Spirituality In Leadership Trailer
You are listening to Spirituality In Leadership Podcast. Join Andrew Cohn in exploring different ways leaders can leverage their spiritual dimensions for the benefit of others. Each episode focuses on the thread that connects spirituality and leadership, providing you with the roadmap to become more fulfilled and effective in all roles of your life. Prepare to dive into these insightful discussions that will guide you on embracing servant leadership, understanding your purpose in life, and tapping into your core dimensions.
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Spirituality In Leadership Trailer
Introduction
This first episode of the podcast will focus on some definitions and direction, essentially we're setting the stage here for the podcast. I suspect that there may be other such recordings that provide definitions, direction, and context setting for these important conversations, but in this initial episode, my intention here is to answer some questions including what is this thing about spirituality in leadership? What do we mean? Why does it matter? How can it help me in my organization? How can this help me in my leadership? Personally, to be more fulfilled and functionally and operationally to be more effective.
This topic is about the intersections of spirituality and leadership. It's not about religion. It's not about dogma. It's not about rules. It's not about the right way or wrong way to do something. It's about who we are as people and how we can show up. Why our service and attention and the best of ourselves are needed now more than ever? As I'm recording this it's late 2022. It'll be interesting to return to this in a year or two or five and see if the themes still hold true, to what extent, and with what emphasis.
The thesis of spirituality in leadership as I define it, I could discuss as follows. Each of us has core dimensions. Dimensions, meaning components of ourselves, levels of ourselves, dimensions of consciousness that are universal, positive, and helpful both to ourselves and to others. I'll talk about what I mean by that in just a minute.
Many of us as individuals are focused on actively developing these dimensions. These becoming more aware of and leveraging these deeper parts of ourselves and we do that in a variety of ways from exercise to yoga to prayer to music and dancing. Just many different ways that will be discussed actually during the course of the conversations that will constitute this podcast as it moves forward.
These qualities and attributes that we are focused on developing typically in our personal lives that are we're focused on. These qualities are deeply important to leadership and are needed now more than ever in our organizations and we'll talk about that and some detail. Both we and our teams benefit from the expression of these parts of ourselves and the invitation to others to express these parts of ourselves and the parts of others as well.
Your core dimensions are deeply important to leadership. Both you and your teams benefit from these and serve as an invitation for others to express themselves as well.
This is about developing our own leadership and self-mastery as well as leading and serving others more effectively and that in my belief and experience is how leadership works, it works from the inside out. I share these ideas with you stemming from some education that I've had the blessing of receiving as well as 25 years in the leadership development and team development space. Sharing some experiences of my own as well as inviting some guests to talk about their experiences and what they can teach us about how this all works and why it's important to work it.
Consciousness And Dimensions
The first question I'd like to address here is. What do I mean by spirituality in leadership and more specifically now? What do I mean by spirituality? I would refer back to a model of consciousness. A map of consciousness, if you will. This is adapted from my teachers Dr. Ron and Mary Holmes at the University of Santa Monica in California.
The way that they simply structured our consciousness is that there would be four levels of consciousness. The really four dimensions to each of us as people. From one to four, from top to bottom, we're moving from what's more apparent and tangible. Perhaps superficial to what's deeper and richer and perhaps more universal.
The first of these dimensions would be the physical level. We think about what's happening on the physical level for each of us. Our health, our job, money, and the things we have. Those impersonal things or perhaps sometimes personal but those things we can touch. The real tip of the iceberg part of ourselves, the physical level.
Beneath that would be the mental level and the emotional level together. Some people might refer to those as the ego. I'm not going to dispute anything like that type of categorization, but the mental level is what we think, how we think, what our mindsets might be. How do we process, what our judgments might be would be at the mental level?
Then the emotional level. How we feel, of course. Do we feel good? Do we feel bad? Happy, sad, angry, that emotional level. I think it's interesting to note that there's a positive and negative to each of these three. There's a better or worse. There are things good on the physical level. Do we feel bad? There's a plus and a minus, positive, and negative on each of these three dimensions which is totally understandable. Generally speaking, when we think about enriching our lives, whatever that means to us, we want to move from the negative to the positive, whatever that might be.
