Golfing with the Enlightened Dead - Lessons on leadership and meaning from the pros

Cruise Malloy David

Description

This book has been written for those who work as well as for those of us who might play golf regularly or just now and then. Specifically, it is written for those who desperately want to make work more than useless toil - rewarded only by a pay-cheque; and for those who wish to make leadership more than simply fulfilling organizational demands with "carrots and sticks". While this story takes place on a golf course, one does not need to play the game to appreciate the message. Though it is a book about the philosophy of work and leadership, one does not need to be a philosopher or even to have taken a course in philosophy to appreciate the message and the humour contained within. Anyone who is reflecting on their life as a working person would find this book helpful, funny, entertaining, completely different from other books about work or golf, and, most importantly - thought provoking. There are over 61 million people in the world that have conversations on a golf course.

Sujets

• Philosophie et théologie
• Philosophy
• History of philosophy
• Corporate governance

Informations

• Publié par: Pneuma Springs Publishing
• Date de parution: 03 mars 2016
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781782284116
• Langue: English

Extrait

GOLFING WITH THE ENLIGHTENED DEAD

Lessons on leadership and meaning from the pros



D.C. Malloy
&
D.L. Lang
Copyright


First Published in 2016 by: Pneuma Springs Publishing Golfing with the Enlightened Dead -
Lessons on leadership and meaning from the pros Copyright © 20 16 D.C. Malloy & D.L. Lang D.C. Malloy & D.L. Lang have asserted their rights under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified a
s Authors of this Work British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Mobi eISBN: 9781782284093 ePub eISBN: 9781782284116 PDF eBook eISBN: 9781782284130 Paperback ISBN: 9781782284079 Pneuma Springs Publishing E: [e-mail] W: www.pneumasprings.co.uk
Cover art work credit: The Enlightened ( Mixed media collage 5x7) by Laurie Kilgour-Walsh 2015 Photography by Kyle McLeown Edited by Richard Hovey, Associate Professor, McGill University, Montreal, Canada. Published in the United Kingdom. All rights reserved under International Copyright Law. Contents and/or cover may not be reproduced in whole or in part without the express written consent of the publisher.
Dedication
This book is dedicated to Group Captain DG Malloy DFC. A decorated fighter pilot, an outstanding athlete but most importantly a brilliant husband and father. Cheers Bud!
Praise for
Golfing with the Enlightened Dead - Lessons on leadership and meaning from the pros
by D.C. Malloy & D.L. Lang

“This is truly a fascinating book. It makes the ideas of the great philosophers meaningful to everyday life. A remarkable achievement.”
- Dale Eisler, Senior Policy Fellow, Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, Former Assistant Deputy Minister, Natural Resources Canada & Consul General to the USA
“It's very accessible. Over nine holes of golf we are introduced to the ideas of some of the great thinkers and shown how we can all become applied philosophers, using these ideas to lead better lives. The world needs more applied philosophers!”
- Elizabeth Fistein PhD MRCPsych
Ethics and Law Lead, School of Clinical Medicine, University of Cambridge
“What if you could play a round of golf with history's most provocative philosophers? The Enlightened Dead gives us that opportunity and at the same time offers a practical guide to leadership. A great read for fans of golf, leadership and philosophy.”
- Bryan Walkey
President, MeetingZone North America
“This book offers meaningful insights from Socrates, Aristotle and other great minds to help give you a “competitive and meaningful advantage” in today’s business world.
Dave Ploughman President & CEO, BSTREET Group,
Toronto, London, New York
“Play a round of golf ... and learn the origin of foundational theories of organizational behaviour."
Rob Cooke, Leadership Advisor and Strategist
Table of Contents
Preface
The Scene
The First Hole: Socrates and the Midwife
The Second Hole: Aristotle and the Target for Living Well
The Third Hole: Heidegger and the Lost Art of Meditative Thinking
The Fourth Hole: Nietzsche, Pain, and Passion
The Fifth Hole: Vivekananda and Karma-Yoga
The Sixth Hole: Sartre and Good and Bad Faith
The Seventh Hole: Freud and Adler – Pleasure and Power
The Eighth Hole: Skinner and Conditioning a Good Swing
The Ninth Hole: Frankl, Meaning, and Golf
The Clubhouse
Appendix A: Overview of Philosophers & Leadership
Appendix B: Biographies of Our Golfers
Bibliography
About the Authors
The Players: Sages and Lunatics
The Philosophers
Socrates – father of Western philosophy
Aristotle – father of Western science and logic
Heidegger – philosopher of time and thinking
Nietzsche – philosopher of passion and pain
Vivekananda – Hindu mystic of Karma-Yoga
Sartre – philosopher of freedom and responsibility

