The Soul of A Leader E-Book

Margaret Benefiel

• Herausgeber: WS
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Seitenzahl: 262

Beschreibung

Demonstrating the principle that soulfulness at work is a way of being and doing, this guide provides new perspectives on the qualities of leadership. Three main sections elaborate on the themes of choosing the path, staying on track, and persevering to the end. Drawing from interviews with outstanding leaders—including Tom and Kate Chappell, the founders of Tom’s of Maine; Bob Glassman, co-chairman of Wainwright Bank & Trust; Desmond Tutu; and The Edge of rock band U2—and supported with guided questions in each section, this book is an essential addition to the bookshelf of anyone who wants to lead with soul. In an environment where leaders are rewarded for their drive, decisiveness, productivity, and long work hours, the spiritual well-being of a leader may get short shrift, and harm can come to both the leader and the organization this individual serves. Challenging the assumptions that effective leaders must sell their souls, cut corners, cook the books, and let go of their vision, a new model of spiritual leadership is offered. Teachers, parents, committee chair leaders, and other individuals in organizations of any size are exhorted to aim higher and lead with soul in any sphere, large or small.

Leseprobe

What People Are Saying about The Soul of a Leader

“ The Soul of a Leaderbreaks the mold of leadership books. Both practical and inspiring, Margaret Benefiel’s book lays out a path we can follow to make a real difference in whatever world we land. Benefiel helps me to dare to dream, battle for my soul, and break through the barriers that keep me from succeeding.”

— David Batstone, professor and author, Saving the Corporate Soul and Not For Sale

“Today’s global community desperately needs leaders with soul. Margaret Benefiel’s groundbreaking book meets that need beautifully, by teaching principles of soulful leadership, illustrated with stories of real leaders who practice them. Required reading.”

—Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Nobel Peace Prize Winner

“ The Soul of a Leadertouched the soul of this reader. With her stories of real people struggling to lead with soul in a variety of workplaces, Margaret Benefiel guides others through the important steps of becoming a soulful leader. She does not minimize the difficulties, but makes the journey possible for all committed to this path.”

— Rev. Jane E. Vennard, author, A Praying Congregation: The Art of Teaching Spiritual Practice

“No organizational leaders reading this book can help but find both inspiration and practical, concrete help for nurturing their own souls and the soul of their organization. The author’s deep organizational and spiritual background provides a realistic yet visionary ground for attending the inner life of leaders and the workers of their organizations, in close relation to the practical outer needs of organizational life. The book paves the way for soul-full personal and organizational life that brings the fruits of integrity, shared values, mutual respect, and success, illustrated through many inspiring stories of leaders and the transformation of their organizations.”

— Rev. Dr. Tilden Edwards, Founder and Senior Fellow, Shalem Institute for Spiritual Formation

“Margaret Benefiel has gone right to the source — leaders who have chosen a deeper, more soulful path to building better organizations and a better society. Their stories are woven together to provide inspiring lessons for all of us who seek to build depth and spirit at work.”

— Lee Bolman, professor and author, Leading with Soul

“This book is a must read for all those who ever considered grounding their lives and work in love and service to pursue a higher calling that just might change the world. Margaret Benefiel is one of the most creative thinkers on spiritual leadership alive today, and The Soul of a Leader is an accessible taste of her brilliance. Like a masterful conductor, she combines theology with science and presents a practical guide filled with case studies and everyday examples that we can all follow in our own spiritual journey.”

— Louis W. (Jody) Fry, Professor of Management, Tarleton State University — Central Texas

“For the new generation of leaders who are replacing the Baby Boomers, please read this engaging book so you can take over leadership with soul and spirit and heart! Margaret gives you real-life examples and practical steps to take in your own setting and create the kind of organization you envision!”

— Charlotte Roberts, coauthor of the million-selling The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook

“Margaret Benefiel has written a book that is powerfully inspirational and eminently practical. Through the use of stories culled from interviews with leaders with soul, she provides excellent guidance as to how to lead with soul.”

