What would you think if a senior vice-president from a multinational telecom firm said to you: Spirituality is very important to me as a person. I believe in God strongly. If ever there's a time for spiritual leadership, it's now. You must connect with a person's soul, at the deepest core. It can sometimes be lonely but you also feel happy and grounded inside. You also embrace your own humanness and imperfections and it keeps you humble as a leader and yet still strong.

She, and other executives like her, have helped us realise that spirituality is an emerging basis for highly successful business leadership. While these words are an inspiration to many, they can also evoke scepticism, doubt, and criticism.

To put these reactions into perspective, we've found that over the last 100 years, four distinct contexts of leadership have emerged in business. Each context represents a fundamental change in how we view the nature of business leadership and will therefore shape the perspectives and reactions of its leaders.

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

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

An inner revolution is being called for in business today - a return to our spiritual roots, to our inner source of spirituality - and leading our businesses through a fundamental change from that place.

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

Managers have to be very careful while making decisions. The first step is to collect the right information from the right sources. The Chief Executive spends a lot of time collecting and analysing various information.

Such information is categorised by Kautilya as three types:

"The affairs of a king (leader) are of three kinds: directly perceived, unperceived and inferred"

(This article explores the relevance of principles discussed in the 3rd Century BC treatise, Kautilya's ÔArthashastra', in Today's Corporate World)

(See also: Practising Affirmations, Affirmations, Practising Affirmations, Life Transforming Affirmations, Essence of Affirmations, Faith and Belief, Peace of Mind, Love and Happiness, Body Mind and Soul)

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)

Every leader knows that it's vitally important to stay in touch with those whom they lead and others who are impacted by their leadership (i.e., the stakeholders of their organisation). But how is it possible to stay genuinely aware of the things that are most meaningful to these people, especially if they have diverse and often differing views?

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

One of the questions we love to ask spiritual-based executives is, "How do you define business success?" While their answers are as unique and diverse as their personalities, invariably they have the same theme: to promote the inner happiness and fulfilment of everyone involved, and to sincerely make a positive contribution.

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)

Have you ever had a heart-to-heart conversation with a colleague, or small group at work, that left you feeling inspired and motivated? Have you ever wished that your organisation could be filled with these types of conversations, rather than the more typical "superficial" conversations?

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

In our last article, we spoke about the art of dialogue and how it can inspire meaningful conversations that lead to aligned action. Another way of fostering communication that creates energy and momentum is appreciative inquiry  [1]  . In an article titled Appreciative Inquiry: A Transformative Paradigm  [2]  , the underlying concepts are explained as:

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

Many years ago, the Hewlett-Packard Corporation surveyed their 200 most consistently successful leaders to discover their common management practises. One of their key practises was to create a set of values for their own workgroup, independent of but related to the company values. Then they measured every decision they made in the workgroup according to these values.

You as a leader can also do this by asking each person in your workgroup to identify one personal value they would like to have incorporated into the way your group works, day-to-day.

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

Tom Chappell and his wife co-founded the American company Tom's of Maine in 1971 on the principles of customer-focused, environmentally-conscious health products. As the company grew, profit maximisation began to dominate business planning, and Tom considered selling the business, as it was no longer fulfilling to him.

But in 1989, a new degree of spirituality awakened in him, and he called a special board meeting to create a new strategy and culture based on, "Respecting people for who they are and not for what they can do for us."

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

Several years ago William spoke at a large business symposium in New Delhi on the many varied aspects of becoming a spiritual-based leader in the workplace. During the question and answer session, a business executive asked him in a strong tone, "You've talked about how you can be spiritual and successful in business at the same time. India is known to be a spiritual nation. If we're so spiritual, why aren't we more successful in business and why is there so much corruption?"

William answered, "Over the last 10 years in the US, there has been a growing awareness of a distinction that you may or may not make here in India - the distinction between "being spiritual" and "being religious."

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

Character development is a business leader's greatest contribution to economic development, and business leaders steeped in spiritual values can best help build the Gross National Character (GNC) of our nations.

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

When an executive operates his or her business from a spiritual point of view, does it change their definition of the "bottom line"?

The term "bottom line" originally meant the last line of an income statement, the profits that remained after costs were deducted from revenues. Over time, it has come to mean something broader: "the key results" or the "most important outcomes" of an enterprise that drive its activities.

That shift in definition has followed the shift in the nature of business over the past century where the purpose of business and its bottom line measures have seen an evolution through four over-lapping contexts

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

If you're an executive who's committed to leading from a spiritual basis, you've undoubtedly considered its implications on your organisational culture. And you've probably wondered,

"Can a group of executives generate a spiritual foundation that revitalises the culture of an entire organisation - from which even its mission and values can emerge?"

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

Twenty-five union leaders showed up one morning for a surprise visit to the company president. Security officers called the president for instructions. "Send them up to my office," he said - and told his assistant to "prepare tea and coffee for 25." The leaders didn't trust the president to handle an important HR issue fairly. They stood and shouted what they were unhappy about.

He spoke calmly and respectfully, inviting them to sit and enjoy their drink while they talked. He reassured them that he'd quit before compromising his principles for fair and just hearings - and would reach a judgment based purely on merit, without giving in to favouritism and pressure.

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

In a previous article, we wrote about how to have your values be "all for one and one for all." We explored the difference between values that have a spiritual basis versus values based in self-centredness. But what does this mean to a leader of an organisation?

As a spiritual-based leader, it is natural that you want a strong foundation of organisational values, and want your employees to work from a strong foundation of personal values. In that light, what difference does it make for you to foster an environment that nurtures spiritual-based values?

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

While searching through some quotes from our spiritual teacher, we found one that has left a profound impression on us. It continually invites us to stop and ponder as to how it can be applied by leaders in the workplace.

If man is valued at his true worth, and treated as a Divine Spark enclosed in the body, then he will rise into new heights of achievement and produce all the necessities of life in profusion. He will not grab or cheat; he will be a good worker, a pure person, and a sincere spiritual aspirant. (Sathya Sai Speaks, Vol. IX)

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

Some years ago, a corporate executive asked William to coach and do a 360-degree feedback with one of his human resource managers who was having difficulty relating to his peers. The evening before they started their work together, William and the manager met for dinner just to get to know each other. For the first 30 minutes they talked about their backgrounds and work experiences; although William found the conversation interesting, he didn't feel that they were connecting at a deeper level.

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