84 Ducere Est Servire: THE LEADERSHIP JOURNAL OF DALLAS BAPTIST UNIVERSITY A Leadership Reflection Inspired by The Screwtape Letters Jenni Harwood Jenni Harwood serves as Assistant Director for Ministry and Missions Engagement at Dallas Baptist University. The following is an essay in which students were asked to creatively reflect on challenges in their own leadership experience using the style of C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters. It is written imaginatively from one malevolent spirit to another about how to trip up the leader. My dear Wormwood, I hear your patient has a new role. Although it may seem as if she is equipped to lead others astray (she gets paid to work explicitly for the Enemy), please don’t fret. There is plenty of opportunity here for you to needle your way in. See how she is constantly looking for others’ validation? Make your voice one of the many she listens to. There’s an uncertainty in her that flares up at crossroads. Next time she has a decision to make, or really if there is just the slightest bit of change, that is precisely when you should strike. The easiest way to get her off balance is simply to fill her mind with what-ifs. As I’ve told you before, getting patients to focus on the future is when we can do some of our best work. She naturally thinks ahead, so just keep her there. Continue to flood her mind with the worst-case scenario. If she starts to rationalize, remind her that she is being practical—a good leader always needs to be prepared, right? Honestly, Wormwood, it shouldn’t be that difficult. Before you were assigned to her, our dreadful cousin Sedah was responsible for her. He would capitalize on a simple mistake by reminding her of it over and over again. If you time it properly, one memory will easily send her into a spiral. No need to try anything fancy (you
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