What has Spirituality got to do with Business?

​This word is the world's most misunderstood - Spirituality.

Spirituality simply means walking on the path to reach our highest self and nothing else.

Religion has three components - 
1. Customs, rituals & traditions - specific to a particular religion.
2. Mythology, stories & symbols - specific to a particular religion.
3. Spirituality - universal, irrespective of which religion you belong to. 
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Unfortunately, the third component is largely forgotten which actually is the real purpose of a religion in the first place. Most of us get immersed or overwhelmed by the first two that we become resigned and cynical about anything to do with religion.

Let me also define what is one's highest self - it is our commitment of being the greatest that we can dream of ourselves being. When we are being the greatest that we can be; we will, by default, contribute to our family, our organization, our community, our country and our world. Embracing our greatness requires us to drop all our inner walls of resistance, and our fear to love and to serve; and become a space for loving kindness.

Research proves that a culture of compassionate love and servant leadership leads to greater productivity, performance, profitability and organisational greatness.

"We surveyed more than 3,200 employees in 17 organisations spanning seven industries: biopharmaceutical, engineering, financial services, higher education, public utilities, real estate, and travel. In organisations where employees felt and expressed companionate love toward one another; people reported greater job satisfaction, commitment, and personal accountability for work performance."

- From an article published in Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb 2016 by
Sigal Barsade, Professor of Management, Wharton;
Olivia A. O’Neill, Assistant Professor of Management, George Mason University

Here's how Jim Collins describes Level 5 Leaders only who, as per his research, can lead an organisation from good to great:

"A man who carried no airs of self-importance... He never cultivated hero status or executive celebrity status. ... a Level 5 leader - an individual who blends extreme personal humility with intense professional will. ... they were self-effacing individuals who displayed the fierce resolve to do whatever needed to make the company great. ... their ambition is first and foremost for the institution, not themselves. ... humble and fearless. ... ambition first and foremost for the company and concern for its success rather than for one's own riches and personal renown. Level 5 leaders want to see the company even more successful in the next generation, comfortable with the idea that most people won't even know that the roots of that success trace back to their efforts.

... In contrast to the I-centric style of comparison leaders, we were struck by how good-to-great leaders didn't talk about themselves. ... Those who worked with or wrote about the good-to-great leaders continually used words like quiet, humble, modest, reserved, shy, gracious, mild-mannered, self-effacing, understated...

... The good-to-great leaders never wanted to become larger-than-life heroes. They never aspired to be put on a pedestal or become unreachable icons. They were seemingly ordinary people quietly producing extraordinary results.

... Level 5 leaders are fanatically driven, infected with an incurable need to produce results. ...didn't have an inspiring personality to galvanize the company, but had something much more powerful: inspired standards. 

... The evidence does not support the idea that you need an outside leader to come in and shake up the place to go from good to great. In fact, going for a high-profile outside change agent is negatively correlated with a sustained transformation from good to great.

... The quiet, dogged nature of Level 5 leaders showed up not only in big decisions, ... but also in a personal style of sheer workmanlike diligence.

... flat-out refused to take credit for his company's success, attributing his good fortune to having great colleagues, successors, and predecessors. ... a contrasting pattern in the comparison executives: They credited substantial blame to bad luck, frequently bemoaning the difficulties of the environment they faced.

... Level 5 leaders look out the window to apportion credit to factors outside themselves when things go well (and if they cannot find a specific person or event to give credit to, they credit good luck). At the same time, they look in the mirror to apportion responsibility, never blaming bad luck when things go poorly. The comparison leaders did just the opposite. They'd look out the window for something or someone outside themselves to blame for poor results, but would preen in front of the mirror and credit themselves when things went well. Strangely, the window and the mirror do not reflect objective reality. Everyone outside the window points inside, directly at the Level 5 leader, saying, "He was the key; without his guidance and leadership, we would not have become a great company." And the Level 5 leaders points right back out the window and says, "Look at all the great people and good fortune that made this possible; I'am a lucky guy." They're both right, of course. But the Level 5s would never admit that fact.

... A strong religious belief ... might also nurture development of Level 5 traits."

If you are a CEO or aspire to be a CEO, can you be on any other path but the spiritual? What does it mean to be a leader at the helm of an organization - it is to be at the source of transformation for humanity. That ultimately is the purpose of Business. That leads to not only greater but sustainable profitability. It is no longer politics or religion that will lead us forward. It is on the shoulders of business leaders that the future of humanity now rests. 

And, when you are on the spiritual path to be the greatest version of yourself; you realize your greatest dreams in deepest communion with your highest self, lead your organization from good to great and have it all - deeply fulfilling successful career, loving harmonious relationships at work and at home, happy responsible kids with their genius joyfully expressed, lots of nourishing nurturing me-time, making a difference leaving footprints in the sand of time.

The question is how do you develop yourself as a Level-5 leader and create an organisational culture that nourishes and nurtures its people to walk the path of Level-5 leadership.

Here's how we do it through our proprietary 5-stage Leadership Development Process leading up to Level 5 leaders. In our leadership development technology; we call them Gear 5 leaders, Peaceful Warriors on their Hero's journey. We work at the level of habits across the 4 bodies (physical, mental / intellectual, emotional and spiritual) of the Being; and use coaching as the mechanism to help leaders identify their blindspots and go beyond for growth, evolution and transformation from the inside;  which supports strengthening of the below 5 Leadership Muscles one stage at a time:
1. Gear 1 - Agility of Mind
2. Gear 2 - Being of Service
3. Gear 3 - Communicating while Being in the World of Others
4. Gear 4 - Delivering on your Word
5. Gear 5 - Excellence

We refer to this inner journey as Leadership Depth but increasing the leadership depth on its own cannot be sustained without the leader being on 2 other journeys simultaneously:

1. Leadership Depth - The inner journey of personal transformation and evolution for greater impact in the world
2. Business Excellence - The outer journey of professional success by contributing to the communities that we serve through the work we do and leading our organisations from good to great.
3. Craft Mastery - Becoming a key person of influence in our industry through continual learning, unlearning, re-learning to become the master of our craft.

Wishing you a deeply fulfilling journey to your highest self as you lead your business from good to great.

Love, Jyoti.

References:
1. Employees Who Feel Love Perform Better / HBR 
​2. Manage Your Emotional Culture / HBR
3. Good to Great by Jim Collins