—Jerry Biberman, editor, Journal of Management, Spirituality, and Religion

“Benefiel’s gentle yet incisive insights remind us all that leadership at its core is grounded in the soul. Her collection of human stories illustrate various themes that will help leaders nourish their souls and strengthen their leadership.”

— David W. Miller, Ph.D., author, God at Work, resident, the Avodah Institute

“In the tradition of Peter Block’sStewardshipand Robert Green-leaf’sOn Becoming a Servant Leader, Margaret Benefiel’s The Soul of a Leader takes us on a journey into the qualities of knowing and action that are necessary for leading a soulful organization. She does so with stories and images of men and women who made hard choices and difficult decisions, guided by their inner moral compass and a higher purpose. The book tackles subjects that will be welcome by everyone who wishes to make a leadership contribution. The book includes topics such as keeping people first, the power of gratitude, and the need to break cycles of violence that limit our organizational and communal potential. A wonderful book.”

—Alan Briskin, author, The Stirring of Soul in the Workplace, and co-author of Bringing Your Soul to Work and Daily Miracles

“Something is changing dramatically in the world of organizational leadership. No longer is it just enough to meet quarterly expectations and grow the bottom line. Leaders themselves are finding their soul and wanting to grow spiritually in a way that is integrated with their work and family life. And as they grow personally, they begin to feel called to nurture the soul formation of those who work with them in the organizations they lead. Margaret’s Benefiel’s brilliant bookThe Soul of a Leader provides an inspirational and practical guide to leading with soul. This will become an important reference book for those pioneers who are leading from the deepest core of who they are, and who are committed to making a positive difference in the world.” —Judi Neal, Ph.D., President & CEO, International Center for Spirit at Work; author of Edgewalkers: People and Organizations That Take Risks, Build Bridges, and Break New Ground

“Leadership that matters inevitably requires focus, resilience, commitment, compassion, imagination, and a high tolerance of risk — all dependent upon a strength and competence of soul. Benefiel’s understanding of the path of the soul — the quagmires, resources, and triumphs — is grounded, credible, and evocative. This book is worth your time.”

— Sharon Daloz Parks, author of Leadership Can Be Taught: A Bold Approach for a Complex World

THE SOUL

LEADER

About the Author

Margaret Benefiel, Ph.D., is CEO of ExecutiveSoul.com and author of the bestselling Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations. She also teaches at Andover Newton Theological School in Boston, in the area of spirituality and organizational leadership. For the 2003— 2004 academic year, she occupied the O’Donnell Chair of Spirituality at the Milltown Institute in Dublin, Ireland.

She speaks widely, leads seminars and retreats, and offers coaching and spiritual direction to executives and organizations. She is a member of the Academy of Management, the Organizational Behavior Teaching Society, the American Academy of Religion, and Spiritual Directors International. She serves as Chair-Elect of the Academy of Management’s Management, Spirituality, and Religion Group and has served on the governing board of the Society for the Study of Christian Spirituality.

A member of the Beacon Hills Friends Meeting, she lives in Boston with her husband.

THE SOUL

LEADER

Finding Your Path to Success and Fulfillment

MARGARET BENEFIEL

A Crossroad Book

The Crossroad Publishing Company

New York

The author thanks:

The editors of the Leadership Quarterly for permission to use selected passages that originally appeared in different form in “The Second Half of the Journey: Spiritual Leadership for Organizational Transformation,” Leadership Quarterly 16, no. 5 (2005).

The editors of Radical Grace for permission to use selected passages that originally appeared in “Humility, Confession and Customer Service,” Radical Grace 20, no. 4 (2007).

The editors of Spirituality and Business: Theory, Practice, and Future Directions for permission to use selected passages that originally appeared in “Deep Knowledge for Transformative Action: The Use of Action Research in MSR,” Spirituality and Business: Theory, Practice, and Future Directions, ed. Jerry Biberman and Len Tischler (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008).

Individuals portrayed in this book have consented to being quoted and named. They do not necessarily represent the views of the institutions with which they are affiliated.

