Holistic Leadership

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Satinder Dhiman

A New Paradigm for Today’s Leaders

Holistic Leadership

Satinder Dhiman

Holistic LeadershipA New Paradigm for Today’s Leaders

ISBN 978-1-137-55570-0 ISBN 978-1-137-55571-7 (eBook)DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016958193

© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the pub-lisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer NatureThe registered company is Nature America Inc.The registered company address is: 1 New York Plaza, New York, NY 10004, U.S.A.

Satinder DhimanSchool of BusinessWoodbury UniversityBurbank, California, USA

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Our life is the sum of all that has touched us, all and everyone who has made a difference in our lives. Life is a book that is virtually being writ-ten as it unfolds, a symphony that is continually being played even as it is composed, and a song that is unceasingly heard, ever so softly at times.

Writing a book is a synergistic endeavor. “A man will turn over half a library to make one book,” observed Samuel Johnson. Every writer who ever picks up the pen is forever indebted to all the kindred spirits who have illumined the path before. S/he verily stands on the proverbial shoulders of the giants. And when one has also been fortunate to have personally sat at the feet of some great contemporary masters, one’s debt is hard to recount.

I am grateful to Peter Drucker for one of the most enlightening encounters and for generously sharing his ripe wisdom and favorite stories; to psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi for granting me the privilege of two personal interviews full of insights and foresights; to Ron Heifetz of Harvard’s JFK School of Public Policy for his wonderful dialogs on what really matters in life and leadership; to Peter Senge, for his thoughts on generative learning; to Chris Argyris for one of the most illuminating con-versations about organizational defenses and fancy footwork; Bob Kegan for his unique perspectives on immunity to change; Lee Bolman for his self-effacing presence; Ellen Langer for her unique perspectives on mind-ful creativity; and Max De Pree of Herman Miller for his sage recreations of the art of leadership.

Life also provided the rare privilege of sitting at the feet of some of the great contemporary Vedanta scholars-seers: Swami Dayananda Saraswati,

Acknowledgements

vi ACKNOWLEDgEMENTS

Swami Paramarthananda, Swami Brahmatmanandji Saraswati, and Swami Narayan Prasad Muni. Their teachings and life examples continue to be a beacon of inspiration and guidance on the path of Self-knowledge culmi-nating in selfless service.

Interestingly, school and life keep different curricula: School gives us the lessons first, and then the test; life gives us the test first, and then the lessons. However, they seem to have one thing in common: Lessons are optional; the tests are required! The lessons shared in this book are taken largely from the “school of life.” They represent a happy amalgam of search and research.

The concepts presented in this book are of universal import. That is, they are applicable to all walks of life. The alchemy of transformation in life is similar to that of leadership. Discipline, humility, and right attitude are as critical in life as they are in leadership. Nobody has ever become a great leader without first becoming a good human being.

In this sense at least, the lessons presented here are of holistic nature.The journey of writing this book is undertaken by this author for the

sole purpose of gaining some clarity on his own part about the timeless art of life and science of leadership. Rumi, the great Persian poet, said it so well: “You are the only student you have; all others eventually leave.” It is submitted as a humble offering in the spirit of sharing with the fellow travellers of some lessons incidentally found along the way.1 The wisdom of leadership is as old as hills. Peter F. Drucker once told this author that the person who supervised the construction of pyramids in ancient Egypt probably knew more about leadership than any CEO of a modern Fortune 500 company.2

After a lifetime study of history and its heroes, Will Durant, that great lover of lovers of wisdom, offers the following refrain in his final testament of wit, wisdom, and humility, entitled Fallen Leaves:

Please do not expect any new system of philosophy, nor any world-shaking cogitations …. If you find anything original here it will be unintentional, and probably regrettable. Knowledge grows, but wisdom, though it can improve with years, does not progress with centuries. I cannot instruct Solomon.3

1 “Ours is to know and let know, not to argue and win.”—Narayana guru.2 Personal Communication, 1995, Claremont College, CA.3 Will Durant, Fallen Leaves: Last Words on Life, Love, War, and God (New York: Simon &

Schuster, 2014), 10–11.

ACKNOWLEDgEMENTS vii

Spiritual search does not fill any coffers nor does it make one rich and famous. If the spiritual quest is truly successful, we do not gain anything except losing everything that is untrue and inessential. The author is reminded of the wise words of a modern sage:

If you expect any benefits from your search, material, mental or spiritual, you have missed the point. Truth gives no advantage. It gives no higher status, no power over others; all you get is truth, and freedom from the false.4

The topic of leadership is vast and deep. I recognize that I have barely scratched the proverbial surface, and humbly and gratefully acknowledge my debt to all those who have blazed trails before me. My debt to my teachers in life and spirit—who stoked the “search for the sacred” in my soul—is too deep for words.

I am grateful to the Palgrave editorial team, especially Stacy Noto and Marcus Ballenger, for their expert help, every step of the way. Special thanks are also due to Ian Mitroff, Vemuri Ramesam, and Judi Neal for their generous endorsement of my work. I am grateful to my dear friend, Manoj Chandra Handa, whose creative inspiration is visible in many of the figures in this book. Finally, I want to thank my wife, Shally, for her support and for envisioning the creative book cover; and our three sons, Rohit, Nitin, and Tarun, for their kind understanding and generous shar-ing of time to enable me to work on this book.

Above all, my debt to our Common Creator is ineffable. We conclude with a benedictory verse from the Bhagavad Gita which many consider as the essence of the entire text. In this seminal verse, addressing the Divine within us all, S ri Kṛsṇa, the universal god in human form, declares to Arjuna, the warrior-prince:

I am the Universal Self seated in the heart of all beings; so, I alone am the beginning, the middle, and also the end of all beings.—10.20

With folded hands and a deep bow, I offer this humble work at the lotus-feet of Sri Kṛsṇa, the Inner guide, antarya min—the master creator of the blessed Song Celestial, the compassionate Lord who transforms difficul-ties on the path into pilgrim’s joy.

4 Maurice Frydman (tr.), I Am That: Talks with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Durham, NC: The Acorn Press, 1986), 313. [Emphasis added].

ix

contents

1 Introduction: On Becoming a Holistic Leader 1

2 Self-Motivation: Motivating the Whole Person 17

3 Self-Mastery: Mastering the “Me” in Leadership 43

4 Creativity and Flow: The Art of Mindful Creativity 65

5 Emotional & Multiple Intelligences: 10 Different Ways of Being Smart 97

6 Appreciative Inquiry: Discovering the Best in People and Organizations 133

7 Spiritual Leadership: A Superior Way to Be and Serve 155

8 Meaning & Purpose in Leadership: What Are You Willing to Bet Your Life On? 181

x CONTENTS

9 Find Your Fulfillment: Winning Habits of Highly Fulfilled Leaders 205

10 Being the Change: A Hero’s Journey and Legacy 241

11 Epilogue: From Position-Power to Self- Power— Integrating the Lessons of Holistic Leadership 275

Index 303

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list of figures

Fig. 1.1 Cycle of holistic leadership, Satinder Dhiman (2016) 8Fig. 1.2 Holistic leadership framework, Satinder Dhiman (2016) 9Fig. 2.1 Adapted from Abraham H. Maslow, “A Theory of Human

Motivation,” Psychological Review, 1943, Vol. 50 (4) 370–396 19Fig. 4.1 Creativity, flow and mindfulness, Satinder Dhiman (2012) 93Fig. 6.1 4 D model of appreciative inquiry 150Fig. 9.1 Adapted from Seven Habits of Highly Fulfilled People

framework, Satinder Dhiman (2012/2014) 208

1© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_1

CHAPTER 1

To lead one must follow. —LAO TZU

IntroductIon

We live in an interesting period of material progress and spiritual impov-erishment. The sorry plight of the contemporary world is that we are preoccupied with the relentless pursuit of changing everything in the external world except ourselves. The unintended consequence of mis-placed emphasis on the external has been the neglect of the inner work-ings of the human spirit. Many believe that our most pressing task today is the elevation and reformation of the inner spiritual life.1 Never before in the history of humankind has there been a greater need for exemplary leaders—leaders who are both good and great, leaders who can show us a way out of our current moral morass and spiritual chaos. We need holistic leaders and holistic systems that are able to integrate the spiritual and the material perspectives in a dialectical manner.

The traditional forms of leadership and organizational structures are proving inadequate to deal with changing reality that is complex, mul-tidimensional, and virtual. We need new thinking, new structures, and new metaphors of resonance to dance with the emergent reality. We can

1 D. Ikeda & A. Peccei, Before it is too late (Tokyo: Kodansha International LTD), 104.

Introduction: On Becoming a Holistic Leader

no longer afford to view leadership as a position to wield authority or power. Leadership signifies a complex moral relationship between peo-ple, based on trust, mutuality, commitment, and a shared vision of the good of the broader society.2 Holistic leadership splendidly fulfills all these requirements.

Leadership has always been more challenging during difficult times. In a world beset with rising international terrorism, economic uncertainties, and flagrant violation of human values, many believe that leaders have lost their moral bearings. The unique leadership challenges facing organiza-tions throughout the world today call for an even greater renewed focus on what constitutes “values-based, holistic leadership”. Bennis and Nanus concur: “The need [for leadership] was never so great. A chronic crisis of governance—that is, the pervasive incapacity of organizations to cope with the expectations of their constituents is now an overwhelming fac-tor worldwide.”3 The need for leaders who are authentic, principled, and spiritually grounded is greater now than ever.

Leaders Have Lost tHeIr etHIcaL FItness

During the past few decades, many leadership scholars have turned their probing scrutiny on humanity’s greatest leaders, both from the distant past as well from the recent times. Many of the greatest leaders of human-ity have not fared very well under such scrutiny, to say nothing of our modern leaders.4 Unquestionably, in recent years the reputation of many leaders has been tarnished as researchers and writers turn probing search-lights on their character. Under these circumstances, everybody is search-ing for the Holy Grail, the secret key, the silver bullet that will save the world. As a result, many new approaches to leadership have been gaining momentum in recent years. Holistic leadership is one such approach that we will explore in this book.

Lehman Brothers to Fannie Mae, Enron to Worldcom, Bernie Madoff to Martha Stewart, and so many other business scandals in the recent decades have made us aware that business leaders have lost their True

2 See: Joanne B. Ciulla, “Leadership Ethics: Mapping the Territory,” in Ciulla, ed., Ethics, The Heart of Leadership, (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, Second edition), 3–4.

3 Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge (New York: Harper Business, 1997), 2.

4 Ciulla, “Leadership Ethics: Mapping the Territory,” 3.

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North. Survey after survey has shown that employees’ trust in their leader-ship is at its lowest ebb. Now more than ever, organizations need to pay close attention to the impact the character of their leaders is having on the rest of the workforce and consider how leaders can win back trust. Clearly, we need a different breed of leaders—leaders who are centered in selfless- service, and not self-centered.

This book takes it as axiomatic that the universe is not amoral: it has a structural bias toward good. Although good and bad exist in the world, good not only survives but triumphs in the long run. The life example of such exemplary leaders as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, Mother Teresa, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jean Monnet show us that we can also achieve what great leaders have achieved, if we are willing to put forth the necessary effort and cultivate the values that such leaders embodied. We must first know, then do, and finally be the change that we aspire to inspire in others. This knowing-doing-being framework takes place in three distinct steps: learning, reflecting, and transforming. Accordingly, if we want to bring about any change in the world, we have to begin with ourselves. We need indeed to be the change that we wish to see in the world.

HoLIstIc LeadersHIp: Forest Gets Lost In trees aLL too oFten

Over the centuries, man has lived largely in fragmentation, alienation, and hostility prompted by the call of self-preservation and survival. And yet, as human beings we are naturally drawn towards fullness, unity and har-mony. We have always been seeking wholeness—at the physical, mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual level. This goes on to show that quest for wholeness is our primal need for living a meaningful and fulfilled life. David Bohm, the renowned physicist of the twentieth century, traces the close affinity of the words ‘health’ ‘hale’, and ‘whole’ as follows:

It is instructive to consider the word ‘health’ in English is based on an Anglo-Saxon word ‘hale’ meaning ‘whole’: that is, to be healthy is to be whole. Likewise the English ‘holy’ is based on the same root as ‘whole’. All of this indicates that man has sensed always that wholeness or integrity is an absolute necessity to make life worth living.5

5 David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order (London: Routledge, 2004), 3–4.

INTRODUCTION: ON BECOMING A HOLISTIC LEADER 3

Drawing upon the etymology of the English word ‘holy’, Bohm notes its close relationship to similar words such as ‘whole’, ‘hale’, and, by extension, to the word ‘holistic’. Wholeness is as much a means as it is an end in making our life worth living.

According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word holistic (/hōˈlistik/) means:

1. of or relating to holism, 2. relating to or concerned with wholes or with complete systems

rather than with … parts.

Throughout this book the word “holistic” is used in a special sense. It denotes a ‘w-holistic’ approach to the art and science of leadership. Although their meaning is somewhat similar, it is by happenstance that the English word ‘whole’ and the Greek word ‘holos’ ended up looking similar, in two different languages.

Therefore, the meaning of the word ‘holistic’ in the context of holistic leadership should be understood in the sense of being ‘whole’ or ‘integrated’; that is, a personality that is committed to the harmonious development in all its vital dimensions—physical, mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual. Above all, we believe that for leadership to be truly impactful, it must honor the spiritual dimension of leadership experience. Therefore, in the development of holistic leadership paradigm in this book, a greater emphasis is placed on the spiritual dimension anchored in strong core ethical values. After all, only that which is whole, integrated, is holy. And spirituality does not cleanse the ethically impure. Accordingly, the entire lifestyle of the leader has to be trans-formed w-holistically to be conducive to an ethical and spiritual approach to life. ‘W-holistic’ means that which is both ‘whole’ and ‘holy.’

Holistic leaders are drawn by a compelling inner calling. They look within, transform themselves first and then immerse themselves in the common good. They have a deep understanding of human systems. They learn to master the language of transformation and help ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things. In sum, holistic leaders are self-directed and other-focused.

WHy tHIs Book?The scholarship on leadership is vast and continues to grow by leaps and bounds. Several new approaches have been developed recently that cover the whole spectrum of leadership process—from transformational

4 S. DHIMAN

leadership to servant leadership, including the emergent approaches influenced by positive psychology,6 such as authentic leadership and self-leadership. While the present book builds upon the myriad strands of the growing leadership literature, it focuses more on the personal development of a leader in a holistic manner. Very few leadership approaches really explore the self, spirit, and service dimensions of lead-ership process in an integral manner, much less their relationship to professional excellence and optimal performance within contemporary organizations.

This book aspires to fill an important need in that it makes a conscious attempt to connect the self, spirit, and service aspects of leadership in a holistic fashion. Given the current leadership crisis, the author believes that there is a greater need for such leadership approach and the role mod-els that embody it to illustrate such leadership. It is the synergistic energy fashioned by the coming together of the self, spirit, and service that cre-ates a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts.

This book presents a holistic approach to the art and science of leader-ship. Key leadership dispositions are presented in an integral manner start-ing with self-motivation and culminating in self-transcendence marked by leader’s contribution. This journey is denoted by the three S’s: Self, Spirit, and Service, each signifying three overarching dimensions of holistic lead-ership—Self-Leadership, Authentic Leadership, and Legacy Leadership. Each leadership competency presents two sides—simultaneously repre-senting the leader’s and the follower’s perspective. Therefore, when self- motivation is discussed, it pertains to leader’s own motivation as well as to the motivation of those who are led.

The book focuses on 4 L’s of leadership: Learning, living, loving, and leaving a legacy. The quest for effective leadership starts with self- awareness and self-mastery, progresses with living authentically one’s core values and culminates in leaving a legacy by fulfilling life’s purpose through selfless service for the greater good. The book offers a unique perspective on self-leadership which is defined as leading from one’s highest authentic self. Leadership is approached as an expression (and as an extension) of who we are. Exemplary leaders recognize that the most important challenges confronting organizations and society at large are so profound and perva-sive that they can only be resolved at the fundamental level of the human spirit—at the level of one’s authentic self.

6 B.  J. Avolio and W. L. Gardner, “Authentic Leadership Development: Getting to the Root of Positive Forms of Leadership,” Leadership Quarterly, 16 (2005): 315–338.

INTRODUCTION: ON BECOMING A HOLISTIC LEADER 5

Holistic leadership is voyage of inner discovery which begins with self-knowledge that serves as a prelude to leading from within. This journey begins with knowing oneself and culminates in living one’s deepest values at the personal, team, and organizational level. We believe that effective leaders holistically engage the body, mind, heart, soul and spirit of those whom they lead. The punctilious reader will notice the natural affinity of the word ‘holistic’ with the word ‘spiritual’. In essence, only that which is whole and integrated can be truly called holy and spiritual. Only those lead-ers who touch people’s lives profoundly and deeply—at the level of human spirit—are able to make an abiding difference in their lives. The chapters of this book are fashioned around this theme.

preparatIon For tHIs Book project

During the course of his ongoing research on personal and professional excellence, this author has had the opportunity of meeting and/or com-municating with some remarkable luminaries such as Peter Drucker, Howard Gardner, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Ron Heifetz, Peter Senge, Bob Kegan, Barbara Kellerman, Julius Shulman, Chris Argyris, Carol Gilligan, Lee Bolman, James O’Toole, Ellen Langer, Max De Pree, Joel Barker, K. Anders Ericsson and Noel Tichy. Life also provided the rare privilege of sitting at the feet of Swami Dayananda Saraswati, Swami Paramarthananda, Swami Brahmatmanandji Saraswati and Swami Narayan Prasad Muni. Throughout the book I will draw upon their wisdom to illumine various facets of holistic leadership.

In planning for the development of Holistic Leadership framework, the author has consulted diverse conceptual guides and constructs and have examined the works of Maslow, Herzberg, McClelland (motiva-tion research); Gardner and Seligman (multiple intelligence and signa-ture strengths); Goleman, Mayer, and Salovey (emotional intelligence); Zohar and Wigglesworth (spiritual intelligence); Simonton and Ericsson (markers of greatness, expertise, competence, and deliberate prac-tice), Csikszentmihalyi (flow and creativity), Burns, De Pree, George, Greenleaf (authentic, transforming leadership paradigm), Frankl, Covey, Senge, and Manz (self-leadership); Adi Shankaracharya, Dayananda, Paramarthananda, Sri Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo (Advaita Vedānta and Universalism); as well as the life-work of Gandhi, King, Mandela, and Teresa (lived wisdom icons). From these authors and portraits, I believe

6 S. DHIMAN

I have synthesised the disparate fields of emotional intelligence, multiple intelligence, optimal performance, authentic, transformational leader-ship, appreciative inquiry, motivation and creativity, cognitive psychol-ogy, moral philosophy, and wisdom traditions of the world.

I realize that this is a daring thesis, but I have seen the need for such an undertaking. Since the problems facing leaders today are multifaceted, the book presents a pertinent framework for developing leaders in a holistic fashion.

The journey of holistic leadership starts with the development of the leader as a person. Warren Bennis, who has authored and coauthored some 30 books on leadership and has been hailed as the “The ‘Dean’ of Leadership Gurus,”7 contends that to become a leader, a person first has to develop as an individual. Peter Senge concurs and regards self-mastery as the key aspect of growing as a leader.8 According to Bennis, the real task of becoming a leader boils down to becoming an authentic individual first: “At bottom, becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming your-self. It’s precisely that simple, and it’s also that difficult.”9 Gandhi once said, “Our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as being able to remake ourselves.”10 It is only through internalizing self-knowledge that leaders are able to truly “remake” themselves and fulfill their mission.

The following two figures present the cycle and the framework of holis-tic leadership:

7 See: Rob Asghar, “The ‘Dean’ of Leadership Gurus Passes At 89,” Forbes (August 1, 2014), accessed February 10, 2015, http://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/08/01/the-dean-of-leadership-gurus-passesat-89/. Also see: Jena McGregor, “Remembering leader-ship sage Warren Bennis,” Washington Post (August 4, 2014), accessed February 10, 2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2014/08/04/remembering-leadership-sage-warren-bennis/.

8 Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday, Revised and updated edition, 2006). See chapter 8: Personal Mastery, pp. 129–162.

Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, and Joseph Jaworski, Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (New York: Crown Books, 2008), 92.

9 Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader (New York: Basic Books, 2009, Fourth Edition), xxxvii.

10 Eknath Easwaran, The Compassionate Universe: The Power of the Individual to Heal the Environment (California: Nilgiri Press, 1989), 20 (emphasis added).

INTRODUCTION: ON BECOMING A HOLISTIC LEADER 7

tHree InteGraL cIrcLes oF HoLIstIc LeadersHIp

Figures 1.1 and 1.2 present three integral circles of holistic leadership signifying three defining dimensions—Self (nurturing), Spirit (align-ing), and Service (contributing) and three corresponding leadership types—Self-leadership, Authentic Leadership, and Legacy Leadership. Each leadership type has three dimensions. Self leadership represents the preparation phase on the path of holistic leadership and comprises

Fig. 1.1 Cycle of holistic leadership, Satinder Dhiman (2016)

8 S. DHIMAN

self- motivation, self-mastery and self-creativity. Authentic leadership comprises self-awareness informed by internalized moral perspective expressed as unity and purity in thought, speech and action. It signifies harnessing the spirit through emotional intelligence and appreciative inquiry guided by a strong moral compass. Service leadership presents the quest for meaning and fulfillment through selfless service culminat-ing in a leader’s enduring legacy.

At every level, the various dimensions of holistic leadership are pre-sented in a dialectical manner, highlighting their contrast at one level while at the same time underscoring their creative harmony based on syn-thesis. Throughout, leadership presents a contrast between the self and the other, each claiming its veritable supremacy. The holistic leadership paradigm recognizes and builds on this inherent dialecticism and seeks its resolution in the subordination of the good of the self for the good of oth-ers. This is the keynote of the book and should not be lost sight of at any time. It is only when we act for the good of others that we truly redeem our existence both at the personal and professional level.

Fig. 1.2 Holistic leadership framework, Satinder Dhiman (2016)

INTRODUCTION: ON BECOMING A HOLISTIC LEADER 9

cHapter scHema oF tHe Book

The core nine chapters of this book may be approached as three dynamic concentric circles that focus on personal development, professional excel-lence, and fulfilling life’s purpose, encased within an introduction and an epilogue.

As a prelude to holistic leadership, this introductory chapter furnishes the gestalt in terms of the why, what and how of this book. It provides holistic leadership cycle and framework guided by its three constituent dimensions: self, spirit and service. It presents an overview of the chapter schema and the layout of the book.

Chapter 2, titled Self-Motivation, explores the role of self-motivation for leading oneself as well others. It begins with an appraisal of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s two-factor theory. In critiquing their work, it focuses on the art of realizing one’s total potential as well as the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Next, it explores the self- determination theory (SDT) and its discussion of basic human needs and life goals. Within the framework of SDT, it further develops the topic of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The chapter concludes with a review of the findings of positive psychology regarding self-motivation and optimal performance and its implication for workplace motivation.

Chapter 3, entitled Self-Mastery, develops the theme of self-mastery as the foundation for achievement in any endeavor including leadership. Before we can effectively lead others, we must first learn to manage our-selves effectively. This chapter discusses the role of self-discipline, self- effort, self-will, and self-perseverance in fostering self-development for preparing us for life and leadership. Without self-discipline one cannot attain success in any field, whether it is science, sports, music or any other domain. The key focus of the chapter is the harmonious development of a leader’s personality in all its essential dimensions—psychological, intel-lectual, emotional, moral, and spiritual. It draws upon the key lessons of personal mastery as presented in the Bhagavad Gītā, the most important paradigmic spiritual text of Hindus. Focusing especially on psychological and emotional aspects, the theme of self-mastery is developed as integra-tion of personality. The chapter also references the Aristotelian theory of the golden mean as the desirable middle between two extremes—one of excess and the other of deficiency. As an added feature, the chapter reviews research on expert performance (the making of champions) to inform the quest for self-mastery.

10 S. DHIMAN

Chapter 4, titled Creativity and Flow, focuses on the role of creativ-ity and flow in life and leadership. Now more than ever organizations must innovate in order to survive and succeed. Some of the world’s most iconic companies are embracing creativity as a way of life. Leaders are increasingly expected to nurture an environment of collaborative innova-tion. Treating creativity as a form of competence that can be nurtured, it reviews some of the mounting research that shows that creativity is very much a science. After defining the creative process as person, process, and product-based, it provides a brief overview of the experience of flow as observed in the behavior of creative individuals and the anatomy of mind-ful creativity. It explores the relationship between mindfulness as a creative process and the concept of flow, suggesting that the meditative practice of mindfulness at once contributes to the successful attainment of both of these experiences. It concludes with reviewing the benefits of mindfulness, creativity, and flow.

Chapter 5, titled Emotional and Multiple Intelligences, explores the role of emotional intelligence and multiple intelligences, including spiri-tual intelligence, in enhancing the effectiveness of a holistic leader. By harnessing rational, emotional, inter/intra personal, and spiritual intel-ligences, leaders can recognize and nurture the myriad gifts that people bring to work. Emotional intelligence is defined as one’s ability to accu-rately identify, appraise, discern and discriminate among emotions in one-self and others, understand emotions, assimilate emotions in thought, and to regulate both positive and negative emotions in oneself and others.11 The chapter also explores role of empathy in leadership success. Empathy involves identifying, subjectively, with the emotion of another and experi-encing concern for that emotion.12

The concept of multiple intelligences, propounded by Howard Gardner, explores various additional forms of intelligence to account for excellence in music, language, sports, and the like. It challenges the conventional view of intelligence that focuses on language and mathematical intelligence.

11 Mayer, J., Caruso, D., & Salovey, P. (2000). Emotional intelligence meets traditional standards for an intelligence. Intelligence, 27(4), 267–298. See also: Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 9, 185–211. Goleman, D. (2001). An EI-based theory of performance. In Cary Cherniss & Daniel Goleman (Eds.), The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass), 27–44.

12 Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It can Matter more than IQ (New York: Bantam Books).

INTRODUCTION: ON BECOMING A HOLISTIC LEADER 11

The chapter takes the view that both emotional intelligence and multiple intelligence are amenable to conscious development and their understanding can contribute to the development of a holistic leader. This chapter con-cludes with a review of spiritual intelligence and its role in holistic leadership.

Chapter 6, titled Appreciative Inquiry, builds on the premise that success in leadership lies in linking the untapped energies of a living system to an organization’s change agenda. It explores the role of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) in holistic leadership. Just as Michaelangelo was able to sense the historic figure of David in a slab of marble, Appreciative Inquiry is the art of seeing the mighty oak in the acorn. It is a strength-based, affirmative approach to effect change in social systems. It aspires to build organizations on the assumption of what is right with them instead of focussing on what is wrong with them. AI has been variously described as an ‘affirmative approach to change’, a ‘culmination of Maslow’s vision of positive human potential’ and a ‘new yoga of inquiry’. It is based on the premise that ‘human systems grow and change in the direction in which they ask questions’. If an organization inquires into problems, it will keep finding problems; if an organization seeks to appreciate what is best in itself and its people, it will discover more and more that is good. It can then use these discoveries to envision and create a new future where the best naturally becomes the norm.

Chapter 7, titled Spiritual Leadership, focuses on the moral and spiri-tual dimensions of holistic leadership. Spiritual leadership is not dependent on your title and one does not have to be at the top level of an organiza-tion to practice authentic leadership. It depends upon the self-power and not the position-power. This chapter explores authentic leadership and servant leadership as primary expressions of spiritual leadership. Authentic leadership is about being true to yourself. Authentic leaders are altruis-tic, honest, trustworthy, and principled decision-makers who care about the well-being of their followers and the needs of the broader society. Authenticity is defined as the unity and purity of one’s thoughts, words, and deeds. Servant leadership represents a shift from followers serving leaders to leaders serving followers. Since leadership is an expression of who we are, in discovering, living and sharing our deepest values lies the fulfillment of our life and leadership.

Chapter 8, titled Meaning and Purpose in Leadership, explores how holistic leaders seek and live their highest meaning and purpose. Finding a profound meaning in all we do lends a certain spiritual sanctity to our toils that goes deeper than life’s material ploys. Without work, said Albert Camus, life rottens. But when the work is soul-less, it stifles and dies.

12 S. DHIMAN

Pursuing meaningful work provides an abiding purpose to our life and redeems our existence through our contribution. It is the quest for mean-ing that keeps the battle of life going in the face of the inevitable. If mean-ing is about discovering one’s unique gifts, purpose is about sharing those gifts for the good of others. Leaders positively seek meaning and help others find meaning as well. Before one becomes a leader, the focus is on discovering and living the personal meaning. After one becomes a leader, the focus is on helping others discover and live meaning in their lives. This chapter reviews the work of Victor Frankl and Michael Ray in illustrating how leaders find transcendent meaning in all they do.

Chapter 9, titled Find Your Fulfillment, explores the art and science of discovering fulfillment in life and leadership. Fulfillment is not a place we go to; it is a place we all come from. The image of the path or the journey could be misleading for all paths are paths away from home. The vir-tual journey of fulfillment is from here to here. A fulfilled life is marked by some key attributes. Love, joy, and compassion are marks of being awake. Hatred, greed, and anger are marks of being asleep. In order to live a ful-filled life—one brimming with Joy, Peace, Harmony and Love—you must resonate yourself with precisely these qualities. Real fulfillment is about transforming our search for success into a discovery of profound meaning and significance for life and leadership. This transition to “significance,” which is nurtured from within, is not about “acquiring” anything new; it is a matter of “re-discovering” what we already have. Significance is defined in terms of finding one’s real place and purpose in life and in terms of one’s contribution to the common good.

This chapter presents seven habits of highly fulfilled leaders to mark the transition from success to significance. These habits of head and heart are: Pure motivation; Gratitude; Generosity; Harmlessness; Selfless-service; Acceptance; Mindfulness.

Chapter 10, titled Being Change, explores the leadership journey and enduring legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, the quintessential holistic leader. Legacy leadership is a natural consequence of being a holistic leader. Holistic leaders set in motion certain key processes that continue to fructify long after they have passed on. It is their steadfastness and selflessness that bring enduring change and leave their footprints on the sand of time. We all need heroes who can awaken us to the best in people and who can inspire us to be what we know we can be. Given the current leadership crisis, there is a greater need for the role models that embody and illustrate value-based, holistic leadership. From the pages of recent history, Gandhi emerges as a

INTRODUCTION: ON BECOMING A HOLISTIC LEADER 13

grand strategist and exemplary leader with a keen understanding of human nature. His life and leadership embody the synergistic influence fashioned by the coming together of the self, spirit, and service—the three founda-tional dimensions of holistic leadership.

The concluding chapter, titled From Position-Power to Self-Power, sums up various dimensions of holistic leadership. It integrates the lessons of holistic leadership around important themes. As an added bonus, it broaches the sub-ject of self-leadership. Self-leadership is not about leading others. It is about mastering oneself. Self-leadership fosters the holistic development of a leader’s personality in all its dimensions: physical–psychological, emotional, intellec-tual, and spiritual. When as leaders we are in touch with our deeper, truer authentic self, we are also able to connect with the authentic self of others.

Self-leadership is built on the understanding that everybody has two most basic needs. The first is the need to express oneself. Leadership is the art of self-expression and your leadership style is an extension of who you are. The second need we all have is the need to surpass our-selves. Every human being has these needs. They are not always very well-articulated, but they are there behind all our strivings and pursuits. Everyone wants to self-express and everyone wants to surpass oneself. Self-leadership accomplishes both in one stroke. Self-leadership is the art of inspiring excellence in oneself and others by enabling people to express and surpass themselves.

concLudInG remarks

Holistic leadership is a voyage of inner discovery that begins with knowing oneself and culminates in living one’s deepest values at the personal, team, and organizational level. Effective leaders holistically engage the body, mind, heart, soul and spirit of those whom they lead. The quest for holistic leadership starts with self-awareness and self-mastery, progresses with living authentically one’s core values, and culminates in leaving a legacy by fulfill-ing life’s purpose through selfless service for the greater good. Guided by self-knowledge, holistic leaders express their total, authentic self in all that they do and surpass themselves by serving for the good of others.

The path to holistic leadership is marked by the following steps: To lead others one must first lead one’s self. To lead one’s self, one must first know oneself. To know oneself, one must first “be” oneself. To be oneself is the first and last step on the path to a leader’s journey. The image of the path

14 S. DHIMAN

or the journey could be misleading for all paths are paths away from home. It is not a journey; it is a home-coming.

I conclude with a splendid quote by Anthony de Mello that captures the spirit of the foregoing—that is, the journey called self-discovery is a journey of no journey—of recognition, from here to here:

The spiritual quest is a journey without distance.You travel from where you are right now

To where you have always been.From Ignorance to recognition.13

on BecomInG a HoLIstIc Leader: reFLectIon QuestIons

1. Do you agree that the contemporary business leaders have lost their True North? Explain why the need for leaders who are authentic, prin-cipled, and spiritually grounded is greater now than ever.

2. Why traditional forms of leadership and organizational structures are proving inadequate to deal with emerging reality that is complex, mul-tidimensional, and virtual?

3. Explain why an integral leadership approach is needed to address the multifaceted issues faced by contemporary organizations and leaders.

4. Explain the inter-relationship between the words “whole”, “inte-grated” and “holy” with reference to holistic leadership.

5. Do you agree that we need holistic leaders and holistic systems that are able to integrate the spiritual and the material perspectives in a dialecti-cal manner?

6. Explain how holistic leadership fosters a leader’s harmonious develop-ment in all its vital dimensions—physical, mental, emotional, moral, and spiritual.

7. Explain how the journey of holistic leadership is not really a journey but a home-coming—a re-cognition and a re-discovery of who we truly are.

13 As quoted in Larry Chang, ed., Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (Washington, DC: Gnosophia Publishers, 2006), 436.

INTRODUCTION: ON BECOMING A HOLISTIC LEADER 15

17© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_2

CHAPTER 2

“The story of the human race is the story of men and women selling themselves short.”

—ABRAHAM MASLOW

IntroductIon

In the opening quote, Abraham Maslow, who has been hailed as the prophet of human potential, laments about the great loss of unrealized human potential. After all, our playing small does not help the universe. No wonder he devoted his entire life to exploring the mainsprings of human motivation lest humanity continues to sell itself short. Discussions of motivation often begin with long-existing theorists like Maslow (1954), Herzberg (1974), and McGregor (1985). Their theories have stood the test of time and are valuable lenses through which to view motivation. However, the field of motivation research is burgeoning.1 This chapter begins with a review of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s two- factor theory. In critiquing their work, it focuses on the art of realizing one’s total potential as well as the role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. Next, it reviews lessons from goal-setting theory.

1 Michael Kroth, “Maslow—Move Aside! A Heuristical Motivation Model for Leaders in Career and Technical Education,” Journal of Industrial Teacher Education, 44 (2), (2007): 5–36.

Self-Motivation: Motivating the Whole Person

Within the framework of Self-determination theory (SDT), it further explores the topic of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The chapter con-cludes with holistic leadership lessons of self-motivation and their implica-tion for workplace motivation.

What Is MotIvatIon?In everyday usage, the term motivation often describes why a person does something. According to the Webster Collegiate Dictionary, the word motivation comes from Latin word movere, or motum, which means ‘to move’. According to Nevid, “The term motivation refers to factors that activate, direct, and sustain goal-directed behavior. … Motives are the ‘whys’ of behavior—the needs or wants that drive behavior and explain what we do. We don’t actually observe a motive; rather, we infer that one exists based on the behavior we observe.”2

Motivation is what energizes, directs, and sustains behavior and includes will, instincts and drives. It signifies the motives for people’s actions, desires, and needs. A motive is an impulse that propels a person to act. Motivation is an internal process that causes a person move toward a goal. It involves the biological, emotional, social and cognitive forces that trigger behavior.

MasloW’s hIerarchy of needs

American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) was one of the founders of humanistic psychology and is often best recognized for devel-oping the theory of human motivation known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. In his 1943 paper “A Theory of Human Motivation,”3 Maslow pro-posed a hierarchical structure, often depicted as a pyramid, for what moti-vates human behavior. He developed his theory further in his 1954 book, Motivation and Personality.4 He studied exemplary people such as Albert Einstein, Jane Addams, Eleanor Roosevelt, Frederick Douglass, Martin Buber, and Albert Schweitzer rather than mentally ill or neurotic people, writing that “the study of crippled, stunted, immature, and unhealthy specimens can yield only a cripple psychology and a cripple philosophy.”5

2 Jeffry S.  Nevid, Psychology: Concepts and Applications, 4th edition (Belmont, CA: Wadworth, 2013), 288.

3 Abraham H. Maslow, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Psychological Review, Vol. 50 (4), 1943: 370–396.

4 Abraham H. Maslow, Motivation and Personality (New York, NY: Harper, 1954).5 Ibid., 234.

18 S. DHIMAN

Though many have suggested improvisations of his theory, it continues to be the benchmark standard because of its strong intuitive logic. In Maslow’s scheme, the needs are sequenced as follows, from the most urgent to the most advanced (Fig. 2.1):

1. Physiological Needs 2. Safety Needs 3. Belonging Needs 4. Self-esteem 5. Self-actualization

Commenting on the hierarchical nature of needs, Maslow observes:

It is quite true that man lives by bread alone—when there is no bread. But what happens to man’s desires when there is plenty of bread and when his belly is chronically filled? At once other (and “higher”) needs emerge and these, rather than physiological hungers, dominate the organism. And when these in turn are satisfied, again new (and still “higher”) needs emerge and so on. This is what we mean by saying that the basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency.

A peculiar characteristic of the human organism when it is dominated by a certain need is that the whole philosophy of the future tends also to change. For our chronically and extremely hungry man, … life itself tends to

Fig. 2.1 Adapted from Abraham H. Maslow, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” Psychological Review, 1943, Vol. 50 (4) 370–396.

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 19

be defined in terms of eating. Anything else will be defined as unimportant. Freedom, love, community feeling, respect, philosophy, may all be waved aside as fripperies that are useless since they fail to fill the stomach. All that has been said of the physiological needs is equally true of the safety needs.6

In the short space of two paragraphs, Maslow presents the essence of his understanding about the hierarchical nature of human needs. His basic premise is that unfulfilled physiological needs are felt at first with cer-tain urgency and importance to the exclusion of all other types of needs. And once we have fulfilled them, they give way to the next level needs. The first set of needs in this hierarchical order is survival. Physiological needs refer to needs such as food, water, and sleep. Safety needs refer to the need for shelter and protection from danger (securing our stuff). Belonging needs denote the need to belong to a group and the need to love and be loved. Self-esteem needs refer to the need to feel good about oneself, one’s ability and contribution. The top of the pyramid is the need for self- actualization, which is about fulfilling one’s potential and highest purpose.

The four lower levels are grouped together as “D” or “deficiency needs”, while the Self-actualization needs are termed as “B” or “being needs” or “growth needs.” These needs include our notions of morality, creativity, spontaneity, and capacity to live up to our “true potential”. The basic premise is that the higher needs in this hierarchy only come into focus once all the lower needs are mostly or entirely satisfied. The idea is that only the unsatisfied need motivates and that lower needs, like food, water, and shelter, capture our attention until they are met. Thereafter, “higher” needs, referred to as “self-actualization”, take over. However, the deficiency needs are also important for securing a basic measure of happiness. As Dan Gilbert, a Harvard psychologist and the author of Stumbling upon Happiness, tell us with his characteristic humor:

Psychologists and economists now know that although the very rich are no happier than the merely rich, for the other 99 percent of us, happiness is greatly enhanced by a few quaint assets, like shelter, sustenance and security. Those who think the material is immaterial have probably never stood in a breadline.7

6 Abraham H. Maslow, “A Theory of Human Motivation,” 375, 374.7 Dan Gilbert, “What We Don’t Know Makes Us Nervous”, The New York Times, May 21,

2009. Entry retrieved on January 14, 2016 from http://www.randomhouse.com/kvpa/gilbert/blog/. Also see: Dan Gilbert, Stumbling upon Happiness (New York: Vintage Books, 2005).

20 S. DHIMAN

The deficiency needs are important until they are met. After that, the mind starts pining for other needs. All a drowning person cares and prays for is a boat; once such a person is in the boat, the sun starts hurting all of a sud-den! Perhaps wisdom lies in not asking for anything more if we have been granted our boat, at least not until we reach the shore safely.

What holds us Back froM achIevIng true greatness?Why do these possibilities, present in all, actualize themselves in only a few? Maslow wrestled with this question all his life. One of the reasons that blocks growth, he thought, is the “fear of one’s own greatness” or “running away from one’s own best talents”. Maslow believed that “it is certainly possible for most of us to be greater than we are in actuality. We all have unused potentialities or not fully developed ones.”8 In order to demonstrate this, Maslow used to ask his students:

Which of you in this class hopes to write the great American novel, or to be a senator, or Governor, or President? Who wants to be the Secretary General of the United Nations? Or a great composer? Who aspires to be a saint, like Schweitzer, perhaps? Who among you will be a great leader? Generally, everybody starts giggling, blushing, and squirming until I ask, ‘If not you, then who else?’9

In the same way, in order to push his students to higher levels of aspira-tion, Maslow would often ask, “What great book are you now secretly planning to write?”10 The greatest benefactors of humanity are not those who provide for our wherewithal; but those who prod us to become what we are destined to be. They somehow know that the destiny of a piece of charcoal is to become the precious diamond one day. They are able to see the mighty oak in our acorn.

This theme was eloquently presented by Nelson Mandela in his 1994 inaugural speech, as follows:

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, “Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,

8 Abraham H. Maslow, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (New York: Harper & Row, 1971), 34.

9 Ibid., 34–35.10 Ibid., 35.

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 21

talented, and fabulous?” Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small doesn’t serve the world. There is nothing enlight-ened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liber-ated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.11

Marianne Williamson in this soul-uplifting quote points out that our greatest glory lies in manifesting our most fabulous and most brilliant destiny. This is how nature wills it for all of us, equally and universally. Maslow believed that the fulfillment of B-Values is another aspect of self- actualization and a harbinger of personal responsibility and social harmony:

If we were to accept as a major educational goal the awakening and fulfill-ment of B-Values, we would have a different flowering of a new kind of civi-lization. People would be stronger, healthier, and would take their own lives into their hands to a greater extent. With increased personal responsibility for one’s personal life, and with a rational set of values to guide one’s choos-ing, people would begin to actively change the society in which they lived. The movement towards psychological health is also the movement toward spiritual peace and social harmony.12

Two things become evident by understanding Maslow’s vision as depicted in the foregoing quote: first, realizing our B-Needs herald the coming of a new kind of civilization where people will be healthier, more vital, and resonant. Secondly, such growth will usher a movement towards greater moral and spiritual peace, harmony and abundance.

the Master key: BecoMe a Part of soMethIng IMPortant!

The easiest way to feel needed is to become a part of something important, something larger, something greater. Then at once you become respon-sible: “At once, it matters if you die, or if you are sick, or if you can’t work, etc. Then you must take care of yourself, you must respect yourself, you

11 Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of A Course in Miracles (New York: HarperCollins, 1992), 190–191.

12 Maslow, Farther Reaches of Human Nature, 188.

22 S. DHIMAN

have to get plenty of rest, not smoke or drink too much, etc. […] This is an important medicine for self-esteem: Become a part of something important.”13 Holistic leaders utilize this important insight by convincing their team members that they are part of something larger, grander and that their contribution can help make a difference in the world.

According to Maslow, all self-actualizing people have a cause they believe in, a calling, a vocation to which they are devoted. When they say, “my work”, they mean their “mission” in life. Self-actualizing people are, without one single exception, involved in a cause outside their own skin, in something outside of themselves.14 Life’s highest meaning and purpose can only be realized in our relationship to all life, outside the precincts of our skin-encapsulated ego, as Alan Watts once put it. Maslow further clari-fies the link between self-actualization and happiness:

This business of self-actualization via a commitment to an important job and to worthwhile work could also be said, then, to be the path to human hap-piness … happiness is an epiphenomenon, a by-product, something not to be sought directly but an indirect reward or virtue …. The only happy people I know are the ones who are working well at something they consider important … this was universal truth for all my self-actualizing subjects. They were metamotivated by metaneeds (B-Values) expressed in their devotion to, dedication to, and identification with some great and important job. This was true for every single case.15

Just having an important task is not enough: the self-actualizing per-son must also do it well. Second-rate work is not a good path to self- actualization. Self-actualization means working to do well the thing that one wants to do. One must strive to be the very best in whatever one undertakes. Maslow considered this striving ‘to be the best one is capable of becoming’ to be the sine qua non of human happiness: “If you delib-erately plan to be less than you are capable of being, then I warn you that you will be deeply unhappy for the rest of your life. You will be evading your own capacities, your own possibilities.”16 It is true that cultivation of one’s capacities requires hard work, dedication, discipline, training, practice, and often postponement of pleasure. This understanding is in keeping

13 Abraham H. Maslow, Maslow on Management (New York: McGraw Hill, 1998), 10–11.14 Maslow, Farther Reaches of Human Nature, 42.15 Maslow, Maslow on Management, 8–9(italics added).16 Maslow, Farther Reaches of Human Nature, 35. (italics added).

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 23

with the Greek ideal that defines happiness as the ‘exercise of human facul-ties along the lines of excellence’, for mediocrity is no path to fulfillment.

In Buddhist literature, great emphasis is laid on choosing the right kind of work. One of the eight components of righteous living in Buddhism is called right livelihood—the kind of livelihood that fosters self-fulfillment, inner peace, and contentment. It is difficult to conceive of a feeling of sat-isfaction or self-pride, says Maslow if one were “working in some chewing gum factory, or a phony advertising agency, or in some factory that turned out shoddy furniture. Real achievement means inevitably a worthy and vir-tuous task. To do some idiotic job very well is certainly not real achievement … what is not worth doing is not worth doing well.”17 By extension, what is worth doing is worth doing well. Excellence, which Aristotle believed to be quality of human soul, is not optional when it comes to fulfillment. The Bhagavad Gītā defines yoga as the excellence in action (yogah. karmasu kauśalam: Gītā 2.50). There is nothing uplifting about mediocrity.

BehavIors leadIng to self-actualIzatIon

Self-actualizing people tend to focus on problems outside of themselves, have a clear sense of what is true what is phony, are spontaneous and creative and are not bound too strictly by social conventions.

—MASLOW

In the above quote, Maslow continues with the theme of meaning and purpose which self-actualizing people seek outside of themselves. They have good understanding of what is real and what is sham, and live a life of enlightened self-responsibility, relatively free from the strictures of the society. Elsewhere Maslow has stated: “Self-actualizing people enjoy life in general and practically all its aspects, while most other people enjoy only stray moments of triumph …”18 What does self-actualization mean in terms of actual behavior? What are the hallmarks of self-actualizing peo-ple? How can one become a self-actualizing person? Maslow answers these questions by describing eight ways in which one self-actualizes:

1. Going at things “whole hog”: Self-actualization means experiencing fully, vividly, selflessly, with full concentration and total absorption.

17 Maslow, Maslow on Management, 16.18 Abraham H. Maslow, Towards a Psychology of Being, 3rd ed. (New York, NY: John Wiley

& Sons, 1999), 37.

24 S. DHIMAN

2. Making Growth Choices: To make a growth choice instead of the fear choice a dozen times a day is to move a dozen times a day towards self-actualization.

3. Letting the self emerge: By “listening to their impulse voices”, self- actualizing people let the self emerge.

4. Taking Responsibility: Each time one acts honestly or takes responsi-bility, one is actualizing the self.

5. Listening to one’s own self: One cannot choose wisely for a life unless one dares to listen to oneself, one’s own self, at each moment of life. To be courageous rather than afraid is another version of the same thing.

6. Working to become first-rate: Self-actualization means going through an arduous and demanding period of preparation in order to realize one’s possibilities. To become a second-rate physician is not a good path to self-actualization. One wants to be first-rate or as good as one can be.

7. Creating conditions for Peak Experiences: Peak experiences are tran-sient moments of self-actualization. They cannot be bought, nor can they be sought. By making growth choices, by being honest and taking responsibility, by listening to their inner voices, and by self-lessly working at a cause greater than themselves, self-actualizing people create conditions so that such experiences are more likely to occur.

8. Having the courage to drop one’s defenses: It means identifying defenses and finding the courage to give them up. It is painful because defenses are mechanisms against something that is unpleas-ant. This requires self-knowledge and courage.19

It must be noted that self-actualization, according to Maslow, is not a matter of one great moment. Rather, it is a matter of degree, or little victories accumulated one by one over time. In other words, for Maslow, self-actualization is like a marathon and not like a sprint. It requires concerted effort, patience, and perseverance to self-actualize. The alchemy of charcoal becoming a diamond requires persistence and patience for we are told that the finest timber comes from the slowest-growing trees.

19 Abraham H. Maslow, Farther Reaches of Human Nature, 43–51.

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 25

self-actualIzatIon, Peak exPerIence and B-values

As a prophet of human potential, Maslow believed the realization of one’s total potential variously described as self-actualization or self- realization to be the ultimate goal of all humankind. In his later research, however, Maslow (1971) enlarged the list of basic needs to include a still higher cat-egory of needs, called “metaneeds”. He called the ultimate values sought by self-actualizing people as Being-Values or B-Values. These values were mentioned again and again by self-actualizing people or by other people to describe their peak experience. Such experiences comprise the follow-ing attributes: wholeness, perfection, completion, justice, aliveness, rich-ness, simplicity, beauty, goodness, uniqueness, effortlessness, playfulness, truth, honesty, self-sufficiency, and meaningfulness.

MasloW reconsIdered

Later in his life, Maslow reclassified needs into D-Needs and B-Needs, with their correlates as deficiency motivation and growth motivation. The physio-logical, security, belonging, and esteemed needs may be termed as Deficiency Needs (D-Needs) since they are activated by deficiency. Self- actualization needs and the B-Needs may be called Growth Needs since they represent not so much of a deficiency as an unfolding of all those “wonderful possibili-ties” that lie deep within each human being, waiting to express themselves. Towards the end of his life, Maslow went beyond “self-actualization”. He considered self-transcendence to be the highest need and greatest aspiration and recognized self-transcendence as a step beyond self-actualization.

In the state of self-transcendence, a person seeks to further a cause beyond the self and to experience a communion beyond the geographical boundaries of the self through peak experience. This may involve service to others, devotion to an ideal (e.g., truth, art) or a cause (e.g., social justice, environmentalism, the pursuit of science, a religious faith), and/or a desire to be united with what is perceived as transcendent or divine. The self only finds its true actualization in giving itself to some higher purpose outside itself, in altruism and spirituality.20 It is a well-known fact that

20 See: Mark E. Koltko-Rivera, “Rediscovering the Later Version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Self-Transcendence and Opportunities for Theory, Research, and Unification”, in: Review of General Psychology, Vol. 10, No. 4, (2006): 302–317. Retrieved Jan. 14, 2016: http://academic.udayton.edu/jackbauer/Readings%20595/Koltko-Rivera%2006%20trans%20self-act%20copy.pdf. Also see: Robert A.  Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns: Motivation and Spirituality in Personality (New York: Guilford Press, 1999).

26 S. DHIMAN

towards the end of his life, Maslow discovered Taoism, the philosophy of let be attitude.

Maslow describes a self-transcending human being as follows:

The fully developed (and very fortunate) human being working under the best conditions tends to be motivated by values which transcend his self. They are not selfish anymore in the old sense of that term. Beauty is not within one’s skin nor is justice or order. One can hardly class these desires as selfish in the sense that my desire for food might be. My satisfaction with achieving or allowing justice is not within my own skin.… It is equally out-side and inside: therefore, it has transcended the geographical limitations of the self.21

Maslow regards the self-transcending human being as the most fortunate one since such a person has freed himself or herself from the shackles of a self-limiting relative self. Such an individual has liberated himself from the most fundamental human disability: self-centeredness. Now, s/he is able to find fulfillment in living the higher values of beauty, truth and justice.

In his most-perceptive assessment of Maslow’s later work, Mark E. Koltko-Rivera contends that the conventional description of Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is not accurate as a description of Maslow’s later thought. In presenting a revised version that includes self- transcendence as the highest value, he concludes:

It is time to change the textbook accounts of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Inclusion of self-transcendence at the top of the needs hierarchy is a more accurate reflection of Maslow’s theory. … Incorporating self-transcendence into Maslow’s theory can help psychology develop a better grasp of how different people and cultures construe the meaning of life. Considering the construct of self-transcendence can help us better understand the moti-vational underpinnings of both altruism and religious violence, as well as human wisdom.22

Maslow was undoubtedly one of the greatest psychologists of modern times. His theory, albeit in its general outline, has an intuitive logic and popular appeal. However, recent research has pointed out some limita-tions to the theory. For example, the actual hierarchy of needs may not

21 Abraham H. Maslow, “The farther reaches of human nature”. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 1(1), (1969): 3–4.

22 Mark E.  Koltko-Rivera, “Rediscovering the Later Version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Self-Transcendence and Opportunities for Theory, Research, and Unification,” 313.

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 27

always conform to Maslow’s classification. Similarly, need hierarchy may not always transfer very well to other cultures.23 Be that as it may, Maslow stands tall as a prophet of human potential and his pioneer conception of self-actualization and self-transcendence as human values has secured him a permanent place among the immortals in the field of humanistic psychology. It is one of the towering contributions of Maslow that posi-tive psychology has come to be recognized as a viable field of research and exploration. It will not be an exaggeration to say that the germ of most of the key tenets of positive psychology lies in the writings of Maslow.

frederIck herzBerg’s tWo-factor theory

An alternative approach to understanding the psychology of motivation is presented by Frederick Herzberg in the form of two-factor motivation- hygiene theory, as reported in his Harvard Business Review article orig-inally published in 1968.24 The theory was initially developed from an examination of events in the lives of 203 engineers and accountants: “Briefly, we asked our respondents to describe periods in their lives when they were exceedingly happy and unhappy with their jobs. Each respon-dent gave as many ‘sequences of events’ as he could that met certain cri-teria.” Later it was corroborated through 16 other investigations, using a wider variety of populations.25 The findings of these explorations were revealing and counter-intuitive in terms of how people responded to the questions of happiness or unhappiness at work.

Herzberg discovered that the factors leading to job satisfaction (and motivation) are “separate and distinct from those that lead to job dissatisfaction.”26 The findings revealed that certain characteristics of a job are consistently related to job satisfaction, while different factors are asso-ciated with job dissatisfaction. According to Herzberg, “The opposite of job satisfaction is not job dissatisfaction but, rather, no job satisfaction; and similarly, the opposite of job dissatisfaction is not job satisfaction, but no

23 See: Nancy Adler, International Dimension of Organizational Behavior (Cincinnati, OH: Southwestern Publishing, 2007). Geert Hofstede, Culture’s Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations Across Nations (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 2nd edition, 2003).

24 Frederick Herzberg, “One More Time: How Do You Motivate Employees?” Best of HBR, Harvard Business Review (January 2003): 87–96.

25 Ibid., 90.26 Ibid., 91.

28 S. DHIMAN

job dissatisfaction.”27 Herzberg identified two sets of factors: environmen-tal factors (context of the job) and growth or motivator factors (content of the job). The hygiene factors pertain to characteristics that influence job dissatisfaction, such as working conditions, supervisors, pay and security, and company policies. The second set of factors called motivators increase satisfaction and commitment and include elements such as the work itself, achievement, recognition, responsibility, advancement and growth oppor-tunities. Put differently, hygiene factors are extrinsic while motivators are intrinsic. Extrinsic motivation comes from outside a person—whether it is in the form of a carrot or a stick. Intrinsic motivation refers to a person’s internal desire to do something.

Although it is necessary to have the hygiene factors in place, the true motivation comes from such growth factors as the meaningfulness and challenge of the work itself, responsibility, and opportunities for advance-ment. Developed in the 1950s and 1960s, Herzberg’s theory is still rel-evant in its understanding of the key factors of job satisfaction. To enhance further the value of two-factor theory, Herzberg recommended job enrich-ment as a continuous management function.

This theory is also not without its detractors. One common criticism of the theory is that it assumes a strong correlation between job satisfaction and productivity. Although Herzberg himself did not use the word pro-ductivity in his aforementioned HBR article, the theory’s implicit assump-tion that happy and satisfied workers produce more might not be true. Some critics also point out that part of the reason why the accountants and engineers felt so positive about the motivators or growth factors was because their basic needs were already satisfied. Nevertheless, the theory does provide an important framework in terms of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. The real motivation for performing great tasks can only lie within a person. You cannot expect a great art performance just by offer-ing better pay or working conditions. The greater the complexity of the task, the higher the value of intrinsic motivation.

Intrinsic motivation is vitally linked to creativity. We are at our creative best when we do what we intrinsically love and love what we do, says Teresa Amabile, an expert of creativity from Harvard:

Maintaining your own creativity in your work depends on maintaining your intrinsic motivation. This means two things. You should do what you love,

27 Ibid.

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 29

and you should love what you do. The first is a matter of finding work that matches well with your expertise, your creative thinking skills, and your strongest intrinsic motivations. The second is a matter of finding a work environment that will allow you to retain that intrinsic motivational focus, while supporting your exploration of new ideas.28

Amabile provides a succinct summary of the need and importance of maintaining a high level of intrinsic motivation at work in one sentence: do what you love and love what you do. Doing what we love involves finding work that is in accord with our expertise. And loving what we do entails finding a supportive work environment that honors our exploration of novel ideas and ventures.

goal-settIng and huMan MotIvatIon

The tragedy of life does not lie in not reaching your goals. The tragedy lies in having no goals to reach.29

—Robert H. Smith

This quote, even as the opening quote in this chapter, reveals the danger of not reaching our highest potential, either because of having no goals or aiming low. When we have no goals to strive for, we drift aimlessly and our life loses its meaning. And when we aim low, we shortchange ourselves by settling for less than what we can be. In either case, it represents a poten-tial loss to the universe in terms of wasted talent and unrealized potential. Analyzing nearly 400 studies, Edwin Locke and Gary Latham developed goal setting theory in 1990 which has been rated as # 1  in importance among 73 management theories.30 According to these authors, “Goal setting theory is a theory that explains what causes some people perform better on work-related tasks than others.”31 This theory begins with the premise that life is a process of goal-produced action and goals affect action. Goals are a cornerstone of the human motivational endeavor. Psychologists

28 Teresa Amabile, Motivating Creativity in Organizations: On Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do, California Management Review, 40 (I) Fall 1997, 55 (emphasis added).

29 Cited in Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham, New Developments in Goal Setting and Task Performance (London: Routledge, 2012), 3.

30 Ibid., xiv.31 Locke and Latham, New Developments in Goal Setting and Task Performance, 3.

30 S. DHIMAN

have studied extensively the way in which goals affect task performance since they serve as self-regulation measures as well a reference point for performance. Extensive survey of the psychology literature on goals has shown that “the regulation of motivation by goal setting is a remarkably robust phenomenon.”32 Goals serve as a cornerstone of human behavior and work as self-direction mechanisms. Having well-directed goals explains why some people perform better at work than others.