Below these three levels, the physical, mental, and emotional are the deeper self-level. Some might call this the spiritual level. I don't think this is anything radical. I don't think this is blasphemy in any way to suggest that and if it is, it is what it is. I'm here to talk about what I see is as useful and valuable but at that deeper spiritual level that's the place where we're loving lives, acceptance, and inner peace. That's where forgiveness lives, where altruism lives, where purpose lives, where meaning lives at that deeper level.
We start to think about why am I here. What am I here to do? What's my purpose? When I think about living from a truly inside-out purpose-driven place. It's much deeper than simply how I feel or simply how I think, although I think that how we feel and how we think will inform how we express and use these deeper dimensions and components of ourselves. It's that self or spiritual level at our core. That Universal level because I think as all human beings we have this level, that's a belief that I have. I don't know that I can prove it, but I choose to believe that and live that way.
I think importantly this is not about religion. It's not about any particular tradition. This is a universal experience and I think that each of us accesses that deeper spiritual level in different ways. Some people do that through yoga, some people do that through prayer. Some people do that through exercise, music, dancing, sitting in silence, being in nature.
Research has shown I think about the work of Andy Newberg and some of his books coming from Jefferson and Penn in Philadelphia. I've researched the impact of mindfulness practices for example and prayer on our brains. It takes us literally to a deeper level in our brains, an unconscious deeper level below what we're thinking. It changes our brain waves.
Anyway, that's happening. That's invisible. I'm not a scientist to speak to that but just to note that this is a universal reality. It doesn't matter what our religion and tradition might be if we engage in these activities that can take us to a deeper level. Many of us are very interested in almost always this in our personal lives, people don't talk about this too much at work, but we're trying to develop these attributes within ourselves.
We're trying to be more accepting. We're trying to be more forgiving, we're trying to be more loving and altruistic and focus on service and helping others. Certainly, servant leadership is something that's a key theme in leadership. We do this work individually and it tends to be separated from our jobs. Part of what this podcast is about will be to invite conversation about how we can bring these parts of ourselves into our roles as leaders. Whatever the role or title or level, whatever the type of organization whether it be a Fortune 500 company or a community group or a family. Whatever it might be.
I would suggest that in functional practical ways. This deeper spiritual level can provide each of us with peace and balance. I think many of us have had experiences that we might call them spiritual quote unquote. That leaves us feeling more relaxed and open and also thinking more clearly as well. I think about some of the research that's come out of the University of Pennsylvania.
I tend to be aware of what's happening at Penn because I've worked there over the years but some of the research about the impact of mindfulness on decision-making. For example, If we can connect to a deeper part of ourselves and clear our minds through mindfulness, we can make better decisions. Spiritual, it can be big and life-changing like some kind of big epiphany or spiritual awareness or opening or It could be something smaller and more ordinary but no less spiritual like holding a baby for a minute or praying in some manner for a few minutes or finding peace in a walk in the woods.
I think about the research that I read about in the recent book called The Extended Mind, The Power of Thinking Outside The Brain which talks about how we are wired for nature to help us think more clearly. Why not do it? I would suggest, for example, feeling the deep relaxation and peace that comes from a long run. A great yoga class, an intimate conversation with a close friend.
The Extended Mind: The Power of Thinking Outside the Brain
I'd also say that it's from this deeper place, the spiritual level that we can see our reality more neutrally and with more unconditional positive regard. We can be more present, we experience less anxiety and less pressure and this helps us in whatever we may choose to do. Including leading better, leading others, and serving others better.
Because of we're more peaceful and loving we're thinking more clearly. We're more calm. We're more than we're more open. We can lead better and just one example of this would be, we can listen more effectively, which is my experience if it's not the top feature of effective leadership. It's got to be top two or three.