The Crossroad Publishing Company

www.crossroadpublishing.com

© 2008 by Margaret Benefiel

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written permission of The Crossroad Publishing Company.

Printed in the United States of America

The text of this book is set in 11/14 AGaramond. The display face is Univers.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Benefiel, Margaret.

Soul of a leader : finding your path to success and fulfillment / Margaret Benefiel. p. cm.

ISBN-13: 978-0-8245-2480-7 (alk. paper)

ISBN-10: 0-8245-2480-2 (alk. paper)

1. Leadership. I. Title.

HD57.7.B4574 2008

658.4'092-dc22

2008028227

This printing: June 2016

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Introduction

The Leader’s Soul

PART ONE CHOOSING THE PATH

Chapter One

Following the Heart

Featuring: Tom and Kate Chappell, Tom’s of Maine, Kennebunk, Maine; Meg Clapp, Massachusetts General Hospital pharmacy, Boston; Ken Melrose, Toro, Minneapolis

Paying Attention

Taking the First Step

Stumbling

Chapter Two

Finding Partners

Featuring: Medrice Coluccio, St. John Medical Center, Longview, Washington; Tom Henry, Landry’s Bicycles, Boston; Samuel Karff, Sacred Vocation Program, Houston

Speaking the Heart’s Truth

Seeking Resonance

Inviting Partnership

Chapter Three

Daring to Dream

Featuring: Morsi Mansour, Aswan Regional Health Care, Aswan, Egypt; The Edge, U2; Medrice Coluccio

Assessing What Is

Finding the Heart’s Hope

Dreaming

PART TWO STAYING ON TRACK

Chapter Four

Keeping Mission at the Fore

Featuring: Bob Glassman, Wainwright Bank, Boston; Anita Roddick, the Body Shop, England; James Sanger, St. Mary’s Good Samaritan Hospitals, southern Illinois

Focusing on Something More

Sharing the Vision

Returning to Mission

Chapter Five

Practicing Gratitude

Featuring: Tom Henry; Meg Clapp; Tom Grant, LabOne, Kansas City

Receiving Work (and Colleagues) as Gift

Pioneering Practices of Gratitude

Creating a Culture of Gratitude

Chapter Six

Battling for the Soul

Featuring: Gus Tolson, Rohm and Haas, Philadelphia; Tom Hefferon, Document Management Group, Dublin; Jean Quinn, Sophia Housing, Dublin

Keeping People First

Committing to Ongoing Development

Staying True to Values

PART THREE PERSEVERING TO THE END

Chapter Seven

Breaking the Cycle of Violence

Featuring: Desmond Tutu, Archbishop Emeritus, Anglican Church, South Africa; Genny Nelson, Sisters of the Road, Portland, Oregon; Clarena Tolson, Commissioner of Streets, Philadelphia

Seeing Compassionately

Interrupting the Cycle

Forgiving

Chapter Eight

Persevering to the End

Featuring: Tom and Kate Chappell

The Individual Leader’s Spiritual Transformation

Organizational Transformation

Dark Night

Dawn: The Unitive Way

Chapter Nine

Finding Spiritual Guidance

Featuring: Tom and Kate Chappell; Desmond Tutu; Jean Quinn; Samuel Karff; Tom Henry; Gus Tolson

What Is Spiritual Direction?

Historical Background

Spiritual Direction with a Particular Focus on Leadership

Conclusion

The Soul of a Leader

Notes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

First and foremost, I want to thank the many leaders who opened their hearts, minds, and lives to me in so generously consenting to be interviewed for this book. You provided me with a window into your souls, inspired me with your vision and dedication, and made this book possible.