Just tryIng to do our Best Is not enough!Contrary to the popular myth, telling someone, or yourself, to just “do your best” is not a great motivator. It might appear to be encouraging. In reality, however, it is like allowing others or oneself to be mediocre. It has been observed that the best way to kill motivation is to expect and accept mediocre performance from others.

Locke and Latham report two core findings from their review of nearly 400 empirical studies that led to the development of goal-setting theory in 1990:

1. There is a linear relationship between the degree of goal-difficulty and performance.

2. Specific, difficult goals lead to higher performance than no goals as well as vague, abstract goals such as “do your best.”33

The research shows that ‘do-your-best’ goals lead to low perfor-mance.34 This may seem counter-intuitive at first. After all, this is what we are told at school and in most other life situations. And it seems fair too. How does it lead to low performance one may wonder? Locke and Latham explain: “The problem with a do-best goal is ambiguity as to what constitutes performance effectiveness. It is defined subjectively. A specific, high goal eliminates ambiguity as to what constitutes high effec-tive performance. It orients an individual’s attention and effort toward

32 Bandura in his foreword to Edwin A.  Locke and Gary P.  Latham, A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990), xii.

33 Locke and Latham, New Developments in Goal Setting and Task Performance, 5.34 Edwin A.  Locke and Gary P.  Latham, A Theory of Goal Setting & Task Performance

(Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1990). Edwin A.  Locke and Gary P.  Latham, “Work Motivation and Satisfaction: Light at the End of the Tunnel,” Psychological Science, 1(4), (1990): 240–246.

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 31

goal-relevant activities and away from those that are deemed to be irrel-evant. In addition it activates the knowledge and skills a person possesses that are necessary to attain the goal. Finally, a specific, high goal also leads people to work longer at a task than a vague or easy goal.”35 The key seems to be having clear, specific goals that result in effective per-formance than vague and ambiguous “do-your- best” goals that lead to diffused efforts.

Evidence from more than 1000 studies conducted by researchers across the globe shows that goals that not only spell out exactly what needs to be accomplished, but that also set the bar for achievement high, result in far superior performance than simply trying to ‘“do your best’. It is because more difficult goals cause you, often unconsciously, to increase your effort, focus and commitment to the goal, persist longer, and make better use of the most effective strategies.36 This is, then, the alchemy behind high performance: when we strive to reach for stretch goals, they also stretch our ability to reach them.

In their review of the large body of empirical research carried out by psychologists, Locke and Latham further state that “goals serve as the inflection point or reference standard for satisfaction versus dissatisfaction […] For any given trial, exceeding the goal provides increasing satisfac-tion as the positive discrepancy grows, and not reaching the goal cre-ates increasing dissatisfaction as the negative discrepancy grows.”37 This research underscores conventional wisdom: nothing succeeds like success. Every success at stretch goals strengthens our resolve to stretch more and leads to greater satisfaction and vice versa.

After analyzing the process of self-regulation through self-set goals, Alexander Koch and Julia Nafziger highlight the limits of self-regulation through goal-setting and conclude that

People have the capacity to set goals for themselves that remain meaning-ful over time—a fact that is well documented in the psychology literature. What our model shows is that such goals help some people to engage in self- regulation. However, there are limits to self-regulation even if an individual

35 Locke and Latham, New Developments in Goal Setting and Task Performance, 5–6.36 Heidi Grant Halvorson, “The 3 Biggest Myths About Motivation That Won’t Go

Away,” Psychology Today (June 2011).37 Edwin A. Locke and Gary P. Latham, “Building a Practically Useful Theory of Goal

Setting and Task Motivation,” American Psychologist (2002), 57(9), 709–710.

32 S. DHIMAN

can commit to his goal: Because goals are painful self-disciplining devices, the individual may rationally choose not to set a tough goal for himself and rather give up on self-regulation.38

Can people set too tough goals for themselves? Studies show that we do not have to worry about this: the challenge in setting high goals acts as a self-regulating mechanism for the most part to prevent such a phenom-enon from happening too often.

the unfulfIlled ProMIse of self-esteeM

Recently, in media and other popular self-help literature, we see a lot of attention being paid to maintaining what is called “healthy self-esteem”. The popular view is that feeling good about oneself brings about a variety of benefits. Educators talk about boosting students’ self-esteem and parents try very hard to help their children feel better about themselves. However, many question the hype about the need for boosting self-esteem and feel that it over-promises and under-delivers.39 Skeptics aver that claims about the value of self-esteem are based on wishful thinking and not on hard data. What does research say (or not say) about self-esteem’s relation to achievement? First let’s define our terms. Self-esteem is defined in relation to how we evaluate ourselves and our characteristics, especially good qualities. According to the Stanley Coopersmith, self-esteem refers to “personal judgment of worthi-ness that is expressed in the attitudes the individual holds toward himself.”40 Simply put, Self-esteem is about how worthy we think we are.

Does it really pay to have high self-esteem? Morris Rosenberg, a lead-ing figure in the self-esteem field, and his colleagues wrote in 1989 that “global self-esteem appears to have little or no effect in enhancing aca-demic performance.”41 Having done a thorough review of the literature

38 Alexander Koch and Julia Nafziger, “Self-Regulation through Goal Setting,” A Discussion Paper No. 3893, published by The Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA) in Bonn (December 2008). Retrieved January 16, 2016: http://ftp.iza.org/dp3893.pdf.

39 See: Roy F.  Baumeister, ed., Self-Esteem: The Puzzle of Low Self-Regard (New York: Plenum, 1993).

40 Stanley Coopersmith, The Antecedents of Self-Esteem (San Francisco: W.H.  Freeman, 1967), 5.

41 Morris Rosenberg, Carmi Schooler, and Carrie Schoenbach, “Self-Esteem and Adolescent Problems: Modeling Reciprocal Effects,” American Sociological Review, vol. 54, 1989, pp. 1004–18.

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 33

on self-esteem, Roy F.  Baumeister concluded his commentary as fol-lows: “After all these years, I’m sorry to say, my recommendation is this: Forget about self-esteem and concentrate more on self-control and self- discipline.”42 Trying harder and sustained will power leads to better per-formance. In fact, research shows that attaining and maintaining a high sense of self-esteem leads to a host of psychological disorders: narcissism, self-absorption, self-righteous anger, and so on.43 Not only self-esteem does not deliver, it has a number of unintended consequences as well. As a society, have we gone overboard about esteeming the self-esteem a bit too much? While this might be true, research does show that there are few areas where self-esteem confers some benefits.

According to Baumeister, failure of self-control is implicated in most of the problems that plague us. He avers that despite the enthusiastic embrace of self-esteem, we found that it conferred only two benefits. It feels good and it supports initiative.44 In all fairness, he recounts that there are a few areas where higher self-esteem seemed to bring some benefits:

For instance, people with high self-esteem are generally happier and less depressed than others, though we can’t quite prove that high self-esteem prevents depression or causes happiness. Young women with high self- esteem seem less susceptible to eating disorders. In some studies (though not all), people with high self-esteem bounce back from misfortune and trauma faster than others.45

Paresky cites research indicating that there are at least three things one can do to improve performance where self-esteem has failed to deliver: effort, will power, and self-compassion.46 It is clear that betting on one’s effort and will power is a much surer route to achievement than waiting for one’s self-esteem to fructify. And self-compassion helps too.

42 Roy F. Baumeister, “The Lowdown on High Self-Esteem Thinking you’re hot stuff isn’t the promised cure-all.” Los Angeles Times, January 25, 2005. Retrieved November 2, 2015: http://articles.latimes.com/2005/jan/25/opinion/oe-baumeister25.

43 Kristin Neff, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself (New York: William Morrow Paperbacks; reprint edition, 2015). For a good summary of the key ideas in the book, see Kristin Neff, Why Self-Compassion Trumps Self-Esteem: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/try_selfcompassion.

44 Roy F. Baumeister, “The Lowdown on High Self-Esteem.”45 Ibid.46 Pamela Paresky, The Gift of Self-Esteem: The promises that “Self-Esteem” made but couldn’t

keep, Psychology Today, Oct. 25, 2015. Retrieved November 1, 2015: https://www.psychology-today.com/blog/happiness-and-the-pursuit-leadership/201510/the-gift-self-esteem.

34 S. DHIMAN

self-coMPassIon truMPs self-esteeM

In 1990, a group of Western scientists and Buddhist teachers met the Dalai Lama during a conference in Dharamshala, India. Sharon Salzburg, a renowned Buddhist teacher, asked the Dalai Lama about how they might help their students deal with the feelings of self-hatred, shame, and worthlessness. The Dalai Lama was genuinely surprised to hear this and could not believe that someone might in fact hate them-selves! Could lack of self-compassion be purely a Western phenomenon? Research by Kristin Neff points out that self-hatred is not unique to Western society.47 And this partially explains the reason behind Sharon Salzburg’s question.

In a recent study, it was noted that self-compassion is associated with happiness, optimism, peace of mind, wisdom, curiosity and emotional intelligence. Researchers further noted that, “Self-compassion predicted more stable feelings of self-worth than self-esteem and was less contingent on particular outcomes.”48 Simply put, self-compassion is about being kind to yourself. With self-compassion, we extend ourselves the same kind-ness we would extend to a close friend. Neff explains that self- compassion is neither self-pity nor self-indulgence.49 It is about being realistic about one’s self-worth.

In a recent study, Kristin Neff and Ross Vonk investigated the benefits of self-compassion versus self-esteem with more than three thousand peo-ple from various walks of life. They found that self-compassion predicted more stable feelings of self-worth than self-esteem and was less contingent on outside factors like social approval, success in competitions, or feeling attractive. A really striking finding of the study was that people with high self- esteem were much more narcissistic than those with low self-esteem. Authors of this study also found that people who invest their self-worth in feeling superior and infallible tend to get angry and defensive when their status is threatened. People who compassionately accept their imperfection, how-ever, no longer need to engage in such unhealthy behaviors to protect their egos. Results from these two studies suggest that self-compassion

47 Christopher K.  Germer, The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion: Freeing Yourself from Destructive Thoughts and Emotions (New York: Guildford Publications, 2009), 141.

48 Kristin D.  Neff and Ross Vonk, Self-Compassion Versus Global Self-Esteem: Two Different Ways of Relating to Oneself, Journal of Personality, 77 (1), (2009): 23–50.

49 See Neff, What Self-Compassion is not. Retrieved March 16, 2016: http://self-compas-sion.org/what-self-compassion-is-not-2/.

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 35

might be a useful alternative to global self-esteem when considering what constitutes a healthy self-stance.50

According to Neff, self-compassion entails treating oneself with kind-ness, recognizing one’s shared humanity, and being mindful when consid-ering negative aspects of oneself.51 On her website, Neff explains the three elements of self-compassion as follows52:

1. Self-Kindness: Self-compassion entails being warm and under-standing toward ourselves when we suffer, fail, or feel inadequate, rather than ignoring our pain or flagellating ourselves with self-criticism.

2. Common Humanity: Self-compassion involves recognizing that suffering and personal inadequacy is part of the shared human expe-rience—something that we all go through rather than being some-thing that happens to “me” alone.

3. Mindfulness: Self-compassion also requires taking a balanced approach to our negative emotions so that feelings are neither sup-pressed nor exaggerated.

Thus, “by tapping into our inner wellsprings of kindness, acknowledg-ing the shared nature of our imperfect human condition, we can start to feel more secure, accepted, and alive.”53 Neff’s findings are of far- reaching consequences in terms of workplace engagement and fulfillment. Self-compassion avoids the two extremes of self-pity or self-indulgence and helps develop healthy self-stance. One feels more secure within, free from seeking outside approval compulsively. Yet, one is always available to extend the same compassion toward others readily whenever needed. This brings greater harmony in personal and workplace interactions.

50 Neff and Vonk, (2009). See also Neff, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself (New York: William Morrow Paperbacks; reprint edition, 2015).

51 Neff, Self-Compassion, Self-Esteem, and Well-Being, Social and Personality Psychology Compass 5/1 (2011): 1–12.

52 Neff, The three elements of self-compassion. Retrieved March 15, 2016: http://self-compassion.org/the-three-elements-of-self-compassion-2/.See also Neff, Self-Compassion: The Proven Power of Being Kind to Yourself (New York: William Morrow Paperbacks; reprint edition, 2015).

53 Neff, Why Self-Compassion Trumps Self-Esteem. Retrieved March 16, 2016: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/try_selfcompassion.

36 S. DHIMAN

self-deterMInatIon theory (sdt)54

Self-determination theory (hereafter, SDT) postulates that people have three inherent psychological needs—the need for competence, related-ness and autonomy. The proponents of SDT maintain that these needs are not learned but are an inherent aspect of human nature and thus operate across gender, culture, and time. The need for competence rep-resents the urge to master the environment. The need for relatedness concerns our universal propensity to be connected to and care for other people. Autonomy involves acting with a sense of volition and having the freedom of choice.55 The understanding about the threefold need for mastery, autonomy, and relatedness can aid greatly in work design and job-enrichment resulting in greater productivity and overall success in the workplace.

Marylène Gagné & Edward L. Deci further explain that SDT defines needs differently:

SDT defines needs as universal necessities, as the nutriments that are essen-tial for optimal human development and integrity. According to this defini-tion, something is a need only to the extent that its satisfaction promotes psychological health and its thwarting undermines psychological health. Using this definition, the needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness are considered important for all individuals, so SDT research focuses not on the consequences of the strength of those needs for different individuals, but rather on the consequences of the extent to which individuals are able to satisfy the needs within social environments.56

It is well established that use of salient extrinsic rewards to motivate work behavior can be deleterious to intrinsic motivation and can thus have negative consequences for psychological adjustment, performance in

54 E. L. Deci & M. Vansteenkiste, Self-determination theory and basic need satisfac-tion: Understanding human development in positive psychology. Ricerche di Psichologia, 2004, 27, 17–34. See also: Deci, E. L., & R. M. Ryan (2000). The “what” and “why” of  goal pursuits: Human needs and  the  self-determination of  behavior. Psychological Inquiry, 11, 227–268. Ryan & Deci (2000). Self-determination theory and the facilita-tion of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being. American Psychologist, 55, 68–78.

55 Ibid.56 Marylène Gagné & Edward L. Deci, Self-determination theory and work motivation.

Journal of Organizational Behavior, 26.4 (Jun 2005): 331–362.

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 37

interesting and personally-important activities, and citizenship behavior. However, research also clarifies ways in which tangible rewards can be used so as not to be detrimental to intrinsic motivation. Furthermore, self- determination theory has detailed the processes through which extrinsic motivation can become autonomous, and research suggests that intrin-sic motivation (based on interest) and autonomous extrinsic motivation (based on importance) are both related to performance, satisfaction, trust, and well-being in the workplace.57 Leaders can use both extrinsic and intrinsic motivators in tandem to optimize performance in the workplace and to improve employee engagement.

Deci and Vansteenkiste provide three philosophical assumptions which undergird both the self-determination theory and positive psychology:

1. Human beings are inherently proactive and they have the potential to master both the inner forces (viz., their drives and emotions) and external (i.e., environmental) forces they encounter rather than being positively controlled by these forces.

2. Human beings, as self-organizing systems, have inherent tendency towards growth, development, and integrated functioning.

3. Although activity and optimal development are inherent to the human organism, these do not happen automatically.58

For people to actualize their inherent talent, they require self-motivation and a supportive social environment. Ryan and Deci suggest a dialectical relation between active organism and social environment.59 Thus, whether people’s potentials will be actualized or their vulnerabilities will dominate will depend upon social conditions besides their self-motivation. Drawing upon their review of the work of other psychologists before them, Ryan and Deci have explicitly asserted that human beings are motivated by three fundamental psychological needs: for autonomy, competence, and related-ness: first, to feel autonomous or self-determining—“to experience one’s actions as emanating from the self”; second, to have a sense of oneself as competent and effective; and third, to be related to others and to be part

57 Gagné & Deci (2005): 352.58 Deci & Vansteenkiste (2004): 17–34.59 Ryan and Deci, Self-Determination Theory, Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-

Being Research, 5755–60. Springer Netherlands.

38 S. DHIMAN

of a social world.60 These findings have far-reaching implications for basic needs and life goals—both extrinsic and intrinsic.

BasIc needs and lIfe goals

At the core of SDT theory are two types of goals that propel people to action—intrinsic and extrinsic. There is a difference between extrinsic and intrinsic motivation; and research shows that intrinsic motivators are more powerful. Intrinsic motivation refers to engagement in an activity with no reason other than the enjoyment and satisfaction of engagement itself. Examples of intrinsic motivation would include enjoyment of work itself, sense of achievement, and personal growth. Whereas, extrinsic motiva-tion refers to engagement in activities that provide for the attainment of external rewards such as money, accolades, social approval, and a sense of worthiness.

If you use monetary rewards to get people to perform a certain way, those rewards may have the opposite effect in the long run, especially when the extrinsic rewards are withdrawn. The benefits of intrinsic moti-vation to learning and development are well documented in research lit-erature. Studies suggest that engagement out of intrinsic motivation leads to enhanced comprehension, creativity, cognitive adaptability, achieve-ment, and long-term well-being. By comparison, engagement out of extrinsic motivation may end once the external motivator is withdrawn. However extrinsic motivation is preferable to having no motivation at all. Sometimes we are required to engage in tasks that we are not motivated to do—something that we have to do. Extrinsic motivators can be handy in motivating people in these tasks.61 Intrinsic motivators help us in doing what we love to do; extrinsic motivators help us to learn to love what we have to do.

Built around intrinsic motivation, Dan Pink calls it the new operat-ing system for our businesses. It revolves around three elements: auton-omy, mastery and purpose. Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives.

60 Ryan and Deci, “Self-determination theory and the facilitation of intrinsic motivation, social development, and well-being.” American Psychologist, 2000, 55, 68–78. Also see: Deci and Ryan, Intrinsic Motivation and Self-Determination in Human Behavior (New York: Plenum, 1985).

61 Carol Sansone and Judith M. Harackiewicz (Eds.), Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation: The Search for Optimal Motivation and Performance (San Diego, CA: Academic Press, 2000), 257–307.

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 39

Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.62 The issue of intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation is complex since their effects interrelate. It is not a matter of simple choice in terms of the superiority of intrinsic motivators to extrinsic in all situations. There are effective extrinsic motivators as well as counter-productive extrinsic factors. Leaders have to choose carefully both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivators so that they can complement each other in achieving optimum workplace engagement and fulfillment.

concludIng thoughts

Motivation is what energizes, directs, and sustains human behavior in all its endeavors. It is the galvanizing force of all that is vital and meaning-ful in life. Underscoring the importance of intrinsic motivation, recent research has confirmed that along with autonomy and mastery, a sense of contribution to a larger purpose constitutes a critical component of all meaningful work. It is morally and spiritually uplifting when we feel part of something important, something larger, and something greater and when we know that our contribution helps make a difference in the world.

To be motivating, the work itself needs to be meaningful, valuable, engaging, and purposeful. This leads to true fulfillment. Self-actualizing individuals are well aware that the real motivation for great performance tasks can only lie within a person. You cannot expect excellent work just by offering better pay or working conditions. New motivation research shows that money is a motivator mainly for basic, repetitive and rudimentary tasks. The work that requires greater complexity needs deeper, intrinsic rewards.

Research also shows that self-esteem can become an ego trap. It is over-rated in terms of its value in human persistence and excellence. While hav-ing a healthy self-esteem is beneficial, the process of trying to increase it can paradoxically have the exact opposite effect. It is better to concen-trate more on self-control and self-discipline than self-esteem. Self-esteem

62 Dan Pink, The Puzzle of Motivation. TED Global, 2009. Transcript retrieved January 17, 2016: http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_pink_on_motivation/transcript?language=en. See also: Daniel H. Pink, Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us (New York: Riverhead Books, 2011).

40 S. DHIMAN

over-promises but under-delivers. Self-discipline under- promises and over-delivers. What we need is not more self-esteem but more self-insight and self-compassion. And working for the well-being of others may actually be the best way to boost our own self-esteem.

I conclude this chapter with a quote attributable to the Buddha in which he highlights the value of self-compassion63:

You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person is not to be found anywhere. You, yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection.

The Buddha seems to be advocating unconditional compassion toward oneself in this quote. Loving-kindness toward oneself is natural and under-standable. However, upon a little reflection, it becomes evident that the Buddha is really pointing out the need to extend loving- kindness toward others: since everyone’s loves himself or herself the most, we should be kind to everyone. In sum, self-compassion is not where the process ends—it’s the beginning!

self-MotIvatIon: reflectIon QuestIons

1. Maslow postulated that human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency, progressing from deficiency-needs to being- needs. Can a person rise up to the self-actualization level without having first secured the basic survival needs?

2. Explain how exemplary leaders take it as their major goal the awak-ening and fulfillment of higher order needs of themselves and others.

63 Like many quotes attributable to the Buddha, these are also not his exact words. The original seems to be from a collection called Udana of Pali canon, as follows: “Searching all directions with one’s awareness, one finds no one dearer than oneself. In the same way, others are fiercely dear to themselves. So, one should not hurt others if one loves oneself.” (Bhikkhu Thanissaro’s translation) Retrieved April 7, 2016: http://fakebuddhaquotes.com/you-your-self-as-much-as-anybody-in-the-entire-universe-deserve-your-love-and-affection/. A varia-tion on this theme is also found in the Buddhist manual of meditation, Visuddhimagga—the Path of Purification: “Just as I want to be happy, and dread pain, as I want to live and not die, so do other beings, too.” As is clear from these quotes, self-compassion is not excluded; it is just that it is not the end of the Buddhist practice of loving-kindness.

SELF-MOTIVATION: MOTIVATING THE WHOLE PERSON 41

3. Can a person discover true fulfillment by working at something that such a person does not consider worthwhile, even if it pays well? What are the three key motivators for tasks involving increasing complexity?

4. Is self-actualization a matter of one great aha moment? Or rather, it is a matter of degree, or little victories accumulated one by one over time? Briefly explain.

5. Do you think that the self only finds its true actualization in giving itself to some higher purpose outside itself, in altruism and spiritual-ity? To be motivating, does the work itself need to be meaningful, valuable, engaging, or relevant?

6. Studies show that ‘do-your-best’ goals lead to low performance. What is the alchemy behind the research that difficult goals lead to higher performance?

7. What effect does self-esteem have in enhancing academic perfor-mance? Do you agree with research that shows that it is better to concentrate more on self-control and self-discipline than self-esteem?

42 S. DHIMAN

43© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_3

CHAPTER 3

Start by doing what’s necessary;then do what’s possible;and suddenly you are doing the impossible.

—ST. FRANCIS of ASSISI

IntroductIon

The opening quote by St. Francis of Assisi underscores the importance of self-effort, an important ingredient of self-mastery. In the development of holistic leadership, the value of self-mastery can hardly be over- emphasized. This chapter builds on self-motivation and develops the theme of self- mastery as the foundation for achievement in any endeavor including lead-ership. It is a well-established fact that without self- discipline one cannot attain success in any field, whether it is science, sports, music or any other endeavor. Focusing especially on psychological and emotional aspects, this chapter approaches self-mastery as integration of human personality.

In one sense, this chapter operationalizes the findings of self-motiva-tion as presented in the previous chapter. Accordingly, this chapter dis-cusses the role of self-discipline, self-effort, self-will, and self-perseverance in fostering self-development and in preparing us for life and leadership. It draws upon the key lessons of personal mastery as presented in the Bhagavad Gītā, the most important paradigmatic spiritual text of Hindus. Its message is universal in scope and rational in its approach. It has been

Self-Mastery: Mastering the “Me” in Leadership

rightly observed that the Gītā is “catholic in its message, comprehensive in its outlook, and concrete in its suggestions.”1 The chapter also references Aristotelian theory of the golden mean as the desirable middle ground between two extremes—one of excess and the other of deficiency. As an added feature, the chapter will review research on expert performance (the making of champions) to inform the quest for self-mastery.

Personal mastery, or ‘private victory’ as it is sometimes called, has lately received great attention in management literature. In his celebrated work, Fifth Discipline: The Art and the Practice of Learning Organization, Peter Senge devotes a full chapter to the topic of personal mastery.2 Senge consid-ers personal mastery as the most elusive of the disciplines. In Senge’s concep-tion, personal mastery mainly has to do with self-awareness and inner-work. Senge describes it as “learning to expand our personal capacity to create the results that we most desire.”3 In the similar vein, Stephen Covey, author of a popular book titled 7 Habits of Highly Effective People,4 groups together the first three of the seven habits and refers to them as the ‘private victory’. Covey opines that private victories precede public wins. Before we can effec-tively lead others, we must first learn to manage ourselves effectively.

The key focus of the chapter is the harmonious development of a leader’s personality in all its essential dimensions—physical, psychological, intellec-tual, emotional, moral, and spiritual. At its bare minimum, self- mastery involves taking good care of our physical body through regular exercise and balanced diet. We feed our body two to three times a day; likewise, we need to nourish our mind with good intellectual diet that includes reading and writing. We have to be careful about what ideas we feed our mind, since mind matters the most and we become what we think. Goethe, the great German poet, advised that “One ought, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and, if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words.”5 Emotional health includes managing our emotions of anger and anxiety through awareness and inner calmness.

1 P. Nagaraja Rao, Introduction to Vedanta (Bombay: Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1966), 102.2 Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization

(New York: Doubleday, Revised and updated edition, 2006), 129–161.3 Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook: Strategies and Tools for Building a Learning

Organization (New York: Crown Business, 1994), 6.4 Stephen Covey, Seven Habits of Highly Fulfilled People: Powerful Lessons in Personal

Change, rev., ed. (New York: Free Press, 2004).5 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Wilhelm Meister’s Lehrjahre (Apprenticeship) (1786–1830),

Bk. V, Ch. 1.

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However, it is important to bear in mind that self-discipline is not about suppressing one’s instinctual desires or proclivities. It is about moderating them within reasonable bounds. As psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi reminds us:

Repression is not the way to virtue. When people restrain themselves out of fear, their lives are by necessity diminished. Only through freely chosen discipline can life be enjoyed and still kept within the bounds of reason. If a person learns to control his instinctual desires, not because he has to, but because he wants to, he can enjoy himself without becoming addicted.6

Mainly, self-mastery constitutes two steps—(1) Understanding the psy-chological constituents of human personality, and (2) Overcoming disem-powering psychological tendencies such as excessive desire, attachment, pride, greed, anger, and jealousy. The Gītā provides precise instructions on understanding our psychological make-up and overcoming these unwhole-some tendencies and much more. In the following sections, we elaborate on its teachings and note their relevance to holistic leadership.

the GĪTĀ and Self-MaStery: the lIfe Worth leadIng

Warren Bennis, a preeminent leadership scholar, has observed, “Leaders are people who do the right thing; managers are people who do things right.”7 While this may be a bit of an oversimplification—since both leaders and managers need to do things right as well as do the right thing—doing the right thing remains the perennial leadership challenge. But doing the right thing presupposes knowledge of what the right thing is in the first place. This is exactly the point where the Gītā begins. What is the utmost right thing to do in any given situation? Surely, the answer to this enigmatic question holds the key to many a management conundrum. By helping us focus on the highest good in all we do, the Gītā unfolds as an extended ode to the attainment of the ultimate good (niśreyas)—the knowledge of our one-ness with the Ultimate Reality.

6 Cited in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1990), 115 (italics in original).

7 Warren Bennis, An Invented Life: Reflections on Leadership and Change (New York: Perseus Books Group, 1994), 78.

SELF-MASTERY: MASTERING THE “ME” IN LEADERSHIP 45

MInd: our greateSt frIend and foe

The Gītā presents an inside-out leadership development approach based on self-knowledge and self-mastery, the two main qualities of authentic self-leadership. Senge, one of the key management thinkers of our time, has quoted the Gītā in two of his celebrated books, The Fifth Discipline and Presence.8 Although traditionally interpreted as a religious-spiritual text, the Gītā encompasses great practical life lessons for modern times. Its message fosters the holistic development of human personality in all its dimensions (physical–psychological, emotional, intellectual, and spiritual) by providing guidance on the three essential spiritual prac-tices: ‘ training the mind’, ‘transforming the passions’, and ‘guarding the heart’.9 The Gītā unfolds as an infallible guide for those higher-order individuals who externally live a life of full engagement with the world, while internally always remaining steadfastly anchored in the wisdom of their Higher Self.

The Gītā reminds us that an unruly mind is our greatest foe, and a stable mind our greatest friend. It places great emphasis on self-restraint and mental discipline. It is common knowledge that mental strength and determination are the keys to leadership success; leaders who are mentally weak and wayward cannot achieve a durable and consistent organizational vision or mission. The outcome of an unrestrained mind is a life given to selfish desire, anger, and greed. Buddhist psychology also warns of three mental traps or unwholesome tendencies of mind: greed, hatred, and ignorance. If our attention emanates from any of these three unwhole-some roots, then it is not appropriate and will not give us the knowledge of reality as it truly is. A leader’s first job is to have an accurate knowledge of the current reality.

If leadership is an extension of who we are, then leaders first need to manage themselves before they can aspire to lead others. Underscoring

8 See Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday, Revised and updated edition, 2006), 76. Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, and Joseph Jaworski, Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (New York: Crown Books, 2008), 92.

9 In his fine preface to The Essential Gandhi (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), Eknath Easwaran calls these three practices ‘the essence of the spiritual life’. These conform to the threefold disciplines enunciated in various Indian wisdom texts—the path of knowledge (jñāna yoga), the path of action (the Bhagavad Gītā and karma yoga), and the path of devo-tion (bhakti yoga).

46 S. DHIMAN

the importance of self-leadership, the Bhagavad Gītā further stresses that, when facing a crisis, leaders must elevate themselves by self-effort (uddharedātmanātmānaṃ: 6.5).10 This requires a deep understanding of the workings of the mind. For those who have conquered their mind, the mind is the best of friends, but for those who have failed to control their mind, the mind will be their greatest enemy (ātmaivahyātmanobandhurātmaivaripurātmanaḥ: 6.5). Without self-victory (ātma, self, jayaha, mastery) one cannot attain success in any field. Essentially, it points out that an un-mastered self is the biggest enemy of the individual; in fact, Kṛṣṇa goes one step further, it is not the greatest enemy but it is the only enemy!

An unrestrained and untrained mind is very weak and unstable and can-not carry out any task, let alone lead. Arjuna tells Śrī Kṛṣṇa that the mind is unsteady, restless, and yet very powerful, and as difficult to control as the wind. Śrī Kṛṣṇa agrees that the mind is not easy to control; however, he says that it is possible to control the mind by constant practice and detachment or dispassion (abhyāsena … vairāgyeṇaca: 6.35).

Holistic leaders need to employ their intellect effectively to direct their mind. In this regard, another Indian wisdom text, Kaṭhopaniṣad 1.3.3–4, likens the human body to a chariot (rathakalpanā) to describe the position of the individual self (ātmā) vis-à-vis the senses (indriya), mind (manas), and intellect (buddhi). The mind represents the reins and the five senses are the horses. The objects perceived by the senses chart the chariot’s path. The intellect is the driver and the self, as the passenger, acts as the enjoyer or sufferer in the association of the mind and senses.11 Whereas an ordinary leader is constantly driven by a wayward mind and unruly desires prompted by sense objects, a wise leader uses the power of intelligence to distinguish between what is pleasant (preyas) and what is right (śreyas).

10 All verses from the Gītā are quoted in the in ‘chapter, verse number’ order: For example 6.5 means chapter six, verse five. All translations are the author’s unless otherwise stated. All Sanskrit verses are presented according to the International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration (IAST) convention that uses diacritical marks. The most often used mark is a short horizontal bar over a letter which denotes a long sound.

11 The chariot metaphor occurs during mantras three and four in chapter one, section three of Kaṭhopaniṣad, an Upaniṣad which has a few verses in common with the Bhagavad Gītā. Plato also uses the chariot allegory in his dialog Phaedrus to explain the journey of the human soul toward enlightenment.

SELF-MASTERY: MASTERING THE “ME” IN LEADERSHIP 47

curbIng deSIre, anger and greed

All wisdom traditions of the world are in agreement that self-centered desire is the source of all sorrow and evil. The Gītā calls desire, anger and greed the triple gates of hell, which bring about one’s downfall (trividhaṃnarakasyedaṃdvāraṃnāśanamātmanah: 16.21). It makes clear that (unsatisfied) desire is the cause of greed as well as anger. The Gītā says that to control anger we first need to pay attention to its root cause. Anger arises when someone stands in the way of our desired object—that is, anger ensues from (unfulfilled) desire. And attachment to things, ideas, and opinions lies at the root of desire. Therefore, to control anger, we should first guard and calm our mind. If our mind remains in a state of calm then no negative emotions can provoke it. The easiest way to be peaceful in mind is to let our mind rest content within its own inner sanc-tuary rather than constantly hankering after the worldly objects outside.

The Gītā categorically states:

śaknotīhaivayaḥsoḍhuṃprākśarīravimokṣaṇāt/kāmakrodhodbhavaṃvegaṃsayuktaḥsasukhīnaraḥ// 5.23

Only those who are able to withstand the impulses of lust and anger arising in the body are integrated (yuktaḥ) and live in joy.

The reason the Gītā lays so much importance on curtailing one’s desires is because all evil proceeds from self-centered desires. A person who is selfish cannot serve others; in fact, such a person becomes a bane to the society. Therefore, according to the Gītā, a leader must first conquer desire if he or she is to serve others. The three traps (excessive desire, anger, and greed) are present in every dysfunctional organization, manifested to the highest degree in its leaders. Elsewhere in the Gītā, Śrī Kṛṣṇa explains that attach-ment breeds desire, and from desire (unfulfilled) ensues anger; anger clouds judgment, and when judgment is beclouded, reasoning power is lost; and with the loss of reasoning, one falls from one’s status as a human being (2.62–63).

A leader should, therefore, manage his anger well and should not let anger gain control over him. Mastering the emotion of anger is a not an easy task, as many sages past and present have reminded us. Aristotle expressed it deftly: “Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s

48 S. DHIMAN

power and is not easy.”12 A most practical method for controlling anger and other negative emotions is expressed by the acronym F.I.R, denoting the first letters of the words frequency, intensity, and recovery. We should try to first reduce the frequency of the occurrence of these negative emo-tions, then curb their intensity, and finally reduce their recovery period.13

lIfe Marked by SacrIfIce, charIty and auSterIty

The Gītā (18.5) mandates a threefold act of sacrifice (yajña), charity (dānaṃ), and austerity (tapas) and considers these as the ‘purifiers of the wise’. ‘Yajña’ literally means a sacrifice or an offering. The highest form of offering is living a life of sincerity—a life led by being good and doing good. A sincere life is characterized by doing what we love and loving what we have to do. ‘Dānaṃ’ means charity and denotes much more than writing a check to a favorite cause or organization. At the deepest level, it means the gift of ‘expressed love’. ‘Tapas’ means austerity or discipline. The Gītā talks about several kinds of discipline. The most important is ‘vāk tapas’— ‘discipline of speech’.

There are five such disciplines of speech that the Gītā recommends:

anudvegakaraṃvākyaṃsatyaṃpriyahitaṃcayat/svādhyāyābhyasanaṃcaivavānmayaṃ tapa ucyate// 17.15

That speech which causes no mental anguish (disturbance) to anyone, which is truthful, agreeable, and beneficial, as well as the practice of study of the sacred books is considered to be the discipline of speech.

It is said that the Greek philosopher Socrates used to recommend a triple test for the discipline of speech: “before you speak, let your words pass through three gates: 1. Is it true; 2. Is it necessary; and 3. Is it kind?”

According to the Gītā (6.32) that person “is considered best who judges happiness and sorrow in all beings, by the same standard as he would apply to himself.”14 Holistic leaders apply this golden rule in all

12 Quoted in Edith M. Leonard, Lillian E. Miles, and Catherine S. Van der Kar, The Child: At Home and School (New York: American Book Co., 1944), 203.

13 The F.I.R strategy of controlling anger was shared by Swami Paramarthananda in one of his discourses on the Gītā.

14 See Swami Gambhīrānanda, trans., Bhagavad Gītā with the Commentary of Śankarācārya (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1984), 302.

SELF-MASTERY: MASTERING THE “ME” IN LEADERSHIP 49

spheres of their life. This is the key to their moral self-mastery. The Gītā states that the wise leaders act to set an example to the masses; so that the unwary do not go astray (3.26); they work for the unification of the world at large (lokasaṃgraham: 3.20, 3.25); for the welfare of all beings (sarvabhūtahite: 5.25); and for the purification of the self (ātmaśuddhaye: 5.11). These four goals together furnish a touchstone for leadership suc-cess in any setting.

the Gītā and SubduIng the IMpoSter ego

One of the key dimensions of personal mastery is understanding (and sub-duing) the workings of the imposter ego. Misplaced ego has dire personal and professional consequences: it is the greatest enemy of workplace amity and harmony. Most psychological and emotional stress is caused by our excessive self-centeredness. Understanding the workings of the imposter ego and thereby rendering it ineffective is the first step on the path of wisdom. In chapter 13 of the Bhagavad Gītā, where Śrī Kṛṣṇa begins to describe the marks or means of true knowledge, we see ‘absence of self-pride” (13.7) listed as the very first mark. In the next verse (13.8), Śrī Kṛṣṇa again states: ‘and absence of egotism also’ (ahaṁkāra’evaca). Note the word ‘also’ after the word ‘egotism’. Of the 20 marks of true knowledge listed in verses 13.7–11, the word ‘also’ is appended only to egotism/self-pride (ahaṁkāra). Something to take serious note of and ponder over deeply!

As long as one harbors a sense of distinction/superiority, regardless of the reason—justified or unjustified—one will labor in vain, not much unlike the ox that turns the oil-press going back and forth. When God is all there is, where is the need for entertaining any feelings of distinction or superiority—no matter what the justification may be? Those who are truly awakened become aware of the fact that ‘God is all there is’”—and that God includes all, even the ones who may not be as exalted as oneself, in one’s estimation! This knowledge fosters amity, understanding, and har-mony in all settings and removes the conflict inherent in the ‘game of one-up-ness’ that plagues most human interaction.

This feeling of false pride springs from a mistaken sense of inadequacy about oneself and leads to a false projection of superiority and need for constant seeking of external validation. The proper resolution of this prob-lem is found in understanding oneself, through self-inquiry and contem-plation, to be the full and complete Self (ātman). Such knowledge enables

50 S. DHIMAN

one to act in the world with a deep sense of inner peace and fulfillment. This is what is meant by being ātmavān (2.45), possessing the real Self, or being unitively self-possessed.

According to the Gītā, no action is genuine unless it is performed in the full wakefulness of Self-knowledge. Self-knowledge transforms our moti-vation and liberates us from the narrow confines of self-centered action to the freedom of serving others. Through this rediscovery of our intrinsic freedom, we are also able to experience the calm bliss of the fullness of our true Self and intuit the harmonious oneness of all existence. When the false divisions and distinctions based on our narrow personal likes and dislikes disappear, we are able to extend our benevolence without prefer-ence or prejudice in all directions, and our existence benefits the whole universe. Our very existence then becomes an offering to the Supreme, a celebration of the Whole. And our feet get firmly planted on the path that leads to peace, happiness, and liberation.

perSonal MaStery accordIng to the GĪTĀ

In the last 18 verses (2.55–2.72) of chapter two, the Gītā presents the highest ideal of personal mastery through the conception of a sage stead-fast in wisdom of the higher Self. Let us first look closely at these magnifi-cent verses in order to understand their true import for Self-knowledge and Self-realization. In these verses the marks of a sage established in wis-dom of the Self (sthitaprajña) are described as follows:

When one completely casts off all selfish desires of the mind, finding con-tentment by the Self in the Self alone; neither agitated by sorrow nor han-kering after the sense pleasures; free from lust, fear, and anger; free from attachment; neither elated by good fortune nor depressed by bad; with senses subdued and mind ever absorbed in the Divine within—such a per-son is truly wise.15

In this part of the description of the traits of a person of steady wisdom we notice three main things: freedom from self-centered desire (and the resultant anger, greed, and attachment: the triple gates of hell), an attitude of equanimity, and absorption in the wisdom of the Self or Divine. Then

15 Eknath Easwaran, cited in Louis Fischer, Ed., The Essential Gandhi (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), xvi.

SELF-MASTERY: MASTERING THE “ME” IN LEADERSHIP 51

the Gītā goes on to explain the psychology of anger and the glory of a person who has gone beyond self-interest and egotism:

Brooding on sense objects leads to attachment; from attachment comes desire; and from (unfulfilled) desire ensues anger. Anger clouds judgment and leads to loss of reason; and loss of reason brings utter ruin. … One who has given up all desires and moves about free from longing, without self- interest and egotism, such a person attains peace. Attaining this state even at the time of death, one passes from death to immortality.16

It is important to note that the description of a person steady in wisdom starts and ends with casting off all the selfish desires of the mind. The Yogavāsiṣṭha Mahāramāyaṇa also states succinctly: “Wisdom proceeds from the curtailing of desires.”17

There are at least four places where the characteristics of an ideal sage are presented in the Gītā from different perspectives: 2.55–72; 12.13–20; 14.21–27; and 18.49–56 (in addition, we also find reaffirmation of the same theme in selected verses of two other chapters: 13.7–11 and 16.1–3). For example, chapter 12 (verses 13–20) describes the marks of a devotee (bhakta); these have a striking similarity to the qualities of a person who has transcended the sway of three modes of material nature, triguṇātīta (14.21–27), which in turn bear a great similarity to the characteristics of a person steadfast in wisdom (sthitaprajña) as described in chapter 2 (verses 55–72) as follows:

That person is dear to me who is free from ill-will, friendly and compas-sionate; free from the sense of “I” and “mine”; equanimous in joy and sor-row, forgiving, ever-content, firm in faith with his mind ever united with

16 Adapted from Eknath Easwaran, trans., The Bhagavad Gītā (New York: Vintage Spiritual Classics, 2000), 68–69; Franklin Edgerton, trans., The Bhagavad Gītā (New York: Harper & Row Publishers, 1964), 15–17; S. Radhākrishnan, The Bhagavad Gītā: With an Introductory Essay, Sanskrit Text, English Translation, and Notes (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1958), 296–299; and Satinder Dhiman, trans., Sahaja-Gītā: The Essential Gītā [Selection and Compilation, Rajendra Kumar Dhawan]. Based on Paramśraddheya Swāmījī Shrī Rāmsukhdāsjī Mahārāj’s commentary on Śrīmad Bhagavad Gītā, entitled Sādhaka-Sañjivanī (Gorakhpur, India: Gita Prakāshan, 2013), 125.

17 Vihari-Lala Mitra, trans., Vālmīki’s Yoga-vāsiṣṭha-mahārāmāyaṇa. Online edition, retrieved January 25, 2016, http://www.wisdomlib.org/hinduism/book/yoga-vasistha-volume-2-part-ii/d/doc118202.html.

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Me; who has subdued his mind, senses, and body; and has surrendered heart and mind to Me. … Not agitating the world, nor agitated by it, above the sway of delight, envy, desire, and fear; who regards equally friend and foe, praise and blame, pain and pleasure, free from selfish attachments; quiet, ever- content, in harmony everywhere, firm in faith—such a person is dear to Me.18

What is noteworthy in the above-quoted verses is that almost all of these qualities of an ideal sage more or less focus on emotional maturity—the ability to manage emotional disturbances and reactions calmly. Cultivating these qualities is important for everyone, in both personal and profes-sional arenas. For example, being friendly and compassionate and free from malice (adveṣṭāsarvabhūtānāṃmaitraḥkaruṇa: 12.13), being free from attachment, fear, and anger (vītarāgabhayakrodhaḥ: 2.56, 4.10), and neither being a source of annoyance to fellow-beings nor feeling vexed with them (yasmānnodvijatelokolokānnodvijatecayaḥ: 12.15)—all these are signs of emotional stability which is the key to harmony in personal and professional relationships.

This is a tall order of personal qualities for any leader to cultivate and requires years and years of unswerving dedication, commitment, and per-severance. These qualities represent the highest level of emotional matu-rity, self- awareness, self-discipline, equanimity, and detachment and may appear to be unattainable by any leader according to modern standards. Herein lies the uniqueness of holistic leaders. They act as a “witness” of high moral leadership without whom the limits of higher human possibili-ties would neither be known nor sustained.

It is important to understand that the key to life’s fulfillment according to the Gītā lies in Self-realization through Self-knowledge. Self-realization is the means as well as the end. And all the keys to Self-realization are pre-sented at the very beginning of the Gītā (2.55):

When one, finding contentment by the Self in the Self alone, completely casts off all selfish desires of the mind; such a person is truly wise.19

18 Easwaran, cited in Fischer, The Essential Gandhi, xvii (author’s adaptation).19 Adapted from Eknath Easwaran, trans., The Bhagavad Gītā, 67; S. Radhākrishnan, The

Bhagavad Gītā, 123; Satinder Dhiman, trans., Sahaja-Gītā, 36–38; and Swami Gambhīrānanda, trans., Bhagavad Gītā with the Commentary of Śankarācārya (Calcutta: Advaita Ashrama, 1984), 101–104.

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The net result of cultivating these qualities is peace, fulfillment and real happiness. This is the desideratum and the summum bonum of all human aspiration and quest.

the Gītā and paSSIon for excellence

Greek thinkers of yore have defined happiness as the exercise of human faculties along the lines of excellence. In the same manner, the Bhagavad Gītā defines Yoga as skillfulness, dexterity or excellence in action (yogaḥ karmasu kauśalam: 2.50). Does that mean that skillfulness in any action is yoga? The Gītā clarifies that only that state of mastery leads to yoga, a higher communion, which is not opposed to dharma, the moral order. A sniper’s or thief’s skillfulness, for example, will not qualify as yoga since it is does not spring from wholesome intention.

It is common to experience a feeling of soaring spirit when we are doing excellent work. The converse is also true. It has been observed that the best way to kill human motivation is to expect and accept mediocre performance from others. Expecting less than excellent work is the great-est disservice we can do to ourselves and to others. We owe excellence to ourselves, as much as we owe it to the society. No mere ideology, this passion for excellence has far-reaching implications for holistic leaders and for workplace performance. Nobody comes to work to put in a shoddy performance. Everyone is looking for creative self-expression. And when we create opportunities for meaningful self-expression, we help build a workplace where people act with self-fulfillment and not merely work for it. Creating such a liberating work environment is the real job of a holistic leader.

arIStotle’S theory of the golden Mean and perSonal MaStery

According to Aristotle, good moral behavior is the desirable mean between two extremes—one of excess and the other of deficiency. The key to acting morally lies in finding a moderate position between those two extremes. For example, courage is a virtue, but if taken to excess it would appear as recklessness, and, in deficiency, as cowardice. In his work titled Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle explains the development of virtues essential for achieving the ultimate goal, happiness. It must be noted that the golden mean is not the exact arithmetical mean; it depends on the

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situation. There is no universal middle that would apply to every situation. Different degrees may be needed for different situations.

There are three pillars to Aristotle’s theory of the golden mean: First, there is a sort of equilibrium that the good person is in. Equilibrium is the right feelings at the right time about the right things, toward the right people, for the right end, and in the right way. The second pillar states that the mean we should strive for is relative to us. Aristotle’s golden mean is not a one-size-fits-all strategy. The third pillar is that each virtue falls between two vices. The virtue lies in the golden mean which is not the exact middle of two vices. Knowing what is exactly appropriate in a given situation requires prolonged moral training. Aristotle believed that proper participation in each of these three pillars is necessary for a person to lead a virtuous and therefore happy life.20

Aristotle defines a happy life in terms of a good life: To say that some-body is happy is the very same thing as saying that one is living a life worth living. Aristotle uses the Greek concept of eudaimonia to express fully his views on what he considers to be a life well lived. His definition of eudaimonia can be roughly stated as the exercise of human faculties along the lines of excellence, in a life affording them full expression. According to Aristotle, the good life is identical with eudaimonia, which is defined as living and faring well and is denoted by the “activity of the soul exhibiting the highest and most complete excellence in a complete life …. The key terms are ‘action’, ‘excellence’, and ‘reason’.”21

Excellence, according to Aristotle, is not an innate gift; it is achieved through repeated practice until it becomes a habit, a settled disposition, for we are what we repeatedly do. In a posthumously published manu-script titled Heroes of History, Durant captures the essence of Aristotle’s view of happiness succinctly: “The goal of conduct is happiness, but the secret of happiness is virtue, and the best virtue is intelligence—a careful consideration of the reality, the goals and the means; usually, ‘virtue’ is a golden mean between the extremes.”22

It must be noted that happiness is not mere pleasure, although a happy person feels pleasure. Experience and observation dictate that sensuous

20 Golden Mean (philosophy), New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved January 21, 2016: http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Golden_mean_(philosophy).

21 J.O. Urmson, Aristotle’s Ethics (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2001), 11, 17–18, 20.22 Will Durant, Heroes of History: A Brief History of Civilization from Ancient Times to the

Dawn of the Modern Age (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001), 105.

SELF-MASTERY: MASTERING THE “ME” IN LEADERSHIP 55

gratification is not an abiding route to happiness. Human apparatus is doomed, so to speak, ab initio, by the operation of what is called the law of diminishing marginal utility; that is, as we consume more and more units of a specific commodity, the utility of the successive units diminishes. This applies equally to all our experiences directed at consuming pleasures. Durant further clarifies:

Surely sense pleasure is not the way: that road is a circle: as Socrates phrased the coarser Epicurean idea, we scratch that we may itch, and itch that we may scratch …. No, happiness must be a pleasure of mind, and we may trust it only when it comes from the pursuit or the capture of truth.23

Therefore, for Aristotle, happiness is the “virtuous activity of the soul in accordance with reason”. Aristotle employs the word hexis24 (from Latin habitus) in a very special sense, denoting ‘moral habituation’ or a dynami-cally ‘active state of moral virtue’. Urmson clarifies that, in Aristotle’s view, “the wise man who wishes for the best life will accept the requirements of morality.”25 Aristotle further clarifies that, to be happy, we should seek what is good for us in the long run for we cannot become happy by liv-ing for the pleasures of the moment. Aristotle includes among the main constituents of happiness such things as health and wealth, knowledge and friendship, good fortune, and a good moral character. For him, a life lived in accordance with excellence in moral and intellectual virtue constitutes the essence of a happy life: “He is happy who lives in accordance with com-plete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life …. A good life is one that has been lived by making morally virtuous choices or decisions.”26 Morality is the basis of self-mastery and the touchstone of holistic leadership.

As Epictetus eloquently puts it, happy is the man who, in the course of a lifetime, has satisfied all his desires, provided he desires nothing amiss. And not desiring anything amiss requires wisdom. Life, said Aristotle, is a gift of nature. Beautiful living is a gift of wisdom.

23 Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and the Opinions of the Great Philosophers (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962/1933), 76.

24 W.D. Ross rendered hexis as a state of character. See David Ross, translation of Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1980).

25 J.O. Urmson, Aristotle’s Ethics, 2.26 Mortimer Adler, Arsitotle for Everybody: Difficult Thought Made Easy (New York: Bantam

Books, 1980). Emphasis added.

56 S. DHIMAN

What MakeS chaMpIonS? the truth about expert perforMance

There is a Japanese saying, “Polish one sword for ten years”. This means devoting ten years single-mindedly cultivating and honing one’s abilities. Patience is important, for something that is hastily constructed is just as quickly destroyed.

What does it take to become a world-class expert in any given field? Is it some innate talent that passeth training? Or is it deliberate practice by way of time on task that does the trick? Is it just any repetitive practice that takes one to the expert status or a certain kind of practice that promises success? Because if any practice leads to expertise, kids playing video games would emerge as world-class experts, for by the time they reach the end of their teen years, they have accumulated several thousand hours in the sport. Does practice make perfect or permanent?

Can 10,000 hours of practice really turn anyone into an expert at any-thing? The widely publicized theory highlighted in a 1993 psychology paper by Ericsson et al.27 and popularized by Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers28 and Geoff Colvin’s book, Talent Is Overrated,29 says that any-one can master a skill with 10,000 hours of deliberate practice. K. Anders Ericsson et al. in their 1993 paper titled The Role of Deliberate Practice in the Acquisition of Expert Performance reviewed evidence on “conditions for optimal learning and improvement of performance.”30 This seminal paper explains expert performance as the end result of individuals’ pro-longed efforts to improve performance while negotiating motivational and external constraints.

In most domains of expertise, individuals begin in their childhood a regimen of effortful activities (deliberate practice) designed to optimize improvement. Ericsson et al. believe that by focusing on the highly rep-licable skills of exceptional performers (e.g., professional musicians) one

27 K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Th. Krampe and Clemens Tesch-Romer, The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance. Psychological Review, 1993, 100(3), 363–406.

28 Malcolm Gladwell, Outliers: The Story of Success (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2008).

29 Geoff Colvin, Talent Is Overrated (New York: Portfolio, 2010).30 K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Th. Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Romer, The role of deliberate

practice in the acquisition of expert performance, Psychological Review, 1993, 100 (3), 363–406, 367.

SELF-MASTERY: MASTERING THE “ME” IN LEADERSHIP 57

can identify high (expert) levels of performance. These authors conclude that many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense practice extended for a minimum of 10 years.31 It is to be noted that the authors are stating the minimum of 10 years and not an average of ten years; due to difference in individual capacities it may take longer than 10 years to attain high level of expertise in a particular field.

Recently, the theory has been challenged that the magical number of 10,000 hours or 10 years of practice makes you an expert.32 Though very important, practice alone won’t make you Yo Yo Ma: “No one disputes that practice is important”, says psychologist David Zachary Hambrick of Michigan State University in East Lansing. “Through practice, people get better. The question is whether that is all there is to it.”33 Are there other factors that enter into the expert performance equation? What role, if any, genes play in achieving elite performance?

On the other side of the spectrum, we have the contrarian exploration of great athletic feats in David Epstein’s The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance34 which looks at the genetic asso-ciations to winning in sports. Has science really discovered the winning gene? Ericsson agrees with Tucker’s and Collins’ claim about the current failure ‘to discover a candidate gene that can be conclusively linked to performance.’ However, it will be incorrect to misconstrue this failure “as evidence that genetics play only a minimal, or even no role, in the attain-ment of elite performance” says Ericsson.35 In an editorial to the British

31 K. Anders Ericsson, Ralf Th. Krampe, and Clemens Tesch-Romer, The role of deliberate practice in the acquisition of expert performance, Psychological Review, 100, 363–406. See also K. Anders Ericsson, Neil Charness, Paul J. Feltovich, & Robert R. Hoffman (Eds.), The Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (Cambridge Handbooks in Psychology (New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

32 Shaunacy Ferro, “Scientists Debunk The Myth That 10,000 Hours Of Practice Makes You An Expert,” Fast Company, March 12, 2014. Retrieved November 8, 2015: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3027564/asides/scientists-debunk-the-myth-that-10000- hours-of-practice-makes-you-an-expert.

33 Cited in Dan Vergano, Are Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hours of Practice Really All You Need? National Geographic, March 12, 2014. Emphasis added. Retrieved November 8, 2015: ht tp ://news .nat iona lgeograph ic .com/news/2014/03/140310-g ladwel l - expertise-practice-debate-intelligence/.

34 David Epstein, The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance (New York: Current, 2014).

35 K. Anders Ericsson, Training history, deliberate practise and elite sports performance: an analysis in response to Tucker and Collins review—what makes champions? British Journal of Sports Medicine, 2012. Retrieved November 8, 2015: http://bjsm.bmj.com/content/early/2012/10/29/bjsports-2012-091767.extract.

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Journal of Sports Medicine, Ericsson comments about the popularized but simplistic view of their work circulated on the internet, which suggests that anyone who has accumulated a sufficient number of hours of practice in a given domain will automatically become an expert and a champion. The truth is far from it.

A study published in May 2013 in the journal Intelligence by Hambrick and colleagues suggested that practice explains only about a third of suc-cess among musicians and chess masters. To be precise, they concluded that practice accounted for only 30 percent of success in music and 34 percent in chess. They also found wide variability in the hours of prac-tice. Chess grand masters had put in from 832 to 24,284 hours of work, although the average was around 10,530 hours. Musicians’ efforts ranged from 10,000 to 30,000 hours.36 It should be noted that the 10,000-hour rule of thumb is not about mechanical practice though. One needs smart practice. As Ericsson explained to Daniel Goleman, “You do not get ben-efits from mechanical repetition, but by adjusting your execution over and over to get closer to your goal.”37

Ericsson notes that Gladwell’s book Outliers mistakes the average of 10,000 hours that experts took to master a skill described in his research with the total they required. Practice is important but it is perhaps not the only thing. Quite a number of studies suggest that aside from practice hours, individual differences—ranging from socioeconomics to coaching to I.Q.—help explain expert success. However, there is a downside to viewing talent as inborn. If talent is viewed as innate and not the result of practice, Ericsson rightly fears, disadvantaged children will be cut off from opportunities in education and sports.

Excellence is a complex, multifaceted issue and the jury is still out on the respective roles of natural endowment and deliberate practice in human performance. Perhaps it is both practice and genes that make champions. How much of each, no one can really say. Genes perhaps make practice enjoyable and practice likewise makes it easier to actual-ize genes’ promise. One thing is clear though: when it comes to human beings, the only definite thing one can say is that nothing definite can be said about them. The perennial debate over nature vs. nurture continues. Perhaps the best thing is to be born as a genius. The next best thing is to work at it!

36 Cited in Dan Vergano, Are Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 Hours of Practice Really All You Need?

37 Cited in Daniel Goleman, Focus: The Hidden Driver of Excellence, p. 163.

SELF-MASTERY: MASTERING THE “ME” IN LEADERSHIP 59

rInSIng your cheeSe: anatoMy of Super-dIScIplIne

“Only super-efforts count.”—G.I. Gurdjieff

Gurdjieff, one of the most influential spiritual teachers of the twentieth century, used to say that in the realm of personal transformation, only super-efforts count. His observation is equally applicable to achievement in other fields also, including sports. Widely considered to be one of the most difficult one-day sporting events in the world, an Ironman Triathlon format consists of a 2.4-mile (3.86 km) swim, a 112-mile (180.25 km) bicycle ride and a marathon 26.2-mile (42.2 km) run, raced in that order and without a break within a strict time limit of 17 hours. The word “tri-athlon” is of Greek origin from τρεῖς or treis (“three”) and ἆθλος or athlos (“sport”).38

Dave Scott is a U.S. triathlete and the first six-time Ironman Triathlon Hawaii Champion (1980, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1986, and 1987).39 During peak training times, his highly regimented routine included cycling 75 miles, swimming 5000 meters and running up to 20 miles every single day. In order to win six world championships, Dave Scott followed a highly strict training routine and continued to refine and make tweaks to it to achieve optimal performance.40 Scott’s demanding training regimen constituted what experts call “smart practice.”

