Now that you know the difference between common and spiritual leadership, how can you apply spiritual leadership in your work settings?
- Assume positive intent
As a spiritual leader, I have a responsibility to speak from a place of positive intent. I need to check myself and make sure my motives and reasons for speaking are pure.
And if I’m listening to someone, I have a responsibility to assume they are coming from a place of positive intent. If, for some reason, either of us assumes the other person isn’t speaking with positive intent, we have a responsibility to pull them quietly aside and talk it through.
This has a huge impact on the work environment and gets rid of unsettling noise in the work system.
- Three knock rule
You may have been in a meeting and the person speaking keeps restating their point in different ways or they’re off-topic completely. Everyone in the meeting room is wondering who has the responsibility to stop this person.
Once you lay down the foundation of the three-knock rule, anyone, regardless of where they are on the office hierarchy, can knock three times on the table. The three knocks signal that it’s time to move on to the next topic.
I’ve implemented this rule in a boardroom with Nobel laureates and in small team meetings with our construction group. The three-knock rule can apply to any work meeting environment.
- Stick to your core principles
As a spiritual leader, you need to make being respectful to the team and listening to the person speaking a part of your culture.
Sidebar conversations in meetings can be common, but if you’ve made it an intent to eliminate that behavior from your team, you need to find ways to stop that behavior.
Recently, I was in a team meeting with a company and 25 of their leaders. In the middle of the meeting, the CFO of the company started having a completely different conversation with the person sitting next to her in the room.
I had a choice to be a common leader and let it go because she’s the CFO or be a spiritual leader and protect the behaviors, principles, and values of the company. So I asked the CFO, “Did you have something you wanted to say to the group?” She paused and quickly scanned the other 24 people in the room and said, “Joelle, did you just call me out?”
Later, once the meeting was over, she told me she appreciated the call out. She didn’t want to be seen as the person who made exceptions to the rule. She slipped like the rest of us do sometimes. But I assure you, I wasn’t the only person in that meeting of 25 people to see her breaking one of the core principles. This can have an impact on how others see you as a leader.
- Gracefully handling terminations
Terminations are one of the worst parts of the leadership role, but it’s also healthy. We have to trim the shrubs sometimes in order to let the buds blossom. If we manage them with grace and we do it with our principles, we can learn from the experience.
After recently terminating an employee, I received an email from him that said:
As I sit here, I realize there are truly insufficient words to thank you for everything you have done for me. I attribute a strong majority of my personal, professional, and spiritual growth in the last four years to you, your guidance, and your support.
When I arrived at the organization, I felt completely lost, and tomorrow, I leave with hope, passions, and career goals. There is no way to fully express everything that you have done for me.
I appreciate how much you invested in me with your time, finances, and knowledge. I needed someone to believe in me, and you helped me to develop skills and grow in ways that I will take with me forever. Working with you has been a complete pleasure, and I could not have asked for a better mentor. I know that I will be able to do more in the future because of all you have taught me.
I would also like to stay in regular contact whenever you have time, as I know there is plenty more for me to learn, and I value your perspective more than I can say. Thank you again for literally everything, all of your time, and intentional care. I cannot say enough.
There are times when we terminate people, and it’s really really ugly. But I challenge people to just think about how you can be true to yourself at the same time you’re performing parts of your job that are not necessarily pleasant.
