Leadership is often associated with power. Today, the term has acquired negative connotations, particularly in politics. One has come to question the relative importance of being recognised as a "leader" when what we sorely need are individuals who both lead by their service and example and follow the universally accepted principles of responsible living.

We are beginning to see that traditional autocratic and hierarchical models of leadership are slowly yielding to a newer model. This model - of leaders as servants - will simultaneously enhance the personal growth of the led and improve the quality of our many institutions through a combination of individual and community teamwork in decision-making infused with ethical and caring behaviour.

(See also: Leadership, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

In an age when 30-something CEOs and VPs no longer surprise us and paradigms are busted each day, holding one's own at the workplace is a challenge in itself. One hundred and forty-one years after Swami Vivekananda was born, we need to evoke his vision and focus on the fact that life at the workplace can be much simpler and more fulfilling.

The Swami may not have been a student of management theory but the fundamental truths that he taught are invaluable in today's globalised workplace, where employees are often resentful of the relative success of others.

(See also: Swami Vivekananda, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

Yoga is now a universally sought-out medium and spirituality as a subject has become part of the curriculum of leading B-schools in the US. What is the reason for the resurgence of spirituality?

There are three interpretations: One school cites that in the modern era an organisation needs to innovate continuously to survive for which every individual stakeholder in the organisation needs to leverage his creative energy by connecting to God's own creative energy.

The other school feels that the sudden eruption of numerous corporate scandals worldwide is due to the lack of an appropriate value system. Hence the need to incorporate spirituality in the business curriculum apart from outlining the need for an evolution in the field of corporate governance.

(See also: Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

A group of senior managers was asked to associate words for 'organisation'. Their responses included these words: Hard, rules, procedural, hierarchy, top-down, pressure, challenges.

When asked to give associative words for 'organism', they offered these: Living, evolving, responsive, death, change, linked, inter-dependent. But we don't have sufficient operating images of 'organism' to guide our planning and decisions. To be effective organisations should apply the principles of biology, seeing the organisation as organism.

(See also: Spiritual Management, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna explains the virtues of detached action. As a professional manager, I find that there's a lot in the Gita that makes me a better practitioner of the art and craft of management. It is, I have discovered, a work on the philosophy of work.

My favourite shloka from Chapter II contains the essence of the Gita: "You have the right only to action, never to the fruits thereof; let not the fruit of your action be your motive; nor let there be any attachment to inaction."

(See also: Spirituality at workplace, Faith and Belief, Spiritual Guidance, God and Religion, Peace on Earth, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Life and Beyond, Body Mind and Soul)

As we discussed in our previous articles, the first step in developing spiritual character is to identify your spiritual context, which is your spiritual view of life. The second step is to identify and live your spiritual purpose.

William once attended a dialogue between a Christian monk and a Jewish rabbi on the similarities of their spiritual purpose. Brother David Steinelrast and Rabbi Dinn spoke eloquently of their common belief in One God and their similarity of spiritual values. Finally, during question-and-answer, a woman in the audience said, "I'm thrilled to hear what you've said, but let's face it: Brother David, you're a celibate monk, and Rabbi Dinn, you have a family with 12 kids. What's so similar about that?"

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

Have you ever known someone at work who always focused on "me, me, me" - preoccupied with enhancing their reputation or career, even at the expense of other people? You might have thought, "This person has such a big ego." The desires that spring from such an ego greatly diminish spiritual character.

What exactly are "ego desires"? The word "ego" is the Latin language word for "I" and means "the self, especially as contrasted with another self or the world." An ego desire originates from a feeling of separateness; its motivation is to satisfy individual wants and needs for our own self-centred, even selfish, benefit.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

When your source of motivation comes from your spiritual basis, you will naturally experience an equanimous detachment, while at the same time being fully dedicated to and acting toward your goal.

The chairman of a large corporation once told us:

If you worry about the fruits, then you have your attention on the scoreboard and not the ball. If you concentrate on the ball, the scoreboard will happen automatically. If you are looking at the scoreboard, you will lose the ball. If you do good work, you will get the returns, so do not worry about them.

The Bhagavad Gita further explains:

Do your worldly duty, but do it without any attachment to it or desire for its fruits. Keep your mind always on the Divine.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

It is inevitable that spiritual-based leaders will have to face and correct employees, contractors, suppliers, clients and even peers who have not acted as they had promised. Or sometimes the correction is needed because the person acted immorally, unethically or in a way that could have harmed themselves or others.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

As you begin to consider the ways to foster a spiritual revolution at work through your leadership, it's natural that you will want to be as inclusive and as respectful as you can with those whom you lead. So, what is the wisest way for a leader to do this?

Before you invite people to return to their spiritual roots and do their work from that foundation, always start by doing your own inner homework first . If you haven't already defined the spiritual view of life from which you lead, take some quiet time to do that now*. As a refresher, here are the two main steps to take:

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

When your values come from a spiritual basis, you'll become a beacon, or a magnet, to draw forth those values in others; that alone will begin to resolve many of the value conflicts you may be experiencing.