He was continually searching for a series of small marginal gains which would combine to produce a larger impact on his performance. It is reported that in his bid for super-discipline, Dave Scott took his train-ing regimen a few notches higher and use to rinse his cottage cheese with water to get extra fat off. Obviously a man who burned at least 5000 calo-ries a day in training had no problem with some extra fat. However, he believed that this was one in a series of other small steps that he believed would make him just that much better and enable him to reach his peak performance.

38 Jeff Matlow, Tiredathlon. USA Triathlon Life, Winter 2011, 101.39 Jimmy Watson, Ironman Dave Scott knows what will be on his tombstone, The Times,

August 2, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/2015/07/31/ironman-dave-scott-knows–tombstone/30933751/.

40 See: Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … And Others Don’t (San Francisco: Harper Business, 2001), 127–128.

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What is even more remarkable is that, while training for triathlons, Dave Scott followed a strict vegetarian diet.41

This is then the anatomy of super-discipline: hone your core compe-tencies with the fervor of an athlete, train incessantly like a (peaceful) warrior, and continue to look for small marginal gains to achieve optimal performance. This is the master key to triumph in any endeavor—in the personal as well as professional realm. Regarding his legacy, Dave Scott is steadfast: “I’m always introduced as ‘Dave Scott, six-time Ironman world champion,’” Dave Scott told The Times recently. “I’ll probably have that tattooed on my gravestone.”42

concludIng thoughtS

The road to self-transformation is long and hard and is beset with chal-lenges at every step. It has been compared with walking on a razor’s edge. It is because the flesh and the spirit follow different tracks and more often than not are at fierce conflict with each other. Even if the spirit is will-ing, often the flesh remains weak and weary. The preparation on the path begins with taming the flesh and making it a willing participant on the journey to self-transformation. To bring the flesh along, so to speak, and to make the body willing, the seeker has to follow certain disciplines by way of preparation on the path. This preparation involves removing the roadblocks obstructing the path and transmuting baser passions of flesh into higher aspiration of spirit. It involves a long preparation and one-pointedness of aim.

Personal mastery involves three related aspects of self-discipline—the ability to resist temptations, the ability to tolerate delay of gratification, and the imposing of strict standards of accomplishment upon oneself. The road to self-transformation is paved with self-discipline and self-restraint. Essentially, it entails the conservation of energy so that it can be re-chan-nelled into the harnessing of self-awareness. Such self-discipline is the hall-mark of every effective leader’s pedagogy of transformation of character.

41 See: Dave Scott (triathlete) entry on Wikipedia. Retrieved November 24, 2015: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dave_Scott_(triathlete).

42 Jimmy Watson, Ironman Dave Scott knows what will be on his tombstone, The Times, August 2, 2015. Retrieved November 24, 2015: http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/2015/07/31/ironman-dave-scott-knows–tombstone/30933751/.

SELF-MASTERY: MASTERING THE “ME” IN LEADERSHIP 61

Self-discipline may seem to be a high price in the beginning, but it is well worth paying for what one becomes at the end.

Excellence, according to Aristotle, is not an innate gift; it is a conscious attainment achieved through repeated practice until it becomes a settled disposition, for we are what we repeatedly do. As we learned earlier in this chapter, what we need is not mere mechanical repetition but smart practice. Gurdjieff, the famous Russian mystic, used to say that one has to consciously work upon oneself. It requires heavy-lifting at the soul-level. One has to put one’s whole being into it. Self-mastery is not meant for the faint-hearted.

The last sentence of the Ethics of Spinoza reads, “Sed omnia praeclara-tam difficilia quam rara sunt”—But everything great is just as difficult to realize as it is rare to find.43 The gods are willing to give us what we want, but not for free. They love to see us toil and sweat. Why should it be otherwise?

Self-MaStery: reflectIon QueStIonS

1. It is has been rightly observed that before one can lead others, one must first learn to manage oneself effectively. Briefly discuss the importance of personal-mastery in the development of holistic leadership.

2. According to Aristotle, good moral behavior is the desirable mean between two extremes—one of excess and the other of deficiency. Is there a universal middle—“Golden Mean”—that would apply to every situation? Or does it depend upon a given situation?

3. The three traps (excessive desire, anger, and greed) are present in every dysfunctional organization, manifested to the highest degree in its leaders. Explain briefly how leaders can overcome self-centered desire which has greed at its base and anger at its peak.

4. Does self-mastery or excellence in action leading to yoga (according to the Gītā) presuppose an active state of moral virtue? Will a snip-er’s or thief’s skillfulness qualify as self-mastery or yoga?

5. This chapter underscored the importance of high moral ground in life and leadership. Do you think that on the path of personal

43 See Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and the Opinions of the Great Philosophers (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1962/1933), 189. Durant renders it as: ‘But all excellent things are as difficult as they are rare’.

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mastery, morality acts as a necessary prelude to spirituality? Can one become a great leader without ethical and spiritual foundation?

6. Briefly discuss the role of emotional maturity in personal mastery. Explain how emotional stability fosters harmony in personal and professional relationships.

7. Do people have innate talent or is expertise actually the result of intense deliberate practice extended over a long period of time? What role, if any, do genes, socioeconomics, or coaching play in explaining expert success?

SELF-MASTERY: MASTERING THE “ME” IN LEADERSHIP 63

65© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_4

CHAPTER 4

People make a mistake who think that my art has come easily to me. Nobody has devoted so much time and thought to composition as I. There is not a famous master whose music I have not studied over and over.

—Attributed to MOZART1

IntroductIon

It is generally believed that creativity is a sort of mystical power that is the province of a chosen few who are born with some special gift. It is often assumed that these individuals are endowed with innate talent that easily allows them to accomplish feats of creative outburst as a stroke of genius during moments of inspiration. The opening observation attributed to Mozart regarding his methods of composition should put all such avow-als to rest. Even when one may have been born as a genius, it still pays indeed to work at it. If it had been true for Mozart, how much more so for all of us!

We know that all children are innately creative; why, then, does their creativity wane as the years progress? It has been observed that children enter schools as question marks; they leave schools as periods. Every child, said Pablo Picasso, is an artist; the trouble is staying artist when you grow

1 Robert Northcott, Genetic Traits and Causal Explanation. In Kathryn S. Plaisance and Thomas Reydon, Eds., Philosophy of Behavioral Biology (New York: Springer, 2012), 78.

Creativity and Flow: The Art of Mindful Creativity

up.2 In one of his most popular and provocative Ted talks, creativity expert, Sir Ken Robinson, opines that schools systematically undermine creativity. He challenges the way we’re educating our children and advocates the cultivation of creativity as a form of intelligence since “creativity now is as important in education as literacy, and we should treat it with the same status.”3 Treating creativity as a competency has far-reaching implications for our education system and workplace, albeit preventing us from grow-ing out of creativity.

This chapter will review some of the mounting research—both at the qualitative and quantitative level—that shows that creativity is very much a science. Some of the world’s most iconic companies are embracing cre-ativity as a way of life. Leaders are increasingly expected to nurture an environment of collaborative innovation. Now more than ever organiza-tions must innovate in order to survive and succeed. In a recent survey of 1500 CEOs from 60 countries in 33 industries by IBM’s Institute for Business Value, creativity was named the single most important attribute for success in leading a large corporation in the future.4 Accordingly, to stay competitive, leaders must cultivate the motivation for creativity by fostering an environment of workplace engagement, encouragement and commitment.

This chapter focuses on the role of creativity and flow in life and leader-ship. It garners the view that it is leaders’ job to foster creativity. It explores the relationship between mindfulness as a creative process and the concept of flow, suggesting that the meditative practice of mindfulness contributes to the successful attainment of both of these experiences. It utilizes the Buddhist construct of mindfulness as a framework to approach the works of Langer, a Harvard psychologist, and Csikszentmihalyi, who popular-ized the concept of flow. Over the years, this author has had the honor of interviewing Csikszentmihalyi and Langer. He has also participated in two

2 Quoted in Laurence J. Peter, Peter’s Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (New York: Bantam Books, 1979), 25.

3 Sir Ken Robinson, Do Schools Kill Creativity? Ted Talk. February 2006. Transcript retrieved February 15, 2016: https://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity/transcript?language=en. Also see Ken Robinson, Out of our Minds: Learning to be Creative (New York: Capstone, 2011).

4 Quoted in “A Bias against ‘Quirky’? Why Creative People Can Lose Out on Leadership Positions.” Leadership entry: Knowledge @ Wharton. Retrieved February 18, 2016: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/a-bias-against-quirky-why-creative-people-can-lose-out-on- leadership-positions/.

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extended mindfulness meditation retreats. This has brought added clar-ity to the theoretical constructs and greater conviction to their practical application.

MIndfulness and flow

How does mindfulness contribute to creativity and the experience of flow? For Langer, total engagement and immersion in everything done is the key to mindful creativity, which is very similar to Csikszentmihalyi’s con-cept of flow as a state of effortless concentration and rapt enjoyment in an activity in which one loses any sense of space, time, and self. Both of these experiences, namely, mindfulness as a cognitive state and being in a state of flow, are characterized by energized engagement with the activity at hand with all of one’s mind and attention, which is not dissimilar to how Theravada Buddhism understands and employs mindfulness.

Thus, by using three different lenses in this chapter, we try to under-stand the process of mindful creativity5 and the psychology of optimum experience. After defining creativity, the chapter provides a brief overview of the experience of flow as observed in the behavior of creative individu-als and the anatomy of mindful creativity. The chapter continues with a discussion of the contribution that mindfulness, as practiced within the framework of Theravada Buddhism, can make to enrich both paradigms. It concludes with benefits of mindfulness, creativity, and flow.

In the context of developing mindful creativity, Langer indicated that “creativity is not a blessing some special few are born with or receive from above. Our creative nature is an integral part of our daily lives, expressed through our culture, our language, and even our most mun-dane activities.”6 In a similar vein, research conducted by psychologist Csikszentmihalyi on optimal experience has shown how such creative moments occur through intentional effort and do not just happen by chance: “The best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something dif-ficult or worthwhile.”7 Because heightened awareness is a common factor

5 This term was mentioned during the interview by Dr. Langer: Ellen Langer, Personal Communication, Unpublished Transcripts, April 15, 2009.

6 Ellen Langer, On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself Through Mindful Creativity (New York: Ballantine Books, 2005), 4.

7 Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York: Harper and Row, 1990), 3.

CREATIVITY AND FLOW: THE ART OF MINDFUL CREATIVITY 67

between both of these states, that is, mindful creativity and optimal per-formance, it may be surmised that the Buddhist meditative practice of mindfulness can facilitate Langer’s state of cognitive mindfulness as well as Csikszentmihalyi’s psychology of flow.

defInIng creatIvIty and InnovatIon

Writers and researchers tend to be highly creative when it comes to defin-ing creativity. After several decades of research on creativity, there is hardly a commonly agreed upon definition of creativity.8 There are basically three approaches to defining creativity: person-focused approach, process-focused approach, and product-focused approach. Creativity is often associated with arts and expressed in terms of individual gifts of artistic originality. This approach conjures up the image of a Mozart, a da Vinci, a van Gogh or a Pablo Picasso. The process approach to creativity focuses on the process of discovery leading to novel ideas and applications. However, the asso-ciations made between creativity and artistic originality often lead to con-fusion about the appropriate place of creativity in business organizations.9 Teresa Amabile, who has spent forty years researching creativity at Stanford, Brandeis, and Harvard, notes that, “in business, originality isn’t enough. To be creative, an idea must also be appropriate—useful and actionable.”10 This view is in line with the conclusion drawn from the scientific research into creativity, according to which “there is a general agreement that creativity involves the production of novel, useful products.”11 This view is highly relevant to translating creativity into innovation in the business arena.

Creativity is the art of noticing novel ideas. Ellen Langer, a preeminent researcher in the field of creativity, once told this writer that creativity lies in becoming a “first-rate noticer.”12 The basic condition for a creative act

8 See Teresa M. Amabile and Mukti Khaire, Creativity and the Role of the Leader, Harvard Business Review, October 2008, 86, (10), 101–109. Teresa M.  Amabile, A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations, Research in Organizational Behavior, 1988, Vol. 10, 123–167. Teresa Amabile, How to Kill Creativity, Harvard Business Review, 76, no. 5 (September–October 1998): 76–87.

9 Teresa Amabile, “How to Kill Creativity,” Harvard Business Review, 76, no. 5 (September–October 1998): 76–87.

10 Ibid., 77.11 Michael Mumford, Where have we been, where are we going? Taking stock in creativity

research. Creativity Research Journal, 2003, 15, 110.12 Dr. Ellen Langer, personal communication, April 5, 2009. Unpublished Interview

Transcripts.

68 S. DHIMAN

is to combine known elements into new combinations or perspectives that have never before been considered.13 Creativity is simply the production of novel, appropriate ideas in any realm of human activity, from science, to the arts, to education, to business, to everyday life.14 In other words, the product-based approach to creativity focuses on “novelty that is useful”. According to Amabile, “Creativity is the production of novel and useful ideas by an individual or small group of individuals working together.”15 Likewise, innovation is the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization. Another Harvard expert, Rosabeth Moss Kanter, defines innovation as the “process of generation, acceptance, and imple-mentation of new ideas, processes, products, or services.”16 If creativity is about discovering what is novel and useful, innovation is about imple-menting it and bringing it to fruition.

where Is creatIvIty?“Where does creativity reside?” Does it reside within the brain or mind of a single creative individual? In the introduction to the tenth anniversary edition of his classic Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner defines creativity in pragmatic terms paralleling his defi-nition of multiple intelligences. He explains creativity mainly in terms of innovation, stating that “specifically, the creative individual is one who regularly solves problems or fashions products within a domain, and whose work is considered both novel and acceptable by knowledgeable members of a field.”17

Using his methodological framework of seven types of intelligence, Gardner analyzes seven of the “great creators” from the early part of last century, all of whom were contemporaries. Each one of these creators exemplified one of the seven intelligences: Sigmund Freud (scholastic),

13 Donald C. Pelz and F. M. Andrews, Scientists in Organizations: Productive Climates for Research and Development (Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 1976).

14 Teresa Amabile, “Motivating Creativity in Organizations: On Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do”, California Management Review, 40 (I), (Fall 1997): 39–58.

15 Teresa M. Amabile, “A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations”, Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 10, (1988): 126.

16 Rosabeth Moth Kanter, The Change Masters: Innovations for Productivity in the American Corporation (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1983), 20.

17 Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York: Basic Books, 2011), xxxvi.

CREATIVITY AND FLOW: THE ART OF MINDFUL CREATIVITY 69

Albert Einstein (logical), Pablo Picasso (spatial), Igor Stravinsky (musical), T. S. Eliot (linguistic), Martha Graham (bodily), and Mahatma Gandhi (political). Gardner believes that a single variety of creativity is a myth and analyzes all aspects of the lives of each of these seven individuals from developmental and social/environmental interaction perspectives to guide his exploration.18 This expansive view of creativity is in line with Gardner’s view of multiple intelligences and augurs well in bringing the promise of creativity within the scope of a common person.

Howard Gardner conceptualizes creativity in terms of the trio of intelli-gence, domain, and field. He suggests that creativity should not be thought of as inhering principally in the brain, the mind, or the personality of a single individual. Rather, creativity should be thought of as emerging from the interactions of the three nodes: the individual with his or her own profile of competencies and values; the domains available for study and mastery within a culture; and the judgments rendered by the field that is deemed competent within a culture.19

can creatIvIty Be taught?We are all gifted; some have not opened their presents yet.

Many believe that creativity is the province of exceptional artists—the Mozarts and Beethovens of the universe. Still there are others who think that creative geniuses are born with some sort of creative gene. They believe you either have it or do not have it. Can creativity be taught? “Yes”, says Wharton marketing professor, Rom Schrift, who believes that creativity is “like a muscle. If you train yourself, and there are different methods for doing this, you can become more creative. There are indi-vidual differences in people, but I would argue that it is also something that can be developed, and therefore, taught.”20

Are the gains of creativity distributed equally? Perhaps not. Yet, any-one can learn to be creative if s/he puts his/her mind to it and if there is

18 Howard Gardner, Creating Minds: An Anatomy of Creativity Seen Through the Eyes of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi (New York, NY: Basic Books, 1993).

19 Gardner, Frames of Mind, xxxvi.20 Rom Schrift quoted in “Can Creativity be Taught?” Management entry:

Knowledge @ Wharton. Retrieved February 19, 2016: http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/can-creativity-be-taught/.

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right environment that supports creativity. Wharton marketing professor Jerry (Yoram) Wind who has taught a course in creativity at Wharton for years, clarifies that “in any population, basically the distribution of creativity follows the normal curve. At the absolute extreme you have Einstein and Picasso, and you don’t have to teach them—they are the geniuses. Nearly everyone else in the distribution, and the type of people you would deal with at leading universities and companies, can learn creativity.”21

Can one tap into the fund of creativity at will or does one have to wait for the inspiration? “Inspiration” argues photorealist painter and photog-rapher, Chuck Close, “is for amateurs—the rest of us just show up and get to work.”22 This showing up and getting to work works for creativity as well, for genius, we are told, is 99 percent perspiration and only 1 percent inspiration. Of course, the best thing is to be born as a genius. The next best thing perhaps is to work at it!

whIch BusIness PractIces foster creatIvIty

One doesn’t manage creativity. One manages for creativity.23

According to Teresa Amabile, “Creativity is a function of three compo-nents: expertise, creative-thinking skills, and motivation.”24 She believes managers can proactively influence these components through workplace practices and conditions. What managerial practices affect creativity? To answer this question, Amabile draws upon two decades of research study-ing dozens of companies and hundreds of individuals and identifies key managerial practices that fall into six general categories: challenge, free-dom, resources, work-group features, supervisory encouragement, and

21 Ibid.22 Ibid.23 Teresa M. Amabile and Mukti Khaire, “Creativity and the Role of the Leader,” Harvard

Business Review, 86, (10), (October 2008):101–109. Teresa M.  Amabile, “A Model of Creativity and Innovation in Organizations,” Research in Organizational Behavior, Vol. 10, (1988): 123–167.

24 Teresa Amabile, “Motivating Creativity in Organizations: On Doing What You Love and Loving What You Do,” California Management Review, 40 (I) (Fall 1997): 43; Teresa Amabile, “How to Kill Creativity,” Harvard Business Review, 76, no. 5 (September–October 1998), 76. Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Frontiers of Management (Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, 1997).

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organizational support. Each one of these practices is linked with fostering intrinsic motivation.

Business practices fostering creativity range from giving employees “think time” to encouraging divergent thinking and risk-taking. Think time means giving employees free time to explore ideas regarding what may be called “unofficial activities” that may or may not pay off, at least initially. For example, at 3M, every engineer gets an hour of unstructured time each day to do what they like, from working on a side project to pursuing a hobby. Google is well known for its “20 % exploration time”, which gives its employees a day a week to break from their daily routine and follow their passions.

The real challenge is about matching individuals skills of the people with the right assignments that follow their passions and stimulate their creativ-ity. Freedom denotes providing people autonomy to choose the means to achieve the ends. Resources signify allocating proper time, money, and appropriate physical space to foster creativity. Next comes designing work teams that are diverse, self-directed, and empowered. Finally, organiza-tional support and supervisory encouragement go a long way in fostering creativity.25

An excellent example of a supportive environment that fosters a healthy creative process is IDEO, the preeminent design consulting firm. At IDEO, creativity starts with brainstorming sessions called “deep dive” and is then shepherded through a more nuanced, structured route where peo-ple are assigned specific parts. This process can be termed as interplay of chaos and focus. “The stereotype is that creativity just has to be unleashed, and it’s not true. It has to be tightly managed. You have to know how to foster it.”26

Let us take a closer look at some of the values that IDEO fosters to bring creativity to fruition.

25 See Teresa M. Amabile, Creativity in Context: Update to the Social Psychology of Creativity (Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1996). Teresa M. Amabile, Robert Burnside, and Stanley S. Gryskiewicz, User’s Manual for KEYS: Assessing the Climate for Creativity (Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership, 1998).

26 Jennifer Mueller as quoted in “Can Creativity be Taught?”

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secret of desIgn thInkIng: the 7 values that drIve Ideo

IDEO, the innovative company that pioneered human-centered “design thinking”, does not have many rules but there are some cultural values that they religiously take to heart. These values may sound simple but embody some profound truths about human motivation and creativity. The company presents these truths in a small booklet entitled The Little Book of IDEO, as follows:

1. Be Optimistic: Believing that something is so will somehow make it so.

2. Collaborate: The most powerful asset we have in our arsenal is the word “we”.

3. Embrace Ambiguity: Get comfortable with un-comfortableness. 4. Learn from Failure: Ask for forgiveness, not permission. 5. Make others Successful: Going out of your way to help others succeed

is the secret sauce. 6. Take Ownership: The unwritten social contract here: individual own-

ership supports collective responsibility. Own that. 7. Talk Less, Do More: Nothing is bigger buzz-kill than over intellectu-

alization. Design is about rolling up your sleeves and making things.27

Even among this sparse listing of values, IDEO puts proactively “mak-ing others successful” at the center of their design thinking and calls it the mother-lode of all its values. For them, servant-hood and design go together. This might seem counter-intuitive for a group of creative sorts. After all, we do not think of creativity as a collaborative sport. But this “citizenship behavior” is a norm at IDEO. Teresa Amabile and her colleagues note that “help-seeking and help-giving culture is behind the firm’s success”. Based on their two years’ research at IDEO, these authors discovered the following guidelines to building a help-friendly

27 The Little Book of IDEO: Values from Tim Brown. Retrieved February 7, 2016: http://designthinking.ideo.com/?p=1282.

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organization that leaders of other organizations could learn and apply to similar effect:28

1. Be very clear that helpfulness produces better outcomes than inter-nal competition.

2. Model that conviction in your own help-giving and help-seeking. 3. Make yourself accessible. 4. Respect the helper by using the help. 5. Consider regularly assigning one or two helpers to project teams. 6. Include helping as part of job descriptions.

We notice that the sum total of all these suggestions is to operationalize IDEO’s core creed of “going out of your way to help others succeed”. This helps create what is often referred to as the “multiplier effect” which equally benefits both the helpers and the helped, for “a rising tide lifts all boats”.

Myths of creatIvIty

Myths of creativity abound. David Burkus in his book, The Myths of Creativity: The Truth about How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas, debunks 10 common myths of creativity—and sug-gests how to overcome them. Burkus opines that under the right condi-tions, anyone can learn to be creative and it pays organizations to support the creative processes. These myths are as follows:29

1. The Eureka Myth (creative ideas arrive in a flash of inspiration) 2. The Breed Myth (creative people are different, perhaps

genetically) 3. The Originality Myth (creative ideas are always new) 4. The Expert Myth (the more you know, the more creative you can be) 5. The Incentive Myth (prizes and payments encourage creativity) 6. The Lone Creator Myth (creativity is a solitary pursuit) 7. The Brainstorming Myth (creative ideas come from brainstorming) 8. The Cohesive Myth (creative teams always agree)

28 Teresa Amabile, Colin M.  Fisher, and Julianna Pillemer, IDEO’s Culture of Helping Harvard Business Review, January–February 2014.

29 David Burkus, The Myths of Creativity: The Truth About How Innovative Companies and People Generate Great Ideas (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2014), 11–14.

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9. The Constraints Myth (creativity requires complete freedom) 10. The Mousetrap Myth (creative ideas are always welcomed by orga-

nizations and by society at large)

Let’s take a closer look at some of these myths. The eureka myth is the misconception that creative ideas flash in a spontaneous moment of inspiration. Nothing can be further from the truth. Research shows that creative ideas materialize after significant investment of hard work and concerted thinking. Creativity is a process that occurs in a series of steps involving generation, acceptance, and implementation of new ideas. For example, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi studied the creative process of 91 pre- eminent creative individuals and found that almost all of the people he studied shared a progressive creative process consisting of 5 stages: prepa-ration, incubation, insight, evaluation, and elaboration.30

The lone creative genius myth brings to mind high-profile creatives such as Da Vincis, Michelangelos, Mozarts, and Picassos. We know today that this is not true at all. Many famous creatives appeared to work alone, but in reality had the support of a team. Michelangelo for example had a group of artists to help him as he painted the Sistine Chapel. Likewise, Thomas Edison was helped by a group of scientists and engineers called “the Muckers”. Researchers note that music and performance arts may be somewhat of an exception where child prodigies emerge much more quickly. For most other endeavors, creativity is much more an outcome of long concerted effort and team work.31

In the similar vein, Weisberg discusses the process of “ordinary think-ing” and how it “underlies even the greatest examples of creativity”. He also challenges the “genius approach” to the study of creativity and especially critiques the role of intuition, insight, and the unconscious in the creative process. He analyzes the concept of the creative personality and concludes that the role of the personality has been greatly oversim-plified and overemphasized in creativity literature; in real life, it is much more nuanced and complex. Weisberg presents an impressive amount of evidence supporting the “ordinary thinking” position using historical case studies by analyzing the inventive experiences of “genius” creators

30 See Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (New York: Harper Perennial; Reprint edition, 2013), 79–83.

31 See Charles Murray, Human Accomplishment: The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences (New York: Harper Collins, 2003).

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in order to show the preponderance of “ordinary thinking” in even the most well- known examples of creative achievement. What is the recipe for genius? According to Weisberg, it entails three components: intellect, i.e., high I.Q.; motivation/determination, i.e., staying focused; and immer-sion in field, i.e., being very well-informed on the topic and working in it for at least a decade. As we can see, being smart is only one part of being a genius. Without the other two, one doesn’t have a chance at attaining great levels of creative achievement.32

The expert myth is the belief that the more you know, the more creative you become. On the face of it, this seems quite logical. The rationale is that in order to be truly creative, one must master a field or a domain. Creativity often requires some level of expertise, but expertise and creativ-ity are nonetheless very different things. Someone can know a great deal about something and yet show little creativity in that domain.33 However, research into the lives of creative people shows that in some cases “exper-tise can actually hinder [the] creative ability of individuals. … As expertise grows, creativity sometimes diminishes. Sometimes the best insights come from those outside a particular field,…”34 There is a good reason for this. When we are too heavily invested in a task, we may tend to overlook the obvious.

In his book entitled They All Laughed … From Light Bulbs to Lasers, Ira Flatow debunks several widely held misconceptions, including the notion that Thomas Edison tried carbon as a lamp filament in the light bulb ser-endipitously (incidentally, no fewer than 13 inventors had tried carbon fil-aments in their light bulbs over the previous 34 years). For example, many famous inventions were first received with ridicule: When Remington introduced the first typewriter, people saw no practical use for it. Such is the process of invention which is full of struggles, serendipity, and dead- ends that are usually necessary to achieve something significant. This is what Edison was trying to communicate with his famous quote about the making of genius: “Genius is one percent inspiration, ninety-nine percent

32 See Robert W. Weisberg, Creativity: Beyond the Myth of Genius, 2nd edition (New York, NY: W. H. Freeman & Co., 1993); See also Weisberg, Creativity: Genius and Other Myths. (New York: W. H. Freeman & Co., 1986).

33 John Baer, The Importance of Domain-Specific Expertise in Creativity, Roeper Review, 2015, 37, 165–178. Retrieved February 20, 2016: http://users.rider.edu/~baer/ExpertiseCreativity.pdf.

34 David Burkus, The Myths of Creativity, 67–68.

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perspiration,”35 Flatow tells us in his book that Ben Franklin’s kite was never struck by lightning—literally deflating the myth of the lightning bolt of inspiration; the story of Ben Franklin and the kite was just that—a story. The microwave oven came about because a chocolate bar melted in someone’s pocket.36 Creatively inventive people discover extraordinary things by paying close attention to the ordinary occurrences of daily life. Creativity is all about observation and absorption. Mindfulness helps both.

exPerIencIng flow: the Psychology of oPtIMal exPerIence

The mystique of rock climbing is climbing; you get to the top of a rock glad it’s over but really wish it would go on forever. The justification of climbing is climbing, like the justification of poetry is writing; you don’t conquer anything except things in yourself …. The act of writing justifies poetry. Climbing is the same: recognizing that you are a flow. The purpose of the flow is to keep on flow-ing, not looking for a peak or utopia but staying in the flow. It is not a moving up but a continuous flowing; you move up to keep the flow going. There is no pos-sible reason for climbing except the climbing itself; it is a self-communication.37

We provide this long opening quote from Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi to demonstrate the diversity of life experiences that may trigger flow. The quote also shows that once operative, flow has its own self-propelling logic of reinforcement: Being in the flow helps us to be in the flow even more. Flow has been described as an optimal state of consciousness in which we feel and perform our best—the art and science of being alive to profound possibilities. During the 1970s, while leading the University of Chicago’s psychology department, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi conducted one of the largest psychological studies ever by asking people in various settings all over the world about the times in their life when they felt their best and performed their best. He started out with expert-level performers—sur-geons, musicians, dancers, rock climbers, and chess players—then moved into more regular folks: Italian farmers, Navajo sheep herders, elderly

35 Spoken statement (c. 1903); published in Harper’s Monthly (September 1932).36 Ira Flatow, They All Laughed … From Light Bulbs to Lasers: The Fascinating Stories

Behind the Great Inventions That Have Changed Our Lives (New York, NY: Harper Perennial, 1992).

37 Cited in Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1990), 54.

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Korean woman, Chicago assembly line workers, and Japanese teenage motorcycle gang members. And no matter where in the world he went or what population he studied, when people felt their best and performed their best, flow was the only constant commonality.38 The discoveries from these studies profoundly changed the way we look at peak performance and workplace engagement and fulfillment.

According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow refers to a state of total immersion, effortless concentration, and rapt enjoyment in an activity in which one loses any sense of space, time, and self. First proposed by Csikszentmihalyi, flow is the mental state of operation in which the person is fully immersed in what he or she is doing, characterized by a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and success in the process of the activity. It is marked by a certain delightful effortlessness borne of complete identification with the task at hand.

flow & haPPIness: IMPlIcatIons for leaders

Why do leaders need to study the art and science of flow and happiness? What is the link between flow and creativity? What is the link between hap-piness at work and workplace success and well-being? We believe knowing answers to these questions is vital for leaders today, given the fact that majority of US workers are not engaged at work, as indicated by a series of recent Gallup polls.39 As Steven Kotler put it: “Flow directly correlates to happiness at work and happiness at work directly correlates to success.”40 Creativity triggers flow and flow strengthens creativity.

Studies show that there is direct link between happiness and business outcomes. According to Shawn Achor, who has researched extensively in

38 See “Flow States: Answers To The Three Most Common Questions About Optimal Performance,” Retrieved February 18, 2016: http://www.forbes.com/sites/stevenkot-ler/2014/02/09/flow-states-answers-to-the-three-most-common-questions-about-opti-mal-performance/#5a396e953d1533fc83393d15.

39 Recent Gallup polls have indicated that 71 percent of US workers were “not engaged”, or “actively disengaged” from their jobs. See Gallup Report: “70  % of US workers not engaged at work.” State of the American Workplace. The report highlights findings from Gallup’s ongoing study of the American workplace from 2010 through 2012. Also see, Amy Adkins, “Majority of U.S.  Employees Not Engaged Despite Gains in 2014.” Retrieved February 19, 2016: http://www.gallup.com/services/178514/state-american-workplace.aspx?g_source=position1&g_medium=related&g_campaign=tiles.

40 Steven Kotler, The Rise of Superman: Decoding the Science of Ultimate Human Performance (New York: New Harvest, 2014 ), ix.

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48 countries about the connection between employee happiness and suc-cess, “A decade of research in the business world proves that happiness raises nearly every business and educational outcome: raising sales by 37%, productivity by 31%, and accuracy on tasks by 19%, as well as a myriad of health and quality-of-life improvements.”41 Similarly, a 10 year study by McKinsey found that top executives performed 5× better when in a flow state. Creativity was increased by 7×.42 These findings have far- reaching implications for workplace engagement, wellness, and success.

Underscoring the vital link between flow and mindfulness, Steven Kotler, co-founder and director of research for the Flow Genome Project, says that flow follows focus: “[Flow] is a state that can only show up in the now, in the present tense … The easiest way to have flow and the people who are most successful at it have built their lives around these triggers.”43 Quite simply, these triggers are ways of bringing back our attention into the now; hence, the close relationship between flow, creativity, and mindfulness.

What conditions aid in garnering a sense of flow? In his book, entitled The Rise of Superman, Steven Kotler presents 17 triggers for flow—precon-ditions that bring on more flow.44 These triggers fall into four categories: environment, psychological, social, and creative. Environmental or exter-nal flow triggers include: high consequences (sink or swim), rich environ-ment (novelty, unpredictability, and complexity) and deep embodiment (total physical awareness). Psychological flow triggers include: intensely focused attention, clear goals, immediate feedback, and skill/challenge ratio (finding the sweet spot where skills meet the challenge). The social flow triggers include: serious concentration, shared clear goals, good com-munication, equal participation, element of risk, familiarity, sense of con-trol, close listening, and always saying yes. And the final flow trigger is creativity which includes pattern recognition and the courage to bring new ideas into the world.

41 See Shawn Achor, “Is happiness the secret of success?”, Special to CNN, March 19, 2012. Retrieved February 20, 2016: http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/19/opinion/happiness-success-achor/.

42 See: 17 “Flow” Triggers That Will Increase Productivity—Tapping into Peak Human Performance in Business—http://www.mymasterminder.com/blog/17-flow-triggers-will-increase-productivity-tapping-peak-human-performance-business#sthash.kAVfM0Im.dpb.

43 Understanding Flow Triggers, with Steven Kotler. Transcript retrieved, February 20, 2016: http://bigthink.com/videos/understanding-flow-triggers-with-steven-kotler See also: Kotler, “Flow States.”

44 Steven Kotler, The Rise of Superman, 98–135.

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key eleMents of flow exPerIence

According to Csikszentmihalyi, flow represents a state of “intense emo-tional involvement” in which the skills required to perform a particular task match the challenges presented by the task.45 The experience of flow is also described as being in the zone (athletes), ecstasy (mystics), and aesthetic rapture (artists and musicians), and it involves being completely immersed in an activity for its own sake. Ego disappears. Time flies. Your whole being is involved, in rapt concentration, and you’re using your skills to the utmost. There is no sense of time, place, or self.

Csikszentmihalyi has identified the following key elements accompany-ing flow46:

1. A challenging activity that requires skills: Flow occurs when we are performing tasks that are goal-directed, challenging and require the investment of psychic energy. Ultimately, how enjoyable an activity is depends upon the level of its complexity. If the task is too easy, it tends to lead to boredom; if it is too difficult, it may lead to anxiety and frustration. Flow occurs when the skill required to perform a task and the challenge presented by the task are balanced evenly.

2. The merging of action and awareness: Flow occurs when our aware-ness and action merge so completely that the activity becomes spon-taneous; we stop being aware of ourselves being separate from the actions we are performing.

3. Clear goals and immediate feedback: Flow occurs when a person has a clear set of goals that require appropriate responses. Clear goals and immediate feedback help our involvement with flow experiences to occur naturally.

4. Concentration on the task at hand: Flow activities require a com-plete  focusing of attention at hand—thus leaving no room in the mind for irrelevant information. “By learning to concentrate,” says Csikszentmihalyi, “a person acquires control over psychic energy, the basic fuel on which all thinking depends.”47

45 See Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, 3. Also see: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life. (New York: Basic Books, 1997), 7.

46 Csikszentmihalyi, Flow, 71–93.47 Csikszentmihalyi, Finding Flow, 28.

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5. The paradox of control: The flow experience is typically described as involving a sense of control—or, more precisely, lacking the sense of worry about losing control.

6. The loss of self-consciousness: During flow activities we become so engrossed or immersed in the task at hand that we lose any con-sciousness of self. When not preoccupied with our own selves we actually have a chance to expand the concept of who we are.

7. Transformation of the sense of time: One of the most important fea-tures of flow experience is that our sense of time is transformed: hours seem to pass by in minutes—time flies, when we are having fun.

csIkszentMIhalyI on the BehavIor of creatIve PeoPle

Of all human activities, creativity comes closest to providing the fulfillment we all hope to get in our lives. Call it full-blast living. Creativity is a central source of meaning in our lives. Most of the things that are interesting, important, and human are the result of creativity. What makes us different from apes—our language, values, artistic expression, scientific understanding, and technol-ogy—is the result of individual ingenuity that was recognized, rewarded, and transmitted through learning.48

As the foregoing quote amply demonstrates, creativity, as transmitted through learning, is one of the key qualities that distinguishes us from the apes. It is the primary source of meaning in our lives and makes us truly and vitally alive. What is distinctive about creative people? How do they behave from moment-to-moment? Based upon 30 years of research on how cre-ative people devise new ideas and new things, Csikszentmihalyi noted49:

Creative individuals are remarkable for their ability to adapt to almost any situation and to make do with whatever is at hand to reach their goals. If I had to express in one word what makes their personalities different from others, it’s complexity. They show tendencies of thought and action that in most people are segregated. They contain contradictory extremes; instead of being an “individual”, each of them is a “multitude.”50

48 Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: The Works and Lives of 91 Eminent People (New York, NY: HarperCollins 1996), 1–2. See also Csikszentmihalyi, The creative personality. Psychology Today. 1996: 36–40.

49 Csikszentmihalyi, “The creative personality,” Psychology Today, 1996, 36–40.50 Ibid., 1.

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Csikszentmihalyi (1996) discusses the following 10 antithetical, seem-ingly paradoxical traits of creative people in his book, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention:

1. Creative individuals have a great deal of physical energy, but they are also often quiet and at rest.

2. Creative individuals tend to be smart, yet also naïve at the same time.

3. A third paradoxical trait refers to the related combination of play-fulness and discipline, or responsibility and irresponsibility.

4. Creative individuals alternate between imagination and fantasy at one end, and a rooted sense of reality at the other.

5. Creative people seem to harbor opposite tendencies on the con-tinuum between extroversion and introversion.

6. Creative individuals are also remarkably humble and proud at the same time.

7. Creative individuals to a certain extent escape the rigid gender role stereotyping.

8. Generally, creative people are thought to be rebellious and independent.

9. Most creative persons are very passionate about their work, yet they can be extremely objective about it as well.

10. Finally, the openness and sensitivity of creative individuals often exposes them to suffering and pain yet also a great deal of enjoyment.51

These are the paradoxical qualities of creative people, according to Csikszentmihalyi: passionate yet objective, sensitive yet gleeful, imagi-native yet realistic, playful yet disciplined. In the last chapter of his book Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, based on interviews with 91 creative individuals, Csikszentmihalyi offered some practical suggestions for enhancing creativity. The following are tips that have special relevance from the standpoint of creativity and mindfulness:

1. Try to be surprised by something every day. 2. Try to surprise at least one person every day.

51 Csikszentmihalyi, The creative personality. Psychology Today, 1996, 58–73.

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3. Write down each day what surprised you and how you surprised others.

4. Wake up in the morning with a specific goal to look forward to. 5. When something strikes a spark of interest, follow it. 6. If you do anything well, it becomes enjoyable. 7. To keep enjoying something, you need to increase its complexity. 8. Make time for reflection and relaxation. 9. Find out what you like and what you hate about life. 10. Start doing more of what you love, less of what you hate. 11. Shift often from openness to closure. 12. Find a way to express what moves you. 13. Look at problems from as many viewpoints as possible. 14. Have as many different ideas as possible. 15. Try to produce unlikely ideas.52

One common factor of these tips is that they make flow within the reach of everyone who wants to give it a chance. Doing something surpris-ing, joyful, reflective and relaxing and being open to the new, different, and unlikely ideas not only helps the flow experience; it also improves workplace engagement and creativity. In the next section, we explore Langer’s unique view about creativity. This view is important on several counts: Langer defines creativity in terms of mindfulness—the art of notic-ing new things; she approaches creativity in its most pragmatic terms; and she highlights the fact that creative activities hold the key to living mean-ingful, fulfilled lives.

langer on BecoMIng an artIst

It is only when we’ve awakened that we realize how much of our lives we’ve actually slept through.53

Many spiritual and wisdom traditions of the world declare that man is asleep. The Bhagavad Gīta, the most important spiritual text of the Hindus, speaks about the difference between day and night experiences

52 Mikhaly Csikszentmihalyi, Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention (New York: HarperCollins, 1996), 347–370.

53 Ellen Langer, On Becoming an Artist: Reinventing Yourself through Mindful Creativity (New York: Ballantine Books, 2005), 16.

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of wise and unwise by analogically likening the day to knowledge and the night to ignorance (Gītā 2.69). Gurdjieff, one of the most influential spiri-tual teachers of the twentieth century, regarded this psychological sleep to be man’s chief feature and proposed that the goal of his system is to awaken slumbering humanity—to wake man up from the hypnotic sleep of life.54 As we come to know about the fact of our dreaming only upon wak-ing up, even so, as Langer points out, it is only upon awakening that we realize how much our lives have been spent in sheer sleep-walking.

Langer defines mindfulness as the “process of actively noticing new things.”55 Mindfulness brings us in the present. Taking a highly prag-matic view of creativity, Langer opines, “All it takes to become an artist is to start doing the art.”56 She further avers that if we are mindfully creative, “the circumstances of the moment will tell us what to do.”57 Through research and skillful logic, she demonstrated how people under-value themselves and impede their creativity. Langer, who considered mindful creativity as a necessary condition for mindful living, observes, “The more we engage in our mindful activity, the closer we get to living a mindful life. By living a life full of art, we may achieve an artful life.”58 Langer goes on to explain how mindful art helped her to organize ideas for her book. She states, “It was like having a closed floor full of clothes in need of hangers. My art provided a way to get the clothes off the floor, so to speak.”59

54 For a clear summary of Gurdjieff ’s teachings, please see P. D. Ouspensky, In the Search of Miraculous, revised edition (New York: Harcourt Inc., 2001). See also Collin Wilson, G.I. Gurdjieff: The War against Sleep (New York: Aeon Books, 2005). One of the most semi-nal ideas of Gurdjieff ’s system is that nature develops us up to a certain extent; after that we must take our psychological evolution in our own hands to complete what nature could not finish. He called it “creating” the soul and recommended a two-fold process of conscious labor and intentional suffering to accomplish this process. He used to insist that one cannot create one’s own immortal soul unless one “dies” to one’s outer life. This refrain is common in all the wisdom traditions of the world. For the real to come, the unreal has to go. Gurdjieff used to say that in this process of soul-creation, ordinary efforts do not matter; only super efforts count!

55 Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity: Spotlight Interview with Ellen Langer by Alison Beard. Harvard Business Review, March 14, 2014, 1–7.

56 Ibid., xv.57 Ibid., 35.58 Ibid., 229.59 Ibid. 229–230.

84 S. DHIMAN

According to Carson and Langer, “The goal of the mindful perspec-tive is to increase cognitive flexibility and to thereby increase behav-ioral flexibility and the ability to adapt to one’s current environment in a meaningful manner. Empirical evidence spanning four decades attests to the beneficial effects of a mindful vs. mindless perspective.”60 Mindfulness generates a more positive result, a better performance for almost any activity.

Within the context of mindfulness, these researchers pointed out the importance of authenticity, the tyranny of evaluation, the benefits of mistakes, the mindlessness of social comparison, and the trap of rigid categories. One of the simplest and most natural methods of reducing self-evaluation is to assume a mindset of mindfulness rather than mind-lessness.61 Langer shares her deep conviction that each person is capable of achieving personal renaissance, the essence of which is “to learn to act and engage with ourselves mindfully, creatively, actively, and happily.”62 Mindfulness serves as the basis for personal transformation. This has far- reaching implications for leaders as well as followers, both in their personal and professional realms.

For Langer, mindfulness and creativity are natural partners. In her excellent book on creativity entitled On Becoming an Artist, she shares insights on removing the roadblocks that stand in the way of our awaken-ing and presents following insights on harnessing artistic creativity:

1. Life of Mindful Creativity. Our creative nature is an integral part of our daily life and mindful creative activities hold the key to living meaningful, fulfilled lives. Mindfulness, according to Langer, is “an effortless, simple process that consists of drawing novel distinc-tions or noticing new things …. It is seeing the similarities in things thought different and the differences in things taken to be similar.”63 Langer found out two ways in which people teach them-selves to be mindless: (1) through repetition, certain activities become second nature to us and we carry them out mindlessly, as

60 Shelley H. Carson & Ellen Langer, Mindfulness and Self-Acceptance. Journal of Rational-Eomotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 2006, 24, 1, 29–43.

61 See Langer, Mindfulness (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1989).62 Langer, On Becoming an Artist, 21.63 Ibid., 5, 16.

CREATIVITY AND FLOW: THE ART OF MINDFUL CREATIVITY 85

if on an auto-pilot. We just have to give up our fixed ways in which we have learned to look at the world and develop a beginner’s approach to life; and (2) using a single frame of reference.

2. Becoming Authentic. Langer’s research has shown that “when peo-ple are coached to be more mindful in a situation, those around them are likely to see them as more charismatic and more genuine.”64 She quotes Henry Ward Beecher stating that “every artist dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into pictures.”65 Claude Monet spent his life producing “sincere art”. Langer calls it “Mindful Art.”66

3. The Tyranny of Evaluation. According to Langer, tyranny of evalu-ation is the “most important roadblock we need to overcome to achieve personal renaissance. The most common reason we hesi-tate when presented with an opportunity to express ourselves cre-atively is our fear of other people’s negative opinions.”67 We need to remind ourselves that evaluations are context-dependent, and no one evaluation fits all contexts. One of the best ways mindful-ness counters the tyranny of evaluation is to realize that “unques-tioningly accepting single-minded evaluation of what we notice is mindless.”68

4. The Mindfulness of Mistakes. Langer opines that mistakes encour-age mindfulness. If we are attentive to our mistakes they help us tune into the present and allow us to explore novel courses of action. Langer points out that “Mistakes, like evaluations, are con-text based. In one context, a mistake is an error, while in another it can be a surprise advantage.”69 She reminds us that we should learn from Robert Frost, the great American poet. When the poems that he wrote did not work to his satisfaction, he called them “exercises”.

5. The Rule of Absolutes. Langer argues that we tend to create rules and absolutes and then try to apply them mindlessly to our own

64 Ibid., 25.65 Ibid., 36.66 Ibid., 40.67 Ibid., 43.68 Ibid., 58.69 Ibid., 76.

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detriment. After all, “rules are, by their very nature, mindless limitations on our attention to the context in which we do things.”70 Langer quotes Ansel Adams, stating, “There are no rules for good photographs, there are only good photographs”. By becoming more mindful about the genesis of the rules—by asking such questions as when was the rule made, by whom, under what context etc.—we move from being rule-governed to being rule-guided.

6. Mindlessness of Social Comparisons. According to Langer, the main reason we do not engage the world more creatively is that “we mind-lessly compare ourselves with other people we deem highly creative and we come up short.”71 Although to compare is a natural human tendency, we should remember that most social comparisons set us up for future unhappiness because there will always be someone who will be better in some respect than we are. We will benefit a lot if we keep in mind the contextual influences that contribute to other peo-ple’s perceived “greatness” and not just their talent.

7. Myth of Talent. Langer notes that the problem with accepting the conventional idea of talent as being normally distributed is that, “if we find ourselves on the wrong end of the curve, we just assume we don’t have what it takes.”72 Langer speaks about our exaggerated sense of other people’s talent. She points out that in making comparisons, the gap between us and talented people widens because we tend to focus on the end results of their efforts and ignore the “struggles, uncertainties and false starts.”73 She notes that the “real difference between those we think of as tal-ented and ourselves may be nothing more than their willingness to go forward in the face of the uncertainty, if only because they believe in the skills they know they can bring to bear.”74

8. Blindness of Knowing. Pointing out that our very familiarity with an object leads to a mindless approach to its reality, Langer insightfully states: “The opportunity for creating new choices for ourselves

70 Ibid., 103.71 Ibid., 130.72 Ibid., 171–172.73 Ibid., 150.74 Ibid.

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comes only when we are open to noticing the very differences that work against this tendency.”75 She gives several examples of cases when we are looking but not seeing, such as picking out a picture that most looks like a penny from among several pictures that look like a penny. She goes on to remark that there is a good deal of research that shows how poor eyewitness accuracy is and that confidence and accuracy are not correlated: “People may be absolutely sure of what they have seen, and they may be wrong.”76 She notes that “open-ness to different points of views is an important aspect of being mindfully creative”. And then with Zen-like simplicity, she con-cludes: “To play an instrument, all you need to learn is to hear it.”77

9. From Reference to Preference. Langer presents an important aspect of her approach in this section: taking notice of things expands our appreciation of them. The more we engage with unfamiliar things, the more likely we will get to like them. She contends that her research so far has revealed that “rather than breeding contempt, familiarity breeds liking.”78 This is called the “mere exposure effect” in social psychology: seeing something over and over again increases our liking for it. Langer believes that the more distinc-tions we draw, the more we see into the essence of something. It is our mindful engagement with the world that leads us to enjoy the world and “to be mindfully engaged is the most effortless, natural, and creative state we can be in.”79

10. Mindful Choice. Langer points out that when it comes to making choices, we need to remember an important point: “Certainty breeds mindlessness …. If we do not run from it, uncertainty pro-motes mindfulness.”80 Then in almost Buddhist vein, she goes on to remark: “Inasmuch as we confuse the stability of our mind-sets with the stability of the underlying phenomenon, there is uncer-tainty whether we choose to acknowledge it or not.”81

75 Ibid., 175.76 Ibid., 182.77 Ibid., 190.78 Ibid., 203.79 Ibid., 211.80 Ibid., 223–224.81 Ibid., 225.

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What prevents us from realizing our creative self or mindful creativ-ity? Langer believes that it is the fear of making mistakes and lack of trust in our creative talent. She notes that through mindful creativity, we can change ennui in our lives to exhilaration and improve our overall well- being. I present below the essence of Langer’s message:

Our fear of making mistakes, our belief that we have no talent, and our comparisons with others all keep us from engaging in any creative activity …. The more we engage our mindful creativity, the closer we get to living a mindful life …. Mindful creativity can turn our lives troubled by boredom and loneliness into lives that are rich and exciting …. Thus, creative engage-ment makes us like ourselves and others better, improving our overall hap-piness and even our health.82

the PractIce of MIndfulness

“Mindfulness, I declare, is helpful everywhere.”83

The Buddha regarded mindfulness as the most helpful since it is through mindfulness alone that we can fully benefit from the present moment. Since one has access to the present moment alone, mindfulness is con-sidered helpful every time, everywhere. Mindfulness is the art of keep-ing one’s consciousness alertly alive in the present. According to the Vietnamese monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, mindfulness refers to a special form of awareness or presence of mind. Although one is always aware to some degree, this awareness rarely goes beyond the surface level to reach the mind’s deeper layers.84 However, with the practice of mind-fulness, the normal awareness or attentiveness is applied with greater intensity and “at a special pitch.”85 Bodhi, a pre-eminent Theravada

82 Ibid., 210; 229; 194.83 Bhikkhu Khantipalo, Practical Advice for Meditators (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist

Publication Society, 1986), 8.84 Ven. Henepola Gunaratana, Mindfulness in Plain English (Boston, MA: Wisdom, Rev.

ed., 2002).85 Ven. Bhikkhu Bodhi, The Noble Eightfold Path: Way to the End of Suffering (Onalaska,

WA: BPS Pariyatti, 1994), 70. Ven. Bhikkhu Khantipalo, Practical Advice for Meditators (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 1986), 8.

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Buddhist scholar- monk, explains the practice of right mindfulness as follows:

The mind is deliberately kept at the level of bare attention, a detached observation of what is happening within us and around us in the present moment. In the practice of right mindfulness the mind is trained to remain in the present, open, quiet, and alert, contemplating the present event. All judgments and interpretations have to be suspended, or if they occur, just registered and dropped …. To practice mindfulness is thus a matter not so much of doing but of undoing: not thinking, not judging, not associating, not planning, not imagining, not wishing. All these “doings” of ours are modes of interference, ways the mind manipulates experience and tries to establish its dominance.86

Bodhi captures all the essential elements of right mindfulness within the compass of this short paragraph. He points out the most important part of the mindfulness practice to be “undoing” more than doing and remaining alertly present. The Pali word for mindfulness is sati. Buddha described sati as the ability to remember, that is, to be aware of what one is doing in the movements of the body, in the movements of mind:

And what is the faculty of sati? There is the case where a monk, a disciple of the noble ones, is mindful, highly meticulous, remembering & able to call to mind even things that were done & said long ago. He remains focused on the body in & of itself—ardent, alert, & mindful—putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world. He remains focused on feelings in & of themselves … the mind in & of itself … mental qualities in & of themselves—ardent, alert, & mindful—putting aside greed & distress with reference to the world.87

Although, sati originally meant memory or remembrance, in its general Buddhist usage, it has been mostly employed to denote a certain qual-ity of attentiveness or awareness of the present that Buddhist doctrine specifies as good, wholesome, skillful, or right. It is not just bare attention that is referred to here; rather, it is appropriate or wholesome attention, denoted by the Pali word yonisomaniskara. Buddhist psychology identifies three unwholesome tendencies of mind: greed, hatred and ignorance. If

86 Ibid., 76.87 Ven. Thanissaro Bhikkhu, trans., Sutta Nipata: 48.10. Retrieved February 21, 2016:

http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/sn/sn48/sn48.010.than.html.

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attention emanates from any of these three unwholesome tendencies, then it is not appropriate and will not provide one with knowledge of reality as it truly is. Used in this sense, it is called samma-sati, or right mindfulness, and forms the seventh factor of the Noble Eightfold Path,88 which repre-sents the heart of the Buddha’s teaching to end suffering.

Jon Kabat-Zinn, the founder-director of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, who is generally accred-ited with bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and soci-ety in the West, charmingly highlights the importance of mindfulness as “much ado about what might seem like almost nothing that turns out to be just about everything.”89 Kabat-Zinn provides an operational definition of mindfulness as an “awareness cultivated by paying attention in a sus-tained and particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and non- judgmentally.”90 Mindfulness thus defined is a particular form of awareness that involves paying attention to the present moment in a non-judgmental way. J. Krishnamurti, a preeminent spiritual teacher, captures the essence of this practice by using a felicitous expression, choice-less awareness—an awareness in which we remain attentive to our experiences in the pres-ent moment, without being attracted towards the pleasant experiences or being repelled by the unpleasant ones.

One of the most widely practiced techniques to develop mindfulness is to pay close attention to the sensations of the incoming and outgo-ing breath. It is not about “controlling” the breath in any manner but about just paying attention to the breath in a natural, unforced way. All meditation traditions of the world recognize the importance of breath for obvious reasons. For one, we all breathe. Breath is always available to us in every situation. Breath is also culturally neutral: There is no Hindu or Buddhist or Christian breath. And, most importantly, one can only breathe in the present! So, when we become alertly aware of our breath, it naturally and spontaneously brings us to the present moment. Thus, our breath serves as our vital connection to the present moment.

88 See Ven. Thera Nyanaponika, The Heart of Buddhist Meditation: A Handbook of Mental Training Based on Buddha’s Way of Mindfulness (London: Ryder., 1960).

89 Jon Kabat-Zinn, Mindfulness for Beginners: Reclaiming the Present Moment and Your Life (Louisville, CO: Sounds True, 2012), 4 (emphasis in the original).

90 Ibid., 1.

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BenefIts of MIndfulness, creatIvIty, and flow

There is an increasing body of empirical research that shows that mindful-ness results in greater insight, receptivity, balance, and clarity;91 ensures increased energy and sense of well-being and expands awareness and range of our responses;92 and results in an increased life span, greater creativity, and lesser burnout.93 Mindfulness really pays. It helps us adapt to the cur-rent situation meaningfully by making us more sensitive to the present context. It makes everything more alive, more distinctly vivid.

Mindfulness is truly a hallmark of excellence in any field. “At the very highest level of any field”, says Langer, “Fortune 50 CEOs, the most impressive artists and musicians, the top athletes, the best teachers and mechanics—you’ll find mindful people, because that’s the only way to get there.”94 When we dwell in the present, we are more sensitive to the present context and thus less judgmental. This enhances engagement in any human interaction. When we are more aware, more mindful, we are greatly open to the new possibilities and fresh opportunities. This reduces stress. Most stress arises by missing the present because we are busy living in the past memories or in future dreams.

When asked during her recent interview with senior HBR editor, Alison Beard, what one thing about mindfulness she would like every executive to remember, Langer replied, “Life consists only of moments, nothing more than that. So if you make the moment matter, it all matters. You can be mindful you can be mindless. You can win, you can lose. The worst case is to be mindless and lose. So when you’re doing anything, be mind-ful, notice new things, make it meaningful to you, and you’ll prosper.”95 In Langer’s view, it is mindfulness which makes our activities meaningful to us. Noticing new things is then the essence of both mindfulness and creativity.

The following figure shows the vital relationship among mindfulness, creativity and flow (Fig 4.1).

91 See Langer, On Becoming an Artist; Saki Santorelli, Heal Thy Self: Lessons on Mindfulness in Medicine (New York: Three Rivers Press, 2000).

92 Jon Kabat-Zinn & Saki Santorelli, Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction Professional Training: Scientific Papers from the Stress Reduction Clinic (Boston, MA: Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society, 2002). Spiral Bound.

93 See Langer, Mindfulness (New York: Addison-Wesley, 1989).94 Mindfulness in the Age of Complexity, HBR, 2014, 4.95 Ibid., 7.

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concludIng thoughts

Most of us go to our graves with our music still inside us, unplayed.—OLIVER WENDELL HOLMES

Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes laments about the unrealized creative potential of humanity. Perhaps our ingrained beliefs as assumptions about creativity prevent us from recognizing and realizing our creative prowess. Although we all have creative potential, yet it requires certain deliberate effort on our part to harness it. This chapter clarified some myths about

Fig. 4.1 Creativity, flow and mindfulness, Satinder Dhiman (2012)

CREATIVITY AND FLOW: THE ART OF MINDFUL CREATIVITY 93

creativity and presented some strategies for leaders to unleash creativity through mindfulness.

To enjoy the felicitous state of creative fulfillment or flow, one has to achieve a certain measure of awareness regarding the contents of one’s consciousness. Mindfulness as a meditative practice can help tremendously in raising the awareness level of the contents of the mind. By being mind-fully aware of one’s inner and outer world, one notices new things, which in turn helps one to become more creative and alive. This has been vari-ously called full-blast living or full catastrophic living.96 Thus, mindfulness can serve as a basis of creativity, flow, and meaningful engagement with life in its myriad manifestations. And when mindfulness matures into right mindfulness, that is, by minding a mind that is free from greed, hatred, or delusion, one can experience the flow of existence with generosity, com-passion, and wisdom.