Spirituality And Leadership
That's what I mean when I talk about the spiritual dimensions of ourselves and how those dimensions live at the core of each of us. We access those and we engage in practices to help us access those sometimes very consciously and deliberately in order to enrich our lives personally. What does that mean in terms of leadership? That's all interesting. We have these dimensions. We try to cultivate them, lovely. Why does that matter in terms of leadership? Because my work is in leadership. It's not in mindfulness or spiritual practices of any kind. It's in leadership.
Well, these dimensions are needed in leadership now more than ever. I would assert. Team members think differently now, they want different things from their work. They have different challenges in relation to their work than their parents did. This is even more true for the youngest team members, for Gen Z's who are more interested, research shows in working with purpose in seeing jobs as opportunities to learn and to grow rather than seeing jobs as extended careers, the days of 20 or 30-year careers with a single organization seem to have passed by.
People want to contribute to something meaningful so leaders have to be able to inspire in their communication and they have to be able to think and act in ways that invite inspiration for team members and promote inspiration. People have always wanted meaning in their lives I think but now it's something that is often discussed at work. People read meaningful books, look at meaningful websites, work out, and take yoga classes. They often have side hustles or meaningful businesses on the side and they talk about them now more than ever. It's front and center in Business Magazines when we talk about purpose. We talk about meaning and we talk about engagement now. This is what engages people, meaning engages people.
Leaders must inspire in their communication. They have to think and act in ways that promote inspiration.
Our team members are concerned. I think thankfully very appropriately about the state of our world. Maybe their hearts and their values are more activated than in the past or at least it's something that's more permissible to be discussed and leaders have to be able to hold space for this. By that, I mean they have to be able to create an environment within which individuals and groups can talk about these things and explore these things and feel free to go there so that their work can be meaningful, and their engagement can be higher.
They can be more invested in their work and feel more connected to it. Also, people increasingly feel the need to be seen accepted, and valued at work. This can mean several different things but one idea I have here a note about is this notion of inclusion and how implicit and explicit biases and racism. Obviously, this results in people feeling marginalized, excluded, and unwelcome, which of course results in our turnover. less informed decision-making, and of course lower levels of Engagement.
If I'm operating with a strong connection to the spiritual dimensions I talked about a few minutes ago. I'm listening better, I'm including people, and I'm more caring toward people all people. I'm demonstrating more patience. I'm holding space, unless potentially reactive, more responsive, more open. Leaders need to be able to engage with everyone authentically.
Leaders must engage with everyone authentically. They must help others feel valued and invite them to show up authentically.
To help other people feel valued and invite them to show up authentically. I saw a quote recently in a Forbes website article, “The true measure of leadership success is how engaged satisfied, and productive your workforce is.” I think that's pretty straightforward the true measure of leadership success is how engaged satisfied and productive your workforce is. That particular article was talking about Servant leadership and I'd suggest that spirituality and leadership are closely connected to Servant leadership. Although it's something different.
I don't think that leaders can show up this way unless they're open and grounded and to some extent I'll use this word. They're mature. And I talk about the term maturity in this sense meaning connected to the deeper parts of ourselves. The more mature parts of ourselves as opposed to operating simply out of ego.
Closing Words
Part of this is about purpose. I mentioned that term earlier. Purpose lives at the self-level. It's connected to our spirituality however we might personally define that term. More to follow on this topic and this connection in future podcast episodes. This podcast will explore the ways that leaders can leverage their personal spiritual dimensions for the benefit of others.
We will de-dogmatize what spirituality means and make it much more practical. We'll talk about how we can leverage these core powerful dimensions of ourselves. What does it mean for us and what can it mean for our teams we'll hear examples and stories about that. We'll talk about what we can do to access these parts of ourselves and how we can use them to be more effective in all the roles of our lives.
How we can serve better? How we could be more clear? Be better listeners, and provide space and psychological safety for others. Be more patient, accepting, kind, and even loving, I'll use the L word, even loving particularly in the results-focused world of business. That's where I operate and where I like to have these conversations.
So, I invite you to join me in our future episodes as I speak with Business leaders and Thought leaders, and others about the Nexus between who we are, who we can be, what we're called to do, and why that's so important now. Thank you.