An interaction with Perspectives on Leadership: Form the Science of Management To Its Spiritual Heart Written by Gilbert F. Fairholm

This morning I woke up, rolled over in bed, grabbed my cell phone and began to return emails that I had received through the night. Shortly after finishing, I picked up my Ipad and began finishing a book I started the night before. About a hour went by and I got up changed clothes and began to tie up some lose ends at work, finalize some deadlines for my doctorate program, confirm a call from a professor in Oregon and verify a Skype call with and expert advisor about a project I am working on. As all of this was taking place I walked up to my oldest sons room password protected his Xbox 360 and finished up some last minute touch ups to my work before meeting a pastor on staff the help him set up for a Lifegroup event this weekend.

The truth of the matter is times are changing and so are people. As a result of the recent culture shift, we have seen changes in technology, community, urbanization, generational loyalty, organizational decentralization, church structuring, and numerous other fronts. It is not surprising, that in light of what is taking place, people ask the question “how does one lead in the 21^st Century?” According to Fairholm the answer depends on “how well leaders understand their roles, the leadership process and their own values and vision as well as those of their groups. Their behaviors set the course others follow and determine the values and other measures used to account for group actions.” (xiii)

As a result of the “new” world that we all live in we need a different leadership mind-set with alternative ways to think about leadership. In order to address leadership in some sort of comprehensive manner Fairholm identifies five levels of leadership.

1.     Leadership as Management

2.     Leadership as Excellent (Good) Management

3.     Values Leadership

4.     Trust Cultural Leadership

5.     Spiritual (Whole-Soul) Leadership

Many of those who read this post have perhaps read numerous books on leadership, so for the sake of repetition I want to focus on the most unique and current level of leadership identified, Spiritual Leadership. I am going to identify several statements made by Fairholm and comment of a few of them. Thinking about the fifth level of leadership about on our current organizational and cultural climate what are your thoughts on these areas?

It is hard for many of us to separate our work from the rest of our life...People in all kinds of occupations are voicing a cry for spiritual foundation in a chaotic world…our spiritual self is finding outlet in the secular work place. (111-112)

I find this to be true. Given the increase in technology and the integration of work and life in so many respects along with the fact that I spend many of my waking hours at work. As a result, I true to allow my spiritual life and work life to integrate as much as possible. Being a minister this does not yield some of the difficulties of a secular work place.

We need to reconnect to the fact that our hearts and minds and not just our bodies, are dominant in our business relationships. (113)

It seems that the church has had her hand in separating our spiritual lives from our work lives. We go to church and do church things and go to work and do work things. The separation of sacred and secular is not something this generation desires to promote and those who lead them must understand this principle.

Few will accept this easily, but what is most needed today is not more intellect, but more soul. Neglect of our spiritual nature helps explain the whole range of workplace problems.” (114)

At first glance at this statement I want to say “of course that is true because we have a sin problem in the world,” but as I continued reading I realized that the issue lies with caring for the entire person and not just the results or job the person is responsible for. If people are emotionally healthy and spiritually feed it stands to reason that productivity and healthy work environments would increase. Earlier this year I read a book entitled The Leadership Mystique it introduced the idea the 21^st century leaders needed to have a higher EQ (Emotional Quotient) and IQ (Intellectual Quotient), maybe today’s leaders also need a healthy SQ (Spiritual Quotient) as well!

Spiritual leadership helps followers by empowering them to similar service. This leadership is also directed toward maintaining a climate to help followers freely accept the challenge to excellence. Conformity may bring unity, but it also brings mediocrity. (115)

There is a reason that God made each person unique and upon salvation gives us each different gifts. At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution there was a reason why factories needed to generate some sort of conformity in order to produce large amounts of goods in a factory setting. Today times have changed and most new jobs bring with them the flatting of technology and independence. Management is no longer needed like it once was. Leadership according to Fairholm places higher “emphases on creativity, intelligence, and integrity.” These are the skills needed both in workers and leaders today.

 We have obviously reached a point where non-intuitive, learner, rational management has made a mess of America companies. We badly need true leaders who have a belief in the value of what whey do and in the collective vision and mission…They get beyond spreadsheet analysis to the essence of these situations. To their spirituality. (116)

There is a large part of me that wants to say if it is on paper and the statistics tell it, it is what we need to do, but at the same time something in me screams and says wait there is often things that no one can ever explain, intangibles, that are more than meets the eye. For example, athletes all the time make professional teams and become All-Pro and none of their physical skills match up with their team’s accomplishments. They are not the best individually but some how they make everyone around them their best and the results defy what the analysts predicted. Leaders today must see they unseen that lies in the hearts of each one of their followers. In addition this seems like a fundamental shift from left to right-brain leadership styles.

Our individual lives suggest that, as society or individuals move away from traditional religion, they still must find and outlet for these moral drives. For a growing number of people that is the work they do. (117)

Tim Elmore and other leading writers on the “next generation” state that the up and coming generation is one of the most “cause driven” generations in the history of the world. Denominational reports tell us youth and young adults are leaving traditional churches like never before. Organizations inform us that younger employees are more cause driven than company driven. I see this statement as a reflection of what is transitioning in our society as a whole, and what will continue to happen if things remain on their current course.

I think that Fairholm encapsulates level five when he writes, “When leaders respond to the values of the heart, others will know what we are truly about and can freely choose to follow.”(119) I think this is the essence of volunteer lead leadership and the future of leading the next generation. When someone is cause driven they do no care how much you know until they know how much you care. This is leadership 101 in the 21^st century and this is what people will follow.