One of the simplest meditative practices we can integrate into our lives is the practice of silence. It has been said that silence is a proven atmo-sphere for self-discovery. Silence is also the choice strategy of creation in nature:

A seed while growing makes no sound!A tree while falling makes huge noise!

Destruction has noise, creation is quiet.So be quiet and be creative.97

Through a deep sense of calm and stillness, silence brings forth the latent creativity in us. In silence, our mind is freed from its habitual think-ing patterns and is able to see novel possibilities. The jury is still out on the role of creative genius. Perhaps both nature and nurture have their due share. Some research reviewed in this chapter shows that the creative thought process is not much distinct from ordinary thinking. Still no one has yet discovered a direct road to creativity. The path is circuitous, mun-dane, serendipitous, and exciting. It is only when we are creative that we are truly alive. Creativity may still be a gift. But it also needs concerted tending. Of course, the best thing is to be born as a genius; the next best thing is to work at it.

96 See Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophic Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Anxiety and Depression (New York, NY: Guildford Press, 1990).

97 Author unknown.

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creatIvIty and flow: reflectIon QuestIons

1. It has been observed that one doesn’t manage creativity; one man-ages for creativity. What steps can leaders take to foster an environ-ment of creativity in the workplace, given that creativity has come to be recognized as the single most important attribute for success in leading a large corporation in the future?

2. Given the fact that majority of US workers are not engaged, as indi-cated by a series of recent Gallup polls, do you think that it is para-mount for present-day leaders to foster conditions of flow at work for better employee engagement and satisfaction?

3. Recent research has shown that flow directly correlates to happiness at work and happiness at work directly correlates to success. Does happiness follow success or success follow happiness?

4. Is originality enough in business? Or, to be creative, must an idea also be useful and actionable? What is the difference between cre-ativity and innovation?

5. Is creativity an art or a science? Can one train oneself to become more creative?

6. Sometimes the best insights come from those outside a particular field. Does expertise lead to creativity or are they two very different things?

7. What is the link among flow, creativity, and mindfulness? Explain how mindfulness enhances engagement in any human interaction.

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97© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_5

CHAPTER 5

The difference between those who succeed and those who fail is emotional intelligence and self-awareness.

—Bill George1

IntroductIon

The opening quote amply demonstrates the importance of emotional intelligence (EI) and self-awareness in leadership success, although it can be argued that EI is in fact an expression of greater self-awareness. Bill George’s observation is amply borne out by two decades of research high-lighting the role of EI in workplace success and effective leadership. This chapter explores the role of emotional intelligence and multiple intelli-gences in enhancing leadership effectiveness. The findings from these two fields are presented to create a roadmap for holistic leaders. The author believes that by harnessing both emotional and multiple intelligences, lead-ers can recognize and nurture the myriad gifts that people bring to work in an integral manner. Emotional intelligence is defined as one’s ability to accurately identify, appraise, discern and discriminate among emotions in oneself and others, understand emotions, assimilate emotions in thought,

1 Quoted by Steve Minter, When Leaders Lose Their Way, IndustryWeek, Sep 1, 2015. Retrieved February 10, 2016: http://www.industryweek.com/leadership/when-leaders-lose-their-way.

Emotional & Multiple Intelligences: 10 Different Ways of Being Smart

and to regulate both positive and negative emotions in self and others.2 The chapter also explores the role of empathy in leadership success.

The concept of multiple intelligences, as propounded by Howard Gardner, recognizes various additional forms of intelligence to account for excellence in music, language, sports, and other fields. It challenges the conventional view of intelligence that exclusively focuses on linguistic and mathematical intelligence. The chapter takes the view that both emo-tional intelligence and multiple intelligences are amenable to conscious development and their mastery can contribute to the development of a holistic leader.

EmotIons and EmotIonal IntEllIgEncE

The degree of one’s emotions varies inversely with one’s knowledge of facts: the less you know the hotter you get. —Bertrand Russell 3

Bertrand Russell, the great British philosopher, provides an important clue to manage our emotions: Our knowledge of facts affects the monitor-ing of our emotions. It is our common experience that the less we know about a situation, the more emotionally agitated we get. Likewise it pays to know our emotions. The role of emotions in our lives can hardly be over-emphasized. To feel emotions is to be human. It has been observed that our emotions, as much as our intelligence, are signs of our humanity. Emotions are inborn and represent our inmost core. If our inner self is not working well, we are not able to cope with things that we encounter in our external environment.

About 2500 years ago, Aristotle observed that emotions “may be felt both too much or too little, and in both cases not well; but to feel them at the right times, with reference to the right objects, towards the right peo-ple, with the right motive, and in the right way, is what is both intermediate

2 Mayer, J., D. Caruso, & P. Salovey (2000). Emotional intelligence meets traditional stan-dards for an intelligence. Intelligence, 27(4), 267–298. See also: Peter Salovey & John D. Mayer, “Emotional intelligence,” Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 1990, 9 (3), 185–211. Goleman, D. (2001). An EI-based theory of performance. In C.  Cherniss & D. Goleman (Eds.), The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace (pp. 27–44). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

3 As quoted in Moshe Zeidner, Gerald Mathews, and Richard D. Roberts, What We Know about Emotional Intelligence: How It Affects Learning, Work, Relationships, and Our Mental Health (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 2012), 13.

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and best, and this is characteristic of virtue.”4 For Aristotle, handling emo-tions appropriately was a mark of virtuous behavior. A popular adage puts it well: “Rule your emotions, lest they rule you.” Emotional regulation is an essential part of personal and professional excellence. Although manag-ing emotions effectively has been long prized as key human virtue, it is only during the last 2 decades that emotional intelligence has become a topic of concerted scientific exploration.

Emotional intelligence has come to be widely recognized as a key com-ponent of effective leadership. Lately, it has become an increasingly popu-lar competency for identifying and developing effective leaders. A search on Google under the heading “emotional intelligence” yielded more than 16 million hits.5 A similar search on Google Scholar yielded more than 1.86 million entries.6 This clearly shows that that the popular literature has far outpaced scientific study, which is of concern to many research-ers.7 Given its ubiquitous presence in the numerous corporate leadership programs, myriad tests, and frequent mention in the mass media, it is little wonder that emotional intelligence has become quite a profitable growth industry. What is the evidence behind the media hype about the emotional intelligence construct? Can emotional intelligence be learned? What is the role of EI in developing effective leaders? What are the limita-tions of the EI construct? These are some of the questions I will explore in this chapter.

First, I review various constructs of EI in the following section.

modEls of EmotIonal IntEllIgEncE (EI)Emotional intelligence may be defined as a generic competence in per-ceiving emotions (both in oneself and in others), in regulating emotions, and in coping effectively with emotive situations.8 This definition posits emotional intelligence as the competence in recognizing and regulating

4 Quoted in Moshe Zeidner, Gerald Mathews, and Richard D. Roberts, What We Know about Emotional Intelligence, ix.

5 Retrieved February 25, 2015: https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=emotional%20intelligence.

6 Retrieved February 25, 2015: https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=emotional+intelligence&btnG=&as_sdt=1%2C5.

7 Moshe Zeidner, Gerald Matthews, and Richard D.  Roberts, What We Know about Emotional Intelligence, xiv.

8 As quoted ibid., 33.

EMOTIONAL & MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES: 10 DIFFERENT WAYS... 99

emotions effectively in oneself and in others. Currently, there are at least three dominant models of EI in vogue: Mayer and Salovey’s Four Branch Model, Reuven Bar-On’s Model of Emotional-Social Intelligence, and the Goleman Model of EI.  According to Goleman, most elements of every EI model fit within the four generic domains: self-awareness, self- management, social awareness and relationship management.9 The Mayer and Salovey model is considered an “ability model” since they favor defin-ing EI as an ability. The Bar-On model furnished one of the first systematic instruments professing to measure EI. Goleman’s model is best consid-ered as a “mixed model” since it includes a broader conception of EI by including both abilities and qualities related to personality and motivation.

mayEr and salovEy’s four Branch modEl of EI10

The first systematic research on emotional intelligence, as a psychological theory, was conducted by Peter Salovey and John Mayer.11 In their semi-nal article on EI, published in 1990, they articulated a framework of an expanded array of essential skills for life and what it means to educate the ‘whole child’ for life. While traditional IQ scores are useful for predicting how we will do in school, they tell very little about our performance once we leave school. IQ proves to be a weak predictor of how well we relate with others, perform at work, and cope with a variety of daily challenges.12 These authors thus provide us with the first systematic and comprehensive

9 Daniel Goleman, The Brain and Emotional Intelligence: New insights (Northampton, MA: More Than Sound, LCC, 2011).

10 John Mayer, David Caruso & Peter Salovey, Emotional intelligence meets traditional standards for  an  intelligence. Intelligence, 1999, 27, 267–298. Also John Mayer, Peter Salovey & David Caruso, D. R. Models of emotional intelligence. In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.). Handbook of Intelligence (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 396–420.

11 Salovey says he and John “Jack” were equal coauthors, and Jack got his name first because of a coin toss. The team has gone on to publish numerous articles: Opinion cited in Joshua Freedman, Emotional WHAT? Definitions and History of EQ, January 26, 2010. Six Seconds: The Emotional Intelligence Network. Retrieved February 27, 2016: http://www.6seconds.org/2010/01/26/emotional-intelligence-definition-history/.

12 See Peter Salovey & John Mayer, Emotional Intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 1990, 9: 185–211. Also see John D. Mayer, Peter Salovey, & David R. Caruso, Emotional intelligence: New ability or eclectic traits? American Psychologist, 2008, 63, 503–517.

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framework to understand the role of emotional intelligence in life and leadership.

Mayer and Salovey believe that definitions of emotional intelligence should someway connect emotions with intelligence if the meanings of the two terms are to be preserved.13 It is important to remember that IQ and EI are not opposing competencies, but rather different ones. As their colleague David Caruso writes, “It is very important to understand that emotional intelligence is not the opposite of intelligence, it is not the triumph of heart over head—it is the unique intersection of both.”14 Thus, these two competencies are not mutually exclusive, but complementary. They verily need to interact—emotions enhancing thinking and thinking regulating emotions. We need the wisdom of both the mind and the heart to succeed in the business of life.

Mayer and Salovey have provided the following definition connecting intelligence and emotions:

Emotional intelligence is the ability to perceive emotions; to access and gen-erate emotions so as to assist thought; to understand emotions and emo-tional knowledge; and to reflectively regulate emotions so as to promote emotional and intellectual growth.15

There are four parts to this definition:

1. Perceive or sense emotions, 2. Use emotions to assist thought, 3. Understand emotions, and 4. Manage emotions.

Their four branch model of EI is built upon this definition. This model has come to be called ability model of EI since it defines

13 See John Mayer & Peter Salovey, “What is emotional intelligence?” In Peter Salovey & David Sluyter (Eds.), Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence: Educational Implications (New York, New York: Basic Books, 1997), 3–31.

14 Quoted in Joshua Freedman, Emotional WHAT? Definitions and History of EQ, January 26, 2010. Six Seconds: The Emotional Intelligence Network. Retrieved February 27, 2016: http://www.6seconds.org/2010/01/26/emotional-intelligence-definition-history/.

15 Ibid., 6.

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emotional intelligence as involving the abilities. More specifically, these abilities are:16

1. Accurately perceive emotions in oneself and others 2. Use emotions to facilitate thinking 3. Understand emotional meanings, and 4. Manage emotions

The following explanation is based on John Mayer’s description of these abilities:17

1. PERCEIVING EMOTION. The initial, most basic, area has to do with the nonverbal reception and expression of emotion …. The capacity accurately to perceive emotions in the face or voice of oth-ers provides a crucial starting point for more advanced understand-ing of emotions.

2. USING EMOTIONS TO FACILITATE THOUGHT. Cognitive scientists point out that emotions prioritize thinking …. Having a good system of emotional input, therefore, should help direct think-ing toward matters that are truly important. A number of research-ers have suggested that emotions are important for certain kinds of creativity to emerge.

3. UNDERSTANDING EMOTIONS. Emotions convey information: Happiness usually indicates a desire to join with other people; anger indicates a desire to attack or harm others; fear indicates a desire to escape, and so forth …. Fully understanding emotions involves the comprehension of the meaning of emotions, coupled with the capacity to reason about those meanings.

4. MANAGING EMOTIONS. Finally, emotions often can be man-aged. A person needs to understand that emotions convey informa-tion … within the person’s emotional comfort zone, it becomes possible to regulate and manage one’s own and others’ emotions so as to promote one’s own and others’ personal and social goals.

As is clear from the description above, EI is about perceiving and regu-lating emotions through knowledge and understanding.

16 See John D.  Mayer, The Four Branch Model of Emotional Intelligence. Retrieved March 5, 2016: http://www.unh.edu/emotional_intelligence/ei%20What%20is%20EI/ei%20fourbranch.htm.

17 Ibid.

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thE Bar-on modEl of EIThe Bar-On concept of EI describes emotional-social intelligence as an array of interrelated emotional and social competencies, skills and behav-iors that impact intelligent behavior.18

The Bar-On Emotional Quotient Inventory, EQ-i ™, is a self-report measure of emotionally and socially-intelligent behavior that provides an estimate of emotional-social intelligence.19 The individual’s responses ren-der a total EQ score as well as scores on the following 15 scales in addition to the validity indicators, which is described in detail below20:

A. Intrapersonal:

1. Self-Regard: Understand, accept, and respect oneself.2. Emotional Self-Awareness: Recognize and understand one’s

feelings.3. Assertiveness: Express feelings, thoughts and beliefs.4. Independence: Self-directed and Self-controlled.5. Self-Actualization: Realize one’s potential capacities.

B. Interpersonal:

6. Empathy: Aware and appreciative of the feelings of others.7. Social Responsibility: Cooperative and responsible member of

social group.8. Interpersonal Relationship: Establish and maintain satisfying

relationship.

C. Stress Management:

9. Stress Tolerance: Withstand adverse events through positive coping.

10. Impulse Control: Resist or delay an impulse or temptation to act.

18 Reuven Bar-On, The Bar-On Model. Retrieved March 5, 2016: http://www.reuven-baron.org/wp/the-bar-on-model/.

19 Reuven Bar-On, The Bar-On Model. Retrieved March 5, 2016: http://www.reuven-baron.org/wp/description-of-the-eq-i-eq-360-and-eq-iyv/.

20 See Zeidner et  al., 114. Also see Reuven Bar-On, How Important Is It to Educate People to be Emotionally Intelligent, and Can it be Done? In Reuven Bar-On, J.G. Maree, and Maurice Jesse Elias, (eds.), Educating People to be Emotionally Intelligent (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers, 2007), 4.

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D. Adaptability:

11. Reality Testing: Evaluate the correspondence between subjec-tive and objective reality.

12. Flexibility: Adjust emotions, thoughts and behaviors to chang-ing conditions.

13. Problem-Solving: Define problems and generate potentially effective solutions.

E. General Mood:

14. Optimism: Maintain a positive attitude, even in the face of adversity.

15. Happiness/Well-Being: To feel content with oneself, others and life in general.

The EQ-i ™ includes the following four validity indicators21:

1. Omission Rate (number of omitted responses) when it is com-pleted offline.

2. Inconsistency Index (degree of response inconsistency). 3. Positive Impression (tendency toward exaggerated positive

responding). 4. Negative Impression (tendency toward exaggerated negative

responding).

The critics point out that this is a “self-report” test—meaning a test- taker self-reports on his or her ability—and a self-report is not a reliable indicator of one’s actual ability. Duas and Ashkanasy note that such tests are much too broad in scope, and do not appear to differ markedly from traditional personality models or competency models and report self- and other-per-ceptions of these traits rather than an estimate of a person’s actual emo-tional ability.22 They cite the opinion of Joseph Ciarrochi and colleagues noting that “we should not make up a test and call it EI when really it is a

21 Ibid.22 Catherine S. Daus and Neal M. Ashkanasy, “Will the real emotional intelligence please

stand up? On deconstructing the emotional intelligence ‘debate’”, The Industrial-Organizational Psychologist, 41 (2), (2003): 69–72.

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measure of some other, well-established personality trait.” Therefore, these authors do not endorse this approach to studying emotional intelligence in the workplace.

danIEl golEman modEl of EIIQ and technical skills are important, but emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership.23

In this quote, Goleman underscores the key role of emotional intelligence in leadership effectiveness. Through his myriad popular writings on the subject, he has provided EI much wider academic and media exposure. According to Goleman, emotional intelligence is the capacity for recog-nizing our own feelings and those of others, for motivating ourselves and for managing emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships. He pre-sented his theory of EI initially in his seminal 1995 book titled Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ. Later, working with his col-leagues, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee, Goleman et al. further devel-oped the EI model, as presented in their book entitled Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence.

In 1998, in one of Harvard Business Review’s most popular articles, “What Makes a Leader”, Goleman highlights the importance of EI in developing effective leaders:

The most effective leaders are all alike in one crucial way: they all have a high degree of what has come to be known as emotional intelligence. It’s not that IQ and technical skills are irrelevant. They do matter, but mainly as “thresh-old capabilities”; that is, they are the entry-level requirements for executive positions. My research, along with other recent studies, clearly shows that emotional intelligence is the sine qua non of leadership. Without it, a person can have the best training in the world, an incisive, analytical mind, and an endless supply of smart ideas, but he still won’t make a great leader.24

The essence of Goleman’s view is this: while IQ can get you in the door, it is the EI that holds the key to make you a “star performer” in the

23 Daniel Goleman, What Makes a Leader? Harvard Business Review, January 2004 Reprint: Best of HBR 1998, 1.

24 Ibid., 2–3.

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workplace. The article then goes on to introduce four fundamental com-ponents of emotional intelligence that allow individuals to recognize, con-nect with, and learn from their own and other people’s mental states:

1. Self-awareness 2. Self-regulation 3. Social awareness 4. Social skills

Emotional intelligence consists of following four fundamental competencies:25

1. Self-Awareness: Self-awareness means having a deep understanding of one’s emotions, as well as one’s strengths and limitations and one’s values and motives …. Self-aware leaders are clear about their values, goals, and dreams.

2. Self-Management: Self-management is the ability to keep disrup-tive emotions and impulses under control (self-control), maintain honesty, integrity and trustworthiness (transparency), take responsi-bility for one’s performance (conscientiousness), be flexible in han-dling change (adaptability), have internal drive to meet standards of excellence (achievement), show readiness to seize opportunities (initiative), and see the upside of events (optimism).

3. Social Awareness: Social awareness is sensing others’ emotions, perspectives and taking active interest in their well-being (empathy); understanding organizational currents, decision networks, and poli-tics (organizational awareness), and recognizing and meeting fol-lower, customer/client needs (service orientation).

4. Social Skills: Social skills include guiding and motivating with com-pelling vision (inspirational leadership); ability to induce desirable responses in others by using effective persuasion (influence); enhanc-ing others’ abilities through effective coaching and mentoring (developing others); listening openly and sending clear, convincing messages (communication); initiating managing and leading in new

25 See Daniel Goleman, Leadership That Gets Results, Harvard Business Review, March–April 2000, 4; Daniel Goleman, What Makes a Leader? Harvard Business Review, January 2004 Reprint: Best of HBR 1998, 4; and Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, Primal leadership, 39–52.

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directions (change catalyst); ability to resolve disagreements (con-flict management); ability to nurture a web of relationships (build-ing bonds); and ability to foster cooperation and team building (teamwork and collaboration).

As is evident from the above, Goleman and his colleagues provide a comprehensive listing of EI competencies in four broad headings, link-ing them to essential leadership competencies. They call emotionally savvy leaders as resonant leaders. Resonant leaders inspire a compel-ling vision, use persuasion for buy-in and inspire teamwork and col-laboration through effective coaching and mentoring. Some may feel that there is much here which may not be specific to the emotional intelligence construct per se but pertains to a broad array of effective leadership competencies and skills. Nonetheless, the authors succeed in bringing to wider public attention what really matters in leading oneself and others.

EmotIonal IntEllIgEncE and lEadErshIp EffEctIvEnEss

“Great leadership works through the emotions.” —Goleman et al.26

Calling emotions “primal”, Goleman opines that leading through the emotions is the hallmark of great leadership. Thanks to his energetic efforts, the construct of emotional intelligence has become increas-ingly popular recently for identifying and developing effective leaders. Although handling emotions effectively has been long prized as a key human virtue, it is only during the last two decades that emotional intel-ligence has become a subject of concerted scientific exploration. Jack Welch famously quipped, “The soft stuff is the hard stuff,” and those involved in the leadership ranks know this to be true. According to Goleman, “Soft skills have hard consequences.”27 During the last few decades, the role of soft skills has become more integral to effective leadership.

26 Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, Primal Leadership: Unleashing the Power of Emotional Intelligence (Boston, Massachusetts: Harvard Business Review Press, 2013), 3.

27 As quoted in Sharon Shinn, “Intelligence at Work,” BizEd, September/October, 2003, 23.

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Recounting the ratcheting up of global competitive forces, and conse-quent ever-increasing pressures on those responsible for leadership ranks, Daniel Goleman and his colleagues aver that “this whirlwind of change makes it more important than ever for leaders to be self-aware and com-posed, focused and high energy, empathic and motivating, collaborative and compelling—in short, resonant. A host of studies worldwide on emo-tions, emotional contagion, leader-follower relations, and coaching, as well as research on human behavior continue to confirm and clarify our understanding of why emotionally intelligent leaders get results.”28

Over the last two decades, several researchers and practitioners have enriched the field of emotional intelligence. Perhaps the foremost pro-ponent of the leadership effectiveness of EI is Daniel Goleman, who, through his myriad popular books and Harvard Business Review articles, has championed the cause of EI and its application to the workplace. Goleman presents a popular, broad journalistic account of EI.  In his 1998 book entitled Working with Emotional Intelligence, Goleman refor-mulated EI in terms of its application to the workplace and provided guidelines for training in the “emotionally intelligent organization.” Drawing upon studies in more than 500 organizations world-wide, he documents an important fact: in determining star performance in every field, emotional intelligence matters twice as much as IQ or techni-cal expertise. According to Goleman, “a leader’s singular job is to get results.”29 Goleman contends that leaders high in emotional intelligence are integral to organizational success and have the capacity to influence organizational performance by setting a particular work environment, which “accounts for nearly a third of results.”30

Research at the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) using a battery of tests during 1995–1998 found that the only statistically significant fac-tor that set apart the uppermost quartile of successful leaders from the lowest quartile of unsuccessful leaders was caring—the ability to give and receive affection.31 These findings further underscore the importance of EI

28 Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee, Primal Leadership, ix.29 Daniel Goleman, Leadership That Gets Results, HBR, March–April, 2000, 2.30 Goleman, Boyatzis, and McKee, Primal Leadership, 3.31 As cited in Robert R.  Cooper, The Other 90  %: How to Unlock Your Vast Untapped

Potential for Leadership and Life (New York: Crown Business; Later Printing edition, 2002), 18. See also James M. Kouzes & Barry Z. Posner, Encouraging the Heart: A Leader’s Guide to Rewarding and Recognizing Others (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2003), 7.

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in predicting success in organizations. Another area where EI can help in the workplace is offering what is called “artful critique.” Providing spe-cific feedback empathetically that offers a solution in terms of the issue at hand rather than focusing on the person can go a long way in motivat-ing employees. As Daniel Goleman has pointed out, “An artful critique focuses on what a person has done and can do rather than reading a mark of character into a job poorly done.”32 By focusing on the performance rather than the personality of the performer, leaders motivate employees and create a caring work environment.

Contrary to the belief that academic achievement matters very much in the success we have in working life, Chen et al. have shown that close to 90 percent of success in leadership positions is attributed to Emotional Intelligence.33 Cavallo and Brienza conducted a study of 358 manag-ers across the Johnson & Johnson Consumer & Personal Care Group (JJC&PC Group) globally to assess if there were specific leadership com-petencies that distinguished high performers from average performers. Results supported the position that emotional competence differenti-ates successful leaders from the average. High performing managers at the Johnson & Johnson Consumer and Personal Care Group were seen to possess significantly higher levels of Self-Awareness, Self-Management capability, Social Skills, and Organizational Savvy, all considered part of the Emotional Intelligence domain.34 These results show a good valida-tion of Goleman’s construct of EI.

Goleman has suggested “emotional quotient” (EQ) as an alternative to the more traditional measures of IQ. An important part of his thesis is that IQ is overrated. Goleman asserts that while IQ helps, “EQ” is more important than IQ when it comes to leading a successful life, personally and professionally. As for the relevance of IQ in the workplace, studies have shown that IQ can serve to predict between 1 and 20 percent (the average is 6 percent) of success in a given job. Emotional Intelligence (EI), on the other hand, has been found to be directly responsible for

32 Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, 153.33 Wei Chen, Ruth Jacobs, & Lyle Spencer, “Calculating the competencies of stars.” In

Daniel Goleman (Ed.) Working with Emotional Intelligence (New York: Bantam Books, 1998), 377–380.

34 Kathleen Cavallo & Dottie Brienza (n.d.). Emotional competence and leadership excel-lence at Johnson & Johnson: The emotional intelligence and leadership study, 2001. Retrieved Mach 6, 2016: http://www.eiconsortium.org/reports/jj_ei_study.html.

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between 27 and 45 percent of job success, depending upon the field under study.35 This research is a part of the mounting evidence that EI matters most in the workplace.

While IQ is considered fairly stable over time, EI, research has shown, changes over time and can be learned and expanded, at any time dur-ing one’s life.36 Goleman also regards emotional competencies as “learned abilities”—that is, one has the potential to become adept at these com-petencies. This has far-reaching leadership implications. However, this potential has to be “actualized” in practice. Thus even though one may have an EI ability, there is no guarantee that it will manifest itself as a com-petence in the workplace. For example, one may be highly empathetic, yet poor at handling relationships due to lack of self-control.

Research on EI has deeper implications for empathy. Empathy is much more than a warm fussy feeling reserved for greeting cards. Empathy involves identifying, subjectively, with the emotion of another and expe-riencing concern for that emotion.37 While sympathy signifies feeling for others, empathy involves feeling with others. Underscoring the impor-tance of empathy in leadership, Peter Drucker has observed that the num-ber one practical competency for leaders is empathy. Studies have shown that empathy is also the number one practical competency for a success-ful life.38 However, there is zero correlation between IQ and emotional empathy. They are controlled by different parts of the brain.39 Brilliance in the cognitive domain does not always guarantee a corresponding talent in the emotional arena, a fact that is also confirmed by common observation.

Analyzing the data from close to 500 competence models from global companies including the likes of IBM, Lucent, PepsiCo, British Airways, as well as health care organizations, academic institutions, government agencies, Goleman et  al. discovered that EI-competencies played an

35 Steven J.  Stein & Howard E.  Book, The EQ Edge: Emotional Intelligence and Your Success, 3rd Edition (Ontario: Jossey-Bass, A Wiley Imprint, 2011), 17.

36 Ibid.37 Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It can Matter more than IQ (New York:

Bantam Books, 1995). Daniel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence: Why It can Matter more than IQ (New York: Bantam Books, 1998).

38 Robert R. Cooper, The Other 90 %: How to Unlock Your Vast Untapped Potential for Leadership and Life (New York: Crown Business; Later Printing edition, 2002), 232.

39 Daniel Goleman, “Why aren’t we more compassionate?” A Ted Talk, March 2007. Interactive Transcript retrieved March 2016: http://www.ted.com/talks/daniel_goleman_on_compassion/transcript?language=en.

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increasingly important role at the higher level of organizations … In other words, the higher the rank of those considered star performers, the more the EI competencies emerged as the reason for their effectiveness. Simply put, the higher up one advances in an organization, the more important Emotional Intelligence becomes.40 This reiterates the importance of EI in leadership effectiveness.

Daniel Goleman et al. conclude their book with a technical note on EI versus IQ as follows:

While the precise ratio of EI to cognitive abilities depends on how each are measured and on the unique demands of a given organization, our rule of thumb holds that EI contributes 80 to 90 percent of the competencies that distinguish outstanding from average leaders—and sometimes more. To be sure, purely cognitive competencies, such as technical expertise, surface in such studies—but often as threshold abilities, the skills people need simply to do an average job …. Thus, purely cognitive abilities help—but the EI competencies help far more.41

According to Goleman and his colleagues, IQ matters but not as much as EI. In their view, leadership effectiveness is largely a matter of emotional intelligence.

What makEs you a star pErformEr?EI counts far more than IQ when it comes to star leadership performance.42

According to Goleman, the single most important factor in job perfor-mance and advancement is emotional intelligence. In fact, on average emotional intelligence is almost 90 percent of what sets stars apart from the mediocre.43 Goleman reports that “when IQ test scores are correlated with how well people perform in their careers, the highest estimate of how much difference IQ accounts for is about 25 percent. A careful analysis, though, suggests a more accurate figure may be no higher than 10 percent, and perhaps as low as 4 percent.” Drawing on leadership studies in more

40 Daniel Goleman, Richard Boyatzis, and Annie McKee, Primal Leadership, 249; 250.41 Ibid., 251.42 Ibid.43 Dainel Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence (New York: Bantam Books,

1998), 32.

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than 500 organizations, Goleman notes an astonishing fact: in determin-ing star performance in every field, emotional intelligence matters twice as much as IQ or technical expertise.44 A study of Harvard graduates in the fields of law, medicine, education, and business found that scores on entrance exams—a surrogate for IQ—had a zero or negative correlation with their eventual career success.45 This goes to show that EQ matters the most in workplace and career success.

Goleman states that during the 1960s and 1970s, people got ahead by going to the right schools and doing well there. During the 1980s, 1990s and the twenty-first century, “IQ takes second position to EI in deter-mining outstanding job performance” as shown by 30 years of empirical studies done by scores of experts in thousands of organizations. Academic ability provides ‘threshold competence’, it does not make you a star. What makes you a “star” at work is a combination of personal qualities and emo-tional brilliance, qualities such as personal integrity, initiative, empathy, discipline, cooperation, compassion, adaptability, interpersonal sensitivity, and our ability to learn on the job.46 The role of emotional intelligence is pervasive when it comes to workplace excellence.

got marshmalloWs?In his book entitled Working with Emotional Intelligence, Goleman reports an experiment at Stanford University called the “marshmallow test.” In this test, four-year-olds in Stanford preschool were brought into a room one by one, a marshmallow was put on the table in front of them. They were told: You can have this marshmallow now if you want, but if you wait until I come back after I run an errand, you can have two. Some 14 years later …

Those who waited had scores averaging 210 points higher (out of a possible 1600) on SAT, the college entrance exam. Goleman reports that as the children in the Stanford study grew into adulthood and entered the workforce, those who had resisted the marshmallow were still more intel-lectually skilled, more attentive, and better able to concentrate.47 Thus, EI helps not only in school, but in the school of life as well. In fine, it makes us smart at studies, at work, and in life.

44 Ibid., 19.45 Ibid.46 Ibid., 1–19.47 See Goleman, Working with Emotional Intelligence, 79–80.

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thE story of thE thrEE BraIns

The brain is a wonderful organ; it starts working the moment we get up in the morning and doesn’t stop until we get to work. —Robert Frost

The American poet Robert Frost never disappoints, even when he is pok-ing fun at the human incongruities. But fortunately he was dealing with one human brain. With the story of three brains, as the modern science tells us, matters seem to get a bit more complicated! Robert Cooper offers another insight into the pervasiveness of emotions in human life in his book entitled The Other 90 %: How to Tap Your Vast Untapped Potential for Life and Leadership. By establishing the supremacy of heart, and by implication, the importance of emotions, Cooper underscores the role of EI in human affairs. It is interesting to know that neuroscience is challenging the conven-tional wisdom—that everything happens in our head—by declaring that we have not one, but three brains! And much of human brilliance is driven less by the brain in our head than by other two brains in the gut and the heart:48

1. The Brain in the Gut 2. The Brian in the Heart 3. The Brain in the Head 1. Brain in the Gut: Known as the Enteric Nervous System, this ‘sec-

ond brain’ inside the intestines is independent but also interconnected with the brain in the cranium. Every contact point with life creates gut feeling. Scientists now tell us that there are more neurons in the intes-tinal tract than in the entire spinal column—about 100 million.49

2. Brain in the Heart: Comprising 40,000 Baroreceptors, the heart brain is as large as many key areas of the brain in our head. The heart’s electromagnetic field (EMF) is 5000 times greater than that of the brain. The electrical changes in feeling transmitted by the human heart can be felt and measured at least 5 feet away and even 10 feet away or more. Atrial peptide, a chemical in the heart, is the primary driver of motivated behavior and desire for achievement. After all, if we don’t feel our values and goals, we can’t live them. It is the heart, not the head, that moves us to excel.50

48 Robert R. Cooper, The Other 90 %, 12–25.49 Ibid., 15–16.50 Ibid., 16–18.

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3. Brain in the Head: As is conventionally known, the brain in the head mainly comprises:Reticular Activating System (RAS): The link between the spinal col-umn and the brain. Given choice, the RAS always interprets things negatively. “Better safe than sorry” are the words it lives by.

Limbic System: Leaving the RAS, the neural impressions travel to the limbic system in split seconds. It is the seat of emotions in the brain and is known to work 80,000 times faster than the cerebral cortex.

Cerebral Cortex: At last, the neural impressions reach the think-ing area of the brain known as the cerebral cortex. So, we think last, not first and foremost.51

When we consciously employ all the three brains in our daily affairs, we make use of all the wisdom that nature has put at our disposal. And this is also how nature seemed to have intended us to function.

EI: thE EvIdEncE BEhInd thE hypE

Is EI merely a passing fad or a concept here to stay for the long haul? What is the scientific evidence behind the media claims for EI? In other words, how much of EI zeal is grounded in empirical research and how much of it is folklore and anecdotal? What are the prospects and limita-tions of the emotional intelligence concept? Zeidner et al. ask these per-ceptive questions in their well-researched book entitled What We Know about Emotional Intelligence.

Unquestionably, Goleman has done the field of psychology a valuable service by expanding upon and especially by popularizing the notion of emotional intelligence originally presented by Salovey and Mayer.52 Part of the appeal of Goleman’s version of EI is the democratic view that EI is malleable and, hence, learnable. The popular notions of EI also resonate with anti-intellectual sentiment. However, some researchers are concerned how the popular literature on EI has far outpaced the scientific research. Critics say that Goleman stretched the concept of EI into areas which were never included by the researchers Mayer and Salovey. Zeidner, Matthew and Roberts criticized Goleman for presenting a potpourri of almost every

51 Ibid., 18–25.52 Robert Sternberg’s Letter to the Editor of the APA Monitor (Source: American

Psychological Association letters).

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positive quality that was not actually IQ itself as a part of emotional intel-ligence. These included motives, social skills, all forms of self-regulation, and warmth, and many other attributes.

The problem with this idea is that those different psychological quali-ties are separate and independent from one another—both conceptually and empirically (e.g., they do not correlate). Moreover, most of them have little to do directly and specifically either with emotion or intelligence. Lumping them together has created considerable conceptual confusion. Zeidner et  al. further contend that “anyone can write a laundry list of desirable personal qualities (and many have done so) … For the fledgling construct of EI to take wing, it must be measured as a distinct personal quality that promotes effective social functioning.”53 Today, such mod-els are called “mixed models”, as they mix many attributes unrelated to emotion, intelligence, or emotional intelligence with the emotional intel-ligence concept.

Zeidner et al. point out that proponents of EI see self-confident and happy workers as being more productive, while the empirical evidence is more nuanced.54 They also indicate that research does not show any downside to academic intelligence55 and that EI appears at best to be a modest predictor of job performance.56 It is not incompatible with real- life competence and common sense. They agree that EI is a multifaceted construct and can cover a variety of disparate nodes and notions. They remain confident that increasing applied research will in due course of time bring added clarity to the value of EI. They muse about two futures for EI: either the heart and head will continue to follow separate paths or greater work on EI will broker a happy marriage between emotion and intellect.57 I believe Zeidner et  al. provide a balanced assessment about the present and future of EI. Perhaps, nature wills heart and head to fol-low separate paths and seldom shall the twain meet. Or perhaps human glory lies in the dialectical integration of the faculties of head and heart. We need both the sensibility of the mind and the sensitivity of the heart to wade through the rough seas of life.

53 Moshe Zeidner, Gerald Matthews, and Richard D.  Roberts, What We Know about Emotional Intelligence, 10; 22.

54 Ibid., 16.55 Ibid., 18.56 Ibid., 373.57 Ibid., 371.

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multIplE IntEllIgEncEs: 8 dIffErEnt Ways of BEIng smart

Suspend the usual judgment of what constitutes intelligence, and let your thoughts run freely over the capabilities of humans—perhaps those that would be picked out by the proverbial visitor from Mars. In this exercise, you are drawn to the brilliant chess player, the world-class violinist, and the champion athlete; such outstanding performers deserve special consideration. Following through on this experiment, a quite different view of intelligence emerges. Are the chess player, violinist, and athlete “intelligent” in these pursuits? If they are, then why do our tests of “intelligence” fail to identify them? If they are not “intelli-gent,” what allows them to achieve such astounding feats? In general, why does the contemporary construct “intelligence” fail to take into account large areas of human endeavor?58

What is intelligence? How do we measure intelligence? Is it confined to mathematical and verbal ability alone? If so, then how do we explain out-standing talent in such fields as music and sports? To approach these ques-tions, Howard Gardner, Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, introduced the theory of multiple intelligences (MI) in the early 1980s. In his 1983 book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Gardner avers that traditional types of intelligence, such as IQ, fail to explain the full range of our cogni-tive abilities. Specifically, Gardner questions the view that intelligence is a single unified entity, that it results from a single factor, and that it can be measured simply by using IQ tests. He introduced the idea of mul-tiple intelligences which also included both interpersonal intelligence (the capacity to understand the intentions, motivations and desires of other people) and intrapersonal intelligence (the capacity to understand oneself, one’s feelings, fears and motivations).

Gardner theorizes that human cognitive competence is better described in terms of a set of abilities, talents, or mental skills, which he calls “intel-ligences”, All normal individuals possess each of these skills to some extent; individuals however differ in the degree of skill and in the nature of their combination. Gardner believes this theory of intelligence may be more humane than alternative views of intelligence and that it also more sufficiently reflects the data of human “intelligent” behavior. Such an

58 Howard Gardner, Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice (New York: Basic Books, revised edition, 2006), 5–6.

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expansive theory of intelligences has important educational and leadership implications.

The traditional definition of intelligence that measures intelligence in terms of linguistic and logical-mathematical abilities being too narrow, Gardner’s broader definition in terms of multiple intelligences seems more accurately to reflect the myriad ways in which humans think and learn. Gardner argues that an exclusive emphasis on the IQ causes it to be need-lessly glorified. He defines intelligence as “bio-psychological potential to process information that can be activated in a cultural setting to solve problems or create products that are of value in a culture.”59 According to him, there are more ways to identify human capacities than just through logical and linguistic intelligence, as traditionally measured by the IQ construct.

thE componEnts of mIFor something to qualify as an intelligence, it has to satisfy Gardner’s eight “signs” of intelligence. Defining intelligence as “the capacity to solve problems or to fashion products that are valued in one or more cultural setting,”60 Gardner has identified the following eight, distinct intelligences comprising his theory of multiple intelligences:61

1. Spatial: The ability to conceptualize and manipulate large-scale spa-tial arrays (e.g., airplane pilot, sailor), or more local forms of space (e.g., architect, chess player).

2. Bodily-Kinesthetic: The ability to use one’s whole body, or parts of the body (like the hands or the mouth), to solve problems or create products (e.g., dancer).

59 Howard Gardner, Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 33–34. Gardner, Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing Our Own and Other People’s Minds (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 2004). Gardner, Multiple Intelligences: The Theory in Practice (New York: Basic Book, 1993).

60 Howard Gardner & Thomas Hatch, “Multiple Intelligences Go To School: Educational Implications of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences.” Educational Researcher, 1989, 18(8), 4–9.

61 As described on Gardner’s official website, Oasis: http://multipleintelligencesoasis.org/about/the-components-of-mi/ Also see Gardner, Intelligence Reframed. Gardner started with seven intelligences originally and later added “naturalistic” intelligence.

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3. Musical: Sensitivity to rhythm, pitch, meter, tone, melody and tim-bre. May entail the ability to sing, play musical instruments, and/or compose music (e.g., musical conductor).

4. Linguistic: Sensitivity to the meaning of words, the order among words, and the sounds, rhythms, inflections, and meter of words (e.g., poet). (Sometimes called language intelligence).

5. Logical-mathematical: The capacity to conceptualize the logical relations among actions or symbols (e.g., mathematicians, scien-tists). Famed psychologist Jean Piaget believed he was studying the range of intelligences, but he was actually studying logical- mathematical intelligence.

6. Interpersonal: The ability to interact effectively with others. Sensitivity to others’ moods, feelings, temperaments and motiva-tions (e.g., negotiator). (Sometimes called social intelligence.)

7. Intrapersonal: Sensitivity to one’s own feelings, goals, and anxiet-ies, and the capacity to plan and act in the light of one’s own traits. Intrapersonal intelligence is not particular to specific careers; rather, it is a goal for every individual in a complex modern society, where one has to make consequential decisions for oneself. (Sometimes called self intelligence).

8. Naturalistic: The ability to make consequential distinctions in the world of nature as, for example, between one plant and another, or one cloud formation and another (e.g., taxonomist). (Sometimes called nature intelligence).

Gardner considers that everyone has all eight intelligences to some degree, although each individual has his or her own unique combination of stronger or weaker intelligences. Gardner also contends that most tasks require more than one form of intelligence working in tandem with oth-ers. For example, a golfer obviously uses spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligences, but also must use interpersonal intelligence to interact with others effectively. Similarly a dancer can excel only if s/he has strong musi-cal intelligence to understand musical variation, harmony and rhythm, bodily-kinesthetic intelligence for physical agility, and interpersonal intel-ligence to relate emotively with the audience.

Gardner has not yet developed a multiple intelligences test or assess-ment himself. He is skeptical about self-assessment/reporting because most people may not possess realistic insight into their own strengths and weakness and their interests and likes may not necessarily equate with their

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capacities. Self-reporting is highly susceptible to faking in which the test- takers tend to represent themselves in an excessively positive light. Ideally, a triangulation process would include having individuals rate themselves in a self-assessment as well as having their family, friends, and teachers rate them objectively—supplemented by first-hand observation of how the individual handles a particular situation requiring effective emotional response. For example, a good way to assess interpersonal intelligence would be to observe how a person handles and/or resolves conflict situa-tions or motivates others to pursue a certain course of action.62

Leaders can empower themselves and others through their understand-ing of multiple intelligences. Gardner has suggested that human beings have evolved to exhibit several intelligences that work in concert and not in isolation in a particular cultural setting or community: “Where indi-viduals differ is in the strengths of these intelligences, the so-called profile of intelligences, and the ways in which such intelligences are invoked and combined to carry out different tasks, solve problems, and progress in various domains.”63 According to this view, although leaders have differ-ent strengths and weaknesses, they exhibit several multiple intelligences. In fact, leaders demonstrate a generous degree of at least three of the eight multiple intelligences: linguistic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence, and intrapersonal intelligence.64 Effective leaders have a robust sense of self, display effective communication skills, and demonstrate a great sense of empathy in interacting with others—all markers of greater EI and self-awareness.

In the introduction to the tenth anniversary edition of his classic Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Gardner indicates that many researchers interested in the history and growth of multiple intelligences have asked him whether additional intelligences have been added—or original candidates deleted since his early work on multiple intelligence in 1983. While Gardner himself has “chosen not to tamper for now with the original list”, he continues to think that there are in fact others, from “intrapersonal intelligence” to some form of “spiritual intelligence”.

Gardner’s work has been described as “trend-setter” and “paradigm- shifter” and his ideas have been an important force in education for the

62 Retrieved February 27, 2016: http://multipleintelligencesoasis.org/what-mi-am-i/.63 Gardner, The Unschooled Mind: How Children Think and How Schools Should Teach (New

York: Basic Books, 1991), 12.64 Gardner, Intelligence Reframed, 128.

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past 25 years. His theory of multiple intelligences challenges the prevail-ing definition of intelligence as limited to logical and linguistic abilities. Gardner’s work has met with an enthusiastic reception from many educa-tors. However, it is not without its detractors among the scientific commu-nity. It has not been readily accepted within academic psychology. Perry Klein contends that multiple intelligence theory has inspired educational innovations across North America, but has received little critical analysis. He finds the theory to be too broad to be useful for planning a curricu-lum.65 Daniel T. Willingham, a professor of psychology at the University of Virginia, notes in the journal Education Next that Gardner’s theory “is an inaccurate description of the mind.” He states that Gardner became a hero among educators simply by renaming various abilities or talents as intelligences.66 Willingham further contends that Gardner has himself pointed out on several occasions that the success of his book turned, in part, on this new label: “I am quite confident that if I had written a book called ‘Seven Talents’ it would not have received the attention that Frames of Mind received.”67 Be that as it may, the fact remains that Gardner has provided us with a bold vision to think about the diverse gifts that under-gird human accomplishment across cultures:

Gardner’s theory provides a much needed corrective to the shortcomings of traditional psychometric approaches. Instead of probing the bases of bubble- sheet results, Gardner sought to illuminate the mental abilities underlying the actual range of human accomplishment that are found across cultures.68

Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences has important implications for teachers as well as leaders. It implies that educators should recognize and teach to a broader range of skills and talents. Another implication is that teachers should structure the presentation of material in a way that

65 Perry D.  Klein, Multiplying the Problems of Intelligence by Eight: A Critique of Gardner’s Theory, Canadian Journal of Education/Revue canadienne de l’éducation, Vol. 22, No. 4 (Autumn, 1997), 377–394.

66 Daniel T. Willingham, Reframing the Mind: Howard Gardner became a hero among educators simply by redefining talents as “intelligences.” Check the Facts, Education Next, Summer, 2004, 19–24. Retrieved March 15, 2016: http://educationnext.org/files/ednext20043_18.pdf.

67 As cited Ibid., 24.68 Mindy Kornhaber cited in Thomas Armstrong, Multiple Intelligences in the Classroom

(Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development; ASCD Member Book, 3rd edition, 2009), 190.

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engages most of the intelligences. Similarly, leaders should recognize and celebrate the multiple gifts employees bring to work. The work should be so structured that it provides for members of the workplace a creative outlet for most or all of the intelligences.

Does emotional intelligence fall under one of Gardner’s multiple intelli-gences? When a researcher asked Goleman if the identification of intraper-sonal and interpersonal intelligences in Gardner’s theory is, in essence, an expression of emotional intelligence, Goleman said, “yes!” He explained that when he wrote Emotional Intelligence, he had been building on Gardner’s model of multiple intelligences.69 However, the theory of MIs has evolved to focus more on “metacognition” rather than on the full range of emotional abilities. Even so, Gardner pointed out to Goleman that “many people with IQs of 160 work for people with IQs of 110, if the former have poor intrapersonal intelligence and the latter have a high one. And in the day-to-day world, no intelligence is more important than the intrapersonal.”70

In essence, Goleman’s model of emotional intelligence augments Gardner’s theory by including self-awareness and self-regulation as the intrapersonal abilities, and empathy and social skill as the interpersonal intelligences.

spIrItual IntEllIgEncE: thE nExt stEp BEyond EmotIonal IntEllIgEncE

Postulated as intelligence beyond the traditional notions of rational intel-ligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ), spiritual intelligence (SI or SQ) has come to be recognized as an essential component of per-sonal growth and professional development. It has been suggested that mature leadership requires spiritual intelligence development.71 Personal and professional development is vitally interlinked and can no longer be viewed as two opposing dimensions of the leadership journey. While we build our external career, we should not neglect our inner character and

69 Goleman, “Howard Gardner and Multiple Intelligences.” October 29, 2011. Q & A entry. Retrieved February 27, 2016: http://www.danielgoleman.info/howard-gardner- multiple-intelligences/.

70 As quoted in Goleman, Emotional Intelligence, 1995, 41–42.71 Cindy Wigglesworth, Why Spiritual Intelligence Is Essential to Mature Leadership.

Integral Leadership Review, 2006, retrieved March 15, 2016: http://andyatwood.com/uploads/2/8/4/4/2844368/spiritual-intelligence-n-mature-leadership.pdf.

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transformation. In his book A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life, Parker Palmer speaks to our yearning to live undivided lives—lives that are congruent with our inner truth—in a world filled with the forces of alienation and fragmentation.72 There is a deep connection between our inner life of self and outer life of service and contribution. Spiritual intelligence recognizes and honors this connection.

Spiritual Intelligence has been hailed as the critical intelligence for lead-ership success in the twenty-first century by many contemporary research-ers, psychologists and practitioners.73 As Frances Vaughan has observed, “With IQ accounting for only a small part of leader performance, EI and SI are new useful constructs of intelligence that hold promise for selecting and developing business leaders.”74 Vaughan offers the following defini-tion of SI: “Spiritual intelligence is concerned with the inner life of mind and spirit and its relationship to being in the world.”75 King and DeCicco propose yet another construct in terms of existential thinking, transcen-dental awareness, and personal meaning. It includes four core compe-tencies of SI: critical existential thinking, personal meaning production, transcendental awareness, and conscious state expansion.76 This is perhaps the most comprehensive view of spiritual intelligence from an existential

72 Parker J.  Palmer, A Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward an Undivided Life (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2009).

73 See Robert A. Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns: Motivation and Spirituality in Personality (New York: The Guilford Press, 2009), 157–179. Donah Zohar, ReWiring the Corporate Brain: Using the New Science to Rethink How We Structure and Lead Organizations (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 1997). Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, SQ: Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2000). Danah Zohar, Spiritual Capital: Wealth We Can Live By (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2004). Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, Spiritual Intelligence: The Ultimate Intelligence (London: Bloomsbury, 2012). Cindy Wigglesworth, SQ21: The 21 Skills of Spiritual Intelligence (New York: Select Books, 2012). Dorothy A. Sisk and E. Paul Torrance, Spiritual Intelligence: Developing Higher Consciousness (Buffalo, NY: Creative Education Foundation, 2001). See also Howard Gardner, Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 53.

74 Frances Vaughan, “What is spiritual intelligence?” Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 42(2), (2002):16–33.

75 Ibid.76 David B.  King & Teresa L.  DeCicco, “A Viable Model and Self-Report Measure of

Spiritual Intelligence,” The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies, 28, (2009): 68–85.

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standpoint. Ultimately, SI remains a domain of transcendental awareness and personal meaning.

In the words of the management expert, Stephen Covey, “Spiritual intelligence is the central and most fundamental of all the intelligences, because it becomes the source of guidance for the others.”77 Spiritual intelligence counts the most in things that really matter—in the quest for truth, goodness, and altruistic love. It enables us to live a noble life of sacrifice and service to the sacred based on universal moral principles. Without spiritual intelligence, we are not able to realize our ultimate pur-pose of existence. If we fail in this realm, true fulfillment in life will always elude us. And it will matter little what else we have achieved in other aspects of our life.

The wisdom texts of the world remind us tellingly about the impor-tance of realizing our highest goal. In the Gospel According to Matthew (6:33, King James Version), for example, Matthew tells us that Jesus advised, “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.” Elsewhere, in the Gospel According to Mark (8:36, King James Version), we are told that Jesus asked, “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul.” In the same manner, Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3.8.10, a Hindu wis-dom text, declares that he who departs from this world without knowing his essential Self is the most unfortunate.78 Similarly, the Bhagavad Gītā, the Hindu spiritual text, assures us that the knowers of the Self and the practitioners of the yoga of selfless action are freed from the greatest fear: the fear of repeated conditioned existence.79

Spiritual intelligence stokes our innate desire to nobility and our search for the sacred. Spiritual intelligence helps us to know our higher self and realize it in acting selflessly for the good of others. It is an intelligence that inspires us to ask ultimate questions, seek meaning and purpose, and strive

77 Stephen Covey, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2004), 53.

78 Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upaniṣad 3.8.10: यो वा एतदकशर गारगयविदितवासमाललोकातपरति स कपणः He who departs from this world without knowing this Immutable, is miserable. See Swāmī Mādhavānanda, tr., Brihadāranyaka Upanisad, with the Commentary of Śankarācārya (Kolkata, India: Advaita Ashrama, 2008), 364.

79 Bhagavad Gītā 2.40: सवलपम अपय असय धरमसय तरायत महतो भयात: svalpam apy asya dharmasya trāyate mahato bhayāt: even a little practice of this art of selfless action (born of self-knowledge) saves one from the great terror (of repeated conditioned existence).

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for the greater good. It is critical for proper personal growth and authentic leadership.

The term spiritual intelligence was first used by Danah Zohar in her 1997 book ReWiring the Corporate Brain. SQ is the intelligence that makes us whole—“most human,”80 and gives us our true identity and integrity. It is the soul’s intelligence, the intelligence of the true self. It is the intelligence of “ultimate concerns”—the intelligence with which we ask fundamental questions and reframe our answers. It is our transforma-tive intelligence.81 Zohar, who studied physics and philosophy at MIT and did her postgraduate work in Philosophy, Religion & Psychology at Harvard University, proposed spiritual intelligence as intelligence of knowing our conscious meaning and purpose that goes beyond the tradi-tional notions of IQ and emotional intelligence.

Zohar and Marshall, drawing upon the findings from psychology, neu-rology and religious traditions, contend that spiritual intelligence is an integrative or unitive intelligence because it enables us to make sense of our world that is experienced through rational intelligence and emotional intelligence. SQ makes us the fully intellectual, emotional and spiritual creatures that we are.82 They propose that we have three intelligences, which include rational intelligence (IQ), emotional intelligence (EQ) and spiritual intelligence (SQ). They contend that spiritual intelligence is the ultimate intelligence dealing with questions of meaning, purpose and value. It is the source of morality. Therefore, SQ serves as a necessary foundation for both IQ and EQ.

They identify twelve indicators of high spiritual intelligence: self- awareness, vision and values led, positive use of adversity, holism, sponta-neity, compassion, celebration of diversity, field independence, tendency to ask fundamental why questions, reframing, a sense of vocation, and humility. These behavioral indicators of high SQ, devised largely by Peter Saul, led to a cultural shift at the workplace in the form of transparent communication, shared power, commitment to truth, flexibility, and empowerment representing the true spiritual capital of an organization.83

80 Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns, 179.81 Retrieved and adapted from Danah Zohar’s website http://danahzohar.com/

www2/?p=53.82 Zohar and Marshall, SQ: Connecting With Our Spiritual Intelligence, 6.83 Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall, Spiritual Capital: Wealth We Can Live by, 127–131.

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dEfInIng spIrItual IntEllIgEncE

As we saw in the previous section, Gardner, who proposed the theory of Multiple Intelligences, theorized that human intelligence was best explained as a series of intelligences comprising spatial, linguistic, logical- mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalistic dimensions. Later, Gardner suggested an “existential intelli-gence” as viable—stating that “the capacity to deal with existential issues may qualify as an intelligence.”84 However, Gardner argued that it was bet-ter to “put aside the term spiritual, with its manifest and problematic con-notations, and to speak instead of an intelligence that explores the nature of existence in its multifarious guises. Thus, an explicit concern with spiritual or religious matters would be one variety—often the most important vari-ety—of an existential intelligence.”85 Existential intelligence is described as “a proclivity for pondering ultimate cosmic or existential concerns.”86 Those with existential intelligence, such as the Dalai Lama and Pope Francis, could be labeled as cosmic smart. Thus, it may be reasonable to say that Gardner is willing to entertain the possibility of existential intelligence as the “half” in 8-1/2 intelligences that comprise his MI Theory. Gardner chose not to include spiritual intelligence amongst his list of intelligences due to the challenge of codifying quantifiable scientific criteria.87

There are many definitions and dimensions of spiritual intelligence. In most definitions, an existential dimension and a search for the sacred are highlighted. Spiritual intelligence can be defined as the ability to create meaning based on deep understanding of existential questions, and aware-ness of and the ability to use multiple levels of consciousness in problem- solving.88 Taking a highly pragmatic and instrumental view, Emmons defines spiritual intelligence as “the adaptive use of spiritual information

84 Howard Gardner, “A case against spiritual intelligence,” International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 10(1), (2000): 27–34.

Brendan Hyde, “The plausibility of spiritual intelligence: spiritual experience, problem solving and neural sites,” International Journal of Children’s Spirituality, 9(1), (2004): 39–52.

85 Gardner, Intelligence Reframed: Multiple Intelligences for the 21st Century (New York: Basic Books, 2000), 60.

86 Ibid., 22.87 Gardner, “A case against spiritual intelligence,” International Journal for the Psychology

of Religion, 10 (1), (2000): 27–34.88 Frances Vaughan, “What is spiritual intelligence?” Journal of Humanistic Psychology, 42

(2), (2002):16–33.

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to facilitate everyday problem solving and goal attainment.”89 Using Gardner’s eight criteria, Emmons states that there would appear to be “an overwhelming amount of evidence stacking up in favor of the thesis that spirituality is, in fact, an intelligence.”90 Gardner opines that Emmons tends “to lump together different aspects of spirituality and also various facets of psychology” and finds Emmons’ overall enterprise as “plausible.” Gardner believes that Emmon raises many intriguing issues such as sacredness, problem-solving, and the unifying potential of religion that merit further investigation.91 This shows the pervasiveness and enigmatic nature of SI.

Emmons postulates the following 5 core characteristics of spiritually intelligent people:

1. The capacity to transcend the physical and material. 2. The ability to experience heightened states of consciousness. 3. The ability to sanctify everyday experience. 4. The ability to utilize spiritual resources to solve problems. 5. The capacity to be virtuous.92

Spiritual intelligence includes the capacity for transcendence, height-ened consciousness, sanctification, spiritual problem-solving and virtuous behavior.93 Emmons states that transcendence is one of the key defining features of all definitions of spirituality. It helps us develop a deep and abiding bond with humanity. Spiritually intelligent people are skilled in entering mystical states of consciousness. Spirituality sanctifies everything. The fourth characteristic has to do with “spiritual coping.” The fifth com-ponent of spiritual intelligence pertains to our capacity to engage in vir-tuous behavior: to show forgiveness, to express gratitude, to be humble, to display compassion and wisdom.94 This is what makes us truly human.

It is important to bear in mind that spirit is beyond intellect but spiri-tual knowledge takes place in the intellect. It does not take place in the

89 Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns, 176.90 Ibid., 169.91 Howard Gardner, “A case against spiritual intelligence.”92 Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns, 164.93 See Emmons (2000a), “Is spirituality an intelligence? Motivation, Cognition and the

Psychology of Ultimate Concern,” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 10(1) (2000): 3–26; Emmons, “Spirituality and intelligence: Problems and prospects,” The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 10 (1), (2000): 57–64.

94 Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns, 164–166.

