Leadership: The Esau Factor

(Part of Chapter 1)
Every living being as well as everyone who has ever passed this planet has a history. While the history of others can be well known, celebrated and considered as of international nature, others have history for which there is nothing worth to write about. While the history of others are very inspiring and motivating to others and of positive impact to many, the history of others carry negative impact and serves no meaningful purpose to others. But irrespective of a person’s history, there is always a positive dimension people can learn valuable lessons from.
The man Esau has a history that many consider as not worthy of any positive impact for them or for mankind. He is a man well noted for two specific qualities or traits that make many who know about his story scorn at him. No leader who wants to make a name or mark in his leadership mandate will ponder over the name Esau and what positive principles of leadership he can learn from him. The case of Esau can be likened to what Nathanael told Philip when the latter told the former that he had found Jesus. Nathanael said to Philip: “Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:43-46). Many who know the history of Esau will equally be asking the same questions, can any good thing come out from the life of Esau?
For purposes of this book, these two qualities have been tagged as:
1. The quality of despising his birthright.
This can be translated as the quality where leaders despise their personal worth and or despise the assets of their organizations. They consider themselves as not having the capacity to do what is required of them. This incapacity syndrome can be compared to what God told the people of Israel in Deuteronomy 7:17 “If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; How can I dispossess them?” I believe that many are the leaders who have lost golden opportunities for their own personal growth and for organizational breakthroughs due to this I cannot do syndrome.
2. The quality of chasing after the impossible or the lost blessings.
Esau lost the blessings from his departing father Isaac to his junior brother, Jacob. When Esau saw that he had lost the cherished and much awaited for fatherly blessings, he cried saying in Genesis 27:34 “And when Esau heard the words of his father, he cried with a great and exceeding bitter cry, and said unto his father, bless me, even me also, O my father”. He wept, he cried and he implored the father to bless him also. In the end, Isaac pronounced some words on Esau which were not that pleasant to his ears. In general, it is considered that what Isaac pronounced constituted more of a curse than a blessing. We can read that from Genesis 27:37-40
Leadership and leaders work and seek for the best for their organizations. However, leaders should take a cue from here to have the discernment not to follow after things that can turn out to be curses for their organizations instead of blessings.
Genesis 33:8-11
And Esau said, I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself.
Esau captured and focused on the positive words or phrases in the curses bestowed on him by the father. Esau was that wise enough not to concentrate on the negative aspects of the curses received from his father. He quickly put that behind him and seized the opportunity to capitalize on the dominion aspect contained in the statement of curses received from the father.

What principles leadership that Esau applied and adopted that catapulted his life and brought about such turnaround from a man cursed to:
• a man commanding more than 400 men from his own house with whom he went to meet Jacob in the latter's return from his stay with Laban.
• initially reject the gifts from Jacob to him by declaring: “I have enough, my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself:”
What really changed the story and life history of Esau from a cursed one to one of "I have enough", my brother; keep that thou hast unto thyself”? This statement made by Esau to Jacob is a statement of abundance; meaning that Esau lived in abundance. This is further evidenced from Genesis 36:7 “For their riches were more than that they might dwell together; and the land wherein they were strangers could not bear them because of their cattle”.
How often do we hear of turnarounds, change, transformation and words of this kind in organizations? Every organization will want to keep on turning things around positively on a daily basis and continue to enjoy a state of continuous transformation. That being a reality, leaders who have the task to championing such turnarounds and transformations have to sit at the feet of Esau and constantly learn how he succeeded in turning his fortunes around.

This I have enough, my brother, keep that what thou hast to thyself statement made by Esau to his brother Jacob, caught my attention so much that in my deep reflections, I concluded that Esau turned his fortunes around on the application of the acronyms of his name:

E – Encouragement: Encouraging himself
S – Seeing the Future from now
A – Admission of past failures and mistakes
U – Understanding: The need of understanding in leadership.
In addition to the acronyms, I asked myself the question: what else might Esau have done that earned him the accolade I have enough, my brother, keep that what thou hast to thyself?
Taking these thoughts into consideration therefore, the rest of the book has been arranged in the following order:

Chapter 2 – Leadership and Encouragement
Chapter 3 – Leadership and Seeing the Future
Chapter 4 – Leadership and Admission of Past Mistakes
Chapter 5 – Leadership and Understanding
Chapter 6 – What Else Did Esau Do?
Chapter 7 – Leadership Challenges and Lessons
Chapter 8 – Closing Remarks