I am grateful to John Jones and Roy Carlisle, editors at Crossroad Publishing Company, who, from the moment I met them at the American Academy of Religion annual meeting in Washington, D.C., believed in me. You envisioned this book and inspired me to write it; thank you for giving me the push and direction that I needed. And to John Jones, editor extraordinaire, my heartfelt thanks for walking with me each step of the way. Not only were you an excellent editor, but you also knew exactly when and how to encourage me. I felt affirmed by you in crucial moments along the way when my zeal would have otherwise flagged. To the entire team at Crossroad, especially Nancy Neal, Linabel Herrera, and John Eagleson, my deep gratitude. Your enthusiasm for and careful attention to this project made it a delight to work with you. I am also grateful to my agent, Sheryl Fullerton, who believed in me and helped me envision the possibilities for this book. Thank you for being a good friend as well as a competent and effective agent.

Eastern Point Retreat House in Gloucester, Massachusetts, provided a prayerful, inspiring atmosphere and excellent spiritual direction for writing retreats at three critical stages of the book. In addition, my friends generously prayed for and encouraged me, bearing with me as I wrestled with my demons and responding lovingly to my e-mail updates. Friends and family who read drafts offered many helpful suggestions and gave me fresh perspective: my deep thanks to Sue Lewis Bodner, Beth Bowden, Bill Dietrich, Joyce Gibson, Marilyn Greenberg, Ken Haase, Kay Hall, Deb Heau, Tom Henry, W. G. Henry, Keith Hwang, Debora Jackson, Kathy Koplik, Judy Locke, Monica Manning, Chuck McCorkle, Carol Mitchell, Linda Triemstra, Bob Ward, Rita Weathersby, and Penny Yunuba. Friends with whom I shared contemplative writing days helped me stay spiritually grounded and encouraged tender shoots of this book as they emerged: my thanks to Susie Allen, Andrea Bliss-Lerman, Monica Manning, Faith Ngunjiri, Beckey Phipps, Judy Proctor, Mary Shotwell, and Cathy Whitmire. My wonderful assistant Lisa Zeidenberg provided excellent transcripts of interviews and careful, inspired editing of chapters. To each and every one of you, thank you so very much.

Last but certainly not least, I want to thank my family. My mother, Willa Jones, who always believed in me and encouraged my projects, died suddenly at an early stage of this project, and I felt her loss deeply. My father, Wes Benefiel, showed interest and pride all along the way and kept me encouraged. My sisters, Beth Bowden and Virginia Buck, prayed for me and supported me. My aunts and cousins kept inquiring about my progress and offering support. Above all, I am grateful to my husband, Ken Haase, who faithfully read drafts, listened to me, and helped me think through places where I was stuck, prayed with and for me, encouraged me along the way, patiently endured piles of books and papers in our living space, and loved me through the whole process.

Introduction

THE LEADER'S SOUL

TWENTY-FIRST-CENTURY LEADERS are rewarded for their drive, decisiveness, productivity, and long work hours. In such an environment, what happens to the soul of the leader? Too often, it shrivels and dies, resulting in harm to the leader and to the organization the leader serves.

The past decade has witnessed scandal after scandal: in business, in nonprofits, in religious institutions. Leaders give in to pressures to cook the books, to cut quality to make a quick buck, or to the allure of greed, lust, and power. Businesses lose their reputations and their customers. Public institutions lose the confidence of their constituencies. Churches lose the trust of their members. This world of scandals desperately needs leaders with soul.

Even short of scandal, leaders can easily drift toward burnout. The dream that originally drew leaders to their work loses its luster. Leaders find themselves going through the motions, ground down by the daily pressures of increasing the next quarter’s profits, responding to the daily complaints of employees and constituents, and succumbing to the seeming inevitability of mediocrity.

This burnout spreads from the top down. Employees, after all, long to work in institutions that exhibit integrity. When they sense a lack of congruence with a company’s purpose, employees disengage. Studies on employee engagement show that in the typical company worldwide, only 21 percent of the employees are fully engaged, 41 percent do enough to get by, and 38 percent are partially or completely disengaged.1 Disengaged employees lack motivation and lack commitment to their company’s mission, resulting in a dip in productivity, organizational effectiveness, and profitability. Companies with integrity, companies who live the values they espouse and treat their employees and customers with respect and fairness, attract better employees, keep those employees engaged, and earn higher profits.2 While studies on engagement have primarily focused on for-profit companies, the findings are also relevant to the nonprofit sector. Nonprofits with high employee engagement can also expect to exhibit high morale, low turnover, and strong organizational effectiveness.