From time to time, people ask us, "What if my personal values conflict with the values of the company or person I work for?" After inquiring intently into this question, we've found that when values (whether personal or organisational) come from a spiritual basis, there will always be harmony among them. When values come from egoistic, self-centred intentions, that's when conflicts occur.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

Imagine what your workplace would be like if it fostered service, sacrifice, balance, good order, endurance, attentive regard, sharing, kept promises, courageous respect for others, and a check on the appetite for excess.

Have you ever noticed that sometimes your parents can be a great resource of ideas for your work, especially in ways you least expect? We experienced this when William's mother recently sent us an article entitled Finding Spirituality in the Workplace . It was written by a Jesuit priest named William Byron, and published in the Texas Catholic (USA) magazine.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

"When everyone is true to their Ôthumbprint', that is when we will experience heaven on earth." Wendy Darling, Thumbprints International

Even as we were writing our last two articles on what it means to follow our calling, another person's inspiring story was in our minds. Wendy Darling is a close friend in Dallas, Texas (USA) who, by discovering and following her calling, lives what she feels is a blessed life.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

Fred Schwettman, former president of the circuit technology division of Hewlett Packard, once told us:

We had a discussion one time about values and beliefs in our staff meeting. I think one of the most important things we can do is to articulate what our personal purpose is - really trying to understand what we're doing to grow, and to work on that. An example could be for me to know God or to find love associated with God and to practise that in whatever I do.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

When Debra managed a software development department years ago, she often gave her employees the motherly advice that "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure." This wise, old saying is most applicable when it comes to tuning in to our conscience. Unfortunately, most of us are not aware of our conscience until it "bothers" us. By then, we are typically engaged in difficulties that require extra time and energy to clear up. And yet, it is possible to pro-actively tune in to our conscience, allowing it to be our daily friend and guide.

Why should we bother to tune in to our conscience at work?

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

Our spiritual teacher often reminds us to be thankful for our challenges and difficulties, and to consider them as good for us. We initially resisted this wise guidance, since our natural tendency is to shy away from those things that we don't have a ready answer for, especially if the outcome seems risky.

And yet, over the years we have found that it's often the plunge from confidence to darkness that grabs our attention the most, and requires us to search our souls for creative ideas and solutions.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

In our previous article about the "Creative Journey", we described four stages to creatively respond to the challenges we face at work. At this point you may be wondering, "Isn't creativity a spontaneous experience? Won't it suppress creativity to follow some prescribed process?"

To the contrary. In his 20 years in the field of innovation and creativity, William has observed that, ironically, discipline enables our creativity . For example, highly artistic dancers or musicians spend years in training to be able to express their creativity in ways that few people can even dream of.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

In our last two articles, we discussed how to use the Creative Journey to turn work challenges into creative opportunities. We asked you to recall a creative journey that you've experienced in the past, and described how USA astronaut Edgar Mitchell creatively handled the challenges he faced in his flight to and from the moon.

Each stage of the Creative Journey has two distinct steps, each with its own unique question. The story of Mary Nelson, President of Bethel New Life in West Side Chicago, USA, illustrates how she followed these steps to create a new future out of a definite challenge: to rejuvenate housing in run-down urban communities:

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

A financial consultant once spent many hours working to secure prospective clients, but was unable to close the sales. His manager told him that either he would need to improve his numbers or the company might ask him to go. The consultant began to view both his manager and his prospects as adversaries. He became skeptical whether his work would ever pay off and despaired about his career.

At this point, we invited him to see his work from a spiritual view. He realised that his spiritual view involved the notion of deep, inner trust. He discovered that when he saw his work situations through the spiritual lens of "trust," he could release his negative judgments and feel in

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

In high school and college, Debra excelled in accounting and William in mathematics. So, from time to time we love to represent new ideas using numbers or equations. As we were looking at the components that make up our view of spiritual character, we realised there was a great equation we could use:

Spiritual Character = Spiritual Context + Spiritual Purpose + Spiritual Values

______________________________________ Ego Desires

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

What are the traditional ways in which people define "personal success at work"? For many, it means one or more of the following:

á  Earning enough money to be materially comfortable in life

á  Progressing in one's career path

á  Gaining positional power and status

á  Producing high-quality work

á  Helping to grow/build an organisation or business

á  Helping to grow people, personally and professionally

á  Serving customers or clients

á  Benefiting other stakeholders, such as society and the environment

á  Providing for the well-being of future generations

How about you? In traditional terms, how would you define your "personal success at work"?

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)

In this article we will explore truth , the first of five human values found in all spiritual traditions (truth, righteousness, peace, love, non-violence). Most people think of truth as simply being honest. However, the spiritual essence of truth reveals much deeper implications as Sathya Sai Baba, a spiritual teacher explains:

Truth is not merely telling the facts about what you see or hear or know. These are temporal truths. Truth relates to the unchanging reality. It is changeless in all three categories of time: past, present, and future. That is Divinity.

See also: Spirituality At Work, Work As A Spiritual Practice, Spiritual Based Leadership)