Spiritual Leadership in Business

A new global leadership paradigm is gradually emerging:  spiritual leadership.

A spiritual approach to leadership is presented by merging inner wisdom with business wisdom:  a leader's inner perspective on the purpose of life and leadership is the foundation for decisions and actions in the outer world of business.

Empirical research based on interviews with 31 top leaders from 15 countries in six continents demonstrates that "leaders can obtain happiness, respect, peace of mind and success, while at the same time serving the needs of all those affected by their leadership when they lead from a spiritual basis.

It also indicates that spirituality can serve as the foundation for leadership that considers ethics, social responsibility and concern for the environment not just as instruments to protect corporate reputation and income generation but as fundamental principles and values in their own right".

Source:

Peter Pruzan, Dr. Polit. & Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. E-mail:pruzan@cbs.dk

Happiness and Success

To be happy in life and successful in business you need two things in life:

1) empty mind, to have vision (freedom to choose), and

2) open heart, to have self-confidence (the power to decide).

Thoughts give us a full mind (confusion, ignorance). A full mind causes blindness (limits - we are in a box), we lack vision, so we dont really have "freedom to choose".

Emotions make our heart close. A closed heart causes weakness, we lack self-esteem, and so we dont have power to decide.

Creativity and Emptiness

The best creative mind is empty - anything can happen: there are no limits, everything is possible.

 

A mind full of ideas/concepts is limited by those same ideas/concepts - it is trapped in a box.

Think "outside-the-box":  the best way to think (create) is not to think.

 

Emptiness is full of potential. Emptiness is freedom.

 

Absolute freedom to create.

Is Free Will God’s Greatest Gift?

I believe so because I believe we are made in God's image. By this I mean we have the same nature: emptiness. And in emptiness we find unlimited potential, unlimited power.

We have in us unlimited potential but for that we need to unleash our true nature (emprisoned by our ego).

We have to let go of our temporary self (ego) to find our inner self (the true self, "the Kingdom of God").

To manifest our true nature, we need to transform body and mind:

1) we need to open our heart, to manifest our unconditional love. This means we have in us the potential to become omnipresent.

2) we need to empty our mind, to manifest our infinite wisdom. This means we have in us the potential to become omniscient.

Free Will is God's greatest gift.

Free will is omnipotence, the union of:

# freedom to choose, granted by an empty mind (infinite wisdom), and

# power to decide, granted by an open heart (unconditional love).

Only our inner self has the answer to all our problems.

So start the journey of your life, within yourself.
Within yourself you will unveil all the misteries of the universe.

How free is our "free will"?

As explained in previous posts, we are blind and weak (in different degrees).

Our mind is blind because it is limited by our thoughts, concepts, truths. So we limite ourselves, we shorten our own possibilities, we decrease our freedom to choose.

Knowledge is not wisdom.
Knowledge can either be a key to unlock our mind (and give us vision, wisdom) or a lock to close it (and give us confusion, ignorance).

Our heart is weak because it is ruled by our negative emotions (mainly anger and attachment). They close our heart and drain our power to decide.

So free will is the union of
(1) freedom to choose (given by an empty mind - emptiness), and
(2) power to decide (given by an open heart - love)

Ø  Empty Mind is Infinite Wisdom.
Ø  Open Heart is Unconditional Love.

 

 

Can we transform ourselves in entrepreneurs / innovators?

I believe we can. Inner transformation is possible.

 

For that you need to develop two qualities:

Ø  Empty mind, to unleash clarity, vision (freedom to choose);

Ø  Open heart, to unleash strenght, decision (the power to decide).

Mainly, you have to let go of:

1) thoughts - everything you believe in (truths, concepts, structures, systems) and

2) emotions  (anger, attachment, ignorance).

Thoughts produce a full mind (it causes blindness - mental blindness).
Emotions produce a closed heart (it causes weakness).

Blindness because we are ignorant (a full mind is a limited mind): we look but we don’t see.

Weakness, because we are ruled by desire, we are slaves of anger and attachment.
(read more: O que faz mover as pessoas? Um piloto automático chamado desejo. )

 

Lean Thinking is sustained by Inner Thinking

Lean entrepreneurship is essentially another form of management (management of start-ups).

Lean intrapreneurship is another form of innovation (lean innovation).

That is, the lean entrepreneur/innovator applies a different type of management style that recognizes:

·         the uncertainty of the process of taking a new idea into the market, and

·         the need to change and adapt and develop a stream of constant innovation within the start-up / existing company.

To be able to deal with uncertainty you need an “EMPTY MIND” – vision (freedom to choose).

To be able to change and adapt you need na “OPEN HEART” – strength (power to decide).

“Until you know everything in life,
all you can do to make life clear is to decide”.

Tulku Lobsang Rinpoche, Tibetan Buddhist Master