When facing such challenges as burnout and erosion of integrity, where can leaders find the help they need to keep their souls as alert as their minds and bodies? Business schools aren’t designed to teach soul formation. The typical company environment doesn’t help form the soul. On the contrary, the typical business school education de-forms the soul3 as does the typical organizational environment. The best courses and books on leadership often mention the need for soul, but business schools and corporations exist in an environment that doesn’t allow the theme of soul to take center stage. While a growing number of pioneering courses on leading with soul have been added to the curriculum as electives at a number of business schools, too often the seeds these courses plant don’t have the opportunity to grow to maturity. Because such courses are usually countercultural in the business school environment, their influence wanes once students complete the course and move on to other courses that either don’t nurture the growth of the seeds planted or even, by contradicting the principles taught in the soul-based courses, uproot the seedlings altogether.

There is more to leadership with soul than might be imagined, and teaching it requires examples and a different kind of language than the social-scientific language that dominates the business school environment. Courses on leading with soul have yet to be mainstreamed, to be integrated into the business school curriculum.4 Too often, the message leaders absorb is that they must sell their souls in order to be effective leaders. Nonprofits and religious institutions, in an effort to promote efficiency and effectiveness (both laudable goals in themselves), mimic the soul-killing practices of corporations. As Ian Mitroff and Elizabeth Denton point out in A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America, “Today’s organizations are impoverished spiritually, and many of their most important problems are due to this impoverishment.”5 Soul formation for leaders doesn’t exist in the places business and organizational leaders receive their preparation.

Myriad forces have converged to create this state of affairs. The primary force, the rise of modern science over the past 350 years, has caused Western culture (which increasingly influences leadership in other parts of the world as well) to focus on the external to the detriment of the internal. While modern science has made many positive contributions to Western culture, contributions that all but the most Luddite of twenty-first-century Westerners would extol, our single focus has made us myopic. Alan Wallace summarizes the situation succinctly:

While science has enthralled first Euro-American society and now most of the world with its progress in illuminating the nature of the external, physical world, I shall argue that it has eclipsed earlier knowledge of the nature of the inner reality of consciousness. In this regard, we in the modern West are unknowingly living in a dark age.6

This eclipsed knowledge of the inner reality of consciousness has distorted Western understandings of leadership, causing leaders and leadership scholars to focus on external results to the exclusion of internal growth and development. In everything they learn about leadership, whether in their training or in the reinforcement they receive on the job, leaders are taught to focus on external results. They are taught that outward results matter, while the inner life does not. What is measured becomes what is real. Because external results are measured and the inner life is ignored, the soul fades into oblivion.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with focusing on external results. Certainly, leaders must focus on the results of their leadership in order to face reality directly. Assessing results and adjusting one’s leadership according to the consequences of one’s actions is one of the fruits of good leadership.

At the same time, when roots don’t receive the nourishment they need, the fruit and even the branches eventually wither. Long after its inner strength has begun to erode, a tree may look outwardly strong, especially to the untrained eye. It’s only when a strong wind knocks down the once-mighty tree that it becomes clear to the untrained onlooker that its roots died long ago. The external results lauded by those who study leadership depend upon the internal. Yet, paradoxically, the internal is largely a taboo subject in mainstream leadership and management literature. Like arborists trying to improve the health of a tree while ignoring the roots, leadership scholars, by and large, have been blind to a significant dimension of leadership. In The Soul of a Leader, we’ll pay attention to those roots and how to nourish and care for them.

