5, 2014 – 07:45

AsiaOne

SHENZHEN, China – A 35-year-old woman, Liang Ya, collapsed while climbing the stairs of a train station exit on Feb 17, and died after 50 minutes without receiving first aid. Read more of this post

The Air Force general who channels a mellow CEO’s leadership style

The Air Force general who channels a mellow CEO’s leadership style

BY JUSTIN BRADY

March 4 at 8:31 am

We’ve all worked in companies with ugly cultures. Leaders bark orders and we are expected to blindly obey, even if it’s the wrong decision for the consumer or the company. Most obey their marching orders, but some passionate employees propose creative solutions to problems, only to have their ideas ignored. “Just do the job I hired you to do,” they say. The frustration builds, stripping employees of their natural creativity.  They become exasperated and stop caring. Read more of this post

The consigliere of Silicon Valley: Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz has been called high tech’s new Andy Grove, the “CEO Whisperer,” and “the management guru to all of the young entrepreneurs in the Valley” by Mark Zuckerberg

The consigliere of Silicon Valley

BY JENA MCGREGOR

March 4 at 11:19 am

Venture capitalist Ben Horowitz has been called high tech’s new Andy Grove, the “CEO Whisperer,” and “the management guru to all of the young entrepreneurs in the Valley” by none other than Mark Zuckerberg. Reading his new book, The Hard Thing About Hard Things, it’s easy to see why. Read more of this post

The disruptive power of collaboration: An interview with Clay Shirky; How we collaborate has profound implications for how we live and work. The author and New York University professor explains how social media has upended traditional norms

The disruptive power of collaboration: An interview with Clay Shirky

How we collaborate has profound implications for how we live and work. The author and New York University professor explains how social media has upended traditional norms.

March 2014

Sharing changes everything

Upending supply and demand

Creating success from failure Read more of this post

Feeling Burned Out? The One Change That Could Fix Everything

FEELING BURNED OUT? THE ONE CHANGE THAT COULD FIX EVERYTHING

WHAT DO STEVE JOBS, BOB DYLAN, AND PLATO ALL HAVE IN COMMON? APART FROM BEING SOME OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL PEOPLE IN HISTORY, ALL OF THEM THOUGHT OF WORK AS A GAME.

BY CHARLIE HOEHN

Within a matter of months, I quit two amazing jobs. Read more of this post

Lisa Ho has not spoken publicly since the collapse of her fashion empire last year. Breaking her silence she reveals her harrowing ordeal, which saw her lose her business, her marriage and then her money

Lisa Ho’s betrayal

Published 03 March 2014 09:41, Updated 04 March 2014 10:02

Hannah Low

Designer Lisa Ho at one of her shows. Photo: Steven Siewert

It was a warm day early in the spring of 2011 when fashion guru Lisa Ho and her accountant of 18 years met with a charismatic financier ­promising glittering returns and pools of money at the showroom for her iconic fashion label in Sydney’s trendy Surry Hills. Read more of this post

Med school dropout Josh Reich makes $130m look simple; Reich just sold his US online banking start-up, Simple, to Spanish global bank BBVA for $US117 million

Med school dropout Josh Reich makes $130m look simple

Published 03 March 2014 10:51, Updated 04 March 2014 10:02

John Kehoe

Simple Bank co-founder and CEO Josh Reich in New York. Photo: Trevor Collens

Australians love to bash their banks. Josh Reich is a 35-year-old Australian who has turned bank bashing into a rich-list fortune. Read more of this post

How Affinity Childcare plans to avoid the fate of ABC Learning by only buying established centres: ‘We create a market for entrepreneurs to exit’

Caitlin Fitzsimmons Online editor

How Affinity Childcare plans to avoid the fate of ABC Learning by only buying established centres: ‘We create a market for entrepreneurs to exit’

Published 28 February 2014 12:35, Updated 03 March 2014 10:32

Affinity Childcare did not exist a year ago but it has since bought 57 centres and a chain of 12 managed centres, floated on the Australian Securities Exchange and on Friday, it reported its first set of financial results as a public company. Read more of this post

More than 1 million patients suffer harm each year while being treated in the U.S. health care system. Even more receive substandard care or costly overtreatment

One Third of Skilled Nursing Patients Harmed in Treatment

A study by Medicare’s inspector general of skilled nursing facilities says nearly 22,000 patients were injured and more than 1,500 died in a single month — a higher rate of medical errors than hospitals. Read more of this post

Is it good for people to fail occasionally? In our highly competitive world, we prize success and hate it when things go wrong, but is there actually a value in failing?

3 March 2014 Last updated at 00:47

Is it good for people to fail occasionally?

Lucy Wallis BBC News

In our highly competitive world, we prize success and hate it when things go wrong, but is there actually a value in failing? Read more of this post