Spiritual Leadership

Question: Write an essay on Spiritual Leadership. Answer: Spiritual Leadership Roland Regan once a great leader said that the greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does great things. Instead a great leader is one who makes the people do great things. Leadership refers to the ability of an organization's management to make proper decisions and inspire other employees to work efficiently. Good leaders lead their organization effectively. One emerging style of management is known as Spiritual leadership, whose motto is to go beyond the individual and the team to increase productivity. Spiritual leadership has emerged from the word spirit. Spirit has emerged from the Latin word spiritus means breath. Spirit is an abstract power which keeps a human being alive. Spiritual leadership first appeared in a Business Week article from 2005 entitled How to put spiritual values to work. According to Arshad and Abbasi, (2014), spiritual leadership motivates the employees through hope or faith in the vision. The vision is to have a prosperous future for both the employee and the employer. The stakeholders depend on the altruistic nature of the leaders. Altruistic means selflessness. Selflessness motivates the workers. A selflessness leader gives more priority to subordinates. In an organization when a leader adopts a selfless attitude and help subordinates, the subordinates look towards the leader as a parental figure. Spiritual leaders protect their subordinates and employees as their own child. This leadership strategy helps the leader to develop a sense of appreciation towards their employees. Employees feel attached to the leader and give maximum output. Spiritual leadership is a style that creates a sense of well-being for both the leader and fol lower (Klaus Fernando, 2016). It is mainly found in churches and religious places. The idea is taken from religious places and is applied in business and organizations. Spirituality brings purity and unity among the leaders and subordinates. Spiritual leadership has started keeping in thought the well being of the employees. Spiritual leadership is followed in Infosys. Workplace Spirituality Spiritual leadership has been implemented by organizations like Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and Deloitte. According to researchers who conducted studies at these institutions, spirituality changes the minds of leaders and helps them to stay calm during stressful situations (Geh, 2014). Spiritual leaders remove ego among the employees which results in increasing output. Common practices of spirituality in Workplace include ethics, core values and proper work-life balance. Spirituality also reduces negative attitudes among employees and might make them feel content. It seems that when practiced correctly, Spiritual leadership creates a sense of togetherness and fraternity among the workers (Ehrensperger, 2013). In workplace spirituality is followed through meditation, counseling and core values. Spiritual Leadership is necessary for today's organizational structure. Spirituality reduces ego problem among workers and creates unity. Unity helps to increase the productivity of the organization. Spirituality focuses on improving the values of an organization or society. Spiritual leadership creates a sense of mutual helpfulness, humility, diversification and strength among the employees of any organization. Mutual helpfulness This plays a significant role in building a strong team. Mutual helpfulness means a proper understanding between the leader and other employees. Leaders will inspire their employees not to engage in quarrels among themselves. Instead, a spiritual leader should encourage a friendly atmosphere in the workplace .Experienced and reliable employees should help the new employees (Ehrensperger, 2013). Humility: An individual who is humble and listens to their employees emerges as a real leader. Generosity in the workplace and strategic tools are useful to overcome problems. The leader should seek help from the juniors, seniors, and peers to achieve this goal. The leader is not ashamed of asking for help, and this serves as a great example to all the employees (Saeed et al., 2013).On the other hand, Klaus and Fernando (2016) affirm that seeking help from employees will make a leader a common person. Leader engages employees in a meeting through interview sessions and asks employees to give suggestions. Diversification: Diversification is an important tool without which existing in the competitive world would be difficult. Diversification is the process in which thought and actions of an individual has to be changed to adjust in new circumstances. Spiritual leadership encourages diversification (Arshad Abbasi, 2014). A leader able to diversify his thoughts and thinking will be a great achiever. A leader should always encouraged employees to provide new suggestions to improve working conditions. If the suggestions are acceptable then it should be quickly implemented. The leader should accept changes and act accordingly. On the other hand, Sweeney and Fry (2012), believe that diversification can create confusion in the minds of the employees. Subordinates will be confused among which action to carry out. Strength: Spiritual leadership encourages strength as a useful tool. According to Klaus Fernando, (2016), a leader should lead a team from the front in case of adversity. During challenging times, a leader should help his colleagues, juniors, and peers overcome their difficulties. This attitude of a leader will make the employees feel happy and comfortable. Spiritual leadership helps a leader to remain calm when a difficult situation arises in the organization. A spiritual leader should remain steady and make necessary decisions ( Geh, 2014). Advantages Spirituality lies in the workplace. Spirituality in workplace reduces the mental pressure of the employees. For example, when an employee feels disheartened, spiritual leaders motivate them through spiritual speeches at the workplace. This refreshes the mind of the worker, as illustrated by Deloitte (Geh, 2014). It has been found spiritually motivated employees provide a better output. Spiritual leadership encourages transformation to achieve success, converting the workplace into a more humane environment and creating a sense of belonging. A perception of belief, support, and adjustment develops among the leader and the employees. This increases the productivity of the organization (Saeed et al., 2013). Limitations of Spiritual Leadership In organizations leaders have to make decisions quickly and accordingly. . In some cases, Spiritual leadership may slow the decision process. This sometimes hurts the growth of the organization (Geh, 2014). I am the middle level manager of Pizza Hut in Las Vegas. The work culture in the organization demotivates the workers in the organization. The main reason for conflict is miscommunication with management. Therefore, I have applied the spiritual leadership in the organization. The workers feel happy as they can spend some time in yoga, which reduces the pressure of the work culture. Yoga removes tension among the employees and they feel relaxed. Equal treatments to all the employees have made me a good manager and the workers feel free to share their problems. This has created unity among the managers and subordinates. Conclusion From the discussion it is suggested that Spiritual Leadership reduces pressure felt by employees. Due to the implementation of this leadership style, employee satisfaction and belonging may be increased. Spiritual leadership is followed in many organizations, and the results have been satisfactory. In future spiritual leadership should be adopted by many organizations. References Arshad, A., Abbasi, A. S. (2014). Spiritual leadership and psychological ownership: Mediating role of spiritual wellbeing.Science International,26(3), 1265. Ehrensperger, K. (2013).Emerging leadership in the pauline mission: A social identity perspective on local leadership development in Corinth and Ephesus. Washington: Catholic Biblical Association of America. Klaus, L., Fernando, M. (2016). Enacting spiritual leadership in business through ego-transcendence: Leadership Organization Development Journal,37(1), 71-92. Saeed, T., Almas, S., Anis-ul-Haq, M., Niazi, G. (2014). Leadership styles: Relationship with conflict management styles.International Journal of Conflict Management,25(3), 214-225. Sweeney, P. J., Fry, L. W. (2012). Character development through spiritual leadership.Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research,64(2), 89-107. doi:10.1037/a0028966Geh, E. (2014). Organizational spiritual leadership of worlds made and found: An experiential learning model for feel.Leadership Organization Development Journal,35(2), 137-151. doi:10.1108/LODJ-04-2012-0052