Furthermore, as if this cultural focus on the external to the exclusion of the internal weren’t enough to thoroughly erode a leader’s soul, leaders who want to lead with soul find themselves up against a second influential force in Western culture: individualism, which results in a Lone Ranger mentality of leadership. This mentality, so firmly embraced by Western culture, sits squarely against the wisdom of spiritual traditions. Spiritual teachers know that souls need one another in order to flourish. Leaders who long to lead with soul find themselves in inner conflict when they bump into the cultural expectation that they should solve all their problems on their own — that they shouldn’t need to draw on others’ support. At one level, they know that they desperately need to share their problems with those with whom they can share their souls. On the other hand, they know that to admit this need will likely be interpreted by those whose opinions they value as a sign of weakness.

On occasion, leaders who have had the good fortune to receive soul formation and who happen to find themselves working in institutions hospitable to leading with soul are able to forge an alliance between the internal and external skills of leadership. But often such an alliance doesn’t last long, for two reasons. First, such leaders often find themselves alone, isolated pioneers disconnected from leaders in other organizations who are attempting the same thing. Without peers traveling a similar path, most leaders can survive as heroic pioneers only for so long before they succumb to the pressures to conform to the culture. Second, such leaders often lack internal support for soulful leadership within the organizations they’re leading. How often, for example, does a board ask its leader, “How is it with your soul?” Or how often will an institution reimburse a leader for a training program that promises to renew his soul?

Such lack of support for a leader’s soul is short-sighted, since the people a leader leads suffer mightily when the leader’s soul shrivels. As Parker Palmer puts it in his definition of a leader: “A leader is someone with the power to project either shadow or light onto some part of the world and onto the lives of the people who dwell there.”7

The soul of a leader faces threats from every side. Therefore, those for whom the leader carries responsibility experience vulnerability.

Drawing on the work of Bernard Lonergan and Daniel Helminiak, I have argued elsewhere for the reintegration of the internal and the external in both the study and practice of leadership.8 Both internal soul formation and external skills, I believe, are necessary for effective, inspired, ethical leadership over the long haul. The present book builds on the foundation of that earlier academic work and on a decade and a half of study and practice, by explicating practical principles of soulful leadership. In this book, I draw on practical examples to demonstrate how the inner and the outer complement one another. Partners in the dance, the inner and the outer move together, hand in hand.

In addition to pointing out the inner and outer aspects of leading with soul, this book will demonstrate the process of transformation that occurs within a leader who perseveres to the end, the parallel process of transformation that occurs within that leader’s organization, and the place of spiritual guidance in the process.

In this book I address the following questions:

1. What would it look like, both for the leader and for the organization a leader serves, for a leader to cultivate the inner life, to step off the treadmill, to nurture the soul?

2. Where can a leader turn for formation of the soul?

3. How can leaders find the resources they need for ongoing nourishment for the soul in the midst of the pressures of leadership?

4. Can a leader realistically expect to maintain a healthy soul over the long haul? What is the process of spiritual transformation that occurs when a leader perseveres to the end, and how can that process be supported?

This book, in addressing these questions, offers soul formation and maintenance for leaders. It outlines principles that any leader can follow, with examples showing how leaders put these principles into practice. This book is about how a leader becomes an ethical leader who leads with integrity, and about how such a leader stays on the path of soul when inner and outer forces challenge that commitment. It shows that leading with soul is possible over the long haul, and it demonstrates the remarkable organizational outcomes that can result from soulful leadership.

My definition of “soul” is broad. Spiritual writers use “soul” to speak not about something a person has but about who a person most deeply is.9 In my understanding of soul, this deep essence of a person may find expression through religious faith or it may find expression in other ways. Soul is the way that emotional or relational depth is honored and the way that yearnings for development or evolution are given space, whether in a religious context or in other contexts.10

This book is based on interviews. In most cases, I interviewed multiple people from each organization represented in order to get multiple perspectives on the leader highlighted. I also read all the published material I could find on the leader and the organization — both material published by the organization itself (in print or on the Web) as well as material published about the leader and the organization by others. In the only case in which I did not do any interviews, I was in the process of arranging an interview with Anita Roddick when she died suddenly. I decided to include her and her work at the Body Shop in the book despite the lack of an interview, because of the important impact she made by leading with soul, and because of the wealth of published material that exists about her and about the Body Shop.