The Psychologists
Freud – father of psychoanalysis
Adler – father of will to power
Skinner – father of behaviourism
Frankl – founder of logotherapy

The Golfer
Bud Graland – former fighter pilot, student of leadership, “scratch” handicap, good listener

The Course – Somewhere in Scotland
Preface
While each of us has a sense of what the words leadership, work, and philosophy mean individually, we rarely see the three of them combined and put into action. This book is an attempt to show how leadership, work, and philosophy interrelate and how the great thinkers of the past might approach leadership today; it’s an attempt to work through their particular intellectual lenses. Ordinarily such a discussion is difficult, complex, and far from a leisure activity, or it is portrayed much too simply, preventing you from establishing a strong philosophical foothold. In this book, we take you down a different path – through a quick round of golf, during which our characters discuss these ideas. Through golf, a remarkable and profoundly philosophical game, we contemplate happiness, joy, frustration, and despair. The game acts as a testing ground for our ability to deal with adversity when we hit a ball out of bounds twice off the tee, or three-putt a green, or want to toss our clubs into the pond after double-bogeying the eighteenth hole. It also brings out the very best in us when we graciously adhere to etiquette on the course or when we refuse to cheat by kicking a ball out of a bad lie in the rough even when we know we could get away with it. Golf acts as a midwife, helping deliver the best and/or worst in us.
Before we go any further, let’s be clear what we mean by the term philosophy. At least three perspectives come to mind. First, we can certainly think of it as something professors do for a living – thinking of obscure ideas, writing their thoughts using complex often impenetrable jargon to their colleagues at other universities who are trained in the same complex language – a world of their own that sometimes makes little sense to the average person. Second, we can also think of philosophy as power. Why power? Because by thinking through everyday problems with different lens we are much better decision-makers. As better decision-makers we are more powerful and effective leaders. Finally, we can think of philosophy as a means to achieve a sense of meaning in our work, in our leadership, and in our lives. As such, philosophy can be viewed as a ‘tool box’ of ideas that we can use to build our lives moment by moment and decision by decision. The essential point to take from the latter two views is that philosophy should not be left only to those paid by universities. It should be embraced by any one of us with will to be curious, creative, and the desire to find meaning in what they do.
The Scene
We are joined in this round of golf by Bud Graland, a student of both golf and leadership, and by a mixed bag of sages and lunatics from the past. We hope that you enjoy the round and that this book will help you see leadership and work through new lenses. Perhaps it will even improve your game!
Bud had much on his mind and was desperately in need of a quick nine holes of golf to provide the context for some much-needed introspection. In his life, he had been a profoundly respected fellow, a gentleman and a decorated fighter pilot who loved the great game of golf. He had enjoyed a successful career in the Royal Air Force, and at age fifty-five, he had left the military to become a successful entrepreneur. As a consequence, he had experienced the world of work both as a senior leader in a large, complex, traditional, and highly structured bureaucracy – the military - and as an independent businessman whose success was fully dependent upon personal creativity in a culture of chaos. Bud was well acquainted with and completely fascinated by the many ways in which people approach work and leadership. He had, over the years, been an avid reader of organisational and leadership theory books. He was well versed in all the quick fix–checklist approaches and in the more academic psychological strategies to get people to work harder, better, and longer. But these pop-culture and academic approaches always left him wanting – there had to be something more!
Bud had recently accepted a vice-president position with the company he had been with for twenty-plus years. In his previous roles within this company, Bud had felt competent, confident, and comfortable. But now everything had changed; his new role carried significantly more responsibility and higher expectations. His worry and concern about this had resulted in many sleepless nights over the past few weeks, with no let-up in sight. The vice-president of human resources had thoughtfully offered to provide leadership training at a posh resort, but to Bud, the current theories seemed to be superficial attempts to hide organisational manipulation. He needed something more – something he could genuinely embrace as noble leadership.
There was a time when Bud believed that leadership was a formula, that if he followed it step by step or adopted “habits of highly effective leaders,” leadership would be easy. Certainly these pop experts knew all the tricks to get the most out of people in a workplace – at least in the short term. But Bud had been sent to these leadership courses and sessions before, and upon reflecting on those experiences, he realized that these courses and seminars reminded him of quick-fix fitness gimmicks and self-help books. None of which work because they avoid deeper issues such as self-perception, emotional states, and stress.
Bud reflected on all of the self-help books he had read over the years; like most diets, these books suggest the possibility of change but are too superficial to be profoundly helpful. Could a week in “leadership boot camp” be enough to help Bud achieve the depth and quality of leadership that he hoped to bring to his new job? Leadership by numbers, the tips and tricks of leadership, a mythological approach t