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spirit.95 Since spiritual intelligence is a manifestation of higher conscious-ness, it is important to understand the precise meaning of the word con-sciousness. A modern teacher of Vedānta presents following 5 axioms of consciousness:

1. Consciousness is not a part, product or a property of the body. 2. Consciousness is an independent entity that pervades and enlivens

the body. 3. Consciousness is not limited to the boundaries of the body. It is

all-pervading. 4. Consciousness does not come to an end with the destruction of the

body. It is eternal. 5. Consciousness manifests itself through the medium of material

objects. When the familiar medium of body ceases to exist, con-sciousness is not recognizable; however, it does not cease to exist.96

The imperishability and eternality of the consciousness is splendidly captured in a half-verse of the Bhagavad G ita 2.16: The unreal never is; the real never ceases to be.97

Cindy Wigglesworth, the author of SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence defines spiritual intelligence (SQ) as: The ability to behave with wisdom and compassion, while maintaining inner and outer peace, regardless of the situation. She has researched 21 measurable “skills” or “competencies” that are components of this ability. Unlike many spiri-tual teachings, which can tend to seem vague or mysterious, these tangible skills can be learned through practice and developed through clearly- defined levels.98 Wigglesworth, along with Goleman, believes that these spiritual competencies can be learned and developed.

Wigglesworth defines spirituality as “the innate human need to be con-nected to something larger than ourselves, something we consider to be divine or of exceptional nobility.… This innate desire for that connection transcends any particular faith or tradition. It does not require a belief in

95 Based on Swami Parmarthananda, Discourses on Brahma-Sutras, no. 389: Refinement and Fulfillment of Desire.

96 Based on Swami Parmarthananda, Discourses on Śrī Dakśiṇāmūrti Stotram, discourse no. 9 of 16.

97 Bhagavad Gītā 2.16: nāsato vidyate bhāvo nābhāvo vidyate sataḥ.98 See Cindy Wigglesworth, “Spiritual Intelligence: Living as Your Higher Self.” A Blog

Entry. Huffpost Healthy Living. Retrieved March 15, 2016: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cindy-wigglesworth/spiritual-intelligence_b_1752145.html.

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a divinity by any description, nor does it preclude belief in God or Spirit or the divine.”99 She defines spiritual intelligence as “the ability to behave with wisdom and compassion, while maintaining inner and outer peace, regardless of the situation.”100 Wigglesworth is vigilant to define spiritual-ity and spiritual intelligence in most universalistic and practical terms to make it widely acceptable and implementable in the workplace.

According to Wigglesworth, SQ development boils down to this: We move from immature ego-driven behaviors to more mature higher self- driven behaviors … We develop the ability to hear the voice of our higher self, to understand and transcend the voice of our ego, and to be guided by deep wisdom and compassion. IQ and EQ support us as we develop the skillful means to deploy our noblest intention. The ego matures and nuanced forms of more effective leadership develop. With more SQ comes less drama and more impact.101 The ego says, ‘Once everything falls in place, I will find peace.’ The spirit says, ‘Find peace and everything will fall in place.’ Many proponents of SI would concur.

Building on Goleman’s model of emotional intelligence, Wigglesworth presents the competencies that comprise SQ into 21 skills, arranged into a four quadrant model as follows:

Higher Self/Ego Self AwarenessAwareness of own worldview

Awareness of life purpose (mission)Awareness of values hierarchyComplexity of inner thought

Awareness of Ego Self/Higher Self

Higher Self/Ego Self AwarenessCommitment to spiritual growth

Keeping Higher Self in chargeLiving your purpose and values

Sustaining your faithSeeking guidance from Spirit

Universal AwarenessAwareness of interconnectedness of all life

Awareness of worldviews of othersBreadth of time/space perception

Awareness of limitations/power of human perception

Awareness of spiritual lawsExperience of transcendent oneness

Social Mastery/Spiritual PresenceA wise and effective spiritual

teacher/mentorA wise and effective change agent

Makes compassionate and wise decisionsA calming, healing presence

Being aligned with the ebb and flow of life

[Source: Cindy Wigglesworth, SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence]

99 Wigglesworth, SQ21, 8.100 Ibid.101 Wigglesworth, “Spiritual Intelligence: Living as Your Higher Self.” Also see: We can

build a bridge: Cindy Wigglesworth at TEDxSonomaCounty, Retrieved March 22, 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hscdmpKGqrQ.

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Wigglesworth notes that while the model is complex and multidimen-sional, the essence of Spiritual Intelligence is quite simple: it is about shifting from ego to Higher Self.102 The spiritual journey represents the transition from the servitude of the imposter ego to the compassionate wisdom of the higher Self. This wisdom is expressed in the loving service for the good of others.

I close this section with a quote from Margaret Mead that underscores the value of recognizing diverse human gifts:

If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fit-ting place.103

concludIng thoughts

Regardless of their size and nature, all organizations need leaders at all strategic levels and spheres. Effective leaders are like gardeners who have a “green thumb” that enables them to “grow” leaders for all those levels and areas. And this magic touch works through superior emotional intel-ligence and empathy. Effective leaders are “intelligent” about their emo-tions. This emotional brilliance sets them apart from the rest.

While traditional IQ scores are useful for predicting how we will do in school, IQ proves to be a weak predictor of how well we relate with oth-ers, perform at work, and cope with a variety of daily challenges.104 It is important to bear in mind that IQ and EI are not opposing competencies, but rather different ones. EI is not about the victory of heart over head—it is the unique harmony of both: emotions enhancing thinking and thinking regulating emotions. We need the wisdom of both the mind and the heart to succeed in the business of life.

Daniel Goleman contends that appreciating the role of emotions in the workplace sets the best leaders apart from the rest. When leaders inspire people with enthusiasm and vigor, job performance and employee morale soar. It is leaders’ primal job to create a progressive emotional environ-

102 Wigglesworth, SQ21, 123.103 Margaret Mead, Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies (New York: Harper

Perennial, reprint edition, 2001), 300.104 See Reuven Bar-On, How Important Is It to Educate People to be Emotionally

Intelligent, and Can it be Done?, 1.

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ment that frees the best in people. Similarly, the theory of multiple intel-ligences suggests that the best way to start to understand the human mind is to examine and recognize its different capacities and frames. However, in the end, as Howard Gardner concludes, we must also learn to “yoke all the intelligences together and mobilize them for constructive ends.”105 And it is in their integration that the value of these intelligences lie.

What does this “yoking” get us? Does it just make us more “street smart” or also help us become better citizens of the world? Gardner minces no words when he says that, “I want my children to understand the world, but not just because the world is fascinating and the human mind is curious. I want them to understand it so that they will be posi-tioned to make it a better place.”106 He agrees that “knowledge is not the same as morality” for the flesh is weak even when the spirit may be willing. But greater understanding will give us added perspective to do our best in making both the spirit and flesh willing and in making this imperfect world a better place for all.

multIplE IntEllIgEncEs: rEflEctIon QuEstIons

1. Do you think that the construct of logical and linguistic intelligence, as traditionally measured by IQ, does proper justice to identify the full range of human capacities?

2. Explain how IQ proves to be a weak predictor of how well we relate with others, perform at work, and cope with a variety of daily tasks and challenges.

3. Do you think that IQ and EI are opposing competencies or just dif-ferent ones? Does EI prove the primacy of heart over head or do we need the wisdom of both the mind and the heart to succeed in the business of life? Explain briefly.

4. Is it a leader’s job to create a progressive emotional environment that frees the best in people?

5. Does EI change over time? Can it be learned and expanded, at any time during one’s life? Are there any gender differences or is EI gender-neutral?

105 Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York: Basic Books, 2011), xxxvi; xIiv.

106 Gardner, Intelligence Reframed, 181.

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6. Do you think spiritual intelligence goes beyond the traditional notions of rational intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ)? Does spiritual intelligence serve as a necessary foundation for both IQ and EQ?

7. Do you agree that everyone has all eight intelligences to some degree—as postulated by Howard Gardner, although each individ-ual has his or her own unique combination of stronger or weaker intelligences? Explain how most tasks require more than one form of intelligence working in tandem with others.

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133© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_6

CHAPTER 6

All that we are is the result of what we have thought:it is founded on our thoughts, it is made up of our thoughts.1

—THE BUDDHA

IntroductIon

The opening quote by the Buddha reveals that we are constantly shap-ing our reality by our thoughts. We become what we think. Likewise, a central premise of the Appreciative Inquiry method is that we are con-stantly shaping our reality through our assumptions, expectations, and core beliefs. Accordingly, if we want to change, we need to change our thinking. We have to change our line of inquiry. This is also true of social systems. Appreciative inquiry is based on the premise that ‘human sys-tems grow and change in the direction in which they ask questions’. If an organization inquires into problems, it will keep finding problems; if an organization seeks to appreciate what is best in itself and its people, it will discover more and more that is good. It can then use these discover-ies to envision and create a new future where the best naturally becomes the norm. In essence it is the art of seeing things differently and harnessing human potential to the benefit of humanity.

1 F.M.  Max Muller, tr. and ed., Wisdom of the Buddha: The Unabridged Dhammapada (New York: Dover Publications, 2000), 1.

Appreciative Inquiry: Discovering the Best in People and Organizations

This chapter builds on the premise that success in leadership lies in discovering and linking the untapped energies of a living system to an organization’s change agenda. It explores the concept of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) and its role in holistic leadership. Just as Michelangelo was able to sense the historic figure of David in a slab of marble, Appreciative Inquiry is the art of sensing the human and organizational potential inherent in the present—seeing the proverbial mighty oak in the acorn. It is a strength- based, affirmative approach to effect transformational change in social systems and aspires to build organizations based on what is right with them instead of focussing on what is wrong with them. AI has been variously described as an ‘affirmative approach to change’, a ‘culmination of Maslow’s vision of positive human potential’, and a ‘new yoga of inquiry.’2 In a way, appreciative inquiry is the cousin of positive psychology.

Each organization has a two-part existence: the positive and the prob-lematic—the abundant and the deficit. Which part wins depends upon what we care to feed. By focusing on an organization’s moments of excellence and through collective exploration and positive imagery, AI serves as a powerful tool in a leader’s repertoire by creating, releasing, and nurturing new potentials and possibilities. Thus, AI continuously infuses new life into the veins of holistic leadership through searching for what gives life to human systems when they are most alive, creative and connected in healthy ways to their constituents and communities. Professor Robert Quinn, in his celebrated book Change the World, agrees: “Appreciative Inquiry is currently revolutionizing the field of organiza-tional development.”3

orIgIn and development of aIImagine what would happen to you if you had the ability to consistently see and connect with every strength in the universe—every one of the capacities inherent in a world of 10 billion galaxies and 6 billion people; or to see every positive potential in your son or daughter; or, like Michelangelo, the intellectual ability

2 Harman, W. W. (1990). Shifting Context for Executive Behavior: Signs of Change and Revaluation. In S.  Srivastva, D.  L. Cooperrider, & Associates (Eds.), Appreciative Management and Leadership: The Power of Positive Thought and Action in Organizations (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Inc., 1990), 37–54.

3 Robert Quinn, Change the World: How Ordinary People Can Achieve Extraordinary Results (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2000), 220.

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to “sense” the towering, historic figure of David “already existing” in the huge slab of marble—even before the reality.4

As the foregoing quote clearly demonstrates, AI is the science of “seeing” and “sensing” possibilities through the prism of human potential. It is the art of realizing the creative potential inherent in each and every human being and social system.

The original theory of AI was articulated by Cooperrider and Suresh Srivastva at the Weatherhead School of Management during 1980s at the Case Western Reserve University. In 1987, Cooperrider and Srivastva wrote the seminal article on AI which served as a precursor to later devel-opments in “positive organizational studies” and the “strengths-based” movement in American management.5

During his first presentation on the egalitarian organization at the Academy of Management in 1984, Cooperrider showed a diagram con-trasting problem-solving with appreciative analysis and proposed that, instead of seeing organizations as problems to be solved, they should be viewed as mysteries to be appreciated. In the same manner, Cooperrider’s first presentation of AI to organization development (OD) scholars and practitioners at the 1985 OD Network Conference in San Francisco argued that problem-solving processes tended to exacerbate the problems they were attempting to solve, and that more change could be got from focusing members’ attention on the ‘life giving properties’ of their social systems.6

In the late 1990s the ‘4-D model’ of Appreciative Inquiry appeared and has come to be strongly associated with AI. Prior to this, AI practitioners had relied on the initial set of 4 principles as stated by Cooperrider and Srivastva in their 1987 article. The original method was based on a col-lective discovery process using (1) grounded observation to identify the best of what is (2) vision and logic to identify ideals of what might be (3) collaborative dialogue and choice to achieve consent about what should

4 David Cooperrider, Elevating and Extending Our Capacity to Appreciate the Appreciable World. In a Foreword to Tojo Thatchenkery and Carol Metzker, Appreciative Intelligence: Seeing the Mighty Oak in the Acorn (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006), ix.

5 Gervase Bushe , Appreciative inquiry: Theory and critique. In Boje, D., Burnes, B. and Hassard, J. (eds.) The Routledge Companion To Organizational Change (Oxford, UK: Routledge, 2011), 87.

6 Gervase Bushe, Foundations of Appreciative Inquiry: History, Criticism and Potential. AI Practitioner. February 2012, 14 (1), 9.

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be (4) collective experimentation to discover what can be. In a personal communication to Gervase Bushe, Copperrider has observed, “I think we are still on this quest for a full blown non-deficit theory of change. I’m not saying that the other isn’t a way of change but I am saying that we are still in our infancy in understanding non-deficit, strength-based or life-centric approaches to change.”7 It is interesting to note that despite the progress made by positive psychology during the recent decades, we are still in the very initial stage of leveraging those gains in recreating our organizations.

Many theoretical constructs and approaches have either influenced the principles of AI or are aligned with them. AI welcomes many streams and influences. It is very much rooted in Ken Gergen’s writings on social con-structionism, Maslow’s humanistic psychology, positive psychology, and new sciences like chaos theory, complexity theory, and quantum physics.

defInIng apprecIatIve InquIry

According to Cooperrider, “The basic premise of Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is to build organizations around what works rather than fix what doesn’t, focusing on what is right with people rather than what is wrong.” AI promotes the search for the best in things—for what “gives life” to a sys-tem when it is at its most effective and capable state, in economic, social, environmental and human terms. The basic idea is to build organizations around what works, rather than trying to fix what doesn’t. “AI assumes that every living system has many untapped and rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link the energy of this core to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized.”8

I present below some key definitions of the term AI, as understood by various scholars and practitioners:

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is the cooperative search for the best in peo-ple, their organizations, and the world around them. It involves sys-tematic discovery of what gives a system ‘life’ when it is most effective and capable in economic, ecological, and human terms. AI involves the

7 Cited in Gervase Bushe, Foundations of Appreciative Inquiry: History, Criticism and Potential. AI Practitioner. February 2012, 14 (1), 16.

8 David L. Cooperrider, Diana Kaplin Whitney, and Jacqueline M. Stavros, (eds.), Appreciative Inquiry Handbook: The First in a Series of AI Workbooks for Leaders of Change (Bedford Heights, OH: Lakeshore Communications and San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2003), 319.

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art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system’s capacity to heighten positive potential. It mobilizes inquiry through crafting an “unconditional positive question” often involving hundreds or some-times thousands of people.9

Appreciative Inquiry deliberately seeks to discover people’s exceptional-ity—their unique gifts, strengths, and qualities. It actively searches and recognizes people for their specialties—their essential contributions and achievements. And it is based on principles of equality of voice—every-one is asked to speak about their vision of the true, the good, and the possible. Appreciative Inquiry builds momentum and success because it believes in people. It really is an invitation to a positive revolution. Its goal is to discover in all human beings the exceptional and the essential. Its goal is to create organizations that are in full voice!10

Appreciative Inquiry [is] a theory and practice for approaching change from a holistic framework. Based on the belief that human systems are made and imagined by those who live and work within them, AI leads systems to move toward the generative and creative images that reside in their most positive core—their values, visions, achievements, and best practices.11

AI is intentional inquiry and directed conversation and story-telling that leads to a place of possibility. Possibility is fresh, new, and sacred. The story is the genesis of all that is human. Societies are stories, as are companies, schools, cities, families and individuals. There are bricks and mortar and flesh and bones, but all of it comes from a story. Even the flesh and bones of one person comes from a story of two people uniting to form another. I can think of many moments where groups reached a profound spot with AI and touched a sense of freedom. Usually one person would say something like, “From what we heard in these stories, we could …” and there follows a collective deep breath and then silence as people consider the new “we could.” Possibility sits in the room as a space of silence and then thought fills the space.12

9 David L. Cooperrider & Diana Whitney, “Appreciative Inquiry: A positive revolution in change”. In P.  Holman & T.  Devane (eds.), The Change Handbook (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2007), 73–88.

10 David Cooperrider et al. (Eds.), Lessons from the Field: Applying Appreciative Inquiry (Plano, TX: Thin Book Publishing, 2001), 12.

11 Jane Magruder Watkins, Bernard J. Mohr, & Ralph Kelly, Appreciative Inquiry: Change at the Speed of Imagination (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2001), xxxi.

12 John Steinbach, Contribution to the AI Listserve, July 2005. Retrieved March 7, 2016: https://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/intro/definition.cfm.

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AI involves, in a central way, the art and practice of asking ques-tions that strengthen a system’s capacity to apprehend, anticipate, and heighten positive potential. It centrally involves the mobilization of inquiry through the crafting of the “unconditional positive ques-tion, often involving hundreds or sometimes thousands of people. … AI deliberately, in everything it does, seeks to work from accounts of the “positive change core”—and it assumes that every living system has many untapped and rich and inspiring accounts of the positive. Link the energy of this core directly to any change agenda and changes never thought possible are suddenly and democratically mobilized.”13

David Cooperrider says that the inquiry into organizational life should have four characteristics. It should be14:

Appreciative—AI looks for the ‘positive core’ of the organization and seeks to use it as a foundation for future growth.

Applicable—AI is grounded in stories of what has actually taken place in the past and is therefore essentially practical. It is not a ‘pie in the sky’ approach but instead seeks the best of ‘what is’ in order to build the best of ‘what might be’.

Provocative—AI invites people to take some risks in the way they imagine the future and redesign their organization to bring it about. With the security and energy gained from the exploration of the best in the orga-nization, people feel able to respond with ‘provocative propositions’ about the future.

Collaborative—AI is a form of collaborative inquiry. It always involves the whole organization or a representative cross-section of the whole organization. In this way all voices can be heard and everyone’s contri-bution valued.

As is clear from the above features, AI is a collaborative approach built around the ‘what might be’ vision about the future. Its positive yet pro-vocative tenure brings out the best in people and organizations.

13 David L.  Cooperrider and Diana Whitney, “A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry.” In David Cooperrider, Peter Sorensen, Diana Whitney, & Teherese F. Yaeger, (Eds.), Appreciative Inquiry: Rethinking Human Organization Toward a Positive Theory of Change (Champaign, Illinois: Stipes Publishing, 2000), 5.

14 As quoted in Richard Seel, Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry, Retrieved March 12, 2016: http://www.new-paradigm.co.uk/introduction_to_ai.htm.

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apprecIatIve IntellIgence: the mIssIng lInk

Going one step beyond appreciative inquiry, Thatchenkery and Metzker have suggested the term “Appreciative Intelligence” in their book titled Appreciative Intelligence: Seeing the Mighty Oak in the Acorn. Seen along the lines of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, the construct of Appreciative Intelligence is a strength-based approach to organiza-tional change and development. The authors conceptualize Appreciative Intelligence as “an ability or capacity to reframe reality to bring out the best from others and the environment.”15 It is “the ability to see the mighty oak in the acorn;” that is, the ability to perceive the positive inherent generative potential in the present.

Building upon the legacy of AI construct, Appreciative Intelligence reframes reality to reveal the hidden potential within even the most apparently unpromising present. The authors also show that an under-standing of Appreciative Intelligence leads to social systems that enjoy higher levels of innovation, more productive employees, greater ability to adapt to changes, and, ultimately, greater financial gains.16 Appreciative Intelligence, much like Emotional Intelligence, has the potential to illu-mine the path of effective leadership research and practice. And like emo-tional intelligence, we can nurture appreciative intelligence and sharpen it once we realize the presence of it within us.

Appreciative intelligence focuses on the key question: “What is the abil-ity that enables some people to take new or challenging circumstances and turn them into successful experiences for themselves and those around them, while others waver at similar situations?” It is the power of refram-ing, appreciation of positive possibility, and seeing how the future unfolds from the present. The authors indicate that there are 4 qualities signify-ing this ability: persistence, conviction that one’s actions matter, tolerance for uncertainty, and irrepressible resilience. Together, these competencies comprise the Appreciative intelligence—the proverbial ability of “seeing the mighty oak in the acorn”. Developing the metaphor further, they also explain how to plant and preserve the acorns to help them grow and thrive despite challenging circumstances.

15 Tojo Thatchenkery and Carol Metzker, Appreciative Intelligence: Seeing the Mighty Oak in the Acorn (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006), xvi.

16 See Tojo Thatchenkery and Carol Metzker, Appreciative Intelligence: Seeing the Mighty Oak in the Acorn (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, 2006).

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY: DISCOVERING THE BEST IN PEOPLE... 139

the pygmalIon effect

We have all heard about self-fulfilling prophecy: that is, what you expect is what you get. Whether self-fulfilling prophecies really do occur is a mat-ter for scientific investigation, but psychological research indicates that in some areas they are a reality.17 The Pygmalion effect is the phenom-enon whereby higher expectations lead to an increase in performance. In the leadership context, the Pygmalion effect, by extension, will mean that increasing the leader’s expectancy of the follower’s performance will result in better follower performance.

Can a teacher’s expectations for his students’ intellectual competence play out as an educational self-fulfilling prophecy? During 1968, Rosenthal and Jacobson administered a nonverbal intelligence test to all of the chil-dren in elementary school called Oak School (Kindergarten through fifth grade). Rather than telling the teachers that it was an intelligence test, it was presented as a new test being developed at Harvard for identifying children likely to “bloom” (to show dramatic intellectual spurt) over the upcoming school year. The 20 % of the children were reported to their teachers as showing potential for unusual intellectual growth, although their names were picked randomly.

One year later, when the same intelligence test was given to the stu-dent body, these unusual or “magic” children showed significantly greater gains in IQ than did the remaining children who had not been singled out for the teachers’ attention.18 Even two years later, the bloomers’ gains still exceeded the control group. Although “the difference between the children earmarked for intellectual growth and the undesignated control children was in the mind of the teacher,”19 teachers’ expectations created a self-fulfilling prophecy. To be precise, the teacher’s false expectations had come true.

Is the Pygmalion effect confined to the education field only? In 2002, Rosenthal himself reviewed the literature on expectancy effects using meta-analysis techniques. He demonstrated how “the expectations

17 Robert Rosenthal & Lenore Jacobson, Teachers’ expectancies: Determinates of pupils’ IQ gains. Psychological Reports, 1966, 19, 115–118.

18 See Robert Rosenthal & Lenore Jacobson, Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils’ Intellectual Development (New York: Crown House Publishing, 2003), vii–viii.

19 Robert Rosenthal & Lenore Jacobson, Pygmalion in the Classroom: Teacher Expectation and Pupils’ Intellectual Development (New York: Crown House Publishing, 2003), 68.

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of psychological researchers, classroom teachers, judges in the court-room, business executives, and health care providers can unintention-ally affect the responses of their research participants, pupils, jurors, employees, and patients.”20 Holistic leaders are aware that expectations determine outcomes and leverage this insight in orchestrating positive results.

Does that mean that self-fulfilling prophecies work all the time? Although it may seem so, the empirical research is more nuanced. After reviewing 35 years of empirical research on teacher expectations, Lee Jussim and Kent Harber conclude that whether self-fulfilling prophecies affect intelligence, and whether in general they do more harm than good, remains unclear and that more research in this area is needed. They indi-cate that it is possible that some conditions are more conducive to nega-tive expectancy, whereas others are more conducive to positive effects.21 Whatever explanation we choose, it is clear that we shape our reality and that is where the true power of AI resides.

the art of askIng engagIng questIons22

“… the word ‘why’ not only taught me to ask, but also to think. And thinking has never hurt anyone. On the contrary, it does us all a world of good.”23

—ANNE FRANK

As stated earlier, AI is based on the premise that ‘human systems grow and change in the direction in which they ask questions.’ Questions, as Anne Frank tells us, make us think. And thinking, pure and simple, har-nesses the best in us. Nobel laureate scientist, Isidor Isaac Rabi, tells us that while every other Jewish mother in Brooklyn would ask their children

20 Robert Rosenthal, Covert communication in classrooms, clinics, courtrooms, and cubi-cles. American Psychologist, 2002, 57, 839.

21 Lee Jussim & Kent D. Harber, “Teacher Expectations and Self-Fulfilling Prophecies: Knowns and Unknowns, Resolved and Unresolved Controversies,” Personality and Social Psychology Review, 2005, 9 (2): 131; 153. PDF retrieved March 9, 2016: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~jussim/Teacher%20Expectations%20PSPR%202005.pdf.

22 Eric E. Vogt, E., Juanita Brown, J., and David Issacs, The Art of Powerful Questions: Catalyzing Insight, Innovation, and Action (Mill Valley, CA: Whole Systems Associates, 2003), 2–12.

23 See Anne Frank, Anne Frank’s Tales from the Annex.

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY: DISCOVERING THE BEST IN PEOPLE... 141

after school what they had learnt, his mother would instead ask, “Izzy, did you ask a good question today? And that difference—asking good questions—made me become a scientist.”24 According to the Encyclopedia of Management Theory, “The theory’s central management insight is that teams, organizations and society evolve in whatever direction we collec-tively, passionately and persistently ask questions about.”25 It is our natu-ral tendency to try to find something wrong with people or what is not working with organizations. While there is lot that can be improved in human systems, this tendency also has the inevitability of a self-fulfilling prophecy—that is, if we expect something to happen in a certain way, our expectation will tend to make it so. And due to the positive feedback between belief and behavior, the law of attraction works both ways—that is, in the manner of both as self-fulfilling and self-defeating prophecy. If an organization inquires into problems, it will keep finding problems; if an organization seeks to appreciate what is best in itself and its people, it will discover more and more that is good. It can then use these discoveries to envision and create a new future where the best naturally becomes the norm.26

The usefulness of the knowledge we acquire and the effectiveness of the actions we take depend on the quality of the questions we ask. Questions open the door to dialogue and discovery. They are an invitation to creativ-ity and breakthrough thinking.27 Many historic discoveries are attributable to people asking engaging questions. Einstein when still a teenager used to wonder: “What if I could ride a beam of light across the universe?” He regularly conducted “thought experiments”, which over a period of time led to great advances in theoretical physics.

Asking the right questions using appreciative inquiry is important in a collaborative setting and can create meaningful and positive change. Used properly, these questions help focusing attention, connecting ideas and finding deeper meaning, and creating forward movement.

24 Cited in Larry Ferlazzo, Self-Driven Learning: Teaching Strategies for Student Motivation (New York: Routledge, 2013), 115.

25 Gervase R.  Bushe, The Appreciative Inquiry Model. In Eric H.  Kessler, (ed.), Encyclopedia of Management Theory (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2013), 41–44.

26 Eric E. Vogt, E., Juanita Brown, J., and David Issacs, The Art of Powerful Questions: Catalyzing Insight, Innovation, and Action (Mill Valley, CA: Whole Systems Associates, 2003), 2–12.

27 Ibid., 1.

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Thus, a powerful question: generates curiosity in the listener, stimu-lates reflective conversation, is thought-provoking, surfaces underlying assumptions, invites creativity and new possibilities, generates energy and forward movement, channels attention and focuses inquiry, stays with par-ticipants, touches a deep meaning, and evokes more questions.28

Vogt et al. report that in some German companies there is a job title of Direktor Grundsatzfragen that translates as “Director of Fundamental Questions”. In fact, “some of the larger German companies have an entire department of Grundsatzfragen. These are the people who are always thinking about what the next questions will be. Of course, these people are only in the German companies headquartered in Germany, such as Daimler, Bayer, Siemens, or SAP. If the German company is acquired by a US company, they usually eliminate the Grundsatzfragen positions.”29 This shows the fundamental difference between the mindsets of American and German companies. We need to realize that when we invest in ques-tions about the future, we are in fact improving our present.

Whitney and her colleagues who have put together a resourceful hand-book of positive questions that work, state that their key discovery is as follows: “If you truly wish to change your world, you must change your way of asking questions. It could be that the moment you do so, a totally different world will take shape around you.”30 The following narrative illustrates the power of framing the right questions, using the language of appreciative inquiry:

Think back about a time at work that you recall as a “high point” … an expe-rience or moment you remember as having left you with an intense sense of pride, excitement, or involvement in having been a part of something that was meaningful … a time when you truly felt you had contributed to the betterment of a fellow employee(s), the customer, or the organization.31

The question of questions is: How can we better inquire into organiza-tional existence in ways that are economically, humanly, and ecologically

28 Ibid., 4.29 Ibid., 2.30 Diana Whitney, David Cooperrider, Amanda Trostein-Boom, & Brian S.  Kaplin,

Encyclopedia of Positive Questions: Using Appreciative Inquiry to Bring out the Best in Your Organization, Volume One (Euclid, OH: Lakeshore Publishers, 2002), x.

31 Frank J.  Barrett, F. & Ronald E.  Fry, Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Approach to Cooperative Capacity Building (Chagrin Falls, OH: Taos Institute Publishing, 2005), 58.

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significant, that is, in ways that increasingly help people discover, dream, design and transform toward the greatest good?32

I conclude this section with a quote from the German language poet, Rainer Maria Rilke, which probably contains the best advice that can be given about living the questions patiently, to find our way into the answers:

I would like to beg you, dear Sir, as well as I can, to have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and to try to love the questions them-selves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign lan-guage. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live every-thing. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.33

Rilke admirably points out that the quest is not about finding the answers but living the questions. If one does that patiently, the answers emerge spontaneously and unexpectedly. But one has to live the unresolved cre-ative tension first and make it all one’s own.

questIons for all seasons!34

Questions for Focusing Collective Attention on Your Situation

What question, if answered, could make the most difference to the future of (your specific situation)?

What’s important to you about (your specific situation) and why do you care?

What’s our intention here? What’s the deeper purpose (the big “why”) that is really worthy of our best effort?

What opportunities can you see in (your specific situation)?What do we know so far/still need to learn about (your specific

situation)?

32 David L.  Cooperrider and Diana Whitney, “A Positive Revolution in Change: Appreciative Inquiry,” n.d. A draft article retrieved March 10, 2016: https://appreciativein-quiry.case.edu/uploads/whatisai.pdf.

33 Stephen Mitchell (tr.), Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke (Malden, MA: Scriptor Press, 2001), 13–14.

34 Adapted from Eric E. Vogt et al., The Art of Powerful Questions, 12.

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What are the dilemmas/opportunities in (your specific situation)?What assumptions do we need to test or challenge here in thinking

about (your specific situation)?What would someone who had a very different set of beliefs than we do

say about (your specific situation)?

Questions for Connecting Ideas and Finding Deeper Insight

What’s taking shape? What are you hearing underneath the variety of opinions being expressed?

What’s emerging here for you? What new connections are you making?

What had real meaning for you from what you’ve heard? What sur-prised you? What challenged you?

What’s missing from this picture so far? What is it we’re not seeing? What do we need more clarity about?

What’s been your/our major learning, insight, or discovery so far?What’s the next level of thinking we need to do?If there was one thing that hasn’t yet been said in order to reach a

deeper level of understanding/clarity, what would that be?

Questions That Create Forward Movement

What would it take to create change on this issue?What could happen that would enable you/us to feel fully engaged and

energized about (your specific situation)?What’s possible here and who cares? (rather than “What’s wrong here

and who’s responsible?”)What needs our immediate attention going forward?If our success was completely guaranteed, what bold steps might we

choose?How can we support each other in taking the next steps? What unique

contribution can we each make?What challenges might come our way and how might we meet them?What conversation, if begun today, could ripple out in a way that cre-

ated new possibilities for the future of (your situation)?What seed might we plant together today that could make the most

difference to the future of (your situation)?

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maIn prIncIples of apprecIatIve InquIry (aI)35

AI involves the following 5 original core principles that form the theoreti-cal basis of its transformative change schema:

The Constructionist principle: Words create worlds. Reality is constructed through language. What we consider to be real is created through our social discourse. Organizations are living, human constructions guided by the generative capacity of knowledge and language. This principle is based on social constructionist approach that studies the ways in which individuals and groups participate in the construction of their perceived social reality. Its dictum is that ‘language does not mirror reality; rather, it creates it.’36

The Principle of Simultaneity: Inquiry creates change. The first ques-tion is fateful. Change is co-extensive and simultaneous with inquiry: It begins the moment we begin asking questions. The seeds of change are planted in the very first questions we ask. Questions evoke reality. The moment we ask a question, we begin to create a change. In this sense at least, inquiry is intervention itself. When we wait for the analysis, we delay the change process. By altering our questions, we begin to alter the outcomes.

The Anticipatory Principle: Image inspires action. An image of the future precedes actual change. What we do today is guided by our image of the future. Human systems move in the direction of their images of the future. Positive images of the future lead to positive actions. People and organizations become what they think and believe. When we create positive, uplifting images of our future we are more likely to act to reach that desired future.

The Poetic Principle: Organizations are like an open book or a poem. They are open to multiple interpretations and conclusions. The organizational

35 See David L.  Cooperrider, Peter F.  Sorensen, Jr., Diana Whitney, & Therese F. Yaeger (eds.), Appreciative Inquiry: Rethinking Human Organization Toward A Positive Theory of  Change (Champaign, Illinois: Stipes Publishers, 2000), 17–20. Also see Diana Whitney & Amanda Trosten-Bloom, The Power of  Appreciative Inquiry: A  Practical Guide to Positive Change (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2003), 52–65.

36 One of the key proponents of social constructionism is Ken Gergen who was this author’s dissertation chair at Taos Institute-Tilburg University, the Netherlands.

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life unfolds in the stories people tell each other every day, and the story of the organization is constantly being rewritten. Great poems, stories and works of art touch us on a number of sensory levels. What we focus on grows. We can choose what we study and focus on.

The Positive Principle: Positive questions lead to positive change. The more positive the approach, the more lasting the change. The positive prin-ciple invites us to look at and articulate what is positive, vibrant, vital and empowering. It promotes sentiments like hope, excitement, inspiration, camaraderie, creativity, openness to new ideas and people, and cognitive flexibility.

The current AI literature also added the following 5 emergent principles:37

The Wholeness Principle: Wholeness brings out the best. Wholeness inspires the best in people, organizations, and communities. The whole-ness principle inspires the participants to focus on the higher ground than just the common ground. It is about appreciating our commonali-ties while at the same time acknowledging and celebrating differences. It means engaging the entire organization and its stakeholders in the process of transformative change. Looked from the standpoint of the whole system, there are no others and no one is an outsider.

The Enactment Principle: Acting “as-if” is self-fulfilling. The “act as if” principle means if you act as if you are what you want to be, then you will become that.38 This principle is a powerful tool of altering our consciousness from self-destructive negative feelings into specific posi-tive behaviors. In the organizational setting, when leaders role-model certain behaviors, it helps them as well as others to imbibe the values personified by those behaviors. Positive change occurs when leaders

37 Diana Whitney & Amanda Trosten-Bloom, The Power of Appreciative Inquiry, 66–74.38 American psychologist, William James, had a theory about emotion and behavior: It is

not that our emotions guide our actions; rather, it is our actions that guide our emotions. This led him to a remarkable discovery: “If you want a quality, act as if you already have it”. William James considered it to be the greatest discovery that man can change his life simply by changing his attitude of mind. Likewise, Aristotle proposed learning by doing and consid-ered virtues as lived values.

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY: DISCOVERING THE BEST IN PEOPLE... 147

become the living models of ideal behavior. To really bring about a change, we must “be the change we want to see.”

The Free Choice Principle: Free choice liberates power. People perform better and are more committed when they have the freedom to choose how and what they contribute. Free choice stimulates organizational excellence and positive change. It fosters creativity and infuses a height-ened sense of belongingness. When people have free choice, organiza-tions excel.39

The Narrative Principle: Stories are transformative. We construct stories about our lives (personal and professional) and live into them. The nar-rative principle celebrates the power of stories as catalysts for change. Stories remind us of our deeply cherished values, build bonds, and con-nect us with others. Organizations and human systems are stories in progress.40 Effective leaders tell three stories: about themselves, about the organization, and, more importantly, about connecting their story with that of the organization.

The Awareness Principle: Be aware of underlying assumptions. The awareness principle states that one should understand and integrate AI principles in organizations in an intentional manner. While relating to others, one should be aware of one’s underlying assumptions and reflect on one’s ‘automatic thinking’. This helps create a culture of openness, understanding and mutual support.

problem-based approach vs. strength based approach41

AI is a strength-based approach to human systems which sees the best of what could be based on the best of what is. The pioneers of AI feel that we have taken the problem-based paradigm a bit too far. From the stance ‘organizations have problems,’ we have moved to ‘organization are problems.’ This deficit-thinking has constrained our ability to realize the possibilities of what is good in our human systems. The following table

39 Diana Whitney & Amanda Trosten-Bloom, The Power of Appreciative Inquiry, 71–72.40 Frank J.  Barrett, F. & Ronald E.  Fry, Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Approach to

Cooperative Capacity Building (Chagrin Falls, OH: Taos Institute Publishing, 2005), 49–51.41 David L. Cooperrider, Peter F. Sorensen, Jr., Diana Whitney, & Therese F. Yaeger

(Eds.), Appreciative Inquiry, 23.

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summarizes and contrasts problem-based and AI approaches to organiza-tional change:

Problem Solving Appreciative Inquiry“Felt Need” Identification of Problem Appreciating and Valuing The Best of “What is”

Analysis of Causes Envisioning “What Might Be”Analysis of Possible Solutions Dialoguing “What Should Be”Action Planning (Treatment) Innovating “What Will Be”

Basic Assumption Basic AssumptionAn Organization is a Problem to be

SolvedAn Organization is a Mystery to be Embraced

Deficit-Based Research Strength-Based Research

[Source: Adapted from Cooperrider and Whitney, Appreciative Inquiry, 2000, p. 23]

the 4-d model of apprecIatIve InquIry

The Appreciative Inquiry process is generally represented by a 4-step process that is developed around an issue or a topic. Each step is given a name begin-ning with ‘D’ and the model is usually known as the 4-D model (Fig. 6.1):

The following briefly outlines the 4 phases of the model:42

DiscoverPeople talk to one another, usually via structured interviews, to discover the times when the organization is at its best. These stories are told as richly as possible and from them people start to discover the ‘positive core’ of the organization, what gives life to it when it is at its best. People start to appreciate themselves and their colleagues and some quite significant transformations start to occur.

DreamThe dream phase is often run as a large group conference where a cross- section of the organization is encouraged to imagine and co-create the future. They are encouraged to envision the organization as if the peak moments discovered in the ‘discover’ phase were the norm rather than the exception. “What would things be like if …?” Working in small groups,

42 Adapted from Richard Seel, Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry, Retrieved March 12, 2016: http://www.new-paradigm.co.uk/introduction_to_ai.htm.

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they try to put as much ‘flesh’ on their visions as possible. These are then ‘creatively presented’ to the rest of the group and worked on further.

DesignIn this collaborative design approach the group first derives a design possibil-ities map, which contains, in three concentric circles, the dream for the orga-nization, the key relationships which have an impact on the dream, and key organizational design elements which will be needed to deliver the dream.

In small groups participants then ‘sign up’ to explore particular design elements which they have energy for and these groups craft ‘provocative propositions’ which challenge the organization to adopt a new and health-ier future. These are shared with the large group and further refined.

Fig. 6.1 4 D model of appreciative inquiry. [Source: Richard Seel, Introduction to Appreciative Inquiry (2008)]

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DeliverThe final phase is to deliver the dream and the new design. Because the term ‘deliver’ has a rather mechanical feel to it, many AI workers now pre-fer the term ‘Destiny’ which continues the future-facing theme. Whichever term is chosen, the final phase is one of experimentation and improvisa-tion, sometimes described as ‘organizational jazz’. Small implementation teams will be formed to follow up on the design elements and to continue the appreciative process.

aI and ImplIcatIons for management

David Cooperrider presents the following implications of AI for manage-ment and leadership:43

1. Organizations as made and imagined are artifacts of the affirmative mind.

2. No matter what its previous history is, virtually any pattern of orga-nizational action is open to alteration and reconfiguration.

3. To the extent that organizations’ imaginative projections are the key to their current conduct, organizations are free to seek transforma-tions in conventional practice by replacing conventional images with images of a new and better future.

4. Organizations are heliotropic in character in the sense that organi-zational actions have an observable and largely automatic tendency to evolve in the direction of positive imagery.

5. Conscious evolution of positive imagery is a viable option for orga-nized systems as large as global society or as small as the dyad or group.

6. To understand organizations in affirmative terms is also to under-stand that the greatest obstacle in the way of group and organiza-tional well-being is the positive image, the affirmative projection that guides the group or the organization.

7. Organizations do not need to be fixed. They need constant reaffirmation.

8. Creating the conditions for organization-wide appreciation is the single most important measure that can be taken to ensure the con-scious evolution of a valued and positive future.

43 David L. Cooperrider et al., Appreciative Inquiry, 46–52.

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concludIng thoughts

Appreciative inquiry is about tapping into the river of positive possibilities, a way of harnessing the untapped creative energies of people and organiza-tions. It is a science of the possible. It is the art of seeing the mighty oak in the acorn. Appreciative inquiry is not another tool, like team building or quality management. Rather, it is a whole new approach to organiza-tional change—a way of being in the organizations. We have seen that the approaches which focus on “problem- solving” can take us only so far. These approaches basically focus on what is wrong in a given situation and proceed to “fix” it with all the analytical tools available. But this approach can never take us beyond the confines of the dark past. For achieving quantum leaps of progress, we need clear, bright images of the future. We need to create a field of possibilities. As Cooperrider succinctly put it: “We create our organizations based on our anticipations of the future. The image of the future guides the current behavior of any system.”44

Stephen Hawking, perhaps the most brilliant theoretical physicist in history, in his classic entitled A Brief History of Time, explains the Law of Conservation of Energy as “the law of science which states that energy (or its equivalent in mass) can neither be created nor destroyed, but can and does change form.”45 How and in which direction the creative human energy changes form depends in large part upon our collective conscious. The only thing we are truly limited by is our beliefs—physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. If we wish to change our world, says appreciative inquiry, we must change the direction of our inquiry about the world, our way of asking questions about it. It could be that the moment we do so, a totally different world might crystallize around us. The sooner the right questions are asked, the sooner the right answers start emerging.

What if we fail to achieve our total potential because our own beliefs prevent us from realizing it? We need to imagine big and we need to think bold. Words create worlds and images evoke actions. Positive images of future lead to positive actions. We need to have a vision that clearly sees a mighty oak tree in a tiny acorn. For limitations in our perceptions are not limitations in the things perceived. Each social system has a two-part

44 David Cooperrider Appreciative Inquiry Course 2007 (submitted by [email protected]). Retrieved March 10, 2016: https://appreciativeinquiry.case.edu/practice/quotesDe-tail.cfm?coid=12447.

45 Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, 10th Anniversary edition (New York: Bantam Books, 1998), 200.

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existence: the positive and the possible—the abundant and the deficit. Which part wins depends upon what we care to feed.

The following folk tale46 clarifies the point splendidly:

An old Cherokee is teaching his grandson about life. “A fight is going on inside me”, he said to the boy.

“It is a terrible fight and it is between two wolves. One is evil—he is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego”. He continued, “The other is good—he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevo-lence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you—and inside every other person, too”.

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfa-ther, “Which wolf will win?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed”.

We have spawned a culture of deficit around us. The media thrives on promoting an ethos of doom and gloom, victimhood, and alienation, glo-rifying what is broken. When we are looking for problems, we indeed find them. The small still voice of the possibilities gets choked in the loud noise of the negative.

Let us stop feeding problems and start nurturing potentials and pos-sibilities. Let us all become “goodfinders.” Since everything depends upon everything, we transform the world by transforming ourselves. Every thought we think is changing our future. If we become what we think, as the Buddha taught, the best way to transform ourselves and our organiza-tions is to change our thinking.

We need to imagine big and we need to think bold. For, as Vaçlav Havel wonders at the end of his perceptive essay “The Power of the Powerless”, “the real question is whether the brighter future is really always so distant. What if, on the contrary, it has been here for a long time already, and only our own blindness and weakness has prevented us from seeing it around us and within us, and kept us from developing it?”47 Yes, what if …. It depends upon us!

46 Original author unknown.47 Vaçlav Havel, taken from his open letter on ‘The Power of the Powerless.’ Václav Havel,

Power of the Powerless—samizdat essay, October 1978. Retrieved March 10, 2016: http://vaclavhavel.cz/showtrans.php?cat=eseje&val=2_aj_eseje.html&typ=HTML.

APPRECIATIVE INQUIRY: DISCOVERING THE BEST IN PEOPLE... 153

apprecIatIve InquIry: reflectIon questIons

1. How does Appreciative Inquiry (AI) harness the untapped creative energies of people and organizations and use these discoveries to envision and create a new future where the best naturally becomes the norm?

2. AI is based on the premise that ‘human systems grow and change in the direction in which they ask questions’. Formulate two such questions that will help you as a leader to discover the best in people and organizations.

3. Do you think that traditional approaches to problem-solving that focus on what is wrong in a given situation and proceed to “fix” it with all the analytical tools available are adequate for achieving quantum breakthroughs?

4. We are constantly shaping our reality through our assumptions, expectations, and core beliefs. List 2–3 “empowering” assumptions and positive images about people and organizations to unleash their hidden possibilities.

5. Effective leaders use stories as catalysts of change. Imagine and reflect on three such stories: first, about yourself; second, about your organization, and third, about the connection of your story with that of the organization.

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155© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_7

CHAPTER 7

Spiritual Leadership: A Superior Way to  Be and Serve

We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.1

IntroductIon

The opening quote, widely attributed to Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, high-lights the primacy of the spiritual dimension of our being. It points out that it is spirituality that verily lends glory to our human existence. This chapter explores the need and importance of spiritual leadership in con-temporary organizations. Spiritual leadership is a vital expression of holis-tic leadership since it covers all of its three important elements: self, spirit and service. Spiritual leadership encompasses the values, attitudes, and behaviors necessary intrinsically to motivate oneself and others by appeal-ing to humanity’s fundamental yearning for spiritual well-being realized by living out one’s higher consciousness, calling and contribution. Spiritual leadership is an emerging paradigm within the broader context of work-place spirituality designed to create a values-driven, intrinsically motivated organization.2 As Fry has noted, “The purpose of spiritual leadership is to

1 A variant rendering of the quote: ‘We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.’ Most authors who quote it do not pro-vide its source. It is quoted here for its telling force in underscoring the primacy of our spiri-tual dimension.

2 Mark Kriger and Yvonne Seng, “Leadership with inner meaning: A contingency theory of leadership based on worldviews of five religions”, The Leadership Quarterly, 6, (2005): 771–806.

create vision and value congruence across the strategic, empowered team, and individual levels and, ultimately, to foster higher levels of organiza-tional commitment and productivity.”3

The corporate world is realizing that spiritual values are integral to employee well-being and business success. Organizations are becoming increasingly aware that people seek meaning and purpose in their work and desire to connect with other human beings as part of a community. Recent polls have found that American managers and leaders want a deeper sense of meaning and fulfillment on the job—even more than they want money and time off.4 This calls for transformation of the workplace and the self. Spiritual leadership recognizes that the fundamental problems confronting organizations are so pervasive that they can only be solved by transforming the human spirit—at the level of our most authentic self. The transformation of self is also a sine qua non for bringing about larger social change. Lives of exemplary world leaders such as Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Rosa Parks, and Mother Teresa clearly show that leadership for social change requires cultivation of inner spiri-tual qualities.

Recent studies have shown that values traditionally associated with spiri-tuality—such as integrity, honesty, trust, kindness, caring, fairness, and humility—have a demonstrable effect on leadership effectiveness and suc-cess. Reave conducted an exhaustive review of over 150 studies that revealed a clear consistency between the following spiritual values and practices and effective leadership: showing respect for others, demonstrating fair treat-ment, expressing caring and concern, listening responsively, recognizing the contributions of others, and engaging in reflective practice. Specifically, Reave noted that spirituality expresses itself in the form of spiritual values (i.e., integrity, trust, ethical influence, honest communication, and humility) and spiritual behaviors (i.e., demonstrating respect, treating others fairly, expressing care and concern, listening responsively, appreciating the contri-butions of others, and engaging in spiritual practice).5

First, this chapter reviews the construct of spirituality in the workplace and its role in leading organizations effectively. It clarifies that spirituality and

3 Louis W. Fry, “Toward a theory of spiritual leadership”, The Leadership Quarterly, 14, (2003): 693–727.

4 Ibid., 702.5 Laura Reave, “Spiritual values and practices related to leadership effectiveness”, The

Leadership Quarterly, 16, (2005): 655–687. Retrieved March 15, 2016: https://sites.fas.harvard.edu/~soc186/AssignedReadings/Reave-ValuesPay.pdf.

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religion are two related yet distinct concepts. Understanding this distinction is of vital importance for practicing spiritual leadership and for effectively implementing spirituality in the workplace. The chapter presents various definitions of workplace spirituality and also analyzes its various elements. Finally, it examines a few important models of spiritual leadership with spe-cial emphasis on authentic leadership and servant leadership, as two widely practiced forms of spiritual leadership. Spiritual leadership begins with being authentic and ends with serving others. Holistic leadership requires we cul-tivate both of these dimensions and mandates that, before leading others, we lead ourselves first. Spiritual leaders are self- directed and other-focused.

MeanIng and defInItIon of SpIrItualIty

True spirituality lies in making the heart and lips the same.—Ramakrishna Paramahamsa

Ramakrishna Paramahamsa, perhaps the best-known seer-saint of nine-teenth century India, presents the essence of being a spiritual person in terms of authenticity: making the heart and lips the same. Broadly speaking, spirituality addresses meaning, motivation, and values involving existen-tial questions and the awareness of divine presence. Webster’s Dictionary defines spirituality as: of, relating to, consisting of or affecting the spirit; of or relating to sacred matters; concerned with religious values; related or joined in spirit; of or relating to supernatural beings or phenomena. Etymologically speaking, the term “spirituality” comes from the Latin word “spiritus” that means vapor, breath, air or wind. The term spirituality means different things to different people. Cavanagh illustrates the diversity of opinions regarding the definition of spirituality as follows:

Ian Mitroff, in a 1998 Symposium addressed to the Academy of Management, defined the concept as “the desire to find ultimate purpose in life, and to live accordingly”. Others define spirituality loosely as energy, meaning, know-ing, etc. Some authors rely heavily on Taoist, Buddhist, Hindu, Zen and Native American spiritualities. These authors correctly claim that these non-western societies are better in integrating personal life, work, leisure, prayer, religion, and other aspects of one’s life.6

6 Gerald F.  Cavanagh, “Spirituality for managers: context and critique”, Journal of Organizational Change Management, 12 (3), (1999): 186–199.

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP: A SUPERIOR WAY TO BE AND SERVE 157

Giacalone and Jurkiewicz define workplace spirituality as: “A framework of organizational values evidenced in the culture that promotes employ-ees’ experience of transcendence through the work process, facilitating their sense of being connected in a way that provides feelings of compas-sion and joy.”7 Mitroff and Denton explain that spirituality is viewed as universal, nondenominational, broadly inclusive, and tolerant, and as “the basic feeling of being connected with one’s complete self, others, and the entire universe.”8 Marques, Dhiman and King explain workplace spiritual-ity as: “an experience of interconnectedness among those involved in a work process, initiated by authenticity, reciprocity, and personal good-will; engendered by a deep sense of meaning that is inherent in the orga-nization’s work; and resulting in greater motivation and organizational excellence.”9

Although the interest in workplace spirituality has been growing over the past three decades, still “the field is full of obscurity and impreci-sion for the researcher, the practitioner, the organizational analyst and whoever attempts to systematically approach this relatively new inquiry field.”10 Moreover, there is no commonly-agreed definition of spiritual-ity. A review of most frequently cited definitions of workplace spirituality reveals the following key components: meaning and purpose in life; sense of interconnectedness, belonging, and transcendence; keener moral sense; living the spiritual values; and personal joy and fulfillment.

Spirituality is the inmost core of our existence without which our life has no meaning beyond the passing façade of fleeting phenomenon. It is what defines us at the deepest level and gives our lives an abiding meaning. Ursula King, Professor Emerita of Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Bristol, broadly defines spiritual life as a “life that cultivates wisdom, compassion, and love for the sake of other people’s lives and

7 Robert A. Giacalone and Carole L. Jurkiewicz, Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance (New York: M. E. Sharpe, 2003), 13.

8 Ian Mitroff and Elizabeth Denton, A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America: A Hard Look at Spirituality, Religion, and Values in the Workplace (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1999), xvi. Also see Ian Mitroff and Elizabeth Denton, “A study of spirituality in the workplace”, Sloan Management Review, 40, (1999): 83–84.

9 Joan Marques, Satinder Dhiman, and Richard King, Sprituality in the Workplace: What it is, Why it Matters, How to Make it Work for You (Riverside, CA: Personhood Press, 2007), 12.

10 George Gotsis and Zoi Kortezi, “Philosophical Foundations of Workplace Spirituality: A Critical Approach”, Journal of Business Ethics, 78 (4) (2008): 575–600.

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one’s own.”11 Taking a broader view of the term, the Australian writer, David Tacey, defines spirituality as referring “to our relationship with sacredness of life, nature, and the universe.”12 King indicates that this new paradigm of all-inclusive spirituality that is democratic and nonhierarchi-cal relegates religion to subsets of the broader category of spirituality. She further notes that even though the relationship between spirituality and religion has now been inverted, the two are still interrelated in many ways.

Broadly speaking, spirituality comprises the following minimum work-ing hypotheses:

1. That the entire world is one family with a common identity and heritage.13

2. That there is a higher principle, force, being or intelligence that sustains the universe.

3. That this is basically a just and fair universe and we are put here to do good.

4. That everything is connected with everything else.5. That there is a purpose for everyone and everything.6. That people have both an inner and outer life.7. That the cultivation of inner life can lead to a more meaningful

and productive outer life.8. That Self-knowledge and selfless service are the two most impor-

tant means to spiritual fulfillment.9. That the Truth is One, sages call it by various names.14

11 Ursula King, The Search for Spirituality: Our Global Quest for a Spiritual Life (New York: BlueBridge Publishing, 2011), 176.

12 Cited in Ursula King, The Search for Spirituality, 16.13 Mahōpaniṣad—VI.72: udāracaritānām tu vasudhaiva kutumbakam: For the magnani-

mous, the entire world constitutes but a single family. See: Dr. A. G. Krishna Warrier, trans., Maha Upanishad (Chennai: The Theosophical Publishing House, n.d.). Accessed: March 20, 2016: http://www.advaita.it/library/mahaupanishad.htm.

14 Ṛg Veda 1.164.46: एकम सत, विपराः बहधा वदनति, ekam sat, viprāḥ bahudhā vadanti. ekam sat, viprāḥ bahudhā vadanti. The complete Sanskrit verse is as follows (with Vedic accent):इनदर मितर वरणमगनिमाहरथो दिवयः स सपरणो गरतमान।एक सदविपरा बहधा वदनतयगनि यम मातरिशवानमाहः॥ १.१६४.४६Retrieved March 20, 2016: http://sanskritdocuments.org/mirrors/rigveda/sanskrit03/

RV0301.html.

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP: A SUPERIOR WAY TO BE AND SERVE 159

10. That this Truth—called variously as the One, Brahman, God, Tao, Allah, Yahweh, the Void, the Ground—is the unmanifest principle of all manifestation.

11. That the Ground is at once transcendent and immanent. 12. That it is possible for human beings to love, know, and, virtually,

to become actually one with the divine Ground. 13. That to achieve this oneness of individual self with the divine

Ground is the final end and purpose of human existence. 14. That there is a Law or Dharma which must be observed, a Tao or

Way which must be followed, if we are to achieve our ultimate purpose.

15. That the more there is of self, the less there is of the Self; and that the Tao is therefore a way of humility and altruistic love.15

These postulates form the basis of the world’s most spiritual and religious traditions. However, spirituality can be practiced without reli-gious beliefs. This explains why some people (and organizations such as Alcoholics Anonymous) view themselves as spiritual and not religious. In this chapter I have chosen to focus on spirituality within the context of leadership. This is in no way to imply that spiritual values and practices are superior to religious beliefs and practices.

Spirituality is an inner quest, highly individual and intensely personal (the flight of the alone to Alone).16 The goal of all spiritual life is to dis-cover the truth of our existence and to cultivate a sense of harmony with all that exists. Most religious and spiritual traditions postulate a state of inner freedom from limitations and variously denote it by such words as mukti, mokṣa, nirvāna, spiritual freedom, liberation, salvation, awaken-ing, enlightenment, or self-realization.

This is the summum bonum, the desideratum of all spirituality.

15 Points 10–15 are adapted from Aldous Huxley, “The Minimum Working Hypothesis”, in Christopher Isherwood, Ed., Vedanta for the Western World (New York: The Viking Press, 1962), p. 34.

16 This is Plotinus’s description of spiritual ecstasy. Cited in Aldous Huxley & Jacqueline H. Bridgeman, Ed., Huxley and God: Essays (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), viii.

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SpIrItualIty VerSuS relIgIon

There is a natural tendency to confuse spirituality with religion. Spirituality, however, is distinct from institutionalized religion. As words, religion is a common noun, spirituality is an abstract noun. Religion can be expressed as a plural noun, spirituality cannot be expressed as a plural.17 While reli-gion often looks outward, depending on rites and rituals; spirituality looks inward—the kingdom within. Spirituality recognizes that there is something sacred at the core of all existence. Spirituality is a nondogmatic, nonexclu-sive, nonpatriarchal and gender-neutral approach to connect with this one source of all existence. Whatever its origin, this one sacred element dwells within every living organism. We call it ‘self’, as distinct from the body-mind-sense complex. The words ‘soul’ and ‘spirit’ are intimately connected and often used interchangeably. Bolman and Deal point out an important distinction: “Soul is personal and unique, grounded in the depths of per-sonal experience. Spirit is transcendent and all embracing. It is the universal source, the oneness of all things.”18 Defined in this manner, spirit is the universal dimension of soul as soul is the individual aspect of spirit.

Based on a 2-year empirical study, Mitroff and Denton found that 60 percent of the participants viewed religion as an inappropriate form of expression, whereas spirituality was interpreted as a proper subject for the workplace.19 Spirituality is supposedly free, universal, and open, while reli-gion is dogmatic, particular, and proselytizing. It is thus possible, in the minds of many, to be religious without being spiritual, and most impor-tant, to be spiritual without being religious.20 This dichotomy has inspired the emergence of spirituality in the workplace.

However, one can be spiritual without being religious. Although some researchers couple spirituality and religion together, yet many people these days like to self-identify as “spiritual but not religious”, not because they are antagonistic to any religious institution, but simply because there is no one institution that fits their spiritual ideology. Frequently, they like to

17 Based on a message posted at Yahoo group, Advaitin by Sunder: [email protected] [advaitin], March 22, 2016. Retrieved: https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/1539c4f9f5877183.

18 Lee G. Bolman & Terrence E. Deal, Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, revised third edition, 2011), 5.

19 Ian Mitroff and Elizabeth Denton, “A study of spirituality in the workplace”, Sloan Management Review, 40, (1999): 83–84.

20 Lake Lambert III, Spirituality, Inc.: Religion in the American Workplace (New York: New York University Press, 2009), 16.

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP: A SUPERIOR WAY TO BE AND SERVE 161

combine elements of various religious traditions and spiritual philosophies such as Buddhism, Vedānta, Sufism, and Judeo-Christianity into some-thing that uniquely resonates with their inner truth. They long for an ideology which is congruent with a reliable knowledge of higher reality, while simultaneously honoring the innate human quest for the Eternal and connection with the Divine. We believe that this longing could serve as a good model for workplace spirituality. If there is respect for everyone’s belief system and there is no persecution or conversion involved, work-place spirituality can contribute significantly to fulfill our spirit’s longing for something greater, fuller, and transcendental.

In his insightful book Ethics for the New Millennium, the Dalai Lama makes a clear distinction between spirituality and religion and situates spir-ituality within the larger societal context, as follows:

Religion I take to be concerned with faith in the claims of one faith tradi-tion or another, an aspect of which is the acceptance of some form of heaven or nirvana. Connected with this are religious teachings or dogma, ritual prayer, and so on. Spirituality I take to be concerned with those qualities of the human spirit—such as love and compassion, patience, tolerance, for-giveness, contentment, a sense of responsibility, a sense of harmony—which bring happiness to both self and others.21

These values provide the fundamental basis for a true religious and spiritual life. In the broadest sense, a religious way of life purifies the mind and pre-pares us for living a spiritual life. Accordingly, spirituality may be viewed as the fulfillment of all religions. True religion and spirituality both teach us how to live a noble life of service and sacrifice based on moral principles. In the true sense, there is no place for fundamentalism in pure religion and spirituality.

IS Workplace SpIrItualIty a paSSIng fad?Some critics opine that spirituality in the workplace is just another passing fad like TQM and reengineering. However, this does not seem to be the case, as several research studies, books, and emerging practices attest. The field has not only blossomed, but literally exploded.22 After providing a

21 Dalai Lama, Ethics for the New Millennium (New York: Riverhead Books, 2001), 22.22 See Robert A. Giacalone and Carole L. Jurkiewicz, Handbook of Workplace Spirituality

and Organizational Performance (London: Routledge, 2nd edition, 2015); Don Grant, Kathleen O’Neil, and Laura Stephens, “Spirituality in the Workplace: New Empirical

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critical review of the literature on workplace spirituality, Gotsis and Kortezi observe that “there are good reasons to believe that workplace spirituality is more than an impermanent trend; on the contrary, the concept carries a much more substantial meaning and its potential contribution to a more rounded understanding of human work, of the workplace and of the orga-nizational reality worthy of examination.”23

Workplace spirituality has now come to be recognized as an acceptable research field. Special issues or sections on this subject have been devoted in peer-reviewed journals (Journal of Managerial Psychology, Journal of Managerial Inquiry, Journal of Management Education, Leadership Quarterly, and Journal of Organizational Change Management).24 In 2001, the Academy of Management, the Holy Grail of management scholars, set up a special interest group for Management, Spirituality, and Religion. And the Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion has come to be rec-ognized as the journal for research in this area. Through these venues, an increasing cadre of management research scholars and practitioners are now exploring the links between management studies, spirituality and religion.

Some critics have expressed doubt about the workplace spirituality movement, arguing that it can be used as a way to manipulate workers to fulfill the selfish or materialistic objectives of some business owners.25 This cannot be considered a valid criticism per se of the workplace spirituality construct. It is like saying that science should be suspect because scientific discoveries can be used for destructive ends. Spirituality, like science, is neutral: both are as good or bad as their users.

Based on the findings drawn from their landmark study comprising more than 90 in-depth interviews and surveys with high level manag-ers and executives, Mitroff and Denton present the following important results about workplace spirituality:26

Directions in the Study of the Sacred”, Sociology of Religion, 65 (3), (2004): 265–283; Lake Lambert III, Spirituality, Inc.: Religion in the American Workplace (New York: New York University Press, 2009).

23 George Gotsis and Zoi Kortezi, “Philosophical Foundations of Workplace Spirituality”, 575.

24 Robert A Giacalone and Carole L. Jurkiewicz, Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance (London: Routledge, 2nd edition, 2015).

25 Cavanagh, G. F., & Bandsuch, M. R., “Virtue as a benchmark for spirituality in busi-ness”, Journal of Business Ethics, 2002, 38 (1), 109–117.

26 Ian Mitroff and Elizabeth Denton, A Spiritual Audit of Corporate America, xv–xvii.

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1. There was nearly unanimous agreement on the definition of spiritu-ality and its role in people’s lives: spirituality is the basic desire to find ultimate meaning and purpose in one’s life and to live an integrated life.

2. People do not want to compartmentalize or fragment their lives. They want to be acknowledged as whole persons in the workplace.

3. The respondents generally differentiated strongly between religion and spirituality. They viewed religion as a “highly inappropriate” topic while spirituality was viewed as “highly appropriate.”

4. People are hungry for models of practicing spirituality in the work-place without offending their co-workers or causing acrimony.

5. Only a number of models currently exist for practicing spirituality responsibly in the workplace.

These findings provided a clear understanding of the difference between religion and spirituality and thus have important implications for workplace spirituality. They also provide a solid foundation to map out the spiritual leadership canvas in terms of what people really yearn for in the workplace. In the following section, we explore the role of spirituality in leadership.

leaderShIp reSearch In the tWentIeth century

Leadership research in the twentieth century has mainly focused on the industrial paradigm of leadership characterized by a hierarchical structure of authority and responsibility with an individualistic focus on the person-ality of the leader—one person directing other people for materialistic, utilitarian ends. After critiquing hundreds of definitions of leadership put forth by different scholars and writers during the twentieth century, Rost concluded that they largely reflected the industrial paradigm of leader-ship, characterized by hierarchical and pyramid-type structures, an indi-vidualistic focus on the leader, and a strong utilitarian ethical perspective. He contends that these definitions largely define leadership in terms of good management characterized by their exclusive focus on goals and results.27 However, this traditional paradigm cannot solve many of the

27 Joseph C. Rost, Leadership for the Twenty-First Century (NY: Praeger, reprint edition, 1993). See also Joseph C.  Rost, “Leadership development in the new millennium”, The Journal of Leadership Studies, 1 (1), (1993): 91–110.

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problems that confront us today. Rost notes that a number of leadership scholars, writers and commentators have begun to emphasize the impor-tance of values such as collaboration, the common good, global concern, diversity and pluralism as important components of leadership for the twenty-first century.28 As a result, we see the emergence of new forms of leadership—called “positive theories of leadership”. Authentic leadership and servant leadership are two such approaches that we will explore in this chapter.

Drawing upon the literature review of organizational spirituality, psychology of religion, positive psychology, and spirituality leadership theory, Vasconcelos contends that the logic that has prevailed in busi-ness enterprises has been largely economic, except for some honorable initiatives. He avers that these findings also indicate that the material paradigm is not suited to deal with germane problems that shape today’s world.29

According to Rost, “Leadership is an influence relationship among leaders and followers who intend real changes that reflect their mutual purposes.”30 Two key components of this definition are “influence” and “mutual purposes”. Leadership as an influence, says Rost, has two fea-tures: (1) It is multidirectional, in that influence flows in all directions and not just from the top down; (2) and it is noncoercive, meaning that it is not based on authority or dictatorial actions.31 It may be noted that Rost uses the phrase “mutual purposes” (and not “mutual goals”) to emphasize both the “mutuality” and “plurality” of purposes. The compelling basis of this “mutuality” is best expressed by a popular quote widely attributable to Mother Teresa: “I can do things you cannot do, you can do things I cannot do; together we can do great things.”32 In this vital observation, Mother Teresa underscores our mutuality and provides the best raison d’être for team work in organizations.

The progressive history of business during the twentieth century bears out Rost’s analysis of leadership theories. If the twentieth century was characterized by leadership theories influenced by the industrial revolution

28 Ibid., 181.29 Joseph C. Rost, Leadership for the Twenty-First Century, 101.30 Ibid., 102. [emphasis added].31 Ibid., 107.32 These are perhaps not her exact words: http://www.motherteresa.org/08_info/

Quotesf.html.

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP: A SUPERIOR WAY TO BE AND SERVE 165

paradigm, in the twenty-first century we have a spiritual revolution guiding us toward more humane approaches to leadership.

This understanding provides a good transition to spiritual leadership.

SpIrItual leaderShIp: theory and practIce

In the recent years, educators and scholars have underscored the importance of spirituality as a critical element of leadership.33 Astin and Astin contend that “future leaders will not only need to possess new knowledge and skills, but will also be called upon to display a high level of emotional and spiritual wisdom and maturity.”34 More recently, Fry and Kriger have proposed a being-centered theory of leadership that goes beyond current theory which emphasizes having and doing—either having appropriate traits and competencies or doing appropriate actions depending on the situation.35 These perspectives illustrate how leadership is closely related to one’s spirituality with a higher awareness of self and others.

Fry, Vitucci and Cedillo define spiritual leadership as “the values, attitudes, and behaviors that one must adopt in intrinsically motivating oneself and others so that both have a sense of spiritual survival through calling and membership—i.e., they experience meaning in their lives, have a sense of making a difference, and feel understood and appreciated.”36 Fry and Matherly theorize that “spiritual leadership involves motivating and inspiring workers through a transcendent vision and a culture based in altruistic values to produce a more motivated, committed and produc-tive workforce. … The theory of spiritual leadership was developed within an intrinsic motivation model that incorporates vision, hope/faith, and

33 See Lee G. Bolman & Terrence E. Deal, Leading with Soul: An Uncommon Journey of Spirit (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, revised third edition, 2011); Parker J Palmer. “Leading from Within”. Chapter 5 from Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2000). Chapter retrieved March 15, 2016: http://www.couragerenewal.org/PDFs/Parker-Palmer_leading-from-within.pdf.

34 Alexander W.  Astin and Helen S.  Astin, Leadership Reconsidered: Engaging Higher Education in Social Change (Battle Creek, MI: W.K. Kellogg Foundation, 2000), 1.

35 Louis Fry and Mark Kriger, “Towards a theory of being-centered leadership: Multiple levels of being as context for effective leadership”, Human Relations, 62 (11), (2009): 1667–96.

36 Louis W. Fry, Steve Vitucci, and Marie Cedillo, “Spiritual leadership and army transfor-mation: theory, measurement, and establishing a baseline”, The Leadership Quarterly, 16 (5), (2005): 835–862.

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altruistic love, theories of workplace spirituality, and spiritual survival/well-being.”37

Drawing upon further research, Fry provided a more comprehensive description of the purpose of spiritual leadership as “to tap into the fun-damental needs of both leaders and followers for spiritual well-being through calling (life has meaning and makes a difference) and membership (belonging); to create vision and value congruence across the individual, empowered team, and organization levels; and, ultimately, to foster higher levels of employee well-being, organizational commitment, financial per-formance, and social responsibility—the Triple Bottom Line.”38 Fry makes it clear that spiritual leadership fulfills the quest for spiritual well-being in both the leader and the followers.

In sum, Spiritual leadership refers to the values, attitudes, and behaviors that are necessary intrinsically to motivate oneself and others. This entails:

1. Creating a vision wherein leaders and followers experience a sense of calling in that life has meaning and makes a difference.

2. Establishing a social/organizational culture based on the values of altruistic love whereby leaders and followers have a sense of mem-bership, feel understood and appreciated, and have genuine care, concern, and appreciation for both self and others.39

Spiritual leadership builds on existing value-based, positive theories of leadership that foster self-awareness and garner a sense of altruistic love expressed through selfless service. Crossman highlights some ways in which spiritual leadership relates to other existing value-based theo-ries such as transformational, servant leadership and how it fosters “the ideals of being self-aware and other-aware, but also ‘world-aware.’”40 It would not be amiss to say that a high sense of moral responsibility is the very foundation of spiritual leadership. As John Gardner has observed, “It

37 Louis W.  Fry and Laura L.  Matherly, “Spiritual Leadership and Organizational Performance: An Exploratory Study”. Retrieved March 21, 2016: http://precisionmi.org/Materials/LeadershipMat/Spiritual%20Leadership%20and%20Organizational%20Performance%20-%20An%20Exploratory%20Study.pdf.

38 Retrieved March 21, 2–16: http://iispiritualleadership.com/spiritual-leadership/.39 Louis W. Fry, “Toward a theory of spiritual leadership”, The Leadership Quarterly, 14,

(2003): 693–727.40 Cited in Sue Howard, S and David Welbourn, The Spirit at Work Phenomenon (London:

Azure, 2004), 123.

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isn’t in the grand design that we can have freedom without obligation.”41 Freedom and responsibility are interdependent. When we take care of our responsibilities, we take care of our freedom on its own accord.

In the following section, I present two most important expressions of spiritual leadership: Authentic Leadership and Servant Leadership.

authentIc leaderShIp

Personal authenticity has been explored throughout history, from Greek philosophers (“Know Thyself”—Socrates) to Shakespeare (“To thine own self be true”—Polonius, Hamlet). At one level, it implies owning one’s personal experiences, as indicated by the dictum “Know Thyself.” Additionally, “To thine own self be true” advises that one acts in accord with one’s true self.42 Thus, authenticity as defined in this context seems to be closely linked with self-awareness, sincerity, truth, and transparency.

The first essay on authentic leadership was written by R.W. Terry in 1993, followed up in 2003 by Bill George, the exemplary former head of Medtronic. George has discussed the concept of authentic leadership in his bestseller Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value. In the context of rampant corporate scandals and perva-sive financial crises, George argues that leadership needs to be completely reexamined and rethought. This calls for a new type of leader who embod-ies qualities such as integrity, transparency, humility and a deep sense of purpose.43 Bill George states concisely: “We need leaders who lead with purpose, values and integrity; leaders who build enduring organizations, motivate their employees to provide superior customer service, and create long-term value for shareholders.”44 The emphasis on these abiding values has been a recurrent theme throughout this book.

41 John Gardner, Can We Be Equal and Excellent Too? (New York: W. W. Norton, 1984), 154.

42 S. Harter, “Authenticity”, in C. R. Snyder and S. J. Lopez, Eds., Handbook of Positive Psychology (London: Oxford University Press, 2002), 382–394.

43 See: B.  George and P.  Sims, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2007); B.  George, P.  Sims, A.  N. McLean, and D.  Mayer, “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership”, Harvard Business Review, 85 (2), (2007): 129–138.

44 William George, Authentic Leadership: Rediscovering the Secrets to Creating Lasting Value (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2003), 9.

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In recent times, authentic leadership has gained increasing importance since it places high emphasis on behaving transparently, with a high moral and ethical bearing. According to Avolio and Gardner, authentic leader-ship is a somewhat generic term and can incorporate transformational, charismatic, servant, spiritual or other forms of positive leadership. As one of the positive forms of leadership, authentic leadership complements work on ethical and transformational leadership.45 Walumbwa et al. define authentic leadership as follows:

A pattern that draws upon and promotes both positive psychological capaci-ties and a positive ethical climate, to foster greater self-awareness, an inter-nalized moral perspective, balanced processing of information, and relational transparency on the part of leaders working with followers, fostering posi-tive self-development.46

The key components of authentic leadership that emerge from this defi-nition are: self-awareness, moral perspective, and relational transparency. Zhu et al. explain that to be authentic, leaders must transcend their own narrow self-interests and focus on the greater common good.47 Thus authentic leadership is more than just “being true to oneself” and encom-passes moral perspectives and honest relationships with followers.

As a proponent of authentic leadership, Bill George has proposed the view that leaders need to follow their internal compass to reach their true purpose. Based on interviews with 125 contemporary heads of various organizations, George and Sims have identified the following 5 dimen-sions of authentic leaders:

1. pursuing purpose with passion, 2. practicing solid values, 3. leading with heart, 4. establishing enduring relationships, and

45 Bruce J. Avolio and William L. Gardner, “Authentic leadership development: Getting to the root of positive forms of leadership”, The Leadership Quarterly, 16 (2005): 315–338.

46 F.  O. Walumbwa, B.  J. Avolio, W.  L. Gardner, T.  S. Wernsing, and S.  J. Peterson, “Authentic Leadership: Development and Validation of a Theory-based Measure”, Journal of Management, 34 (1), (2008): 89–126.

47 W. Zhu, D. R. May, and B. J. Avolio, “The Impact of Ethical Leadership Behavior on Employee Outcomes: The Roles of Psychological Empowerment and Authenticity”, Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 11 (1), (2004): 16–26.

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP: A SUPERIOR WAY TO BE AND SERVE 169

5. demonstrating self-discipline.48

Building on the metaphor of a compass pointing toward a magnetic pole, George, McLean and Craig equate the search for authentic leader-ship with a journey toward our True North and point out:

True North is the internal moral compass that guides you successfully through life. It represents who you are as a human being at your deepest level. … Your True North is based on what is most important to you, your most cherished values, your passions and motivations, the sources of satisfactions in your life. Just as a compass points toward a magnetic pole, your True North pulls you toward the purpose of your leadership. When you follow your internal com-pass, your leadership will be authentic, and people will follow you naturally.49

George et al. acknowledge that finding our True North is a lifetime jour-ney beset with risks and uncertainties. It takes hard work and a sincere look at our strengths and shortcomings: “Becoming an authentic leader”, they state, “takes hard work. It is not much different from becoming a great musician or a great athlete. To become great in any endeavor—whether it is your career, your family, your community—you must use the unique strengths you were born with and develop them to the fullest, while acknowledging and learning from your shortcomings.”50

In the Epilogue to their book True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership, George and Sims invite us to reflect upon what our legacy will be by envisioning the end of our life. What would we like to say to our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren about the impact of our lifework? Or, what difference did we make in the world through our com-bined efforts? With a seriousness characteristic of certain urgency, they conclude thoughtfully: “Why not take the opportunity to think about that question right now, while you are still writing your life story? Just as it is never too late to lead, it is never too late to make a difference in the world and to leave a legacy … the only thing you take with you is what you leave behind. … That is the fulfillment of leadership.”51 What legacy leaders leave depends upon how they lead their lives.

48 George and Sims, True North, xxxi.49 Bill George, Andrew McLean, and Nick Craig, Finding Your True North: A Personal

Guide (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2008), xiii.50 Ibid.51 George and Sims, True North, 201–202.

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SerVant leaderShIp

Regarded by many authors as “a valid, modern theory of leadership,”52 ser-vant leadership was first introduced by Robert K. Greenleaf’s powerful short essay written in 1970, titled “The Servant as Leader.” Describing what he called “the leadership crisis”, Greenleaf notes that “colleges, universities, and seminaries have failed in their responsibility to prepare young people for leadership roles in society.”53 According to Greenleaf, “The servant-leader is servant first … It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first.”54 Greenleaf believes that through selfless service, servant leaders achieve trust among employees, customers, and communities. He then goes on to pres-ent the litmus test of effectiveness of leadership:

The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as per-sons? Do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged in society; will they benefit, or, at least, not be further deprived? … The servant-as-leader must constantly ask: How can I use myself to serve best?55

Greenleaf informs us that he got the idea of servant leadership by reading Hermann Hesse’s book entitled Journey to the East. Therefore, the best way to understand servant leadership is to read Journey to the East. The book is about a spiritual journey to the East. During the journey, a humble servant named Leo does all the chores for the travelers. He keeps the group together through his songs and high spirits. And when Leo disappears, the group falls into disarray and the journey is abandoned. They cannot continue without him. Later on in the book, the narrator finds out that Leo, whom he had taken to be a servant, was actually the noble leader of the group.56 This radi-cal shift is the core of servant leadership: from followers serving leaders to leaders serving followers. Servant leadership is shared leadership in essence: it

52 Robert F. Russell and A. Gregory Stone, “A Review of Servant Leadership Attributes”, Leadership & Organizational Development Journal, 23 (3), (2002): 145–157.

53 Robert K. Greenleaf, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1977), 77.

54 Ibid., 27.55 Ibid., 5, 10.56 Hermann Hesse, The Journey to the East, translated by H. Rosner (New York: Picador,

2003; Original work published in 1932).

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emphasizes increased service to others, a holistic approach to work, promot-ing a sense of community and the sharing of power in decision-making.57

In short, the basic mind-set of a servant leader is a strong desire to con-tribute. Stephen Covey writes: “Deep within each one of us there is an inner longing to live a life of greatness and contribution—to really matter, to really make a difference.”58 Swami Dayananda, a preeminent modern teacher of Vedanta, puts it even more succinctly: “One must grow from being a consumer to become a contributor.”59 For as long as we are living a life of a consumer, we are not paying off our spiritual debt to the universe.

Servant leadership is similar to transformational leadership in that both emphasize, appreciate and empower followers. However, as Stone et al. point out, the main difference between servant leadership and transforma-tional leadership is the focus of the leader: “Transformational leaders tend to focus more on organizational objectives, while servant leaders focus more on people who are their followers.”60 These authors further point out that servant leaders influence followers through service itself, while transformational leaders rely on their charismatic abilities.

IntegrIty: the MoSt IMportant leaderShIp IngredIent

According to Bennis and Nanus, leaders come in all shapes and sizes—short, tall, neat, sloppy, young, old, male and female. Based on their research, the basic ingredients of leadership are a guiding vision, passion, integrity, trust, curiosity and daring. For them, leadership is all about character, and integrity matters most.61 The importance of integrity is also borne out by many other leadership researchers. Kouzes and Posner, having sur-veyed over 75,000 people around the globe over the last 30 years, discov-ered that honesty emerges as the single most important ingredient in the

57 Larry Spears, Practicing Servant-Leadership: Succeeding Through Trust, Bravery, and Forgiveness (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2004).

58 Steven Covey, The 8th Habit: From Effectiveness to Greatness (New York: Free Press, 2004), 28.

59 Avgcbe (December 18, 2010), Life and Work of Pujya Swami Dayananda Saraswati [Video file]. Retrieved, February 12, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FNDth7fajY.

60 G. A. Stone, R. F. Russell, and K. Patterson, “Transformational versus Servant Leadership: A Difference in Leader Focus”, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 25 (4), (2004): 349–361.

61 Bennis and Nanus, Leaders, 7–9.

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leader-constituent relationship. They conclude that “nearly 90 percent of constituents want their leaders to be honest above all else.”62 They list 5 practices of exemplary leadership:

(1) Model the way; (2) Inspire a shared vision; (3) Challenge the process; (4) Enable others; and (5) Encourage the heart.63

According to social learning theory, role models facilitate the acqui-sition of moral and other types of behavior. This theory highlights the influence aspect of leadership. Albert Schweitzer is reported to have said, “Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”

Defining the process of becoming a leader in terms of authenticity and self-mastery, Bennis equates it with becoming yourself, which is not as simple as it sounds. He gives out all the keys to exemplary leadership in an interview to Fast Company:

The process of becoming a leader is, if not identical, certainly similar to the process of becoming a fully integrated human being. It’s got to do with authenticity, it’s got to do with candor, it’s got to do with the fact that one cannot truly lead unless one is an expert in self-management. The essence of leaders is placed firmly in issues of character, on who we are, on self-awareness.64

Both authentic and servant leadership approaches discussed above put the emphasis on the moral side of leadership, thus underscoring the basic link between a given leadership style and what could be considered as “values- based leadership”.

We present below some creative expressions of spirituality and spiritual leadership in the workplace.

62 Kouzes and Posner, The Leadership Challenge, 34.63 Ibid., 14–24.64 Warren G. Bennis (interview, December 26, 2011), “Have the requirements for being a

good leader changed?” Fast Company: Leadership Hall of Fame.

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP: A SUPERIOR WAY TO BE AND SERVE 173

edgeWalkIng leaderShIp: Dancing Without Falling oFF the cliFF

The traditional forms of leadership and organizational structure are prov-ing inadequate to deal with emerging reality that is complex, multidimen-sional, and virtual. We need new thinking, new metaphors of resonance to dance with the emergent reality. We need holistic systems that are able to integrate the spiritual and the material perspectives in a dialectical manner.

Based on formal research interviews conducted over a 5 year period with 40 business leaders and numerous workshops and talks, Judi Neal presents a model of leadership that incorporates 5 qualities and 5 skills of leaders called Edgewalkers, a term she coined to denote leaders who are worldcentric in their identity and outlook, who are deeply spiritual and who are committed to making a positive difference in the world.65

The 5 Edgewalker qualities of being are: Self-Awareness, Passion, Integrity, Vision, and Playfulness. Although, many other leadership theo-ries describe the first 4 of these qualities, yet one quality that is seldom seen in the leadership literature is the quality of playfulness. The quality of playfulness allows edgewalkers to see possibilities and to envision seemingly unrelated things in ways not obvious to others. The 5 Edgewalker skills are: Knowing the Future, Risk-Taking, Manifesting, Focusing, and Connecting.

What gives these leaders Egdewalker status is the fact that they operate on the margins, right on the edge between what is present and what is pos-sible. Neal avers that Edgewalkers walk between the spiritual and material world by envisioning what is possible and then taking symbolic and con-crete action to make it real.

Neal clarifies that Edgewalkers’ primary identity is not wrapped up in the organization that they work for, or the state or province that they live in. And while they may love the country of their citizenship, they see themselves more as citizens of the universe. They are people who walk between worlds and build bridges between different worldviews. They stand with one foot in the present reality and another foot in the future. These new global humans, these Edgewalkers, are the ones who can lead humanity into a future based on peace, sustainability, social justice, equality and enough for all.66

65 Judi Neal, Edgewalkers: People and Organizations that Take Risks, Build Bridges, and Break New Ground (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006).

66 See Judi Neal, “Edgewalker: Leadership and the New Global Human,” in Mark Russell and Mike Thompson, Eds., Business, Spiritually and the Common Good, forthcoming, retrieved, March 20, 2016: http://edgewalkers.org.

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return on character? Does it still Pay to Be gooD!Exemplary leaders will be distinguished by their mastery of soft skills: people skills, taste, judgment and above all character. Character is the voice inside which speaks and says ‘This is the real me’. Effective leaders, and effective peo-ple, know this voice very well.

—WARREN BENNIS

In Warren Bennis’s view, exemplary leaders are distinguished by the strength of their character. Character signifies our core values and beliefs and their congruence. Research reported in Harvard Business Review (HBR) over the last 20 years about the alchemy of exemplary leadership has fully borne out Bennis’s sage observation. According to this research, all exemplary leadership largely centers around “leader as a person”—on leader’s character and qualities of the heart.

Does it pay to be virtuous? Do highly principled leaders and their organizations perform especially well, financially? Yes, reports the HBR 2015 April issue. According to a new study by KRW International, a Minneapolis-based leadership consultancy, the researchers found that CEOs whose employees gave them high marks for character had an aver-age return on assets of 9.35 % over a two-year period. That’s nearly 5 times as much as what those with low character ratings had; their ROA averaged only 1.93 %.67

Drawing on and sifting through the anthropologist Donald Brown’s classic inventory of about 500 behaviors and characteristics that are recog-nized and displayed in all human societies, the study identified four moral principles—integrity, responsibility, forgiveness, and compassion—as uni-versal markers of character. These four pillars can be expressed as four sets of leadership behaviors: do the right thing, work for the common good, rise above mistakes (your own and others’), and be compassionate. The study found out that leaders who frequently engaged in behaviors that reveal strong character—for instance, standing up for what’s right, expressing concern for the common good, letting go of mistakes (their own and others’), and showing empathy—outperformed their counter-parts who lacked these moral values.

67 See: Measuring the Return on Character, HBR, April 2015, 20–21.

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP: A SUPERIOR WAY TO BE AND SERVE 175

The good news is (and research shows it too) that with some inclina-tion and concerted effort, character can be cultivated and honed over time to do the right thing and to act compassionately for the common good.

SteVe JobS: a caSe In poInt

He wasn’t a saint. I am not saying that. None of us are. But it’s emphatically untrue that he wasn’t a great human being.68

This quote from Tim Cook, Apple CEO, shows us that spiritual leadership is not about being a saint; it is about becoming a great human being. In their recent book on the evolution of Steve Jobs as a visionary leader, Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli quote Tim Cook who tells the untold story of his friendship with Steve Jobs. According to Cook, Steve was a passion-ate person, a caring leader and a genuine human being. He believes that Walter Isaacson’s biography69 did Steve a tremendous disservice by unfairly portraying him as a sort of greedy, selfish egomaniac. It didn’t capture his humane side—Steve Jobs, the person.

Tim recalls that when he offered his liver to Steve, Steve refused, stat-ing, ‘No, ‘I’ll never let you do that. I’ll never do that!’ “Somebody that’s selfish,” Cook recounts, “doesn’t reply like that.”70 According to Tim Cook, Steve cared. He cared deeply about things. Yes, he was very pas-sionate about things, and he wanted things to be perfect. And that was what was great about him. He wanted everyone to do their best … A lot of people mistook that passion for arrogance.71

Many believe that the inner clarity and conviction that Steve Jobs attained was the result of his deep explorations into his spiritual self. It is well known that Steve was mystified by Eastern philosophies. He went to India during the ‘70s as a teenager before he co-founded Apple. It proved to be a life-changing experience and a great turning point in the real spiri-tual sense. After reading Harvard professor Ram Das’s Be Here Now and Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, Steve Jobs traveled to India in 1974 with a friend, Dan Kottke, who later became Apple’s first

68 Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart into a Visionary Leader (New York: Crown Business, 2015), 392.

69 Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 43; 447.70 Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, Becoming Steve Jobs: The Evolution of a Reckless Upstart

into a Visionary Leader (New York: Crown Business, 2015), 392.71 Ibid.

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employee. His trip to India was disappointing and revelatory at once, as he himself realized and recounted: “We weren’t going to find a place where we could go for a month to be enlightened.”72 Yet in a far more impor-tant sense, during his short fling into various Indian āshrams, Steve picked up the importance of cultivating inner centeredness and composure and looking at the world from the inside out. This orientation seemed to have served him well throughout his life as a leader of Apple.

His interest in Eastern spirituality was solidified later when he dabbled into Zen Buddhism at the Los Altos Zendo. The greatest influence on Steve Jobs, however, was the book Autobiography of a Yogi—“the guide to meditation and spirituality that he had first read as a teenager”, his biog-rapher, Walter Isaacson, tells us, “then re-read in India and had read once a year ever since”. It was the only book, Isaacson notes, that Steve down-loaded on his personal ipad2.73 Steve’s credo “Actualize yourself” seems to have come directly out of Yogananda’s philosophy of Self-realization.

It has recently come to knowledge that copies of Yogananda’s classic autobiography were handed out at Steve Jobs’ memorial, as reported by Marc Benioff, CEO and Co-Founder of Salesforce.Com, in a Tech Crunch Disrupt SF 2013 conference interview.74 Marc shares his story of opening the brown box that was given to every guest at Steve Job’ memorial ser-vice. Steve Jobs had apparently arranged for Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi to be a last gift from him to persons attending his memorial service.75

Steve Jobs had his share of human failings. He never pretended to be a saint. His 2005 Stanford Commencement Address shows him to be search-ing for deep spiritual answers to the perennial questions of life. In him we find a curious integration of Jim Collins’s level 5 leader, marked by a para-doxical combination of compelling humility (“stay hungry, stay foolish”) and fierce professional will (“making a ding in the universe”). A popular ‘Steve Jobs in heaven’ cartoon has St. Peter introduce Jobs to Moses with the

72 Anthony Imbimbo, Steve Jobs: The Brilliant Mind Behind Apple (Life Portraits) (New York: Gareth Stevens Publishing, 2009), 42.

73 Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 527.74 Marc Benioff on the Invisible Hand of Steve Jobs|Disrupt SF 2013. Interview Retrieved

March 22, 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rO_Vs4M29k.75 Walter Isaacson in his biography, Steve Jobs, lists a number of books that influenced Steve

Jobs: William Shakespeare’s King Lear, Plato, Clayton Christensen’s Innovator’s Dilemma, Shunryu Suzuki’s Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind, Chogyam Trungpa’s Cutting Through Spiritual Materialism, Paramahansa Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi, and Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. See: Isaacson, Steve Jobs, p. 35.

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP: A SUPERIOR WAY TO BE AND SERVE 177

caption: “Moses, meet Steve. He’s gonna upgrade your tablets …”76 That he arranged to distribute Autobiography of a Yogi at his memorial service tells us a lot about what was on his mind during the final period of his life.

concludIng thoughtS

Leadership is a moral and spiritual journey whose compass is found within the soul. What is the essence of spiritual leadership? It is just this: Knowing the truth about ourselves, helping others discover this truth, and boldly living out this truth together moment-to-moment in a life marked by humility, altruistic love, compassion and contribution. Having material wealth doesn’t really satisfy our inner yearning for a deeper meaning and fulfillment in work and life. Spiritual leadership transforms the nature of leadership itself—so that the central purpose of leadership becomes spiri-tual fulfillment and service to society.

As I complete this chapter, a student of mine sent me an email about Starbucks. The company announced today that it will attempt to donate 100 percent of its leftover food from its 7000-plus US locations to food banks. According to Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz, the idea came from baristas.77 Reading this announcement made me think about the larger pur-pose of human existence. It is not by our wars and competitions that we dignify our race; rather it is through our caring and contribution that we truly redeem our existence. But the spiritual journey must start with oneself, for unless there is order within oneself, there cannot be order in the world.

This is the need of the hour: We need leaders who are centered, but not self-centered, leaders who lead with self-power and not position- power. This truth is also highlighted by Bolman and Deal as they conclude their book Leading with Soul with a quote from David Batstone:

At this moment the corporation sorely needs leaders—not people with titles, but true leaders at every level of the corporate ladder—to live with soul …. I am inclined to believe, however, that for most people, it is not a new path but the truth about themselves that awaits discovery. Once they start living out of that discovery, they inspire everyone around them.78

76 Retrieved March 21, 2016: http://maypalo.com/2011/10/09/top-5-best-steve-jobs-in- heaven-comics/.

77 Retrieved March 22, 2016: http://abc7.com/news/starbucks-to-start-donating- leftover-food-to-food-banks/1258192/.

78 Cited in Bolman and Deal, Leading with Soul, 236.

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Spiritual leadership is not about how high you climb on the organizational ladder; it is about what you contribute and stand for.

leadIng WIth Soul: reflectIon QueStIonS

1. The twentieth century was characterized by leadership theories influenced by the industrial revolution paradigm. Explain why we need a holistic leadership approach that integrates the spiritual and the material perspectives to deal with emerging reality that is com-plex, multidimensional and virtual.

2. Why it is important to differentiate between religion and spirituality in the workplace? Do you think that spirituality is an appropriate topic for the workplace?

3. Explain 5 key spiritual values that are integral to employee well- being and organizational success.

4. It has been said that spiritual leadership begins with being authentic and ends with serving others. Explain how spiritual leadership is exercised in the form of authentic leadership and servant leadership.

5. Explain how spiritual leadership is a vital expression of holistic lead-ership. What do these two forms of leadership have in common?

6. Do highly principled leaders and their organizations perform espe-cially well, financially? Explain briefly.

7. It has been observed that spiritual leadership depends upon self- power and not position-power. Explain how holistic leaders develop self-power through moral and spiritual values.

SPIRITUAL LEADERSHIP: A SUPERIOR WAY TO BE AND SERVE 179

181© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_8

CHAPTER 8

Your work is to discover your work and then with all your heart to give yourself to it.

—The Buddha

IntroductIon

What does it mean to discover our true calling? Why did the Buddha include right livelihood as an important aspect of his Noble Eightfold Path? The Buddha’s opening quote emphasizes the importance of discov-ering our work and doing it with the right attitude. This chapter highlights the need and importance of meaning and purpose in life and leadership. It begins with indicating a world-wide employee engagement crisis which reveals that as high as 90 percent of workers are either “not engaged” with or “actively disengaged” from their jobs. This has serious implications not only for global economy but also for people’s personal sense of well-being and fulfillment. This state of disengagement is not limited to workers alone. Research also shows that “fewer than 20 % of leaders have a strong sense of their own individual purpose” and that “articulating purpose and finding the courage to live it is the single most important developmental task” a leader can undertake.1 These findings show that engagement crisis is germane to both the leaders as well as the followers. This chapter builds

1 Nick Craig and Scott A. Snook, “From Purpose to Impact: Figure Out Your Passion and Put It to Work”, Harvard Business Review, 92, no. 5, (May 2014): 105–111.

Meaning & Purpose in Leadership: What Are You Willing to Bet Your Life On?

on the view that when the why of a leader’s work is clear, the task of how becomes quite easy.

Work is not just a 9-to-5 thing that we do to pay our bills. It occupies a central position in our quest for finding meaning in life. Given the fact that most of us spend the majority of our waking hours at work, it is natural to seek meaning and purpose in work and at work. To succeed in the twenty-first century, leaders of organizations must offer a greater sense of meaning and purpose for their workforce. Holistic leaders seek fulfillment through meaning, purpose and contribution. To inform a leader’s quest for meaning and purpose, the first section of this chapter reviews at length the work of Victor Frankl, Robert Emmons, and Michael Ray. In the sec-ond section, we explore the concept of purpose-driven leadership—that is, how leaders boldly live their purpose in making a difference.

Organizations and researchers are interested in understanding the factors that contribute to meaningful work.2 What is the link between workplace spirituality, meaningful work and employee engagement? As we learned in the chapter on spiritual leadership, spirituality helps us to discover the deeper, transcendental meaning in our work; while workplace spirituality helps us find meaning at work. Recently, scholars have started making a conscious link between workplace spirituality and employee engagement.3

The French writer, Albert Camus, artfully linked meaning at work and meaning in work when he said: “Without work, all life goes rotten. But when work is soulless, life stifles and dies.”4 Human life seems to be so constituted that if work were not necessary for making a living, it will still be necessary for living a fulfilling, meaningful life. Maslow has stated that “the only happy people I know are the ones who are working well at something they consider important.”5 Since meaning can only be found in our social interaction, it is important that leaders strive to create a rich organizational culture that enables individuals to come together to carry out a meaningful common purpose. In his classic work, Man’s Search for Meaning, Victor Frankl indicates that humans seek meaning in their lives

2 Christopher Michaelson, Michael G.  Pratt, Adam M.  Grant, and Craig P.  Dunn, “Meaningful Work: Connecting Business Ethics and Organization Studies”, Journal of Business Ethics, 121 (71), (2014): 77–90.

3 Alan M.  Saks, “Workplace spirituality and employee engagement,” Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion, 8 (4), (2011): 317–340.

4 E.  F. Schumacher and Peter N.  Gillingham, Good Work (New York: HarperCollins, 1980), 4.

5 Abraham H. Maslow and Deborah C. Stephens, Maslow Business Reader (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2000), 12.

182 S. DHIMAN

by committing to a cause outside themselves. Research has borne out the conventional wisdom that meaning is important in life as well as at work. This may be common sense but not common practice.

the WorldWIde employee engagement crIsIs

Work has ceased to be a source of fulfillment for many people and they feel disengaged and disenfranchised at work. Studies after studies have shown that people of all ages and across income levels, are unhappy with their supervisors, apathetic about their organizations and detached from what they do. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, which has been polling over 1000 adults every day since January 2008, shows that Americans now feel worse about their jobs—and work environments—than ever before. Gallup estimates the cost of America’s disengagement crisis at a staggering $300 billion in lost productivity annually. After analyzing 64,000 specific workday events reported in 12,000 electronic diary entries from 238 pro-fessionals in seven different companies, these authors conclude “of all the events that engage people at work, the single most important—by far—is simply making progress in meaningful work.”6

A recent Gallup Report points out that the world has an employee- engagement crisis, with serious and potentially lasting repercussions for the global economy. According to this report, worldwide, only 13 % of employees working for an organization are engaged.7 A 2014 Gallup sur-vey found that almost 90 percent of workers were either “not engaged” with, or “actively disengaged” from, their jobs. Commenting on the state of employee disengagement worldwide, Barry Schwartz, observes wryly:

We are checked out, sleepwalking through our days, putting little energy into our work. And the rest of us are actively disengaged. … Ninety percent of adults spend half their waking lives doing things they would rather not be doing at places they would rather not be.8

6 Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, Do Happier People Work Harder? New York Times, Sept. 3, 2011. Also see Teresa Amabile and Steven Kramer, The Progressive Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work (Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press, 2011).

7 Annamarie Mann and Jim Harter, The Worldwide Employee Engagement Crisis, Gallup Business Journal, January 7, 2016. Retrieved March 17, 2016: http://www.gallup.com/busi-nessjournal/188033/worldwide-employee-engagement-crisis.aspx?g_source= EMPLOYEE_ENGAGEMENT&g_medium=topic&g_campaign=tiles.

8 Barry Schwartz, Why We Work [A TED Book] (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2015), 3.

MEANING & PURPOSE IN LEADERSHIP: WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO BET YOUR... 183

This high degree of disengagement is quite alarming and has far reach-ing consequences about workplace productivity and success. In his 1998 book, The Human Equation, the Stanford organizational behavior pro-fessor, Jeffrey Pfeffer, contends that people-centered companies are usu-ally more profitable in the long run. One could argue that this is just plain common sense, that companies that treat their employees well have a more engaged workforce which translates into more profits. Based on sev-eral studies, Pfeffer found that companies which provided their employ-ees work that was inherently meaningful, challenging and engaging were more profitable. In fact, the “returns from managing people in ways that build high commitment, involvement, and learning and organizational competence are typically on the order of 30 to 50 percent substantial by any measure.”9 In addition, people-centered companies were almost 20 percent more likely to survive for at least 5 years than those which were not.

And yet, purposeful and meaningful work is becoming more and more important worldwide. According to Youth Speak, the global millennial insight survey, young people rated meaningful work as the second most important factor in the first 5 years of their career.10 This presents an inter-esting paradox: employees worldwide feel disengaged, while the youth want more meaning at work. When leaders are able to create meaningful opportunities for engagement at work, they address this paradox in the most direct way.

Organizations are increasingly realizing the futility of achieving finan-cial success at the cost of humanistic values. Employees are expecting to get something more than just a pay check from the workplace. Many orga-nizations have been reflecting upon discovering ways to help employees balance work and family, and to create conditions wherein each person can realize his/her potential while fulfilling the requirements of the job. One writer has called such enlightened organizations “incubators of the spirit.”11

Meaning is a valuable source for self-mastery and growth. Self-mastery assumes self-understanding and self-knowledge. It also assumes a certain

9 Jeffrey Pfeffer, The Human Equation: Building Profits by Putting People First (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business Review Press).

10 The Value of Purpose-Driven Leaders. Retrieved March 27, 2016: http://aiesec.org/value-purpose-driven-leaders/.

11 James Aurty, Life & Work: A Manager’s Search for Meaning (New York: William Morrow & Company, 1994).

184 S. DHIMAN

awareness of our purpose in life. Without formulating our aim, we drift aimlessly amidst the sea of life, like a ship without a rudder.

Here are then the two most fundamental questions leaders can ask:

1. Who am I? 2. What am I doing here?

This chapter presents strategies to discover and create meaning in life and leadership.

meanIng and purpose: same or dIfferent?Lou Marinoff in his delightful book entitled Plato, Not Prozac muses over the difference between meaning and purpose by providing an excellent metaphor. Imagine you go to a French restaurant to order some food. If you do not understand French, the menu will not have any meaning for you, even though it will still serve its purpose. Thus one can find purpose without meaning. On the other hand, if you understand French just fine but the prices are so high that you cannot afford to buy anything, then the menu means something to you but serves no purpose. So you can find meaning without purpose. Now imagine someone who has never been in a restaurant and does not know French. The menu will have no meaning for him and serve no purpose. And finally if a person instead of ordering food begins to eat the menu, then it will be case of confusing meaning with purpose.12

self-mastery and groWth through meanIng: Quest for meanIng In lIfe

Einstein was supposedly once asked: “If you could ask God one question, what would that question be?” Einstein quickly responded that he would ask God how the universe began, because after that, the rest would all be math. However, after further reflection, he said that he would ask God why the universe began, because then he would know the meaning of his own life.13

12 Lou Marinoff, Plato, Not Prozac! Applying Philosophy to Everyday Problems (New York: Harper, 1999), 210.

13 Barry Z. Posner quoted in a Foreword to Robert A. Giacalone and Carole L. Jurkiewicz, Handbook of Workplace Spirituality and Organizational Performance (London: Routledge, 2nd edition, 2015), xi.

MEANING & PURPOSE IN LEADERSHIP: WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO BET YOUR... 185

The Einstein story illustrates the importance of knowing the meaning of one’s life as compared to knowing the origin of the world. Even if we are able to know everything about the world, we will still yearn to know the meaning and purpose of our own life. It is because unless we find the meaning of our life, all the knowledge of the world will not help us in addressing our existential predicament. After all, the knowledge of the world is meaningful only to the extent it helps us live a meaningful life.

What sustains us in wake of life’s toughest challenges? What keeps us from falling apart emotionally amidst life’s most trying situations? What keeps us going in face of the inevitable suffering that life brings us through illness, deprivation, and death? It is the knowledge, says Frankl, that “human life under any circumstances, never ceases to have a meaning and that this infinite meaning of life includes suffering or dying, privation and death.”14 Now, Frankl was no armchair psychologist—he was the survivor of four concentration camps! His father, mother, brother, and his wife died in camps or were sent to gas ovens, so that, excepting for his sister, his entire family perished in these camps. In his classic of hope and courage entitled, Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl provides the inside story of a concentra-tion camp and presents a concrete guide to support his unshakable view that “life holds a potential meaning under any conditions, even the most miserable ones.”15 Frankl’s own life story is an ample testimony to his tragic optimism.

Could these trials and tribulations be seen as opportunities, as occa-sions life presents us with to help us discover and realize our true des-tiny, to fulfill our true purpose in life? Well, it depends upon how we approach them. Seen as occasions for self-growth and fulfillment, these challenges (= opportunities) provide us with the raw material to fashion the garment of our life. Taken with a “why me” attitude, they can dampen our spirit and stifle our soul. Says Frankl with a prophetic vision, “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”16 When we cannot change the situation, we are challenged to change ourselves! And “it is this spiritual freedom—which cannot be taken away—that makes life meaningful and purposeful.”17 Frankl concludes that

14 Victor E. Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning (Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer Books Inc., 1993), 90.

15 Ibid., 12.16 Ibid., 75.17 Ibid., 75–76.

186 S. DHIMAN

“there is nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one’s life.”18 He who has a why to live, said Nietzsche, can bear with almost any how.19 It is verily the ‘whys’ which provide sustenance to the ‘whats’ and ‘hows’ of human life.

search for meanIng In lIfe

Victor Frankl, in the preface to his now classic work, Man’s Search for Meaning, states that it seemed to be both strange and remarkable that the book he had intended to be published anonymously did in fact become a success. This is one of the great paradoxes of life that things we chase so vehemently escape us most intently. Frankl repeatedly admonishes his students about the circuitous path to happiness and success:

Do not aim at success—the more you aim at it and make it a target, the more you are going to miss it. For success, like happiness, cannot be pursued; it must ensue, and it only does so as the unintended side effect of one’s dedi-cation to a cause greater than oneself …. Happiness must happen, and the same holds for success: you have to let it happen by not caring about it. I want you to listen to what your conscience commands you to do and go on to carry it out to the best of your knowledge. Then you will live to see that in the long run—in the long run, I say!—Success will follow you precisely because you had forgotten to think of it.20

Frankl is alluding to what is popularly called the ‘by-product’ theory of happiness. According to this theory, happiness does not lend itself to direct pursuit; it is the by-product of working toward something impor-tant, noble and meaningful. As David Mccullough Jr. rightly put it, “A fulfilled life is a consequence, the gratifying by-product. It is what happens when you are thinking about more important things.”21 Frankl’s work serves as a beacon of light and clarion call to rise above life’s circumstances and bear suffering with courage and dignity. The life examples of Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr., and Nelson

18 Ibid., 109.19 Cited in Ibid., 9. (emphasis in the original).20 Ibid., 12.21 David McCullough at Wellesley High School Commencement: ‘You Are Not Special’

(Video). Retrieved April 12, 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lfxYhtf8o4.

MEANING & PURPOSE IN LEADERSHIP: WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO BET YOUR... 187

Mandela are testimonies to this discovery of meaning, to rise above life’s conditions and make life worthwhile against all odds through dedication to a selfless cause. When we immerse ourselves in our work, body, mind and soul, we meet success in the most unexpected times. Victor Frankl considers search for meaning to be the primary motivation in human life.

One of the basic tenets of Frankl’s philosophy is that our main concern in life is not to gain pleasure or to avoid pain (as Sigmund Freud taught) or to seek power (as Alfred Adler thought) but rather to find meaning in life. This meaning is unique and specific: Each of us has to fulfill this meaning for ourselves; nobody can discover it for us. For Frankl, self-actualization is a process of realizing the meaning inherent in every situation, in every moment. This, of course, presupposes that life is potentially meaningful to begin with. This belief—the belief that life has meaning, uncondition-ally—sustained Victor Frankl during his concentration camp experience. He used to reflect, thus: “Has all this suffering, this dying around us, a meaning? For, if not, then ultimately there is no meaning to survival; for a life whose meaning depends upon such a happenstance—as whether one escapes or not—ultimately would not be worth living at all.”22 Further research on the survivors of concentration and prisoner-of-war camps has shown that people who had something important yet to do in their lives—or who had a task waiting for them to fulfill—were most apt to survive.23 Meaning is what does not let the human spirit fall apart even in the most trying circumstances.

It is important to note that this search for meaning ‘may arouse some inner tension’ which, according to Frankl, is indispensable to mental health. This creative tension—tension between what one is and what one wants to become—is the existential dynamics to keep our life moving for-ward. Frankl suggests, “We should not be afraid to create a sound amount of tension through reorientation towards the meaning in life.”24 He cites the example of architecture to underscore the importance of such a ten-sion: “If architects want to strengthen a decrepit arch, they increase the load which is laid upon it, for thereby the parts are joined more firmly together.”25 This is an important insight that reminds us that trials make us strong and adversity builds our character.

22 Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, 119.23 Joel Barker, The New Business of Paradigms, DVD, 2001, Star Throwers, St. Paul, MI.24 Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, 110.25 Ibid.

188 S. DHIMAN

In the previous paragraphs, we reflected upon the importance of hav-ing a meaning in our life and on the beneficial effects of meaning ori-entation on our lives. What happens when our need to find meaning is not met or is thwarted? It creates a sense of meaninglessness, a feeling of inner emptiness. Frankl calls this feeling of utter meaninglessness as “inner emptiness” and “existential vacuum”. It is a mode of existence in which “people have enough to live by but nothing to live for; they have the means but no meaning.”26 Frankl finds existential vacuum—this feeling of utter meaninglessness—to be widespread in modern times and considers it to be the root cause of depression, aggression and addiction in modern west-ern society. In what ways can we discover meaning in life so as to avoid Frankl’s “void within”?

three avenues to fIndIng meanIng In lIfe

According to Frankl, there are following three ways to discovering mean-ing in life:

1. By creating a work or doing a deed; 2. By experiencing something or someone; and 3. By the attitude we take towards unavoidable suffering.27

The first avenue to finding meaning in life is through work. By devot-ing ourselves to a task, to a cause bigger than ourselves, we create mean-ing in our lives. This is the path of achievement and accomplishment and requires hard work, commitment, perseverance and high sense of responsibility. Frankl considers having a meaningful task to be an essen-tial requirement for human happiness since we spend majority of our waking hours at work. If we do not find meaning and value in our work, we will miss a great part of our happiness which comes from doing valu-able work.

The second way to discover meaning is “by experiencing something—such as goodness, truth, and beauty—by experiencing nature or cul-ture or, last but not least, by experiencing another human being in his uniqueness—by loving him.”28 For Frankl, “Love is the ultimate and the

26 Ibid., 142 (emphasis added).27 Ibid., 115.28 Ibid.

MEANING & PURPOSE IN LEADERSHIP: WHAT ARE YOU WILLING TO BET YOUR... 189

highest goal to which man can aspire …. The salvation of man is through love and in love.”29

The third avenue to finding meaning in life is by formulating a right attitude towards unavoidable suffering. This method is central to Victor Frankl’s thinking since suffering is an inevitable, an undeniable part of our life. By taking a right attitude towards unavoidable suffering, we have the capacity to rise above it and to transform our tragedies into triumphs. In some way, says Frank, suffering ceases to be suffering at the moment it finds a meaning! However, suffering is not necessary to find meaning: “Life’s meaning is an unconditional one, for it even includes the potential meaning of unavoidable suffering.”30 If suffering is avoidable “then the meaningful thing to do would be to remove its cause, be it psychological, biological or political. To suffer unnecessarily is masochistic rather than heroic.”31 We do not need to discover suffering; we just have to discover meaning when confronted with unavoidable suffering.

Here Frankl rightfully speculates on the role of heredity and environ-ment in shaping our lives. He says that we are not totally at the mercy of either. We are not helpless creatures driven by our internal drives and external influences, as psychoanalysts and behaviorists have made us believe. We have freedom to change ourselves despite our biological con-ditioning and situational limitations. It is ‘not freedom from conditions but freedom to take a stand towards conditions’. (We cannot prevent the birds of worry hovering over our heads; but we can prevent them from making nests on our heads). Stephen Covey has written that by exercis-ing our unique power of choice, “we can become a product of our decisions, not our conditions.”32 This, says Frankl, is one of the glories of human existence—the human capacity creatively to turn life’s negative aspects into something positive or constructive. We are capable of changing the world for the better, if possible, and of changing ourselves for the better, if necessary. By bearing suffering with dignity and courage, we can turn suffering into achievement and tragedy into triumph. Herein, then, lies our ultimate freedom: to choose our attitude in every condition, in every situation. And this freedom is forever ours and cannot be taken away from us.

29 Ibid., 49 (emphasis added).30 Ibid., 118.31 Ibid., 117.32 Cited in Alex Pattakos, Prisoners of our Thoughts: Victor Frankl’s Principles at Work (San

Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2004), ix (emphasis added).

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It must be noted that this freedom is only half of the truth and presup-poses a high sense of personal responsibility. In fact, Frankl considers free-dom to be the ‘negative aspect of the phenomenon whose positive aspect is responsibleness’. He recommends that “the Statue of Liberty on the East Coast be supplemented by a Statue of Responsibility on the West Coast.”33 For Frankl, every act of responsibility is an act of self- actualization. This emphasis on personal responsibility forms the very essence of Frankl’s phi-losophy, and his ethical imperative: Live as if you were living for the second time and had acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now.34 Frankl further clarifies: “Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. In a word, each man is questioned by life; and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life; to life he can only respond by being responsible.”35 In the final reckoning, we are not in the pursuit of happiness but rather “in search of a reason to be happy”—aspiring to be worthy of our happiness.

Victor Frankl concludes his book by advising that we should study the examples of those human beings who seem to have found meaning in their life through deeds done, loves shared and suffering borne with courage and dignity. The life examples of Mother Teresa, Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela are testimonies to this discovery of meaning and to rising above life’s conditions and making life worthwhile against all odds through dedication to a selfless cause.

Does Meaningful Life Equate with Happy Life?

What does it mean to live a happy and fulfilled life? Does it equate with living a meaningful life? Robert A. Emmons, the world’s leading scien-tific expert on gratitude, points out that there is a difference between a meaningful life and a happy life. He states that in some cases the two may be correlated, but in others they may not be. For example, some research shows that having children predicts meaning in life but not necessarily happiness. Emmons defines a meaningful life as “one that is characterized by a deep sense of purpose, a sense of inner conviction, and assurance that in spite of one’s current plight, life has significance.”36 He cites research to

33 Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, 134.34 Ibid., 151.35 Ibid., 113–114.36 Robert A. Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns: Motivation and Spirituality in

Personality (New York: The Guilford Press, 2009), 138.

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underscore that “meaning and happiness are relatively independent com-ponents of well-being that are often associated with different predictors …. Meaningfulness appears to be a necessary yet insufficient condition for long term happiness.”37 There may be instances for a life to be imbued with perceived significance yet devoid of happiness (e.g., political mar-tyrs) yet abiding happiness is not possible without meaning and purpose. Emmons avers that “although meaningfulness may not guarantee high levels of positive emotional well-being, an absence of meaning and pur-pose portend unhappiness.”38

posItIve psychology, meanIng, and Well-BeIng

In the most general terms, positive psychology is the study of “what makes life worth living.”39 What does research tell us about the relationship of hap-piness to a life well-lived? During the last decade, positive psychology has heralded a new research field called happiness research. Happiness is often an indicator that one is living well, but it is not a perfect indicator. A lot of things we do, like raising children, for example, may not make us happy in the short run. We do them because it is the right thing to do, not because they make us gleeful. Happiness is the byproduct of our pursuits—not nec-essarily the pursuit of happiness, per se. Happiness depends upon feeling a sense of meaning and purpose in life—in feeling connected to something larger than yourself. For some people, their religion may provide a sense of meaning and purpose. Positive psychology is not shy about acknowledging the importance of religion. However, there are secular sources of meaning and purpose also. If you pursue good in the domains of family, work and community, you will be happy.40 This has not changed.

Although the pursuit of happiness is as old as human civilization, “only recently has scientific evidence emerged to suggest a possible path to

37 Ibid., 137–138 (emphasis added).38 Ibid., 138.39 University of Michigan psychology professor Christopher Peterson, whose research

focused on strengths of character, used to tell his audiences that if they wanted to know the essence of his talk about positive psychology in 5 seconds, it would be: ‘Positive psychology is what makes life worth living.’ When asked what positive psychology is all about, Peterson would often say, “Other people matter—that’s all!”

40 Christopher Peterson, “What makes life worth living?” (Part 1), UM News Service. Video retrieved March 26, 2016: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DRiIAqGXLKA.

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lasting happiness that is effective for majority of people.”41 In response to a self-posed question, whether happiness is a worthwhile goal, Jaime Kurtz and Sonja Lyubomirsky cite previous research that suggests that, across all the domains of life, happy people are energetic, creative and productive in the workplace; cooperative; and motivated to help others. They have more friends, more satisfying social interactions and stronger immune systems. They cope more effectively with stress, and, most strikingly, even live lon-ger. Positive psychology, a recently-conceived branch of psychology, aims to understand and promote lasting well-being or authentic happiness.