Part 1, “Choosing the Path,” focuses on how leaders can take the first steps toward leading with soul. The three chapters in part 1, “Following the Heart,” “Finding Partners,” and “Daring to Dream,” all outline principles of soul formation for leaders. Illustrated with examples from the lives of leaders in business, health care, entertainment, and nonprofits, Part 1 shows leaders taking the first halting steps of soulful leadership and then learning to walk the path.

Part 2, “Staying on Track,” examines how leaders can stay the course in the midst of the challenges that inevitably arise once the newness of soul-based leadership has worn off. “Keeping Mission at the Fore,” “Practicing Gratitude,” and “Battling for the Soul,” the three chapters of part 2, all outline principles of staying focused, again illustrated with examples from the lives of real leaders in real organizations who face pressures that could push them off the path.

Part 3, “Persevering to the End,” considers principles that help leaders persevere over the long haul. “Breaking the Cycle of Violence” examines the shift that occurs in leaders and the situations they encounter when nonviolence is practiced. “Persevering to the End” considers the process of transformation that occurs in leaders and organizations who practice the principles in the book. The final chapter, “Finding Spiritual Guidance,” demonstrates the need for and the value of spiritual guidance in a leader’s life.

Each chapter ends with a few queries. Rooted in the Quaker tradition, queries are open-ended questions designed to encourage reflection. With no right or wrong answers, the queries invite the reader to reflect, both personally and organizationally, on the themes of the chapter.

A final note: In this book, I define leadership broadly. Everyone is a leader in his or her sphere of influence. While the CEO of a company is clearly a leader, so are managers and supervisors in their own spheres of influence. So are housekeepers or nursing assistants when they lead informally with co-workers or patients. The examples in the book are primarily from organizational leadership, but some of the leadership work illustrated, such as that of Desmond Tutu, The Edge of the rock band U2, and Clarena Tolson, streets commissioner for the city of Philadelphia, goes beyond traditional organizational leadership. The principles apply anywhere. Parents are leaders. Teachers are leaders. Committee chairs are leaders. Anyone can apply these principles and lead with soul in any sphere, large or small. As you read this book and reflect on the queries, don’t sell yourself short — remember the many places in your life where you influence others. As you see the ripple effect of the actions of the leaders in this book, remember that your actions, too, set off a ripple effect.

Happy leading!

PART ONE

Chapter One

FOLLOWING THE HEART

IN 1968, Tom Chappell was enjoying a successful career in insurance in the greater Philadelphia area. Nevertheless, he and his wife, Kate, felt that something was missing. They longed for a rural setting in which to raise their children, and they wanted work that contributed to their passion for natural products and a clean environment. So in the spring of the next year, they uprooted their young family and drove to Maine, with only a dream and a prayer, to find a new life.

Tom and Kate’s experience is not atypical for the leader taking the first halting steps on the path toward leading with soul. Following the heart typically involves three stages: paying attention, taking the first step, and stumbling. This chapter will outline these three stages, illustrating each one with examples of leaders who experienced them. In addition to Tom and Kate Chappell, co-founders of the personal-care product manufacturer Tom’s of Maine, the illustrations will include Meg Clapp, who became director of the 250-person pharmacy department at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, and Ken Melrose, who became CEO of Toro, a leading manufacturer of lawnmowers and other landscaping products.

Paying Attention

The heart makes its desires known in many ways. Yet in the hustle and bustle of the daily demands of leadership, it’s easy for leaders to ignore what their hearts are trying to tell them. The focus in Western culture on external reality to the exclusion of the internal eclipses the stirrings of the heart. Yet the leader who makes space in the midst of the busyness and musters the courage to pay attention to the stirrings of the heart will reap rich rewards.

FOR TOM AND KATE CHAPPELL, paying attention to the heart meant listening to the stirrings of discontent. Though Tom’s career was advancing well, they knew they needed more. Their hearts told them that they had a different contribution to make to the world. As they listened to the desires of their hearts, they began to see what that contribution might be. Kate reflects: