{"id":1981,"date":"2011-12-03T14:04:50","date_gmt":"2011-12-03T19:04:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2011-12-03T14:04:50","modified_gmt":"2011-12-03T19:04:50","slug":"focusing-on-the-spiritual-side-of-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/12\/focusing-on-the-spiritual-side-of-leadership.html","title":{"rendered":"Focusing on the Spiritual Side of Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What is the most important trait of a strong leader? Vision? Decisiveness? A Good Manager? Gilbert Fairholm believes it\u2019s spirituality and I agree with him. \u201cSpirituality is the essence of who we are. It is about our inner self, separate from the body. It includes the way we think and the thoughts we think, as well as our perceptions of the world.\u201d (<a title=\"Fairholm Perspective on Leadership\" href=\"http:\/\/http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Perspectives-Leadership-Science-Management-Spiritual\/dp\/0275971058\/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1322938159&amp;sr=8-1\">Perspectives on Leadership: From the Science of Management to Its Spiritual Heart<\/a>, Kindle Locations 1437-1438). <a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2011\/12\/spirituality2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-1982\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/104\/2011\/12\/spirituality2-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>No matter what religious background you come from, there is more to a leader than \u2018what you do.\u2019 Understanding \u2018who we are\u2019 is essential to any leadership environment we find ourselves in. Knowing \u2018why we do what we do\u2019 is a critical component to being a great leader and leading others. Our \u2018center\u2019 does not come from our skills as leaders, it comes from the deep place of our soul \u2013 or our spirituality.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"Patrick McKenna\" href=\"http:\/\/www.patrickmckenna.com\/\">Patrick McKenna<\/a>, co-author of business bestseller First Among Equals, <a href=\"http:\/\/www.patrickmckenna.com\/pdfs\/Where%20New%20Leaders%20Spend%20Time.pdf\">did a study on new leaders and asked them which 3 activities consumed the greatest portion of their management time in the first 100 days<\/a>. Here were the results:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>#1 \u00a0Contacting, meeting and interviewing my fellow partners (24%)<\/li>\n<li>#2 \u00a0Responding to my partners various requests for assistance\/meetings (18%)<\/li>\n<li>#3 \u00a0Participating in annual partner review, appraisal and compensation (18%)<\/li>\n<li>#4 \u00a0Beginning to reshape the firm\u2019s strategy (16%)<\/li>\n<li>#5 \u00a0Assessing, rearranging, replacing members of my internal admin team (8%)<\/li>\n<li>#6 \u00a0Learning and better understanding the financial aspects of the firm (5%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In fact, of all the answers, anything related to spirituality didn\u2019t appear one time. Every single activity focused on \u2018what the leader did\u2019 not \u2018who the leader was.\u2019 For Fairholm, this misses the most important facet of leadership that answers the most meaningful questions in life:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOf course, detailed knowledge about system, process and procedures is important, but knowledge about our own and our followers&#8217; spiritual side is essential. Spirit is about what we are. It is who we are, and why we think we are here in life, that ultimately guides our behavior. Our spiritual dimension conditions our relationships with others and their relationships with us. The idea of spirit is central to life. It is also central to any activity like leadership that purports to order and direct our human condition.\u201d (Fairholm, Kindle Locations 1416-1419).<\/p>\n<p>If Christmastime and the Feast of the Nativity teach us anything, it should reveal to us that we are more than our physical bodies, more than our work, more than good or bad leaders. We are spirit, and focusing on the spiritual side of our being will merit more benefits in our lives, and the lives of those around us, than almost any other activity we could participate in. Making a shift to focus on our spirituality this next year means that we will be better leaders, better people, in across every facet of life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe greatest problems leaders face are not the surface challenges of work, worker and product. The greatest challenges lie deep inside the leader&#8217;s spirit and that of their followers. The spirit contains everything in our character we try to express because it makes us feel good, as well as everything we want to suppress because it is painful. Getting in touch with our inner spiritual being lets us inventory and use our best qualities, like confidence, quickness, alertness, dedication, courage, perseverance, charm, thriftiness, trust, commitment, faith, hope and love.\u201d (Fairholm, Kindle Locations 1576-1579). Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the most important trait of a strong leader? Vision? Decisiveness? A Good Manager? Gilbert Fairholm believes it\u2019s spirituality and I agree with him. \u201cSpirituality is the essence of who we are. It is about our inner self, separate from the body. It includes the way we think and the thoughts we think, as&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":87,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[193,129,192],"class_list":["post-1981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-of-ministry-degree","tag-gilbert-fairholm","tag-leadership","tag-spirtual-leadership"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Focusing on the Spiritual Side of Leadership - Red Letters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/12\/focusing-on-the-spiritual-side-of-leadership.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Focusing on the Spiritual Side of Leadership - Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is the most important trait of a strong leader? Vision? Decisiveness? A Good Manager? Gilbert Fairholm believes it\u2019s spirituality and I agree with him. \u201cSpirituality is the essence of who we are. It is about our inner self, separate from the body. It includes the way we think and the thoughts we think, as&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/12\/focusing-on-the-spiritual-side-of-leadership.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Red Letters\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-03T19:04:50+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/files\/2011\/12\/spirituality2-300x200.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tom Davis\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Focusing on the Spiritual Side of Leadership - Red Letters","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2011\/12\/focusing-on-the-spiritual-side-of-leadership.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Focusing on the Spiritual Side of Leadership - Red Letters","og_description":"What is the most important trait of a strong leader? 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A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1981"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1985,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1981\/revisions\/1985"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}