Positive psychology is built on three pillars: positive emotion, positive strengths and positive institutions. It has its roots in the works of human-istic psychologists such as Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers and Eric Fromm, who focused on personal fulfillment and well-being. In fact, Maslow was the first psychologist to use this term in his 1954 classic, Motivation and Personality. The contribution of positive psychology is that it has provided scientific evidence consistent with what philosophers and humanistic psy-chologists intuitively believed. Positive psychology focuses on character, flourishing and fulfillment. It aims to explore how to live a happy and ful-filling life, how to define and develop human strengths and how to build character and resilience.

Seligman, one of the founders of positive psychology, explores the concept of meaningful life in the context of authentic happiness. Greeks defined happiness as the ‘exercise of one’s faculties along the lines of excel-lence’. Building on Aristotle’s work, Seligman describes the good life as the exercise of one’s “signature strengths”. In a meaningful life, we share these strengths with a greater circle of humanity. Seligman believes that authentic happiness is experienced when we optimally exercise our signa-ture strengths and share them with others.

Seligman states that authentic happiness has three interrelated constitu-ents—pleasure, strengths and meaning:

1. The pleasant life, in which we successfully pursue positive emotions about the present, past and future.

2. The good life, in which we use our signature strengths to obtain abundant gratification in the main realms of our life.

41 Jaime L.Kurtz and Sonja Lyubomirsky, Towards a Durable Happiness, The Positive Psychology Perspective Series (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2008), 21.

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3. The meaningful life, in which we use our signature strengths and virtues in the service of something much larger than we are—and the larger that something is, the more meaning our lives have.42

To live all three lives, concludes Seligman, is to lead a full life.43 A little reflection will show that both the pleasant and the good life are lim-ited. Only a life lived in service of a cause larger than oneself holds true meaning.

meanIng In and through sufferIng

Suffering is a universal fact of human condition, an inescapable conclusion drawn by many philosophers and theologians. Emmons points out that one of the fundamental truths that forms the cornerstone of virtually all of the world’s great wisdom traditions is that life is full of suffering.44 For example, the first of the Four Noble Truths taught by the Buddha states that life inevitably involves suffering (dukkha).45 Is there some meaning in human suffering or is human life, as the bard of Avon once said, just “a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury Signifying nothing?”46 Arthur Schopenhauer, a German philosopher, wryly says, “Life is a business that does not cover the costs.”47 Similarly the great Victorian novelist, Thomas Hardy, states that happiness is “but the occasional episode in a general drama of pain.”48

Albert Camus, the great French novelist, believed that the universe is meaningless and any attempt to make sense of our lives is utterly absurd.

42 Martin Seligman, Using the New Positive Psychology to Realize Your Potential for Lasting Fulfillment (New York: Free Press, 2002), 260–262 (emphasis added).

43 Ibid., 249.44 Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns, 139.45 This has led some to conclude that Buddhism must be a life-denying and pessimistic

approach to life. But the Buddha taught Four Noble Truths about life, not just one. After analyzing the causes of suffering in the Second Noble Truth, the Buddha goes on to state that it is possible to end this suffering (Third Noble Truth) and prescribes a path called The Noble Eightfold Path to the cessation of suffering (Fourth Noble Truth). See Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught. Rev. and exp. ed. (New York: Grove Press, 1974), 17–19.

46 William Shakespeare, Macbeth, Folger Shakespeare Library (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2003), 179.

47 Arthur Schopenhauer and E.F.  J. Payne (tr.) The World as Will and Representation, Volume 2 (New York: Dover Publications, 1966), 239.

48 Thomas Hardy, The Mayor of Casterbridge (New York: Dover Publications, 2004), 243.

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In the final chapter of his philosophical essay, The Myth of Sisyphus, Camus compares the absurdity of human life with the situation of Sisyphus, a fig-ure of Greek mythology who was condemned to repeat forever the same futile task of pushing a boulder up to the top of a mountain, only to see it roll down again. Camus concludes the essay stating, “The struggle itself toward the heights is enough to fill a man’s heart. One must imag-ine Sisyphus happy.”49 Someone mused on the hopeless toil of Sisyphus remarking that after all he was not wasting his time or energy. He was building his muscles!

Emmons asks, “How can most people be happy given the pervasive-ness of suffering, pain and adversity? Is it possible for this apparent para-dox to be resolved?” While most of the world’s wisdom traditions point out the fact of suffering, they also urge people to embrace suffering in the name of spiritual growth. Psychologists point out the importance of approaching suffering as a necessary part of the human growth and devel-opment equation. And growth is possible to the degree to which a per-son creates or finds meaning in suffering, pain and adversity.50 In Man’s Search for Meaning, Frankl argues that suffering is not necessary to find meaning, only that meaning is possible in spite of suffering: “I only insist that meaning is possible even in spite of suffering—provided, certainly, that the suffering is unavoidable.”51 If the suffering were avoidable, the most meaningful thing to do would be to remove its cause. Only unavoid-able suffering is heroic and meaningful. In the camp, to continue to be “worthy” of his “suffering” and to keep discovering deeper meaning in it, Frankl would often reflect upon Dostoevski’s words: “There is only one thing that I dread: not to be worthy of my sufferings.”52 Frankl, the felicitous apostle of tragic optimism, would keep hope (and himself) alive by remembering that what is to give light must endure burning.53

The philosophical and psychological literature on meaning, suffering and growth is vast and continues to grow. On the meaning of suffering

49 Albert Camus and Justin O’Brien (tr.), The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays (New York: Vintage, 1991), 123 (emphasis added).

50 Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns, 144.51 Frankl, Man’s Search for Meaning, 117.52 Ibid., 75.53 This seems to be based on Nietzsche’s observation, “You admire the beauty of my spark,

but you don’t feel the cruelty of the hammer on the anvil that makes it happen”. Only Nietzsche could have felt and written something so stark and vivid.

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in human happiness and growth at least, age-old wisdom and modern sci-ence seem to be in perfect agreement:

… “the good life” is not one that is achieved through momentary plea-sures and defensive illusions, but through meeting suffering head on and transforming it into opportunities for meaning, wisdom and growth, with the ultimate objective being the development of the person into a fully- functioning, mature being.54

‘No pain, no gain’ is a universal principle of existence: Gold has to go through the heat of fire to be transformed into beautiful ornaments; the acorn has to hold its ground patiently for a long time before it develops into a mighty oak; charcoal has to persevere for thousands of years before becoming a dia-mond—and, even after that, it has to be cut to release its total splendor; and a bamboo has to bear several holes in it before it can create the sweet melodies of a flute. Why should the human being be an exception?

lIvIng our hIghest purpose In lIfe

Your highest purpose is the true embodiment of who you are at the very core. It is the most authentic expression of your innermost nature, your true Self. You are at your most creative when you are in tune with your highest Self. It represents our inner truth that seeks expression through myriad activities as life is happening to us. In Sanskrit language, this truth of our innermost being is expressed by the word “dharma.” Quite sim-ply, dharma means “that which sustains”. The Bhagavad Gītā, the most important Hindu wisdom text, starts with the word dharma (chapter 1, verse 1) and ends with the word mama (chapter 18, verse 78). Together, they form the word “mama dharma” or “svadharma”, which stands for my moral duty, my inner purpose. In the same text we are told: “Better one’s own dharma, however imperfect, than the dharma of another per-fectly performed”. Ramana Maharshi, an Indian Sage, used to say, “Be as you are”. Martin Buber, the great Jewish philosopher, narrates the follow-ing story in his book, Tales of Hasidism: Before his death, Rabbi Zusya said, “In the coming world, they will not ask me, ‘Why were you not Moses?’ They will ask me, ‘Why were you not Zusya?’”55

54 Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns, 156.55 Martin Buber, Tales of Hasidism (New York: Knopf Doubleday, 1987), 251.

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These texts tell us that only by being true to our real self can we ful-fill our destiny, our true reason for existence. We cannot have fulfillment any other way. We may not be always aware of our true purpose, but it is always there ready to sustain us through the toughest challenges of our life. Nature is not interested in “photocopies”; it loves originals! Only by discovering our unique gifts and talents can we hope to polish them and share them with our fellow beings.

How can we discover our true purpose in life that gives value and mean-ing to our existence? There is no direct path or ready-made answer to this vital question. There is no sure map or formula that can lead us to our life’s true purpose. Nor can it be “given” to us by someone else. Besides, nobody can spare us the journey, the alchemic process of self-discovery and transformation leading to the unfolding and fulfillment of this pur-pose. We all of us have to light our own candles.

Nobody Can Light Our Candles!

It is said that the last words of Buddha were: “Be light unto yourself!” The following story illustrates the need and importance of Buddha’s advice:

Once a blind man went to visit his friend.After dinner, when he asked to leave, his friend said, “Let me give you a lantern.”“But I can’t see! So why would I need a lantern?” asked the blind man.“Oh, it is not for you. It is so that others can see you,” explained the host.“In that case, I will take it,” said the blind man.He had hardly gone 10 feet that someone bumped into him. The blind man exclaimed, “Can’t you see my lantern?”“Sir, your lantern has gone out!” replied the stranger.No one can light our lantern for us. We all of us have to light our own lanterns.56

Life is a journey that no one can undertake on our behalf. It cannot be given to us. There are, however, some activities, some habits of mind that seem to facilitate the process of finding our true goal in life. In the following pages, we will explore some practical exercises as helpful hints in discovering our highest purpose in life.

56 Author unknown.

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lIvIng WIth the hIghest goal

For three decades, Michael Ray has taught Stanford University’s cel-ebrated Personal Creativity in Business course. He soon discovered that his creativity course had a more lasting and profound impact on students than he had ever intended. Professor Ray came to realize that this impact was mainly due to the fact that the creativity course was helping students to discover what he calls their “highest goal”—something that gave a real meaning to their lives, beyond the ordinary definitions of success and achievement. The discovery of, and the living from, the highest goal had a salutary effect on the personal and professional lives of the people who took this course. Ray explains: “Students who discovered their essential inner resources and the ultimate purpose of their existence found they could do their work and live their lives in ways that contributed to positive change in the world.”57 Living from our highest goal entails a feeling of excitement and contribution: “You connect with your highest goal when you awaken full of enthusiasm for the day and when you know you are making a contribution.”58

As a first step toward finding one’s highest goal, Michael Ray rec-ommends an exercise called ‘The Most Meaningful Thing Exercise’, as described below.

the most meanIngful thIng exercIse

To help discover our highest goal in life, Ray invites us to recall a situation in which we experienced resonance with the highest goal. He suggests fol-lowing preliminary steps to get an idea about the highest goal:

1. Recall the most meaningful thing you did during the last week or so. Whatever it is, re-experience doing that activity. See it in your mind’s eye and get the feeling of what made this activity so meaningful.

2. Answer the question, “How come this was so important, so mean-ingful to me?”

3. Then answer the question, “Why is that (the reason you gave to the previous question) so important to me?”

57 Michael Ray, The Highest Goal: The Secret that Sustains in every Moment (San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler, 2004), xx–xxi.

58 Ibid., 7.

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4. Keep asking the question, “Why is that so important to me?” of every answer you give until you get down to one word.

That word, if you dig below possible negative reasons (such as fear) or external reasons (such as money) that you have for doing something, rep-resents just one quality of your essence, your Self. When you see what that word is—be it Love, Communication, Wisdom, Energy, Tranquility, Fun, Creativity, Service, Silence, Connection, Peace, Joy, or any other qualities that may be a part of who you are at core—acknowledge that quality as being part of who you really are. Remember it. Revel in it. Contemplate it. See how it has been a guiding quality in your life. Notice it coming up as you deal with each new situation.59

Once we commit to living with the highest goal, Ray recommends the following:

1. Go beyond passion and success. Living for the highest goal is radically different from what is normally considered to be the highest: reach-ing success in external terms and having passion for what you do in life. Most of us “sub-optimize”, that is, we go for the short term and transitory. Go beyond these lesser goals to use the gifts of life you have been given.

2. Travel your own path. You can create your path by simply paying attention to your own best performance—the critical incidents in your life—when you feel most your Self and in tune with the highest goal. Remember the experience of these times, apply what works to new situations and keep improving your path to the highest goal.

3. Live with the highest goal. Because everything in the world is a con-nected system, you cannot beat it, you can only join it. And the best way of joining it is to live with heuristics—generalizations or rules of thumb for learning and discovery. Enliven your journey with the “live-withs”—such as Pay Attention, Ask Dumb Questions, See with Your Heart, or Be Ordinary.

4. Find true prosperity. The more you express and experience your highest qualities, the more you are filled with a rich feeling of self- worth, and the wealthier you will become in the truest sense. Find the prosperity that will sustain you through the ups and downs of life and keep increasing, even through difficulties.

59 Ibid., 8–11.

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5. Turn fears into breakthroughs. When you have the grounding of the highest goal, you can see your fears for what they are. Learn from them, and turn their energy into breakthroughs and opportunities of the most lasting kind.

6. Relate from your heart. I define “compassion” as seeing the highest in your Self first and then seeing the highest in others. If you have a full, rich feeling of self-worth, you have already taken the first step towards having compassion. See others from this perspective, and you begin to change the nature of your relationships for the better and make connections that move you toward the highest goal.

7. Experience synergy in every moment. You can achieve synergy—a much more dynamic state than balance—among the parts of your life by developing organizing structures based on your highest goal and by getting into the flow of intuitive decision-making.

8. Become a generative leader. Generative leaders pass along their expe-rience of the highest goal and ignite creativity in others. Share the fruits of your quest for the highest goal with others, and spread its effects in a beneficial spiral.60

These are good guideposts posts for the leadership development jour-ney, especially the guidelines about turning fears into breakthroughs and becoming a generative leader. Michael Ray invites us to take a long-term view of our goals in life. We should not evaluate our purpose in terms of success alone. Striving and significance equally matter. We should discover and travel our own path. This may prove to be quite challenging in a society where we are constantly bombarded with messages from media about what we should be. Ray recommends developing our own “live- withs”, rules of thumb that serve us to live with our highest goal. Such pithy reminders can go a long way to keep up our momentum—success is a by-product not a buy-product; grow from being a consumer to becoming a contributor; if you stumble, make it a part of the dance; an altar in your life alters your life; smile, breathe and go slowly; when why is clear, how is easy; the path is the hurdle; lost the lamp, but not the light; pain is inevitable, suf-fering is optional; the winner is a dreamer who never gives up; to teach is to learn twice; leave the reforms, mind the reformer; be nobody but yourself, and so forth.

60 Ibid., 13–15.

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purpose-drIven leadershIp

The world doesn’t need more profit-driven leaders, but purpose-driven leaders who can solve real world issues.61 —Bill George

Bill George rightly points out that we need purpose-driven leaders who see the bigger picture and are able to garner collaborative, meaningful con-tributions in building a better world. “The key challenge for business is how do we get more purpose-driven leaders that realize they are there to make a difference in the world”, said Bill George of Harvard Business School at The World Economic Forum.62 Bill George asks a very pertinent question: How do we get more purpose-driven leaders who can act on the purpose?

Leadership is all about having impactful purpose and purposeful impact. In their HBR article entitled “From Purpose to Impact: Figure Out Your Passion and Put It to Work”, Craig and Snook state that the process of articulating your purpose and finding the courage to live it is the single most important developmental task you can undertake as a leader. Based on their work training thousands of managers at organizations from GE to the Girl Scouts, and teaching an equal number of executives and students at Harvard Business School, they found that fewer than 20 % of leaders have a strong sense of their own individual purpose. More so, even fewer leaders can distill their purpose into a concrete statement.

In articulating your impactful purpose, the authors recommend that the words in your purpose statement must be truly yours. They must cap-ture your inner essence. And they must prompt you to action. We should begin with our life story and find common leadership threads and major themes—the “crucibles”. In their experience, they have found the follow-ing three prompts to be most effective in discovering purpose to impact:

1. What did you especially love doing when you were a child, before the world told you what you should or shouldn’t like or do? Describe a moment and how it made you feel.

2. Tell us about two of your most challenging life experiences. How have they shaped you?

3. What do you enjoy doing in your life now that helps you sing your song?

61 The Value of Purpose-Driven Leaders. Retrieved March 27, 2016: http://aiesec.org/value-purpose-driven-leaders/.

62 Ibid.

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Craig and Snook conclude their HBR article stating that “to be a truly effective leader, clarify your purpose, and put it to work.”63 This then is the essence of effective leadership: know your purpose and live it. The meaning of life is to discover our purpose; the purpose of life indeed is to live a life of purpose.

concludIng thoughts

“The meaning of life”, said Pablo Picasso, “is to find your gift. The pur-pose of life is to give it away”. The quest for meaning and purpose is not just about having life goals. It is about realizing our total potential, about self-actualization, as Maslow will put it. In his later years, he real-ized the limitation of his own vision about the need for self- actualization. The self only finds its fulfillment, he felt, in giving itself to some higher purpose outside oneself, in self-sacrifice and spirituality. He called it self-transcendence. He considered self-transcendence to be the highest need and greatest aspiration and recognized self- transcendence as a step beyond self-actualization.64 The less of self there is, said Meister Eckhart, the more there is of the Self.

If happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence, as Aristotle so eloquently stated 2500 years ago, then in discovering and living our purpose lies our true happiness. Mark Twain put it succinctly, “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.”65 Once we discover why we are born, living our purpose is not an option.

We are put on this planet with a mission to accomplish and a purpose to fulfill. That’s how nature intends us all to be. In the Bhagavad Gītā this purpose is referred to as our allotted duty, our svadharma. It is our soul’s mission and the reason we were born. It is our silent pact with the

63 Craig and Snook, “From Purpose to Impact,” HBR, May 2014, 111.64 See Abraham Maslow, The Farther Reaches of Human Nature (New York: The Viking

Press, 1971). For a scholarly presentation of self-transcendence as the highest need, see: Mark E. Koltko-Rivera, “Rediscovering the Later Version of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Self-Transcendence and Opportunities for Theory, Research, and Unification”, in: Review of General Psychology, 2006, Vol. 10, No. 4, 302–317. Retrieved March 25, 2016: http://academic.udayton.edu/jackbauer/Readings%20595/Koltko-Rivera%2006%20trans%20self-act%20copy.pdf.

65 While this quote has not been definitively sourced to Mark Twain, it still conveys a pow-erful message.

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universe. Unless we fulfill this purpose, this mission, we are not given to experience the deepest joy of fulfillment that life has to offer, no matter how successful, rich or famous we may become.

meanIng & purpose: reflectIon QuestIons

1. Why do majority of employees worldwide feel disengaged in the workplace? What is the link between meaningful work and employee engagement? What steps can holistic leaders take to enhance employee engagement?

2. Do you believe that it is the bounden duty of every leader to create a liberating work environment that fosters meaningful self- expression for all employees?

3. What is the difference between meaning of life and purpose of life? Discuss a few examples to illustrate this difference.

4. It has been said that to live a fulfilled life, it is essential to have an abiding purpose and meaning. Why is it important for us to seek meaning in and at work?

5. Does a meaningful life equate with a happy life? Or, are meaning and happiness relatively independent components of well-being?

6. Why is it important to shift from being a consumer to becoming a contributor in order to lead a meaningful life? What steps will you take to move from a purpose-driven life to purpose-driven leadership?

7. Why did Victor Frankl consider search for meaning to be the pri-mary motivation in human life as opposed to pleasure or power? What three main avenues did he discover to find meaning in life?

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205© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_9

CHAPTER 9

Fulfillment is not a journey but a home-coming.

IntroductIon

It has been observed that though material comforts have increased expo-nentially during the recent times, there has not been a corresponding increase in happiness. The ideals and creeds of the twentieth century that promised happiness and welfare for all have left us intellectually, spiritu-ally and morally barren and bankrupt. We believe that the problems of desire (selfishness), violence, and greed that plague the planet can only be resolved at the level of human spirit. We have tried all other means unsuc-cessfully. A deep internal spiritual transformation is required to transform the world around us. One can certainly sense a cautionary urgency in André Malraux (1901–1976) enigmatic prophecy that “the 21st century will be spiritual or will not be.”1 This pithy statement can be interpreted at many levels. At its bare minimum, it underscores the importance of spiri-tual dimension in understanding and approaching various issues confront-ing our institutions and organizations today. It also represents a clarion call for all leaders to cultivate what is really important in life and leadership.

1 This is at best a paraphrase of Andre Malraux’s ‘le vingt-et-unieme siecle sera religieux ou ne sera pas.’ The closest translation of which would be something like: ‘Religion will be the measure of humanity in the 21st century.’ Retrieved March 25, 2016: https://www.quora.com/unanswered/The-21st-century-will-be-spiritual-or-will-not-be-What-do-you-think- about-this-enigmatic-prophesy-Andre-Malraux-1901-1976.

Find Your Fulfillment: Winning Habits of Highly Fulfilled Leaders

If holistic leaders are to foster a sense of well-being and fulfillment among their team members, they first have to demonstrate it in their own life example. As an unfolding of the self-mastery process of holistic leaders, this chapter presents strategies for becoming a fulfilled person. It shows the path pertaining to transforming a leader’s search for success into a discovery of profound meaning and significance. This journey to “signifi-cance”, which is cultivated from within, is not about “acquiring” anything new; it is a matter of “re-discovering” and “harnessing” what we already have. This voyage of discovery of fulfillment begins with knowing one-self and culminates in living one’s deepest values in the service of others. Anchored in Self-knowledge, fulfillment becomes more a matter of inner transformation than fixing outer conditions; more a matter of being than having; more a matter of belonging than belongings.

The lives of great leaders such as Mother Teresa, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Mahatma Gandhi bear testimony to the fact that the greatest fulfillment in life comes from serving others. As a US Marine who handed out food and blankets to tsunami victims in 2004 said, “I have been serving my country for 34 years and this is the first day I’ve gotten any fulfillment out of it.”

This chapter primarily draws upon two timeless streams of thought, Vedanta and Buddhist psychology. Building upon the twin Vedantic prin-ciples of Self-Knowledge and Selfless Service, as supported by Buddhist psychology’s teachings on compassion and mindfulness, this chapter pres-ents the seven habits of mind and heart as gifts to find lasting happiness and fulfillment in everything we do: the gifts of pure motivation, grati-tude, generosity, selfless service, harmlessness, acceptance and presence. A discerning reader will notice that all of these gifts have an internal locus. They have to be cultivated within before they can be manifested in our outer life. They have to do with inner conviction, discipline and attitude. Since we are completely free to manage our inner world, they provide an abiding avenue to mastery that is entirely within our control. We can transform our self only and only we can transform our self.

Seven HabItS of HIgHly-fulfIlled leaderS

Fulfillment is not a place we go to; it is a place we all come from.

As human beings, we are caught in the constant dichotomy of being and becoming. The world of becoming operates outside and is swarmed with competition, comparison and conflict. It is a race with no visible

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finish line. The world of being lies within us and is infused with Self-knowledge, contentment and contemplation. It is already within our reach and ever- attained. Struggle for becoming eventually leads to unhappiness, anxiety, stress, strain and strife. Steady abidance in our being is the road that verily leads to happiness, peace, serenity and ful-fillment. This, then, is the real irony: We squander our precious human life in the sole servitude of the economic grind called “making a living” without really finding much time to live—a classic case of all “becom-ing” and no “being”, and a sorry sacrifice of abiding ends for transient means.

In this chapter, I will briefly present seven habits of highly-fulfilled lead-ers to mark the transition from success to significance. Personal fulfill-ment follows Self-knowledge and understanding one’s true purpose in life. Once those two pillars are in place, certain mental habits foster and help create a profoundly significant life.

These habits of head and heart are:

1. Pure motivation. 2. Gratitude. 3. Generosity. 4. Harmlessness. 5. Selfless-service. 6. Acceptance. 7. Mindfulness.

The following figure provides a bird’s eye view of these habits highlight-ing their integral nature (Fig. 9.1):

cultIvatIng Pure MotIvatIon

Desire the good of all and the universe will work with you.2

Desiring the good of all is a prelude to fulfillment. The path to a fulfilled life starts with the pure motivation of service because it serves as a neces-sary foundation for all other gifts. If our motivation is impure, we will not really be able to practice gratitude, generosity, harmlessness, and selfless service because our self-interest will always be lurking in the background.

2 Maurice Frydman, tr., I am That: Conversations with Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (Durham, NC: The Acorn Press, 2nd American revised edition, 2012), 50.

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The gift of pure motivation, therefore, acts as a salutary check on the deeply ingrained human tendency toward self-centeredness. It requires that before every action we should mentally check our motivation for the action. Pure motivation signifies that, whatever we do, our every action should be motivated by our desire to help, to benefit others, without expecting anything in return. In other words, our intention to help others should be inspired by the pure motivation of just helping others.

This gift builds on the great German philosopher Immanuel Kant’s Second Categorical Imperative: “Conduct is ‘right’ if it treats others as

Fig. 9.1 Adapted from Seven Habits of Highly Fulfilled People framework, Satinder Dhiman (2012/2014)

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ends in themselves and not as means to an end”. If we are helping oth-ers in order to benefit ourselves—as means to our end—then it becomes a business “transaction”, and our motivation ceases to be pure. The key to fulfillment lies in freeing oneself from the shackles of this fundamental human disability. All great spiritual traditions of the world and findings of positive psychology are in agreement on this vital point.

The moral quality of our actions is determined solely by the purity of our intentions. As Schoch states, “Modern science tells us that from the standpoint of our brain activity there is no difference between hitting a per-son and merely thinking about the act. Our brain’s limbic system, the part of our brain that is responsible for controlling motor function, releases all the muscle energy that would be required to actually hit someone just by thinking about it. Our brain just cannot tell the difference between think-ing about hitting someone and actually doing it!”3 To this observation, the Buddha would add that if we think about hitting someone, its effect on our happiness will be similar to the effect of our actually hitting someone.

This works both ways, that is, for good intentions as well as for bad ones. Suppose you are getting off the freeway and you see a poor person asking for some spare change for lunch. As soon as you try to reach for your wallet to help this person, the light turns green and you have to go quickly, without being able to give this person any money. Gurdjieff, a Russian mystic, comments that since consciousness is interconnected, someone will stop by later and help this person. By your mere intention to help this person, you have triggered a series of events in the universe that would finally result in someone actually helping this person with money for lunch. This is how powerful our intentions are.

Therefore our intentions matter the most. When we act from the pure intention of helping someone, we are in fact helping the universe. The wisdom traditions have known this secret all along, as expressed in the following set of refrains.

You are what your deep, driving desire is. As your desire is, so is your will. As your will is, so is your deed. As your deed is, so is your destiny.4

3 Manuel Schoch, Bitten by Black Snake: The Ancient Wisdom of Ashtavakra (Boulder, CO: Sentient Publications, 2007), 3.

4 Bṛhada raṇyaka Upanisad 4.4.5. A popular rendition capturing a similar theme is: “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your

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The Best Rationale for Practicing Pure Motivation

It is said that Karma never loses an address. The operation of the law of Karma perhaps presents the best rationale for practicing the gift of pure motivation. The moment we commit to any action, the universal law takes over and processes it according to its motivation. In its simplistic form, this dynamic is generally presented as the law of action and reaction—or popularly as “what goes around comes around”—yet it is a highly-devel-oped and subtle principle of self-purification designed to put the seeker right on the path that leads to self-realization. When our actions are dedi-cated to a higher principle or a higher being, instead of being motivated by mere personal gain, they act as a purifying force to enable us to work selflessly for the benefit of all beings. This, in turn, prepares the heart to receive—and the mind to understand—the subtler spiritual teachings that are beyond the ken of an acquisitive mind that is always busy with the business of “what is in it for me”.

Indian philosophy takes the doctrine of Karma to its utmost develop-ment where it is seen as a highly sophisticated spiritual practice called Karma Yoga. Karma Yoga emphasizes right action and right attitude toward action. Under this scheme, the propriety of an action is not measured according to its capacity for giving material gain—which is incidental anyway—but according to its capacity for harnessing inner growth. It is a matter of com-mon experience that the attitude with which an action is performed can change the moral quality of our action as well as the quality of our response to the outcome of the action. Therefore, attitude is at least as important as the action itself—all the more reason to practice pure motivation!

Pure Motivation: What Is In It for Me?!

The reader must have realized by now that the moment we ask the ques-tion “what is in it for me”, our motivation ceases to be pure! As stated earlier, the whole idea about the practice of pure motivation is to act with the intention of helping others without expecting anything in return. This goes against our perennial conditioning that all actions are motivated by some desire to benefit the doer. Otherwise, why would someone act in the first place?

actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your charac-ter; for it becomes your destiny.”—Author Unknown, widely attributable to Lao Tzu.

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Many spiritual traditions of the world provide ample guidance in this regard. By and large, they urge us to dedicate all our actions to a higher being or principle. For example, the Bhagavad Gītā teaches the gospel of selfless action in an oft-quoted verse as follows:

Your right is to work only, But never to its fruits; Let not the fruits of action be your motive, Nor let your attachment be to inaction.5

The Gītā clarifies that the wise ones do all actions selflessly (niskama karma) for the unification (lokasaṃgraham6) and for the well-being of all beings (sarvabhutahite7) without anxiety about the outcome of their actions. It further exhorts us to dedicate the results of our actions to the divine. Even if we take the spiritual import of this teaching out of the pic-ture, it remains a highly pragmatic teaching to guide our life.

Only those who have subdued their self-centered tendencies can be truly kind. Otherwise, the ulterior self-motive will always be lurking behind every act of overt kindness. And every step toward self-centeredness is a step away from self-fulfillment. All overt and covert acts of ostentatious kindness may provide us temporary self-satisfaction but they are unable to sooth our spirit with deep fulfillment in the long run. Only when our actions are infused with pure motivation are our feet securely planted on the path that leads to lasting inner peace, joy and fulfillment.

Pursuing our self-interest in everything we do comes naturally to all of us. It is hard-wired into our psyche due to millions of years of biological struggle for self-preservation. To a point, it has served us well, albeit in the biological sense. However, even when our self-preservation is not at stake, it remains operative in its myriad, subtle ways. It is responsible for much of humanity’s suffering through deception, greed, exploitation and war. In nature, however, cooperation plays at least as important a role as competi-tion in the so-called struggle for existence. It is possible to outgrow our rampant tendency of self-centeredness by practicing the gifts of gratitude, generosity, harmlessness and selfless service. Paradoxically, in sharing these

5 Bhagavad Gītā: 2.47.6 Bhagavad Gītā: 3.20.7 Bhagavad Gītā: 5.25, 12.4.

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gifts with others, we ultimately bestow them on ourselves. Pure motiva-tion is the master key that opens the door to all other blessings.

gratItude: MaSter Key to lIvIng a fulfIllIng lIfe!Everything is a gift.We think it is reward.

Gratitude is the art of wanting what we have. It is the harbinger of all other virtues. The great Roman philosopher, Cicero, once said, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues but the parent of all others”. Gratitude, rightly practiced, can change our orientation toward life beyond belief. It can help us become happier and more content. As you start recognizing the positive that already exists in your life, you will notice an inner shift reflected in your outer reality. You will find yourself bumping into abun-dance in situations and places where you least expected it or where you had previously felt a sense of lack in your life. This shift from scarcity to abundance will invariably create more opportunities to be grateful and will slowly bring a more positive orientation to life’s overall journey.

Gratitude is our resounding tribute to the universe for all its anony-mous blessings. This is how we show our appreciation to existence for all its gifts, its bounties and its blessings. These simple yet profound gifts include the gift of being alive; the marvel of our sensory apparatus; the miracle of the incoming and outgoing breath; the wonder of the blood circulating in our veins; the refreshing joy of a good night’s sleep; the amazing gift of beauty of a sunset, a rainbow, and the majestic ocean with its ever-surging waves; the beguiling beauty of a Beethoven symphony or a Bach fugue or a Mozart concerto, and so forth. By appreciating these gifts through gratitude, we also open our hearts to receive more that is still to come our way.

If we study the lives of truly fulfilled people, we find one quality they all share above all: contentment. They do not seem to suffer from the “more-ism” syndrome. Without contentment, the pursuit of happiness becomes a wild-goose chase. No matter what and how much we have, we still pine for more of the same or for the next best thing/person/experi-ence, ad infinitum. And there will always be people who already have more of what it is that we want to have—people who are more smarter, slimmer, wealthier, prettier, healthier and merrier than us. And things are infinitely improvable, always leaving us with the sense of deep discontent.

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Gratitude is the first and last step on the journey to contentment. Actually gratitude and contentment are two sides of the same coin. We do not have to do anything to enter the Palace of Contentment: We just have to want what we have. And when we are thankful … thanksgiving leads to having more to be thankful for!

One may ask: what if I do not perceive anything to grateful for? How should I be thankful especially when bad things happen to me? The fol-lowing story from the Hasidic lore provides the clue:

Once Shmelke of Nikolsburg asked Dov Baer of Mezritch to explain the Talmudic commandment that we should praise God for evil as much as we praise him for good. Dov Baer said, “Go to the House of study and ask my student Zussya”. Shmelke went to the House of Study and found Zussya: emaciated, filty, clothed in rags. Shmelke asked, “How can we praise God for evil as much as we praise him for good?” “I can’t tell you,” said Zussya, “because nothing bad has ever happened to me.”8

Gratitude and Positive Psychology

While gratitude has been studied by philosophers and theologians for cen-turies as a moral virtue or excellence of character, it was not until the beginning of this century that psychology finally began to give gratitude its deserved empirical due.9 According to Dr. Emmons, the world’s lead-ing scientific expert on gratitude, gratitude is a “chosen attitude”. The word gratitude is derived from the Latin root gratia, meaning grace, gra-ciousness or gratefulness.10 Gratitude is an emotion, the core of which is pleasant feelings about the benefits received. At the cornerstone of grati-tude is the notion of the undeserved merit. The grateful person recognizes that he or she did nothing to deserve the gift; it was freely bestowed.11 We must be willing to recognize and acknowledge that we are the recipients of an unearned benefit.

8 Cited in Stephen Mitchell, The Enlightened Mind (New York: Harper), 207.9 Robert A.  Emmons, “The Psychology of Gratitude: An Introduction”. In Robert A

Emmons and Michael E. McCullough, (ed.) The Psychology of Gratitude (New York: Oxford University Press, 2004), 3–18.

10 Robert A Emmons and Michael E. McCullough, “Counting blessings versus burdens: An experimental investigation of gratitude and subjective well-being in daily life,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), (2003): 377–389.

11 Robert A. Emmons, “The Psychology of Gratitude: An Introduction”, p. 5 (emphasis in the original).

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If we commit ourselves to becoming grateful, we will see that with grat-itude comes abundance. The pioneering research conducted and reviewed by Dr. Emmons and his colleagues shows that gratitude improves emo-tional and physical health as well as boosts relationships.

Keeping a Gratitude Journal

Recent research on the salutary effects of gratitude upholds the practice of keeping a gratitude journal or appreciation journal on a daily basis. Psychologist Sonja Lyubomirsky found that taking the time consciously to count their blessings once a week significantly increased subjects’ overall satisfaction with life over a period of six weeks, whereas a control group that did not keep a happiness journal showed no such gain.12 The idea is to consciously notice abundance in our life.

Gratitude exercises are more than just mood boosters. Robert Emmons found these exercises to “improve physical health, raise energy levels, and for patients with neuromuscular diseases, relieve pain and fatigue”. He further noted that “the ones who benefitted most tended to elaborate more and have a wider span of things they are grateful for.”13

The recommendations for a gratitude journal are quite simple:14

1. Have a small notebook readily available by the bedside. 2. Write 5 things you are grateful for each night before going to bed.

These can be simple things such as family, friends, health, sunshine, nighttime, and the like.

3. Throughout the day, take mental notes of happenings from the standpoint of gratitude.

4. Start each day with a positive mindset, always taking note of simple joys that life brings. Every simple act of life holds some joy.

5. Focus on the positive side of things, even in situations normally considered negative. Remember, it can always be worse. This is the best way to deal with the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”.

12 Claudia Wallis, “The New Science of Happiness”, Time Magazine, January 9, 2005. Retrieved March 31, 2016: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1015832,00.html.

13 Ibid.14 Adapted from Emmons and McCullough, “Counting blessings versus burdens”, Jason

Marsh, “Tips for Keeping a Gratitude Journal”. Retrieved March 20, 2016: http://greater-good.berkeley.edu/article/item/tips_for_keeping_a_gratitude_journal.

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tHe ScIence beHInd gratItude and HaPPIneSS

Happiness comes when we stop complaining about the troubles we have and offer thanks for all the troubles we do not have.

A 2003 study conducted by Emmons and McCullough on the benefits of counting blessings showed that a conscious focus on blessings may have emotional and interpersonal benefits. The study found that keeping a daily gratitude journal leads to an increased sense of well-being (positive affect and life satisfaction), better sleep, more willingness to accept change, greater optimism and a sense of connectedness to others, and even helped to lower symptoms of pain.15 This is a part of the mounting evidence over the last 30 years of research in positive psychology that focusing on the positive emotions dramatically improves our overall sense of well-being.

Studies show that gratitude is one of the strongest contributors to hap-piness, self-esteem, and meaning in life. Keeping a gratitude journal is the simplest, most effective thing you can do to boost your happiness. Emmons found that people who kept a consistent gratitude journal were actually able to raise their level of happiness over time. Interestingly, he also found that in contrast to people who wrote down 5 things they felt stressed by, the people who wrote down their blessings they slept better, had more energy, suffered less illness, exercised more, were more optimis-tic about their future, and felt better about their lives.16 Emmons strongly recommends keeping a gratitude journal “if you want to dramatically improve the quality of your life.”17 This might come across as a tall claim, but there is mounting research to support it.

A 2012 study involving 224 patients examined the possible mediating role of sleep in the relationship of gratitude with depression and anxiety in patients with chronic pain and found that higher levels of gratitude were associated with better sleep, and with lower anxiety and depression. The study showed that the gratitude had a direct effect on depression (the more gratitude, the less depression) and an indirect effect on anxiety

15 Robert A Emmons and Michael E. McCullough, “Counting blessings versus burdens”, 386.

16 Ibid.17 Robert A. Emmons, Thanks!: How the New Science of Gratitude Can Make You Happier

(New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2007), 35.

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(increased gratitude led to improved sleep, which led to lower anxiety).18 This goes to show that gratitude bring tangible gains for the health of our body as well as for the peace of our mind.

It is also responsible for the creation of new learning pathways. In a 2008 study, subjects experiencing gratitude were studied under fMRI (functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) and it was found that the “higher individual frequency of gratitude was solely correlated with the hypothala-mus in the whole brain analysis.”19 The ‘hypothalamus’ is the tiny part of our brain that directly influences heart rate and blood pressure, appetite and body weight, and sleep cycles. Gratitude also stimulates that part of the brain which is associated with the release of neurotransmitter dopamine that helps control the brain’s reward and pleasure centers and is also respon-sible for the creation of new learning pathways.20 All these myriad benefits accrue simply by counting our blessings.

In his book entitled The Upward Spiral, Alex Korb notes that expressing gratitude also activates serotonin production, which improves our mood and enables us to overcome bad habits. Krob recommends that, while trying to be grateful, we should not compare ourselves to others. Studies show that comparing yourself to the less fortunate does not have the same benefits as gratitude.21 With regard to writing a gratitude journal, Krob recommends that it should focus on what is right, positive and working, even though things are not perfect. Even if the situation is 90 percent what we do not want, we can still be grateful for the other 10 percent.

How does expressing gratitude harness happiness? First, it fosters the savoring of positive life experiences by enabling people to extract maximum possible enjoyment and satisfaction from their life circumstances. Secondly, counting one’s blessings might directly counter the effects of hedonic adaptation—the process by which our happiness level returns again and

18 Mei Yee Ng and Wing S Wong, “The Differential Effects of Gratitude and Sleep on Psychological Distress in Patients with Chronic Pain”, Journal of Health Psychology, 18(2), March 2012: 263–271. Also see Alex Korb, The Upward Spiral: Using Neuroscience to Reverse the Course of Depression, One Small Change at a Time (New York: New Harbinger Publications, 2015), 156.

19 Roland Zahn, Jorge Moll, Mirella Paiva, Griselda Garrido, Frank Krueger, Edward Huey, and Jordan Grafman, “The Neural Basis of Human Social Values: Evidence from Functional MRI”, Cereb Cortex, 19(2), February 2009: 276–283.

20 Arias-Carrión O and Pöppel E, “Dopamine, learning and reward-seeking behavior”, Act Neurobiol Exp, 67(4), (2007): 481–488.

21 Korb, The Upward Spiral, 159.

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again to its genetic set-point. Emmons recommends that we should culti-vate a disposition of gratitude over time. One has to hone the grateful life orientation constantly and the gratitude journal has to be kept consistently over longer periods of time for this practice to take root and to provide its abiding benefits. Aristotle was right: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”22 When gratitude becomes a habit, we reap its benefits more by receiving more to be grateful for.

When we approach our life with a deep sense of gratitude, it turns into a privilege and ceases to be a problem or a burden. Similarly, when we recognize that the whole universe of sight and sound manifests itself as soon as we open our eyes in the morning, we realize how privileged our position happens to be; our heart is overwhelmed with untold gratitude. Finally, at the interpersonal level, when we realize that our life depends entirely upon the kindness of others, our heart wells up with the expres-sion of gratitude and goodwill for everyone and everything.

How lucky we are to have this precious human life full of freedom and opportunity, freedom to practice goodness and opportunity to have access to the teachings on Self-knowledge and personal transformation. Let us reflect and be grateful about the rarity of being in a place and time and circumstance in which we are presented with real opportunities of devel-oping self-wisdom and compassion.

generoSIty: MagIc PIll for fulfIllMent

“For it is in giving that we receive.”—ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI

Howsoever paradoxical it might seem, life experience and research bears out the math behind St. Francis’s wisdom: to give is to get. A gener-ous heart is doubly blessed in the sense that it bestows goodwill on both the receiver and the giver. Researchers in the field of positive psychology note that if there is a magic pill for happiness and longevity, we might have found it. Countless studies have found that the benefits of practicing generosity are substantial: lower blood pressure, lower risk of dementia, less anxiety and depression, reduced cardiovascular risk and overall greater

22 Actually, this is not an exact quote but a paraphrase of Aristotle’s thoughts by the great American Pulitzer prize winner writer, Will Durant. See Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the World’s Greatest Philosophers (1926) (New York: Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books, 1991), 76.

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happiness. Research shows that when people think about helping others, they activate a part of the brain called the mesolimbic pathway, which is responsible for feelings of gratification.23

The gift of generosity flows directly from the gift of gratitude. Through this gift we share our bounties and blessings with others as a direct expres-sion of our gratitude toward them as well as toward the universe. Churchill is reported to have said, “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”. Ever wonder why it is so fulfilling to share our gifts with others and to help others? Recent studies show practicing generos-ity is, in fact, good for us. When we act generously toward someone, it leads to deep, lasting fulfillment in an unexpected way. There is nothing mysterious about it. It is a common experience of everyone. But we have to check our motivation here—is it pure, or are we masking an ulterior motive with the guise of generosity?

In their groundbreaking study about the what, how, and why of gener-osity, Patricia Snell Herzog and Heather E. Price, sociologists who focus on philanthropy, describe generosity as follows: Generosity is giving good things to others freely and abundantly.

Generous behaviors are intended to enhance the well-being of others.However, the giver can benefit, which distinguishes generosity from

“pure” altruism.Generosity can be actualized through various forms of giving.24

Combining a nationally representative survey of adult Americans with in-depth interviews and case studies, these authors found that the most prominent forms of giving are: giving money (donations to charities), giving time (volunteering), and giving action (taking political action for charitable purposes).

Generosity is a condition of the heart. The gift of generosity is the best antidote to the inveterate human tendencies of acquisitiveness and the resultant greed. It is motivated by a deep conviction that it is noble to give and to share. It flows directly from the gift of gratitude. When we reflect on our life and recount what we have and what we have been given, we realize how the generosity of our parents, relatives, teachers, friends, neighbors and society at large has empowered and enriched our life. Our heart wells up with untold gratitude at the very thought of it and we feel

23 Terri Yablonsky Stat, “Be generous: It’s a simple way to stay healthier”, Chicago Tribune, August 6, 2015. Retrieved March 31, 2016: http://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/health/sc-hlth-0812-joy-of-giving-20150806-story.html.

24 Patricia Snell Herzog and Heather E. Price, American Generosity Who Gives and Why (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 11 (emphasis in the original).

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inspired to return the favor. Through the gift of generosity, we get to share our abundance with others as a direct expression of our gratitude. Quite simply, the gift of generosity signifies giving more than we get, for the more we give the more we grow in fulfillment.

It is not necessary to have a lot to spare in order to practice generosity. As pointed out earlier, it is more a condition of the heart that wants to share regardless of one’s means or ability to give. More often than not, those who have less to spare are observed to be keener to share. It is all about the sheer joy of giving.

The Buddha speaks of three kinds of generosity or giving:

(a) Stingy giving, which is giving something you were going to throw out anyhow.

(b) Ordinary giving, which is giving something of value, but still expecting a return of some kind.

(c) Kingly giving, which is giving what is most precious to you with no expectation of any kind of return—no favors or any particular response. It is just something that is given in a completely open- handed way.25

Generosity Boosts Happiness

There is tremendous happiness in making others happy despite our own situations. Research in positive psychology reveals that lasting happiness comes from making others happy. A life devoted to making only one’s own wishes come true makes a very small, insignificant package. According to the findings of positive psychology, giving boosts happiness. Generosity, it seems, brings more happiness than selfish indulgence. Giving just a few dollars or a few minutes to someone else may help you live longer, hap-pier and healthier. LiveScience Managing Editor, Jeanna Bryner, reported on this research, “Statistical analyses revealed personal spending had no link with a person’s happiness, while spending on others and charity was significantly related to a boost in happiness.”26 While earning money might or might not make you happy, spending it indeed can. However, there is one caveat: you must spend the money on others, not on yourself.

25 Compilations from personal interviews with Buddhist teachers: Bhikkhu Bodhi, Thanissaro Bhikkhu, and Ajahn Amaro. Unpublished Interviews Transcripts, 2009–2011.

26 Jeanna Bryner, “Key to Happiness: Give Away Money,” Live Science, March 19, 2008. Retrieved March 31, 2016: http://www.livescience.com/2376-key-happiness-give-money.html.

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The alchemy of giving seems to work like this: when we share some-thing with others, the joy of sharing takes our attention away from our preoccupation with little worries and petty annoyances. Too much self- focus and self-brooding can lead to constriction of spirit. Often, the best way to transcend our worries is to help others overcome their worries. A young man once approached a Zen master with this question: “I feel very discouraged, what should I do?” The Zen master replied, “Encourage others who are discouraged”. When we encourage others, we see our pos-sibilities instead of being mired by our worries. This is no mere glib cli-ché, it is backed by science. As Stephen G. Post, founding director of the Center for Medical Humanities, Compassionate Care, and Bioethics at Stony Brook University School of Medicine in New York, states: “Many studies show that one of the best ways to deal with the hardships in life is not to just center on yourself but to take the opportunity to engage in simple acts of kindness.”27 When we share with others words of hope and encouragement, they also uplift our spirits. It has been rightly said that “shared grief is half the sorrow, but happiness when shared, is redoubled”.

As the following wisdom tale amply demonstrates, true generosity is born of a deep understanding about the true means and ends of life.

Preciousness Within and Preciousness Without

A wise woman who was traveling in the mountains found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveler who was hungry and the wise woman opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveler saw the precious stone and asked the woman to give it to him. She did so without hesitation.

The traveler left, rejoicing for his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime. But a few days later he came back to return the stone to the wise woman. “I’ve been thinking”, he said, “I know how valuable the stone is, but I give it back in the hope that you can give me something even more precious: Give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone.”28

This is a wonderful story indeed with multiple layers of deep meaning. It tells us that the wise woman had something in her—a deeper under-standing—that enabled her to part with what was considered precious in

27 Terri Yablonsky Stat, “Be generous”.28 A traditional teaching tale. Author unknown.

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the worldly sense. At best, the message is symbolic: Unless we have that something precious inside us, we are not able to share precious things outwardly!

The story also portrays that the wisdom of the wise lies in under-standing the impermanence and precariousness of human valuables and structures. We are told that we cannot take anything with us. But we can certainly leave something behind. Only a life guided by a wise mind and a generous heart is a life capable of leaving something worthwhile behind. When the Buddha was asked to describe the hallmarks of an awakened person, he simply said: “Cool mind and a warm heart!”29 By cultivating a cool mind and a warm heart, we may discover a genuine way to pass on our gifts to others.

This is then the ultimate paradox: By giving we receive, by grasping we lose. Generosity surely helps the recipient; it also bestows health, happi-ness and meaning upon the giver.

HarMleSSneSS: our beSt gIft to tHe unIverSe

If you truly loved yourself, you could never hurt another.—The Buddha

The gift of harmlessness is borne out of our understanding of the previ-ous two gifts, the gift of pure motivation and gift of gratitude. When all of our actions are inspired by pure motivation and we are mindful of our great gratitude for everything and for everyone, we gently come upon the gift of relating to all existence in a harmless way. At its very bare minimum, this gift means not causing any physical harm to anything that exists. The gift of harmlessness, however, goes much deeper than non-harming just in the physical sense. In its deeper meaning, it represents cultivating deep compas-sion, and honoring and celebrating the preciousness of life. As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, “At the center of non-violence stands the principle of love.”30 In essence, harmlessness signifies non-harming by thought, word and deed. However, it must start with us, one person at a time. Harmlessness, like charity, also begins at home. The Dalai Lama said, “The atmosphere

29 This is at best a paraphrase of the Buddha’s famous teachings about cultivating wisdom within and compassion without. Like many sayings attributable to the Buddha, these may not after all be his exact words.

30 The Martin Luther King, Jr. Papers Project: “Nonviolence and Racial Justice”. Retrieved March 25, 2016: https://swap.stanford.edu/20141218225500/http://mlk-kpp01.stan-ford.edu/primarydocuments/Vol4/6-Feb-1957_NonviolenceAndRacialJustice.pdf.

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of peace must first be created within ourselves then gradually expanded to include our families, our communities and ultimately the whole planet.”31 Such is the compassion of a wise person: it envelops the whole universe.

The gift of harmlessness represents the perfect embodiment of the Golden Rule and can serve as a sound foundation to any ethical and spiri-tual practice. When we understand that a harm done to others is essentially a harm done to ourselves—since there are no others—we have understood the real import of harmlessness. Rabindranath Tagore, India’s poet Laureate, put is so well, “He alone knows Truth who realizes in his own soul those of others, and in the soul of others, his own.”32 Realization of oneness is both the means and the end of compassion.

It is true that the very process of living involves a certain amount of vio-lence and that it is perhaps not possible to eliminate violence completely. What we have to do is to seek to minimize its extent as much as possible. Only then we can truly claim our heritage as evolved beings. Thomas Edison put it well: “Non-violence leads to the highest ethics, which is the goal of all evolution. Until we stop harming all other living beings, we are still savages.”33

Nonviolence is a Supreme Virtue

The precept of nonviolence is present in every religion, but in Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism its practice is cultivated into a science of mind and an art of living. Nonviolence as a religious principle represents belief in the oneness and, therefore, sacredness of all life. The ultimate purpose of practicing nonviolence is to lessen the overall suffering in the world

31 Dalai Lama, address given in San Jose, Costa Rica, Buddhist Peace Fellowship Newsletter (Fall 1989).

32 As quoted in Louis Fry and Mark Kriger, “Towards a theory of being-centered leader-ship: Multiple levels of being as context for effective leadership,” Human Relations, 62(11), (2009): 1667–1696.

India’s poet Laureate is drawing upon the wisdom of the Bhagavad Gītā, 6.29: sarvabhu tastham atmanaṃ sarvabhutani catmani /iksate yogayuktatma sarvatra samadarsanah //Established in the oneness with Totality,the Illumined sage sees with equanimitythe Self in all beings, and all beings in the Self..33 As quoted in Michael J. Gelb, Sarah Miller Caldicott, Innovate Like Edison: The Five-

Step System for Breakthrough Business Success (New York: Dutton/Penguin Group Inc., 2007), 67.

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and foster peace, amity and harmony. Nonviolence presents an integral approach to human interaction in which every thought and every inten-tion matters. It signifies noninjury in thought, word and deed.

Nonviolence in deed can be expressed as a principle to “not kill any liv-ing being”. This principle is expressed in the Hindu dictum: “Nonviolence is the supreme virtue” (ahimsa parmodharma). In Jainism and Buddhism, the importance of nonviolence is emphasized significantly as their key defining spiritual value. The Buddha, for example, denounced all forms of violence and preached that loving kindness should be extended not only to humans, but to all animals. Nonviolence in speech or verbal nonviolence is practiced by eschewing words that are harsh, insulting, disempowering, demeaning, untrue and unkind. Most violence starts at the mental level and slowly finds expression at the verbal level. The Bhagavad Gītā regards verbal discipline (tapas) to be most important and explains that speaking words that are truthful, agreeable, beneficial and non-agitating constitute such discipline (anudvegakaraṃ vakyaṃ satyaṃ priyahitaṃ: 17.15).

It is said that the Greek philosopher, Socrates, had a triple test for ver-bal discipline: Before you speak, let your words pass through three gates: 1. Is it true? 2. Is it necessary? 3. Is it kind? Applying Socrates’s triple-filter test of truth, goodness and usefulness to our own speech in workplace interactions can save lot of anger and heartburn and help foster an envi-ronment of mutual respect and affirmation. Nonviolence in thought is about not entertaining violent thoughts about others. All thoughts that breed anger, hatred, jealousy, divisiveness, aggression, conflict or self- conceit are myriad forms of violence in thought. Harboring thoughts that others are bad or evil or regarding others as bad or evil is another form of violence in thought which is perhaps the most destructive of all. What makes nonviolence in thought more destructive is the fact that while there are limits to causing physical violence to others, nonviolence in thought knows no bounds.

Psychology of Violence

There are four primary reasons that prod people to violence. The first reason seems to be ignorance. The person causing the harm is not aware that his or her actions are causing harm to others. Most mental harm takes place when the person supposedly causing such harm is ignorant of the real impact of his or her actions. This brings us to the second cause of violence, insensitivity. Most religious violence emanates from a certain lack of sensitivity toward

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other people’s belief systems. Developing empathy and understanding can go a long in addressing such violence. The third reason for violence is anger, and the fourth is hatred; unaddressed anger leads to hatred. Both anger and hatred are responsible for most of the harm done in the world. Cultivating compassion seems to be the best antidote to violence borne of anger and hatred.

If we carefully look at the psychology behind these four causes of vio-lence, we discover that they all emanate from a common factor of self- centeredness. It is a direct cause of insensitivity toward others and the operative cause of anger leading to hatred. Developing patience, under-standing, kindness, forgiveness and compassion can go a long way in deal-ing with violence at the personal as well as global level. However, it must be noted that nonviolence is not a cover for cowardice. Gandhi, the great apostle of nonviolence, once said “where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.”34

Help Ever—Hurt Never

The great Indian epic, Maha bharata, contains 100,000 verses and is con-sidered to be the world’s longest epic poem (it is more than seven times the combined size of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey).35 Its claim to greatness, however, does not rest only on its quantity but also in the quality of its message. It has been rightly said, “Whatever is here, on Law, on Profit, on Pleasure, and on Salvation, is found elsewhere. But what is not here is nowhere else.”36 The Bhagavad Gītā, the world’s loftiest spiritual poem, forms a part of this epic.

The legendary author of this epic, Veda Vya sa, presents all conceiv-able human tendencies in the form of certain characters. When someone asked him to select the most important single verse that represented the essence of this work, he is reported to have stated, “The gist of a million treatises is expressed in half a verse: The highest merit is helping others;

34 Young India (August 11, 1920), as quoted in Joan V.  Bondurant, Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1958/1988), 28.

35 See: Krishna Maheshwari, Mahabharata, Hindupedia, retrieved March 31, 2016, http://www.hindupedia.com/en/Mahabharata#cite_note-0.

36 J.  A. B. van Buitenen, trans., The Mahabharata, Volume 1: Book 1: The Book of the Beginning (Chicago, IL: University Of Chicago Press, 1980), 130.

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the highest wrongdoing is hurting others.”37 It is important to reflect why the learned author of this great work singled out hurting others as the highest possible spiritual demerit. Since we are inseparably one with the rest of existence, to hurt others is to hurt ourselves. That is why sages of humanity have always insisted on helping others, because they understood that, essentially, there are no others, and all life is inseparably interlinked and interconnected.

Why is this simple existential fact not obvious to everyone? Why are we not naturally able to sense it and warm up to this view of reality? Perhaps in the perennial fight for self-preservation, this type of thinking does not further any evolutionary agenda. Perhaps by some sort of optical illu-sion, we are not able to see beyond the façade of self-centered, separately existing objects vying for their survival and flourishing. This leads to self- defeating strategies that disempower at best and seriously impinge upon the mutual preservation of everyone’s interest, the mutual maintenance of the universe. Albert Einstein captures the issue succinctly and suggests a solution to come out of this prison of separateness, as follows:

A human being is part of a whole called by us “Universe”, a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings, as something separated from the rest … a kind of optical delusion of con-sciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our per-sonal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.38

David Bohm, Einstein’s colleague and successor at Princeton, believed that the quantum theory reveals the “unbroken wholeness of the universe.”39 According to Bohm, this is the natural state of the human world—separa-tion without separateness.

37 “Shloka-ardhena pravakshyaami yad-uktam grantha-kotibhih;Paropakaraya pun-yaya, papaya para peedanam.”

(The gist of a million treatise expressed in half a verse: Highest merit is helping others; highest wrongdoing is hurting others.)

38 From a compilation of Einstein quotes published from multiple online sources and credited to Kevin Harris, 1995.

39 See David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order (London: Routledge Classics, 2002). For general background, see also Ken Wilber, Ed., Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of World’s Great Physicists (Boston: Shambhala, 1984).

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However, we continue to delight in differences and fail to see that which is essentially the same in all of us. It is abundantly evident that the divisions of race, religion, color, creed and culture have contributed to the most heinous horrors of humankind. This will continue unabated, as history tes-tifies, until we see the tyranny of our disempowering stance. Let’s seek and share the underlying truth of mutuality that does not lead to unnatural differences and disharmony. That is the truth of our identity behind diver-sity—the essential oneness of all that exists. By seeking the truth that is equally good to all, we will be able to revere all life and truly redeem our human existence. Only then can we ensure equally the happiness and wel-fare of all beings. That will be our true gift of harmlessness to the universe.

Our planet is plagued by mindless exploitation, rampant destruction, dogged self-centeredness and unbridled greed that has been manifested in terrorism, war and violence. If there is one thing that can save our species from the mad self-destruction of war and violence, it is the gift of harmlessness.

gIft of SelfleSS ServIce: tHe HIgHeSt SPIrItual PrIncIPle

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.—Gandhi

As noted at various points in this book, selfless service is the royal road to fulfillment. This gift flows naturally from the gift of gratitude and the gift of generosity. When we truly understand the interconnectedness of all life, we devote ourselves to finding joy in selfless service. It has been observed that life is like the game of tennis; in order to win, we have to be good at service. Our desire to serve must be pure; it should emanate from the sheer joy of service without expecting any reward, self-recognition or self- gratification. When service emanates from a self-centered motive, it ceases to be service and becomes a business transaction.

