What’s the role of spirituality in the corporate world?
Last month, I attended a 5-hour workshop on energy management, led by a well-known life coach, with a group of highly successful entrepreneurs. It was a very enlightening experience for me, but probably not for the reasons the guy facilitating it intended.
I noticed how out of place I felt in that room. Maybe I still have a lot of work to do on my own self-belief; maybe I’m holding a lot of judgement about others; maybe that community just isn’t my people (which is absolutely fine). Quite possibly it’s all of the above.
But I also noticed how…unsatisfying I found the subject matter.
I’m not saying it wasn’t a high-quality workshop with valuable ideas on how to manage your energy to be productive in life and work. It’s incredibly important as a coach (and in life in general) to ‘meet people where they are’, and I imagine that the audience got a lot from the session.
The realisation was this - I’m not here to help people become more productive or ‘quantum leap their career’ (whatever the shizzle that means). Instead, THIS is the question I am constantly asking, the question that is at the heart of my approach to coaching individuals and organisations:
What does it really mean to lead deeply; to lead a purpose-driven, spiritual life within the corporate world?
I don’t have a definitive answer to that question, and I’d advise you to steer well clear of anyone who says that they do. But if it is a question that intrigues you, here are five behaviours that I observe in people who are finding their way to that purpose-driven, spiritual life within the corporate world:
They slow down. The world around us moves at a million miles an hour and it can feel like the only way to keep up is to move faster and take action. People who lead deeply know that by choosing to slow down, they can identify what is really important (according to their own values and purpose), and direct energy THERE.
They are focused on service, not competition. This is a big one. Competition is insidious in our culture. We are taught that everything is finite and if someone else wins then we will lose. We want to earn more, to get more market share, to have and do more than someone else. People who lead deeply focus their attention on being of service to something beyond themselves (customers, clients, world issues), and aren’t distracted by what others are doing.
They let go of outcomes. In any situation, most things are outside of our control. This can feel scary, especially when we are being targeted on performance against goals. But people who lead deeply shift their attention to something more like ‘intentions’ - getting clear on what they would like to make happen, and taking action in that direction. By releasing the focus on the outcome, they waste less energy on things outside of their control, and allow space for new possibilities that, ironically, often get them to their intended destination with more ease.
They know how to be still. As I am discovering myself, regularly spending time in silent stillness is incredibly powerful. It allows us to listen to the subtle bits of information in our environment - the breath, the body, the emotions, the world around us - and somehow makes it much easier to move forward with tricky situations.
They can move beyond their own ego. I love the saying ‘a bull doesn’t charge because he feels safe. A bull charges because he feels threatened’. When we are acting from ‘ego’, we are like that bull - feeling threatened and acting defensively to protect our position and our self-image. People who lead deeply can move beyond their ‘ego’. They are more able to respond to uncertainty and change because they are not holding tightly to a fixed view of who they are and how they need to be in order to stay on top. They are not afraid.
What do you think? Who in your world really embodies ‘leading deeply’? Which of these five qualities do you see in them?