Spirituality and Business: Corporate & Personal Search for Identity

In a reputed business school, a session on cause-related marketing and social responsibility of business was in progress. Two volunteers from the class had to simply describe themselves as persons as if to Ômarket' that idea like a product or service to the class.

Read more here: » Spirituality and Business: Corporate Personal Search for Identity

"We are all spiritual beings first and foremost, we exist beyond our bodies'', say Debra and William Miller, an American couple who have launched an international research programme on spiritual-based leadership in business. William began his spiritual journey at Puttaparathi in 1982 under the guidance of Sri Sathya Sai Baba, and made frequent trips to India thereafter.

But after marrying Debra in 1999, "we have come home to India, leaving our home in the US''. In an interview to Mahendra Ved, they say that they believe it is their dharma to help awaken spirituality in business, "and India is the best place to grow in our ability to do this'':

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

Today, there is a perceptible shift in the way business operates in the world - from a mechanistic and linear view to a more organic and holistic one. Decisions are more often peoplecentred. Business ethics have assumed importance.

Corporates no longer search for the elusive 'best talent'; they are seeking ways to realise the best in existing talent.

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

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)

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)

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)

Does the recent interest exhibited in non-fiction titles such as The Soul of Business, A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America, The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace, The Three-Minute Meditation etc in the US point to the possible evolution of the "enlightened corporate sector"?

Do Indian managers, born in a land that has offered "yoga and meditation" to the world corporate sector (to overcome stress), have the "first-mover advantage"? These are the questions that should interest "enlightened" managers in "progressive" Indian corporations.

(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)

If you are a corporate leader and you would like to include spirituality in your organisation's culture, you are not alone.

Business leaders we've met, and management students sometimes ask us if it's really possible to make spirituality an overt and explicit part of an organisational culture - without causing religious conflicts or being inappropriate to an otherwise secular way of operating.

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

In February of 2000, we began writing an in-depth programme for working people which explores five human values that are found across all spiritual traditions: Truth, righteousness, love, peace and non-violence. The title is Human Values in the Workplace: Making Spirituality the Inner Context for Your Work.  [1]  

We were inspired to write this programme because our collective business experience showed us that these five human values were the fundamental roots of a healthy, vibrant, viable organisation - and of healthy, vibrant, viable individuals.

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

As you explore how to work from a spiritual basis, it is natural that you might have some concerns or reservations about its' "practicality" in your work environment. Your concerns might be challenges you face in integrating your spiritual ideas with your work, and your reservations might include doubts or hesitations about working in a spiritual way.

For example, some people are positive about business and sceptical about spirituality:

- "Business and spirituality just don't mix."

- "You can't really be competitive in business if you're spiritual."

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

In previous articles, we've shared inspiring stories of people who have found their "true calling" in their work. Another way that some people have walked this path is to deepen their calling as their career progresses.

The story of Peter Pruzan , Professor Emeritus from the Copenhagen Business School - and one of our colleagues in researching and writing about spiritual-based work - exemplifies that kind of deepening.

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

Imagine riding in a car whose four cylinder engine is working on only three cylinders, and whose gasoline is diluted with water. The car will struggle along, using only a part of its inherent power. It might still get you where you want to go, but with difficulty (and probably not up the steep hills!).

At work, if we are running on only the power of mind , body, and emotions, we're running on only three cylinders. And if we find ourselves reacting to situations with anxiety, agitation, or anger - and feeling "there's not enough time to do our best" - we're using diluted fuel. What's missing?

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)

In our 1st article on spiritual character ("The Power of Spiritual Character"), we shared with you the following equation that we use to define and develop spiritual character:

Spiritual Character = Spiritual Context + Spiritual Purpose + Spiritual Values

______________________________________ Ego Desires

The first element of this equation, your spiritual context, represents your spiritual view of life. The dictionary defines context as: the interrelated conditions in which something exists or occurs: an environment . So your spiritual context is the spiritual 'container' or 'frame of reference' within which you experience all of life, including your work.

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)