True Meaning of Leadership

After reading articles and several good books, my journey to go deeper and make that spiritual connection continues.  Lee Bolman and Terrence Deal wrote several books that speaks to the spiritual leadership, however one of the more interesting to me is their “Leading with Soul” ( an Uncommon journey of Spirit ) This is a very compelling book that should be a standard read for anyone working or planning to lead and living in the fast paced  turbulent riddled world of today.  The authors describe a feeling of emptiness inside as a “spiritual malaise” which can only be filled by a greater attention to soul, spirit and faith.  The authors of Leading with Soul tell an all too familiar story of “Steve”, a dispirited leader in search of more meaning in his life.  It is through conversations with “Maria”, a wise woman who has experienced much of what Steve is going through, teaches him valuable life lessons while helping him discover the true meaning of Leadership.

During one of the first conversations with Maria, Steve explains to her that after a recent promotion to head one of the company’s subsidiaries and he feels like everything is falling apart.  He told her about needing unity among his staff but that people were never agreeing and that he needed a vision but he was too overwhelmed to see beyond next week.  At this point in the story Steve is focused on being manager: task-oriented, worried about getting things done, controlling, telling people what to do, and dealing with the current environment.  Good managers, even those considered as great managers are not necessarily good leaders and Steve found this out the hard way.  He felt that in order to do his job he needed to be in control.   Steve clearly did not understand that the real way to get power is by giving it away. ( a very strange concept at first glance )  Also, he did not know what his vision was so this made it difficult for others around him to know what he expected because they were just as confused. In order to go deeper, and translate a vision into a reality it must first exist and it is important to reflect on it as well.  It is important to remember to clearly define and communicate your vision or it will be a hallucination.  In this case Steve, he lacked a vision, therefore there was none to communicate.  With a clear vision there will be clear leadership.  Steve needed help from more than just Maria.  Steve along with all administrators can really benefit from utilizing technology to communicate their vision.  Embrace it or not, technological breakthroughs are a force to be reckoned with, meaning it is senseless to pretend digital natives are merely experiencing a passing fad.