Have faith and become a good leader
At its core, my leadership is based on faith. My faith is the knowledge that, despite my ups and downs, I can trust everything is as it should be and all will eventually be okay. I am not religious, but I am a spiritual person. My spirituality is a part of my history and my cultural upbringing. It took root because there was no single religion in my household.
If you are not into this stuff, just give me a chance to show you how core leadership virtues, such as finding one’s calling, integrity, respect, humility, perseverance, and engaging in reflective practice and care and concern for mankind as a whole, can be found in the great religious texts. Denying their influence in the leadership space is similar to denying the Holocaust happened.
I grew up in a household where my grandfather was a Muslim, my father a Hindu, my mother a Presbyterian. I have gone to churches, temples, and mosques, celebrating Eid, Diwali, and Christmas, seamlessly.
My religious (a Trinbagonian soup with all kinds of vegetables mixed together) is very typical of anyone coming from the West Indies. I am clearly not a traditionalist by any standard. Yet, I am one of the most spiritual persons you can come across.
My spirituality gives me the permission to customise religion, as I know it, to suit my life. I believe in God. As a result, I am courageous in my undaunted faith in divine blessings in my life.
My curiosity about leadership and spirituality surfaced thanks to Debashis Chatterjee, the author. His principles taken from a religious book are: >Know thyself. Leaders cannot lead effectively unless they know their own selves.
>Lead by example. Everyone inevitably plays a leadership role. A child will look up to parents, elders, and teachers very closely to take the lead, and it is from them he or she derives a value system early in life. All leaders gain their credibility, respect, and power from their unwavering commitment to walking the talk.
>Develop a high degree of equanimity. To lead effectively, one has to become free from the expectation of a particular outcome — particularly bad ones, which cause us to lose our balance. This requires strong self-management from “within,” not only from the “world outside.” The world is full of dualities — it will blow hot and cold, and we will experience joy and happiness, as well as some unpleasant moments. If we do not learn to endure them and to go through this life as a roller-coaster ride, we will never be able to exhibit leadership traits.
>We are all mutually dependent. Nature is the best teacher of our inter-connectedness. In order to achieve ultimate prosperity and success in whatever we do, we need to honour our mutual dependence. The spirit of sharing and unconditional giving is the basis on which everything in the world is sustained.
In the Holy Quran, God provides all the necessary skills, principles, and tools for man to live a life that leads to glory, realising one’s fullest potential.
The leadership principles outlined in The Quran include:
>Courage and determination. Ordinary people can emerge as great leaders when they emanate these qualities.
>Patience and endurance. All great leaders face tremendous challenges and enormous difficulties, but with patience and endurance they persevere and achieve the noble goals and missions of their lives.
>Commitment and sacrifice. It is through commitment to one’s mission and goals, and the mentality for whatever it takes, that differentiates great leaders from the ordinary people. With total commitment also comes the spirit of personal sacrifice.
I am not alone intertwining leadership principles and religion and/or spirituality as the underlying foundation of leadership.
One of the most popular personal development training programmes today is The 7 Habits of Highly
Effective People by Stephen R Covey. Whether you believe in religion or spirituality, you cannot deny the common denominator sprinkled across holy books. For many of us who do believe, understanding that we are all fundamentally interconnected and don’t have to rely entirely on our individual minds and can trust the Universe is a huge weight lifted off our leadership shoulders.
And you do not have to agree. Maybe for you the harmony in your life at work, home, and the rest of the world is the closest you will get to religion and/or spirituality. And that’s perfectly okay.
Understanding that we are all fundamentally interconnected and don’t have to rely entirely on our individual minds is a huge weight lifted off our leadership shoulders
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.