Under the guise of the Darwinian struggle for survival, we frequently discern that self-interest is placed before service in the relentless race to accumulate wealth, possessions, power and fame—all geared entirely toward personal benefit alone. This unbridled pursuit of self-gratification inevitably leads to excessive greed, competition and materialism that reign supreme in the world today. As an antidote to rampant self-centeredness, selfless service is absolutely paramount, individually and collectively, with-out which there can be no real progress or harmony in society.

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The present world is plagued by undue self-centeredness and ram-pant devotion to pursuing narrow selfish ends, frequently at the cost of others. Until we move away from this extreme preoccupation with our self, we will remain strangers to the deeper avenues of fulfillment. The urge to serve others is an innate need vitally tied to our happiness. Albert Schweitzer, the philosopher, physician, and Nobel Peace Prize winner, expressed so eloquently, “I don’t know what your destiny will be, but one thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.”

Selfless service to others can be offered in numerous ways, ranging from financial assistance to physical help. Real self-growth depends upon transcending the ego, ennobling the spirit and revering all life, expressed in actions guided by selfless service without any thought or expectation of reward whatsoever—always working selflessly in oneness of spirit for the common good. In fine, service is a way of being according to which one approaches life as an offering rather than viewing it from the standpoint of entitlement.

The lives of moral leaders, such as Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa, bear ample testimony to the power of selfless service. Gandhi devoted all his life to serving his country and its people and found deepest fulfillment through serving. His life serves as a beacon of light to all humanity. Likewise, Mother Teresa was a prime example of selfless service. Her entire life revolved around helping others in need—the poorest of the poor. As a result, she experienced a great deal of affection and self- fulfillment in her life.

True Service: 11 Principles

1. True service happens when the finite ego gets “dissolved”.2. In true service, the giver, not the receiver, is humbled.3. Only those truly serve selflessly, who have realized in themselves

the “Self” of “all”.4. Humble, selfless service is the most potent means to

Self-Realization.5. Selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself! It is also the

best gift you can offer to the universe.6. Those who have greater understanding, have greater responsibility

to serve.7. When you get some opportunity to serve, know that “Existence”

is very pleased with you.

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8. When you find yourself constantly amidst opportunities to serve, consider yourself to be especially fortunate.

9. In fact, there are no sacrifices; only opportunities to serve! 10. In true service, the server has disappeared; only the service

remains. 11. And when your every act has spontaneously become an “ offering”

to the “Supreme”, know that you have arrived at a path that natu-rally leads to inner peace, virtue and liberation.

Selfless Service and Servant Leadership

The gift of selfless service has a great application in the realm of leadership. First and foremost, leadership is a responsibility—a call to serve—and not a position to wield power or influence. The power that is bestowed upon the leader by the followers is of the nature of trust and good faith. In other words, it is a fiduciary relationship. Viewed in this manner, the only rea-son a leader exists is to enable and empower the followers. Great leaders approach their work as a contribution, as a service, without any sense of entitlement whatsoever.

Practicing servant leadership is deceptively simple: one is led by the deep desire to serve others. It is also about putting others’ interest first. History is a testimony to the fact that true leaders, above all, are servant leaders. There is no human ideal higher than the gift of selfless service. For in serving others, we find our true joy and fulfillment.

gIft of total accePtance:Happiness can exist only in acceptance.—George Orwell

True acceptance is borne out of understanding life’s profound reality and entails surrendering to its wisdom. We cannot find true happiness with-out accepting life, root, branch and all. Acceptance is about realizing our proper place in the universe—our relative existence with all its vulnerabil-ity, precariousness and transience. Suzuki Roshi, a remarkable Soto Zen master, said it well: “Without accepting the fact that everything changes, we cannot find perfect composure. But unfortunately, although it is true, it is difficult for us to accept it. Because we cannot accept the truth of transiency, we suffer.”40

40 Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind (New York: John Weatherhill, 1970), 122.

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It is important to remember that the gift of total acceptance, more often than not, pertains to accepting ourselves and others as such so as to bring peace and harmony in human relationships. A careful reflection on the human plight reveals that two things that most spoil our peace and harmony are self-regret and blame for others. We keep on blaming ourselves for something we did not do that we could have or should have done. Likewise, we tend to blame others for something they should have or could have done for us. As long as we remain trapped in the cocoon of resentment and blame, there is no possibility of any real peace and hap-piness. So the real secret of bringing true peace and harmony in our rela-tionship is just this: total acceptance—accepting ourselves as we are and accepting others as they are.

Strangely enough, accepting ourselves as we are may be the hardest part of the equation. As long as there is any aspiration to become some-thing different than what we are, life remains a struggle. Krishnamurti (1895–1986), a modern sage, once surprised his audience by saying, “Let me tell you my secret: I do not compare and I do not mind what happens.”41 In the short space of a sentence, Krishnamurti has provided the secret to the art and science of fulfillment: non-comparison and accep-tance of what is. It is important to note that acceptance does not mean resignation: to “accept” the way things are, is to stop resisting reality; or wishing it to be otherwise.

By relinquishing the need to be different from what we are, we step out of the cycle of becoming and enter into the peaceful abode of being, which is always available to us in the present. Being ourselves involves no struggle; it is the most easy and natural thing in life and requires no time. It is always available to us right here and now, effortlessly, through the medium of acceptance.

Total Acceptance: Letting Things Be!

Total acceptance also means letting things be or, as Chinese wisdom puts it, not legging the snake. As the story goes, participants in a painting com-petition were asked to paint a snake. One participant finished his painting rather quickly and as he looked around, he realized that everyone else was still busy with their paintings. Wondering if he had left something out, he started drawing legs under the snake without realizing that a snake has no

41 Oliver Burkeman, “J.  Krishnamurti: The Guru who didn’t believe in Gurus”, The Guardian, August 10, 2013. Retrieved March 24, 2016: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/aug/10/stop-minding-psychology-oliver-burkeman.

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legs! The Chinese wisdom tradition, called Taoism, refers to this principle as wu-wei—non-doing—which means doing nothing unnaturally or force-fully. It is about refraining from an undue interference with the natural flow of things. In his book Zen in the Art of Archery, Eugen Herrigel was gently reprimanded by his Zen master for trying to force the results too willfully, thusly: “What stands in your way is that you have a much too much willful will. You think that what you do not do yourself does not happen.”42

The gift of total acceptance also serves as the best antidote to impa-tience. Sometimes, in our bid to hasten the process of life, we end up hurt-ing it permanently, not unlike the farmer who, in order to help the plants grow faster, ended up killing them by trying to pull them up a bit. As they say in Zen, “Don’t push the river.”

The gift of total acceptance means accepting ourselves as we are and accepting others as they are. By relinquishing our constant need to be dif-ferent from what we are, we step out of the cycle of becoming and enter into the peaceful abode of being that is always available to us in the pres-ent. Yet total acceptance means much more than resigning ourselves to life’s inevitabilities, which can leave us trapped in a cocoon of resentment and blame, with no possibility of any real peace and happiness; rather, total acceptance fosters composure, courage, and discernment—three virtues that accompany fulfillment and pave the road to Self-knowledge.

Acceptance Out of Helplessness or Understanding

Acceptance can happen in one of two ways: acceptance due to utter help-lessness in the wake of the inevitable or acceptance borne out of deep understanding about life as it really is. In the first case, there is a sense of helplessness or disillusionment that creates inner resistance and acts as a constant drain on our energies. This is called unhealthy acceptance because there is an unaddressed, nagging sense of victimization, injustice, or even hatred in the face of the inevitable.

Acceptance of what has happened, said William James, the great psy-chologist, is the first step to overcoming the consequences of any misfor-tune. It is possible only when there is acceptance without resistance or expectation. It is a common fact of life that we soon adapt to whatever experience life brings to us. Psychologists call this tendency of becoming

42 Eugen Herrigel, Zen in the Art of Archery (New York: Vintage, 1999), 31.

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accustomed to our experiences “hedonic adaptation”. According to this theory, we tend to maintain a relatively stable level of happiness despite major positive or negative events.43

The second type of acceptance is the result of clear understanding of the real nature of our existence and its props—finite, precarious and time- bound. The idea is not just growing accustomed to life conditions, help-lessly, but accepting their inevitability without preference or denial. This is called happy acceptance. It has a transformative power that transmutes the misfortunes into opportunities of self-growth and development. It is per-haps this type of acceptance that Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) had in mind when she observed that “everything in life that we really accept undergoes a change.” The most important point to remember here is that, with some reflection, the first type of acceptance can be transformed into the second type of acceptance. However, it is not always the case that pain in our life gives way to understanding; but when it does happen, the inner resistance is replaced by life-affirming wisdom.

Healthy acceptance is beautifully expressed in what is known as the “Serenity Prayer”: O Lord… Grant me the serenity to accept what I cannot change, Grant me the courage to change what I can change; and Grant me the wisdom to know the difference.

The prayer bestows the three virtues of acceptance, courage and discern-ment: equanimity of mind to accept what cannot be changed, courage to transform what can be changed and the discerning wisdom to know what can or cannot be changed in life.

Healthy acceptance is based on the understanding that somehow what-ever happens, happens for good and that things have a way of working out in the end. There may be an invisible cosmic hand guiding the course of our destiny and choreographing the events of our life. The Serenity Prayer represents a healthy form of acceptance. Composure, courage, and dis-cernment are three virtues that accompany fulfillment and pave the road to Self-knowledge. Healthy acceptance is borne out of understanding life’s profound reality and entails surrendering to its unfolding wisdom. It

43 Stephanie Rosenbloom, “But Will It Make You Happy?”, New York Times, August 7, 2010.

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is about realizing our proper place in the universe—accepting our relative existence with all its vulnerability, precariousness and transience. As long as we are not happy with what is, and pine for what is not, the supreme joy of contentment will elude us.

PreSence: be WHerever you are WItH all your MInd!

“Walk as if you are kissing the Earth with your feet.”44

—THICH NHAT HANH

It is said that the Buddha’s walking was not any different from his sitting. Likewise, Thich Nhat Hanh is illustrating the high art of living mindfully in every part of our life. The gift of presence is the culminating gift in the sense that it facilitates the practice of all other gifts by reminding us to remain alert from moment to moment. Only when we are awake to our inner and outer reality can we ensure the observance of the gifts of pure motivation, gratitude, generosity, harmlessness, selfless service, and total acceptance. Practices such as mindfulness and silence can bring about greater awareness in everything we do and enable us to share the gift of our presence. This section provides a brief overview of the essential ele-ments of Buddhist psychology as a mental discipline, the Buddhist practice of mindfulness as it is found in the earliest Buddhist writings.

Right mindfulness, right concentration, and right effort constitute Buddhist mental discipline. The mind is trained, disciplined and developed through these three practices, which aim at cleansing the mind of impuri-ties and disturbances, such as lustful desires, hatred, ill-will, indolence, worries and restlessness, skeptical doubts, and cultivating such qualities as concentration, awareness, intelligence, will, energy, the analytical faculty, confidence, joy and tranquility; leading finally to the attainment of the highest wisdom which sees things as they are, and realizes the Ultimate Truth, Nirvana.45

Research shows that meditation is not just a feel good activity, it actu-ally rewires our brain. A recent study at Harvard shows that meditation

44 Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Is Every Step: The Path of Mindfulness in Everyday Life (New York: Bantam, 1992), 28.

45 Walpola Rahula, What the Buddha Taught. Rev. and exp. ed. (New York: Grove Press, 1974), 68.

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literally rebuilds our brain’s gray matter in 8 weeks. This study found that an average of 27 minutes of a daily practice of mindfulness exercises results in a significant boost in gray matter density, regulates anxiety and stress responses and improves overall well-being and quality of life.46

How does Buddhist philosophy and psychology help us attain lasting happiness and fulfillment? As must be evident by now, Buddhism is more a way of life, a philosophy, than a religion in the traditional sense. It is a “do-it-yourself psychology” by way of “to whom it may concern”. The Buddhist viewpoint aims at achieving abiding happiness through mind training, development and control, irrespective of our external circum-stances. Through the wisdom of seeing things as they are, it helps us in the cultivation of unconditional loving kindness toward all existence.

A sign in Las Vegas says, “In order to win, you have to be present.” Likewise, in order to be successful at the game of life, we have to be alertly present in everything we do. Being present a special faculty called self-awareness. In the previous chapters, we have noted the role of self-awareness in various ways, including its primacy in emotional intelligence. No matter how exalted our experience is, if we are not present to it, it is virtually lost to us for all intents and purposes. In this sense at least, the gift of presence is truly primal to all our emotions, thoughts, and experiences. Quite simply, by being alertly present in the now, we savor life’s bounties and benedictions to the fullest extent.

If we observe our mind we discover that it hops from past to future and from future to past, endlessly. It rarely, if ever, dwells in the present. This phenomenon can be called, half-jokingly, the Law of Elsewhere: our mind always likes to be elsewhere! Interestingly, “now” is rightly called “present”—it truly is a “gift” from gods. As with our other gifts of fulfill-ment, we must make a habit of this one by learning to be alertly present in the present moment—to be keenly attuned to the current reality. It is a strange realization that even past and future can only be experienced in the now, the eternal present moment. The ability to be in the present moment, from moment to moment, is the master key to enjoy the small

46 Harvard Unveils MRI Study Proving Meditation Literally Rebuilds the Brain’s Gray Matter in 8 Weeks, Feelguide, November 19, 2014, Health, Spirituality, the Human Brain. Retrieved March 31, 2016: http://www.feelguide.com/2014/11/19/harvard-unveils-mri-study-proving-meditation-literally-rebuilds-the-brains-gray-matter-in-8-weeks/. Also see Sue McGreevey, “Eight weeks to a better brain; Meditation study shows changes associ-ated with awareness, stress”, Harvard Gazette, January 21, 2011. Retrieved March 31, 2016: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2011/01/eight-weeks-to-a-better-brain/.

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pleasures that life accords us unexpectedly. Most of the time our mind is roaming elsewhere when we outwardly seem engaged in an activity. For example, when taking a shower or eating our breakfast, our mind may be worrying about a meeting that is not going to happen until later during the day. So if we are thinking about our meeting while eating our break-fast, we are actually eating our meeting and not our breakfast! Perhaps that is why we have modern day reminders such as “Live the moment!” or “Seize the day!”

tHe art of PayIng attentIon to attentIon

A modern Zen story talks about a novice approaching a Zen master, inquiring about the most important thing in life. “Attention”, said the master. The student persisted: “What is the second most important thing?” “Attention”, replied the master. “And the third thing?” asked the student. “Attention”, the master added firmly. “Anything else?” continued the stu-dent. “You do not seem to be paying attention!”, roared the master.

The faculty of self-awareness has been prized by various wisdom and spiritual traditions. While Hindu, Sufi, Hassidic, and Christian religions employ some form of awareness to attune to current reality, it is the Buddhist meditative practice in which mindfulness has really played a key role in developing awareness of the present moment. Perhaps in no other tradition has mindfulness received such a comprehensive treatment as it has in Buddhist doctrine and discipline, both in ancient manuals and in modern Buddhist writings.

The term mindfulness has come to be used in a variety of ways and con-texts in modern times. Starting as a meditation technique more than 2500 years ago, mindfulness has found its way in recent times into health clinics, prison houses, wellness centers, government offices, law firms and corpo-rate boardrooms. In its original Buddhist form, the practice of mindful-ness refers to the technique of developing awareness of the body and the mind in the present moment.

Underscoring the universal importance of mindfulness, Buddha observed, “Mindfulness, I declare, is helpful everywhere.”47 Various other wisdom traditions of the world also underscore the importance of garnering a heightened sense of awareness of present reality by focusing

47 As cited in Bhikkhu Khantipalo, Practical Advice for Meditators (Kandy, Sri Lanka: Buddhist Publication Society, 2006), 8.

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on a chosen object with intense absorption, meditation, contemplation, concentration, remembrance and recollection. For example, Sufi masters use a special form of meditation called Zikr to develop “yearning for the divine” through constant remembrance and recollection.

Christian desert fathers likewise used the royal art of “the prayer of the heart” to garner the knowledge of the divine. The Philokalia, a collection of texts written between the fourth and fifteenth centuries by masters of the Greek Orthodox tradition, speaks of the virtue of developing mental silence and inner attention in the service of the divine. In modern times, Russian mystics Gurdjieff and Ouspenksy have placed special importance on “self-remembering” as a unique way to psychological self-evolution. And Jiddu Krishnamurti popularized the phrase “choiceless awareness” to denote a state of pure alertness where we are fully aware of the moment-to- moment reality “as it is”, yet our awareness is not focused on any par-ticular physical or mental object.

The best gift we have to offer our fellow human beings is the gift of our presence, our attentive listening, our empathy, our kindness and com-passion. This is possible only if we are truly present in all our engage-ments and interactions. Being present requires the cultivation of a special faculty called self-awareness. Intrinsically, our being is of the nature of pure awareness—of the nature of “wisdom-seeking wisdom”. And this wisdom is always available to all of us right here and now, whenever and wherever we need it, if only we open ourselves to it unconditionally. The key here is to be alertly present in the present moment. This culminating gift facilitates the practice of all other gifts, as we mindfully remain alert from moment to moment.

tHe Integral nature of tHe Seven gIftS of fulfIllMent

It is important to understand the integral nature of these seven gifts/habits. When we cultivate one gift completely, the other six gifts come along by themselves. For example, cultivating pure motivation requires that we draw on our self-awareness—the gift of presence—to recognize life’s interconnectedness, which motivates us to practice gratitude, gen-erosity, harmlessness and selfless service. When we are truly grateful, our motivation becomes pure, and we are more likely to share our gifts gen-erously with others and to serve them selflessly. When our motivation becomes pure, we work selflessly for the common good of others without

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expecting anything in return. All this, however, presupposes a degree of Self- knowledge and self-insight. By seeking perennially who we truly are and serving selflessly, we truly fulfill our existence.

Additionally, these gifts should be approached as seven offerings that highly-fulfilled leaders share with others. The good news is that when we give these gifts to others, we end up receiving many more blessings in return. To quote Emerson, “It is one of the most beautiful compensa-tions of life that no man can sincerely try to help another without helping himself.” In the similar vein, a Chinese adage says, “A little perfume stays with the hand that gives flowers to others.” And when we do good, we feel good. All of the seven habits of highly-fulfilled people are founded on the simple principle: Be Good, Do Good. Perhaps, the highest good lies in being good. As a modern Indian saint, Swami Sharnanandji, has put it rightly: “When we ‘do’ good, we help the society; when we ‘be’ good, we help the whole humanity.”48

fulfIllMent and tHe art of leaderSHIP

Exemplary leaders approach their work as an offering. Khalil Gibran, the great Lebanese poet, defined work as “love made visible”. He explains: “Work is love made visible. And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.”49 By approaching our work as a gift of love, we make the art of leadership truly sacred. The Bhagavad Gītā states that a wise person only acts for the pur-pose of bringing communities of people together (lokasaṃgraham: the Gītā 3.20, 3.25) and is delightfully and constantly immersed in working toward the well-being of all beings (sarvabhu tahite rata h : the Gītā 5.25, 12.4). This is a wonderful lesson in the art and science of leadership. When we lead with a desire to bring people together and to ensure their well-being, we create a healthy work environment worthy of human habitation. In turn, we ensure harmony for others and fulfillment for ourselves.

48 Swami Sharnanandaji, Humanity’s Own Sharnanandaji: A Short Introduction and Precious Sayings (Karnal, Haryana, India: Karnal Manav Seva Sangh Publication, 2016), 50.

49 Khalil Gibran, The Prophet (New York: Alfred A Knopf, 1977), 28.

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It all boils down to how one approaches one’s daily work, from big proj-ects to small matters. Maybe extraordinary things are meant for extraordinary people. That may be! However, what we all can aspire to is to do ordinary things with extraordinary love and care. Even the smallest act or gesture deserves due importance and holds great significance. We thus approach our work as something sacred and try to live our entire life this way.

A holistic leader’s greatest gift is to help others connect with their inner greatness, to help others discover their authentic voice and to help others be fulfilled. In the chapter entitled Creativity and Flow, we saw that this quality of “going out of your way to help others succeed”, is the secret behind design leader IDEO’s success. There comes a time when one starts focusing more on helping others achieve their goals rather than build-ing one’s own professional profile. Jack Welch, former CEO of GE, is reported to have said that “before you become a leader, your focus should be on developing yourself; after you become a leader, your focus should be on developing others.”

After all, success is doing what one loves to do to the best of one’s ability. It is about having just enough time and money to savor the beautiful gift called life. A person’s success can be measured by how fulfilled he or she feels from moment to moment. One can be very successful in the worldly sense of the word and have all the wealth of the world and still feel impov-erished, empty inside. It is an inner thing. Our experience will show that to seek wisdom and to serve others makes us truly happy. To seek fulfillment and inner joy by helping others is the key here. Nothing makes us happier than the feeling that we have been able to contribute to others’ happiness.

Our leadership style is an expression of who we are. Leadership has been rightly described as a journey into one’s soul. So, one has to start very near—that is, to one’s own self—to go very far in leading oth-ers. No wonder Confucius, the Chinese sage, believed that, in order to become a great leader, we have to be a good person first. Building on what has been said earlier, business leaders would do well to focus more on self- development, self-awareness and Self-knowledge. When leaders go astray, it is almost always a case of failure of personal leadership or self-leadership.

Let us remember that the journey from success to significance (and from happiness to peace and harmony) is not only essential for personal mastery, it is also critical in developing and leading others.

FIND YOUR FULFILLMENT: WINNING HABITS OF HIGHLY FULFILLED LEADERS 237

concludIng tHougHtS

The chapter presented the calculus of becoming a fulfilled leader in terms of “Know-Do-Be” continuum: Know yourself. Do good. Be ful-filled. Self-knowledge furnishes the necessary foundation for fulfillment. Anchored in Self-Knowledge, fulfillment becomes more a matter of being than having, more a matter of belonging than belongings. Effective leaders know that their strength resides in the richness of their being, not in the multitude of their possessions. And acting for the good of others serves as the True North on the path of such leaders. Fulfilled leaders enjoy happiness of a life lived well in the pursuit of a worthwhile cause. They are well aware that fulfillment comes from Self-knowledge and living our life’s true purpose in the service of others. Holistic leaders understand that replacing self-centeredness with “other-centeredness” increases a person’s contentment in the community, the workplace, the family, and ultimately the self.

Highly fulfilled leaders act with fulfillment and not for fulfillment. Moral virtue, which Aristotle considered as the “activity of the soul,”50 is the foundation of their life. These leaders are guided by a strong life-positioning system, a dependable moral compass. While in the old GPS system Greed, Power and Selfishness reign supreme, the new GPS aspires to Generosity, Passion and Service. Living our life’s passions gratefully and generously in the service of humanity is what fulfillment is all about. As the following Gandhi story illustrates, in the matters virtuous, choosing the right from the wrong seems less a matter of conformance to conventional standards—of what is ‘right’ and ‘wrong’—and more a matter of ‘being’—a spontaneously natural flowering of our intrinsic goodness:

A story is told about Gandhi in which, as he was boarding a train, one of his sandals slipped from his foot and landed near the track. Suddenly the train began pulling away, leaving him no time to retrieve it. Immediately, Gandhi removed the other sandal and tossed it back to lie with the other along the track. When his astonished fellow passenger asked why he had done this, Gandhi replied, “Now the poor man who finds it will have a pair he can use.”51

50 J.O. Urmson, Aristotle’s Ethics (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishers, 2001), 11.51 As quoted in Donald McCullough, Say Please, Say Thank You (New York: G. P. Putnam’s

& Sons, 1998), 140.

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The seven habits of head and heart presented in this chapter need to be approached as “gifts” that leaders essentially cultivate within themselves. In order to live a profoundly significant life, leaders need to share these gifts with others. Paradoxically, in sharing these gifts with others, leaders ultimately bestow them on themselves and unexpectedly discover a life infused with true significance and lasting fulfillment. Living these gifts, leaders inspire fulfillment in others, and by harnessing the radiating good-ness and greatness in others, they touch the future and make it come alive as a field of infinite potentials and possibilities. For, as the Indian sage, Chanakya, reminds us, “the fragrance of flowers spreads only in the direc-tion of the wind; but the goodness of a person spreads in all directions.”

HIgHly fulfIlled leaderS: reflectIon QueStIonS

1. What is the difference between living a life of success and living a life of significance? How do holistic leaders make the shift from success to significance?

2. What are the characteristics of highly-fulfilled people? How do these characteristics contribute to a person’s quest for holistic leadership?

3. Out of the 7 Habits of highly-fulfilled leaders discussed in this chap-ter, which one is your favorite and why? Which habit (s) have you been practicing already?

4. How do holistic leaders harness these habits in others? Why do we need to share these gifts/habits with others?

5. What makes the 7 Habits discussed in this chapter integral in nature? Which habit serves as a basis for all, and why?

6. It has been said that the journey to holistic leadership begins with Self-knowledge and culminates in serving others. Explain why Self- knowledge is considered an essential pre-condition to serving others selflessly?

7. It has been observed that if holistic leaders are to foster a sense of well-being and fulfillment among their team members, they first have to demonstrate it in their own life example. How do holistic leaders ensure workplace harmony and fulfillment?

FIND YOUR FULFILLMENT: WINNING HABITS OF HIGHLY FULFILLED LEADERS 239

241© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_10

CHAPTER 10

Being the Change: A Hero’s Journey and Legacy

“My life is my message.” —GANDHI

IntroductIon

What are the distinguishing marks separating holistic leaders from ordinary ones? How are great leaders fashioned at the hands of destiny? Are there any visible outer signs? Or is it an intangible presence that defines their abiding influence? How do they carry out the fourfold process of learn-ing, living, loving and leaving a legacy? What milestones and crucibles do they encounter on their journey from self-mastery to self-fulfillment? How do they forge their authentic self in the “crucibles” they face? And finally, how do they consciously “triumph” various human frailties and “trans-mute” them through self-discipline into strengths? In short, what are the defining moments on a hero’s journey towards self-leadership? These are some of the questions that we will explore in this chapter with reference to Gandhi’s development as a leader.*

We all need heroes who can awaken us to the best in people and who can inspire us to be what we know we can be. Given the current leader-ship crisis, there is a greater need for the role models that embody and illustrate value-based, holistic leadership. In this chapter, we explore the leadership journey of Mahatma Gandhi, the quintessential holistic leader.

* This chapter is partially based on the author’s recent book, Gandhi and Leadership: New Horizons in Exemplary Leadership (New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015).

From the pages of recent history, Gandhi emerges as a grand strategist and exemplary leader with a keen understanding of human nature. His life and leadership embody the synergistic energy fashioned by the coming together of the self, spirit and service—the three foundational dimensions of holistic leadership.

This chapter traces the alchemy of Gandhi’s greatness and highlights the important crucibles in Gandhi’s development as a leader. Applying a values-based holistic approach, it explores and unravels the leadership secrets of Gandhi based on the tenets of truth, nonviolence, humility, self- discipline and selfless service. Effectively weaving together biography, his-tory and anecdotes, it offers practical steps and advice for applying the spiritual and moral principles that brilliantly defined Gandhi’s leadership. His leadership style was “follower-centric” and “contextual”. The chap-ter explores the moral and spiritual-philosophical mainstay and context of Gandhi’s approach to leadership and reveals how Gandhi, beginning as a “one-man boundary force,”1 became “a century’s conscience.”2

Alchemy of exemplAry leAdershIp

What are the hallmarks by which exemplary leaders should be identi-fied and judged? John Quincy Adams, the nineteenth-century American President, provides a succinct touchstone of judging a leader: “If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.” Judged against these criteria and in terms of his abiding influence, Gandhi emerges as one of the most remarkable leaders of all time. He led the greatest anti-colonial movement in history peace-fully, showed how to lead successful political life without compromising integrity, revealed a rare model of morally sensitive political leadership and provided politics a much-needed spiritual basis.

Nature gives very few the great honor of becoming legends in their own lifetime. In 1930, Gandhi was named Time magazine’s Man of the Year. Seven decades later, he was second only to Albert Einstein as a favor-ite for Person of the Century. On the occasion of Gandhi’s 75th birth-day, Einstein paid tribute to Gandhi by noting, “Generations to come will

1 As quoted in The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Electronic Book), New Delhi, Publications Division Government of India, 1999, 98 volumes, Vol. 96, p. 303. Retrieved: March 12, 2016: http://www.gandhiserve.org/e/cwmg/cwmg.htm.

2 Cited in Rajmohan Gandhi, Gandhi: The Man, His People, and Empire (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2008), xii.

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scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”3 Originally a timid and taciturn soul, he grew into a paragon of visionary leadership, helping to secure the liberation of a fifth of the world’s population from the rule of the largest empire on earth. As Martin Luther King, Jr., wrote in 1958, “Gandhi was probably the first person in history to lift the love ethic of Jesus above mere interaction between indi-viduals to a powerful and effective social force on a large scale.”4

Simply put, Gandhi’s legacy became the harbinger of freedom to many countries in Southeast Asia and the rest of the world. In addition to Dr. King, he inspired exemplary leadership in other historic figures, rang-ing from Nelson Mandela and Aung San Suu Kyi to US President Barack Obama. While receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1989, the Dalai Lama accepted it as a tribute to “the man who founded the modern tradi-tion of non-violent action for change, Mahatma Gandhi, whose life taught and inspired me.”5 The measure of Gandhi’s gentle influence transcends all logical explanations. He lived, suffered and gave his life to the noble cause of peace—perhaps the most important source of his greatness.

defInIng moments of gAndhI’s lIfe And leAdershIp

How are great leaders fashioned at the hands of destiny? What milestones and crucibles do they encounter on their path to holistic leadership? This section will chronicle some of the defining moments of Gandhi’s life and leadership. Since Gandhi’s development as a leader is inexplicably linked to his unique set of life events, this chapter will carefully trace the key guideposts in Gandhi’s life and make explicit their leadership relevance. It draws largely upon Gandhi’s autobiography which contains a detailed and honest “self-portrait of his mind, heart, and soul.”6 Gandhi aptly sub-titled his autobiography as The Story of My Experiments with Truth. Gandhi clarified that the nature of these experiments was essentially moral since he considered morality to be the very basis of spirituality: “The experiments I am about to relate”, Gandhi wrote, “are spiritual, or rather moral, for the

3 See Contribution to “Gandhi: His Life and Work”, July 1944, AEA, arch. no. 28-608. Also see Yogesh Chadha, Gandhi: A Life (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997), 1.

4 Martin Luther King, Jr., Stride Toward Freedom (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1958), 97.

5 The fourteenth Dalai Lama—Acceptance Speech. Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2014. Retrieved: March 12, 2016: http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laure-ates/1989/lama-acceptance.html.

6 Louis Fischer, Ed., The Essential Gandhi (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), 1.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 243

essence of religion is morality.”7 This seminal quote represents the defin-ing paradigm of Gandhian ethics and spirituality. Gandhi used these two frames as lenses to examine the existential realities of life and leadership. In the following sections, we recount the milestones on Gandhi’s journey to leadership.

eArly formAtIve yeArs (1869–1888)Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was born on October 2, 1869, at Porbandar, a coastal town in western India. Gandhi was the fourth and the last child of his father’s fourth and last marriage.8 His saintly, aus-tere and religiously devout mother, Putlibai, and his equally devout nurse, Rambha, were major spiritual influences on him. Gandhi inherited his pro-foundly religious nature, devotion and asceticism from her. His father, Karamchand, was honest, generous and fair but shorttempered. He had little formal education, but had “rich experience of practical affairs.”9 He served as prime minister of the small princely state of Porbandar.

Gandhi grew up in a household of austere discipline and religious tol-erance. In his autobiography, Gandhi wrote that at school, from the age of six or seven through sixteen, he was taught “all sort of things except religion.”10 The religious tenor of his home, however, made up for the lack of such instruction at school. In school, Gandhi was a “mediocre stu-dent” and earned average grades. He did not enjoy the usual sports such as cricket or football. For exercise, he liked to take long walks—a habit he kept throughout his life, which contributed to his sturdy frame. He would walk straight home from school to be with his ailing father. He was a shy, diffident lad, as he himself reported in his autobiography:

I used to be very shy and avoided all company. My books and my lessons were my sole companions. To be at school at that stroke of the hour and to run back home as soon as school closed—that was my daily habit. I literally ran back, because I could not bear to talk to anybody. I was even afraid lest anyone should poke fun at me.11

7 Mohandas K. Gandhi, Autobiography: The Story of My Experiments with Truth (New York: Dover Publications, 1983), viii (Emphasis added).

8 Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, 13.9 Ibid., 2.10 Ibid., 28.11 Ibid., 4.

244 S. DHIMAN

During an annual inspection of the school, twelve-year-old Gandhi refused to copy the correct spelling of the word “kettle” from his neighbor’s slate even though his teacher tried to prompt him with the point of his boot. As a result, everyone else in the class, except for Gandhi, spelled every word correctly. Later on, the teacher tried, albeit unsuccessfully, to bring home the point of expediency to Gandhi. “I could never”, Gandhi said, “learn the art of ‘copying.’”12 This “moral rectitude”—of placing means above desired ends—would become a cornerstone of Gandhi’s character and defined his approach to every action that he undertook in his personal and professional lives.

During this time, Gandhi also learned about the Rāmāyan a, one of the two major Hindu epics centering on the life of Rama, the quintessential embodiment of dharma (duty) in the Hindu theistic pantheon. Gandhi later described the Rāmāyana of Tulsidas to be “the greatest book in all devotional literature.”13 The poet par excellence, Tulsidasa, presented the ideal of a saint as a person who does good to those who do harm to him:

Uma sant kai ihai badaai | Mand karat jo karai bhalaai || —Sundarkand, Doha 40.8

This verily is the majesty of a saint— That he returns good for the evil.14

This principle of returning good for evil would become a core value for Gandhi in the form of nonviolence—one of the two most important tenets of his life and thought.

plAyIng the tough husbAnd

Gandhi was married to Kasturba when they were both 13 years of age, an experience which later made Gandhi a bitter critic of child marriage. Initially, Gandhi was a passionate and possessive husband. In his own way, he wanted to make Kasturba an ideal wife. This was normal and no differ-ent from other Indian couples of the same age. What was unusual was that

12 Ibid., 4.13 Ibid., 29.14 S riramacaritama nasa, Sundarkand, doha 40.8, author’s translation. Literally,

Ramacaritama nasa means “the lake of life and deeds of Lord Rama”.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 245

Kasturba was illiterate and Gandhi would soon become a British-trained barrister. In order to make good his authority as a husband, Gandhi felt that it was his duty to teach her. Despite his persistent efforts through-out their long marriage of 66 years, Kasturba never learned to read or write anything but elementary Gujarati, her native language.15 This cre-ated constant tension in their relationship. Later on, Gandhi realized and acknowledged his own “folly” and confessed that it was actually Kasturba who had been his teacher by example through service, humility, simplicity and patience.16

fAther’s deAth: the begInnIngs of trAnsformAtIon

Gandhi was also a devoted son. Throughout his father’s illness in 1885, Gandhi would rush home to spend time with him. At night, he would massage his father’s legs. One night as he was taking care of his father, his uncle who was visiting, sent Gandhi to bed. Gandhi left his dying father under his uncle’s care to go to bed with his wife. His father’s death during that brief absence hurt him profoundly. As he poignantly wrote in his autobiography: “I felt deeply ashamed and miserable. I ran to my father’s room. I saw that, if animal passion had not blinded me, I should have been spared the torture of separation from my father during his last moments.”17 Gandhi felt a deep sense of remorse over this incident. He thought that he had failed in discharging his allotted duty to his father.

Gandhi never forgave himself for this mistake. As he regretfully noted, “It was a blot I have never been able to efface or forget, and I have always thought that, although my devotion to my parents knew no bounds and I would have given up anything for it, yet it was weighed and found unpar-donably wanting because my mind was at the same moment in the grip of lust.”18

To make matters worse, his wife was pregnant at the time of his father’s death and the child did not survive. This sense of shame and guilt would not leave Gandhi until he was 36 and took a Hindu vow of celibacy in 1906 for reasons of spirituality, self-discipline and commitment to public

15 Fischer, The Essential Gandhi, 16.16 Jad Adams, Gandhi: The True Man Behind Modern India (New York: Pegasus, 2012),

33.17 Fischer, The Essential Gandhi, 16.18 Gandhi, Autobiography, 27.

246 S. DHIMAN

service. However, to “get free from the shackles of lust”, Gandhi “[would] have to pass through many ordeals.”19

If exemplary leadership is forged in a “crucible”, then his father’s death and the existential angst he experienced over it represented the first major “crucible” in Gandhi’s life that affected him to the very core of his being. Gandhi resolved that since he had not been a good son to his father, he could at least try to be a good son to all of humanity. This habit of consciously “internalizing” the human frailties and “transmuting” them through self-discipline into strengths formed a cornerstone of Gandhian life and leadership.

london yeArs (1888–1891)After giving a pledge to his mother that he would stay away from wine, women and meat, Gandhi left India for London to study law in 1888. The practice of taking a vow to sustain one’s determination and keep one steadfast in discipline was a serious commitment, something which would define Gandhi’s difficult undertakings in later life. In England, among other things, he tried to live the life of an English gentleman and took lessons in dancing, elocution and violin. His friends tried to compel him to eat meat, but he abstained, adhering very rigidly to a vegetarian diet and upholding his pledge not to eat meat. He joined vegetarian clubs and very soon became an advocate of vegetarianism. He was also elected to the Executive Committee of the Vegetarian Society, but he always felt tongue-tied at its meetings. But this brief and modest experience did pro-vide Gandhi some training in organizing and leadership.

Here we get yet another important clue to the Gandhian modus ope-randi: he was not content just to abstain from meat himself; he wanted to champion the cause of vegetarianism. This habit of universalizing a personal virtue or hurt would remain at the core of Gandhi’s leader-ship and served him well throughout his life. It was in England that two Theosophists first introduced Gandhi to Edwin Arnold’s English render-ing of the Bhagavad Gītā, a text that became his “spiritual dictionary” and provided the basis for his moral and social actions.

Gandhi joined the bar in 1891 and returned to India immediately to practice law. Although Gandhi tried to establish his own practice, his legal career in India was unsuccessful. He was too shy to speak in court, and his

19 Ibid.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 247

first case was a complete disaster. As Gandhi was struggling to establish his career, help came from a totally unexpected quarter that led him to take up a case in Durban. He sailed for South Africa in 1893 with a plan to live there for one year, but he eventually remained for 21 years.20 Gandhi could have never guessed what the future held for him in South Africa.

south AfrIcA yeArs (1893–1914)In 1893, a 23-year-old, British-trained Indian lawyer arrived on the shores of South Africa. He did not know then that he would stay for 21 years, during which he would encounter humiliation and injustice on a scale that would force him to challenge not only the oppressive power and author-ity of the South African government but also himself. Nor did he know that this would serve as a testing ground, a laboratory, for his struggle for independence later on in his home country. Throughout his life, Gandhi would look back on South Africa as the “God-forsaken continent where I found my God.”21

This period of Gandhi’s life (1893–1914) set the stage for what he would accomplish in the remaining years of his life. It was in South Africa that he discovered his most powerful weapon of nonviolent resistance—satyagraha—and put it to several rigorous tests; it is also here that he experimented with his idea of community living (ashram), discovered the power of journalism as a powerful ally, and fashioned himself into a future leader of India’s independence movement.

Within a week of his arrival, he had an experience that changed the course of his life. The lawsuit required Gandhi’s presence in Pretoria, the capital city of Transvaal. A first-class ticket was purchased for him at Durban, where he boarded the train for the overnight journey. According to Gandhi, this trip led to a “conversion experience,”22 which he later dubbed as “the most creative experience of my life.”23

The train reached Maritzburg, the capital of Natal, at about 9 p.m. … [an] official came to me and said, “Come along, you must go to the van

20 Bhikhu Parekh, Gandhi (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 2.21 Krishna Kripalani, Gandhi: A Life (New Delhi: National Book Trust, India, 2013,

reprint edition), 18.22 See: Arvind Sharma, Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography (New Haven, CT: Yale University

Press, 2013), 54–56. Sharma devotes a whole chapter to the theme of Gandhi’s conversion experience. For its details in Gandhi’s own words, see Gandhi, Autobiography, 92–98.

23 Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950), 41.

248 S. DHIMAN

compartment”. “But I have a first class ticket,” said I. “That doesn’t matter,” rejoined the other. “I tell you, you must go to the van compartment”. “I tell you, I was permitted to travel in this compartment at Durban, and I insist on going on in it”. “No, you won’t,” said the official. “You must leave this compartment, or else I shall have to call a police constable to push you out”. “Yes, you may. I refuse to get out voluntarily.”24

Gandhi’s refusal to leave the first-class compartment of the train revealed two important things about his nature. First, as a trained barrister, he knew his legal rights. Second, and even more important, his spirit revolted against anything unfair and unjust. Eventually the constable was called, and Gandhi was removed from the train. Gandhi spent the extremely cold winter night in the train station’s waiting room. His luggage was outside, but he did not dare ask for it for fear of being insulted again.

Without a blanket, and shivering, Gandhi thought about his duty and contemplated his options. To quit and go back to India would be an act of cowardice. On a superficial level, it was merely a personal hurt, but Gandhi felt that it was also symptomatic of a deeper racial prejudice. As a result, Gandhi formulated a game plan: “I should try, if possible, to root out the disease and suffer hardships in the process. Redress for wrongs I should seek only to the extent that would be necessary for the removal of the color prejudice.”25

What is significant about Gandhi’s take on this defining experience of his life is that he did not view it just in terms of a personal insult. Instead, he was able to perceive the problem’s universal dimension, which is nor-mally hidden to ordinary people. Above all, he did not want to press his point further than what was necessary.

the chrysAlIs of gAndhI’s trAnsformAtIon As A leAder

The cold night that Gandhi spent at the railway station became the most significant experience of his life. Gandhi became a different man after this transformative incident at the Pietermaritzburg railway station. He resolved to stay and fight against racial prejudice, not for personal reasons but on behalf of all and only to the extent that would be necessary. He wrote in his autobiography that he had made it a rule not to go to court

24 Gandhi, Autobiography, 97.25 Ibid., 96–97.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 249

in respect of any personal grievance.26 According to Eknath Easwaran, it would take years for Gandhi to forge this “matchless weapon” of nonvio-lence, based on his dogged determination “never to retaliate but never to yield”. Gandhi discovered first-hand that strength does not come from brute force but from an indomitable will. On that night in Maritzburg, “faith entered his heart.”27 This is the chrysalis of Gandhi’s transformation.

Gandhi took the next available train to Pretoria in the morning. On the way to Pretoria, he experienced further insult and humiliation—the driver of the stagecoach that carried him to Johannesburg humiliated Gandhi and even beat him.28 Some months later, he was kicked into a gutter by a sentry for daring to walk past President Kruger’s house in Pretoria.29 Gandhi was always intrigued by the vicarious enjoyment that humans derived from the abject humiliation of their fellow beings. His tender spirit could not understand this sadistic tendency. “It has always been a mystery to me”, wrote Gandhi in his autobiography, “how men can feel themselves honored by the humiliation of their fellow beings.”30

In April 1894, after almost twelve months in South Africa, Gandhi was about to return to India for good. At his farewell party, however, his friends urged him to stay and to lead the fight against the Natal govern-ment’s proposed bill that would have taken away Indians’ right to vote. Gandhi consented to stay for a month and remained 20 years fighting the battle for Indian rights.31 Although he eventually won, triumph was slow in coming. His mostly successful campaigns in South Africa taught Gandhi how to motivate the masses, and, as noted before, it was in South Africa, that he found his “vocation in life.”32 Although such triumphs were slow in coming, these hard-won victories provide ample evidence of Gandhi’s effective leadership and organizational abilities.

It was in South Africa that Gandhi honed his strategy of peaceful resis-tance in the form of satya graha. When Gandhi left South Africa for good in 1914, he wrote nostalgically: “it was a great wrench for me to leave South Africa, where I had passed twenty-one years of my life sharing to the

26 Ibid., 113.27 Cited in Fischer, The Essential Gandhi, xx.28 Gandhi, Autobiography, 100.29 Ibid., 100.30 Ibid., 135.31 Fischer, The Essential Gandhi, 38.32 M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa (Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Publishing

House, 2008, reprint), 308.

250 S. DHIMAN

full in the sweets and bitters of human experience, and where I had real-ized my vocation in life.”33 Gandhi believed that the method of satya graha that he had developed in South Africa was India’s best chance at indepen-dence from Great Britain.

Inspired by a broad range of readings—including the Bhagavad Gītā, the New Testament, Tolstoy’s The Kingdom of God is Within You, and Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience—Gandhi launched a movement of nonviolent resistance against the oppressive government of South Africa and the soci-ety’s widespread bigotry and racial injustice against darker-skinned people.

Back in his homeland, he came to the attention of the country’s politi-cians and multitudes of pious souls who had begun to regard him as the political and moral leader of India in its long road to Independence.34 The hero had won a decisive victory and was ready to come back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons (gifts) on his fellow beings!

gAndhI’s momentous yeArs In IndIA (1915–1948)Gandhi’s work in South Africa had made him famous back in India, and he was warmly welcomed by old friends at home. The Bengali poet, Sir Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian to win a Nobel Prize, bestowed on him the title of “Mahatma” (meaning “Great Soul”) and “the crown sat forever on the politician-saint’s head.”35 Gandhi’s “political guru”, G. K. Gokhale, greeted him warmly and “commanded” him to spend a year travelling throughout India with “his ears open but his mouth shut”36 and “to feel the pulse” of the country he had been away from for 21 years.37 Gandhi heeded the advice to travel but did so with both ears and mouth open.

As a result of Britain’s response to the atrocities in Punjab, Gandhi became increasingly convinced that the colonial government system that

33 M. K. Gandhi, Satyagraha in South Africa, 306.34 Timothy Conway, Mahatma Gandhi, Life and Teachings. Retrieved March 11, 2016:

http://www.enlightened-spirituality.org/Mahatma_Gandhi.html.35 Fischer, Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World, 50.36 Ibid., 53.37 See: Bella Jaisinghani, “Centenary celebrations to retrace Bapu’s arrival in India from

SA”, Times of India, January 9, 2015, Retrieved February 16, 2016: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Centenarycelebrations-to-retrace-Bapus-arrival-in-India-from-SA/articleshow/45816953.cms.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 251

he had been trying to improve needed to end. He was now ready to move to the next level of his strategy: seeking complete independence for India through a nonviolent, noncooperation movement.

the power of sAlt: the fAmous 1930 dAndI mArch

The British had placed a high tax on salt, and it was illegal to use salt not sold directly by the British government. All Indians were adversely affected by this tax since salt was frequently used due to India’s tropical heat. Gandhi, who had not used the spice in six years, called it a “nefari-ous monopoly”38 of the colonial government. Gandhi chose salt for other strategic reasons as well. It affected all Indians—Hindu and Muslims—equally, burdened the poor most heavily, and highlighted the inhumanity of the colonial government in the cruelest way. This shows the genius of Gandhi in choosing his battles, a trait that helped Gandhi to gain leverage against his opponent.

On the eve of launching the salt march, Gandhi made a strong appeal for a truly nonviolent struggle to an assembly of more than ten thousand people during his evening prayer meeting at the Sabarmati Ashram. The next morning, on March 12, Gandhi, then 61 years of age and oldest among the group, along with 78 followers, started his 24-day march on foot to the sea coast of Dandi, a total distance of 241 miles. Everyday Gandhi walked between 10 and 15 miles while keeping his daily routine of waking up at 4 a.m., conducting prayer meetings, spinning for an hour, writing for weekly magazines, and keeping his daily diary—and requiring each ashramite to do the same. Walking on the winding dirt roads from village to village, Gandhi kept reminding the protesters, “We are marching in the name of God.”39

As the marchers approached the seashore on April 5, people from all over India joined the march, and by the time Gandhi arrived in Dandi, the Salt March procession numbered several thousand. In the early morn-ing of April 6, Gandhi picked up a handful of salt in a symbolic gesture of defiance of the mighty empire. The entire nation was galvanized by Gandhi’s dramatic act and followed his exhortation to break the salt law. Men and women, young and old, marched in thousands in an attempt to get arrested. Gandhi, too, was arrested on May 4, shortly after midnight,

38 Fischer, The Essential Gandhi, 227.39 Ibid.

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in violation of the salt tax laws—for touching salt he had not purchased and on which he had not paid a tax. Within a few weeks, as many as 60,000 men and women were in jail, and the people had initiated a mass boycott of British goods. Gandhi continued to exert influence even while he was in prison, and the campaign remained nonviolent. With his consummate political skills, the Mahatma had peacefully elevated his campaign to the international level and sparked global sympathy for his cause. His move was simple, dramatic, and symbolic, and ultimately, it sounded the death knell of British rule in India.

Gandhi learned that properly executed civil disobedience could be a formidable force, and the colonial government realized that India’s inde-pendence was inevitable. Gandhi was featured on the cover of Time maga-zine for two years in a row, 1930 and 1931. The magazine also named him as its 1930 “Man of the Year.”40 A success 35 years in the making, Gandhi had emerged as a powerful moral force both within India and around the world. Eventually, the colonial government could not cope with the mass protests and its declining revenues.

The British realized that they were once again facing mass protests in India and began deliberating possible ways to create an independent India. Although Winston Churchill vehemently opposed the idea of los-ing India as a British colony, the British announced in March 1941 that it would free India at the end of World War II. This was not acceptable to Gandhi, and he organized a “Quit India” campaign in 1942. In response, the British once again imprisoned him. When Gandhi was released from prison in 1944, Indian independence seemed well in sight.

dIsAgreements, dIvIsIon And the trAgedy

Unfortunately, as before, there were fierce disagreements between Hindus and Muslims. Since the majority of Indians were Hindus, the Muslims feared not having enough political power if there were an independent India. Therefore, the Muslims proposed that the six provinces in north-west India with a majority population of Muslims should become an inde-pendent country. Gandhi greatly opposed the idea of partition and tried his best to bring both sides together. In the end, however, the decision was beyond his control.

40 “Saint Gandhi”: Time Man of the Year 1930. Retrieved February 21, 2016: https://sites.google.com/site/mahatmagandhionthenet/time-manof-the-year-1030.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 253

On August 15, 1947, India’s first day of freedom, Gandhi was con-spicuously absent from the public ceremonies. He was deeply troubled, for independence had brought in its wake the partition of India and terrible Hindu-Muslim riots. Much of his life’s work appeared to be in vain. “Yet”, as Whitman rightly states, “ahead of these days of tragedy lay his pilgrimage of reconciliation to the blood-soaked riot areas and his fasting for commu-nal harmony.”41 This is the beginning of a very sad period of Gandhi’s life as his worst fears about Hindu-Muslim hostilities were soon to be realized.

Gandhi saw most of this coming and greatly despaired. It pained him deeply to see 32 years of his selfless work come to “an inglorious end” and “to watch India being torn apart into two bleeding fragments.”42 He could not prevent the partition of India because religious divisions were stronger than nationalistic cohesion.43 Massive violence ensued, includ-ing widespread slaughter, rape and the burning of entire towns. Gandhi toured India, hoping his mere presence could check the violence.

Although violence did stop where Gandhi visited, he could not be every-where at once. “Yet without Gandhi”, writes Rajmohan Gandhi, “the violence would have been even greater, the parts more than two, and the future unity, pluralism and democracy of the Indian part far more vulnerable.”44 This is not a small achievement by any standard. Even when Gandhi did not succeed in preventing the partition, he was certainly able to contain its destructive power. The British, apprehensive of what seemed sure to become a violent civil war, decided to leave India in August 1947. Before leaving, the British were able to get the Indian National Congress, against Gandhi’s wishes, to agree to a partition plan. On August 15, 1947, Great Britain granted inde-pendence to India and to the newly-formed Muslim country of Pakistan.

As 15 million Indians became uprooted from their homes, Hindus and Muslims attacked each other with a vengeance. At no other time in history have so many people become refugees in so short a period.

The lines of refugees stretched for miles and miles, and countless peo-ple died along the way from illness, hunger and dehydration. To stop this

41 Hazel Whitman, “Toward an Understanding of Gandhi”, review of The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, by Louis Fischer, Commentary Magazine. Retrieved October 20, 2016: http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-life-of-mahatma-gandhi-by-louis-fischer/.

42 Robert Payne, The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi (New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1969), 14.

43 Fischer, Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World, 176.44 Rajmohan Gandhi, Gandhi: The Man, His People, and Empire (Berkeley, CA: University

of California Press, 2008), xi.

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widespread violence, Gandhi once again went on a fast. He would only eat again, he stated, once he saw clear plans to stop the violence.

The fast began on January 13, 1948. Realizing that the frail and aged Gandhi could not survive a long fast, both sides worked together to create a peace plan. On January 18, a group of more than a hundred representa-tives approached Gandhi with a promise for peace and ended Gandhi’s last and perhaps “greatest fast.”45

Unfortunately, this final fast also alienated many among his own com-munity of Hindus who resented what seemed to them as Gandhi’s unjust treatment of Hindus and his unfair concessions to Muslim interests. There were even a few radical Hindu groups who believed that India should never have been partitioned and partially blamed Gandhi for the Indo-Pak separation. “How is one to explain the fact”, asks Krishna Kripalani, “that the Mahatma’s many fasts, sublime penances, to use Tagore’s words, not unoften embarrassed and irritated those for whose moral benefit they were undertaken?”46

gAndhI’s AssAssInAtIon

Gandhi spent his last day discussing issues with various parties and individ-uals as usual. At a few minutes past 5 p.m., when it was time for the prayer meeting, Gandhi began his last walk to the Birla House in Delhi, where he had spent the last 144 days of his life. A crowd had surrounded him as he walked, supported by two of his grandnieces. In front of him, a young Hindu named Nathuram Godse stopped and bowed. Gandhi bowed back. Then Godse rushed forward and fired three shots point-blank at Gandhi’s chest. Two bullets passed right through and the third was found lodged in his right lung. Gandhi sank to the ground. The only sound that escaped his lips was the word, “Rama”, his favorite name for God. Before the crowd realized what had happened, he was dead.47

On hearing the news of Gandhi’s assassination, E.  Stanley Jones, the well-known missionary evangelist to India who had worked with Gandhi for over 40 years, said that it was “the greatest tragedy since the Son of God

45 See: G. D. Khosla, Stern Reckoning: A Survey of the Events Leading Up To and Following the Partition of India (Delhi/Bombay/Calcutta/Madras: Oxford University Press, 1989), 114–244.

46 Krishna Kripalani, Gandhi: A Life (New Delhi: National Book Trust, India, 2013, reprint edition), 190.

47 Kripalani, Gandhi: A Life, 196.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 255

died on a cross.”48 Even Gandhi’s assassin, Nathuram Godse, stated at his trial at which he was sentenced to be hanged: “Before I fired the shots I actually wished him well and bowed to him in reverence.”49 Thus ended the life of perhaps the greatest champion of peace that the world has ever seen.

The real tragedy of Gandhi’s life, as Lelyveld, one of his recent biog-raphers, maintains, was “not because he was assassinated, nor because his noblest qualities inflamed the hatred in his killer’s heart. The tragic element is that he was ultimately forced, like Lear, to see the limits of his ambition to remake his world.”50 Perhaps as humans we can never truly succeed in fash-ioning the world to fit our personal designs and desires. Lao Tzu was right:

As for those who would take the whole world To tinker as they see fit, I observe that they never succeed: For the world is a sacred vessel Not to be altered by man.51

Lao Tzu’s words emphasize the poignancy of human life and the vainness of human effort to mold the world. Perhaps, the glory of the human is not in the conquest of the universe but in being an integral part of it.

Gandhi’s life shows that by the force of divinity inherent within all of us, it is possible to live a life of total selflessness and harmlessness, a life completely dedicated to the service of the divine through the service of humanity. Selflessness, obviously, comes at a price—an ultimate price at that—of the giving up of the self. Perhaps Gandhi’s greatest legacy is that he became the voice of social conscience for the world through his singular selflessness and steadfastness to truth and nonviolence. The strength of Gandhi’s moral conviction lay in his understanding that “morality is the basis of all things and truth is the substance of all morality.”52

Gandhi lived and died as he had always wished to—without a groan and with God’s name on his lips. Less than 20 hours before he was shot on January 30, 1948, Gandhi had said:

Note down this also that if someone were to end my life by putting a bullet through me—as someone tried to do with a bomb the other day—and I met

48 E. Stanley Jones, Gandhi: Portrayal of a Friend (Nashville: Abingdon, 1993), 11.49 Fischer, Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World, 189.50 Lelyveld, Great Soul, 27.51 Raymond B. Blakney, trans., The Way of Life Lao Tzu: A New Translation (New York:

Mentor Books, 1960), 81.52 Louis Fischer, ed., The Essential Gandhi (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), 30.

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his bullet without a groan, and breathed my last taking God’s name, then alone would I have made good my claim.53

God heard his prayer and honored his wish, and Gandhi now belongs to all humanity. “His legacy is courage, his lesson truth, his weapon love.”54 “Gandhi was prepared to die: this was his most powerful weapon.”55 The assassin’s bullets did not and could not kill the Gandhi who had the name of God on his lips at the time of death—“Ram, Ra … m.” That Gandhi lives on.

I close this section with the tribute of E. Stanley Jones in the following memorable words: “I bow to Mahatma Gandhi and I kneel at the feet of Christ. … A little man … has taught me more of the spirit of Christ than perhaps any other man in East or West.”56 No higher tribute can be writ-ten for the man who is as great in death as he was in life. Indeed, “[m]en like Gandhi do not happen very often—no oftener perhaps than men like Buddha, Jesus, and Mohammed.”57 Nature will most likely have to wait a few centuries to send one like him again.

the Alchemy of gAndhI’s greAtness

The history of humankind is testimony to the fact that the making of great leaders requires them to make great sacrifices. “What is to give light”, said Victor Frankl, “must endure burning.”58 For Nelson Mandela it meant a struggle of over 50 years, 27 of which were spent in jail. For the Dalai Lama, the struggle continues after 56 years in exile from his homeland, Tibet. “Give me six hours to chop down a tree”, Abraham Lincoln said, “and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe”. Gandhi worked long and hard in sharpening his axe—3 years in England, 21 years in South Africa, and 33 years in India!

In his book Greatness: Who Makes History and Why, Dean Keith Simonton states, “To achieve success of the highest order, a person may have to suffer first.”59 He further points out that orphanhood has

53 Pyarelal Nayyar, Mahatma Gandhi: The Last Phase (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1956), Vol. 2, p. 766.

54 Fischer, Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World, 189.55 Payne, The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi, 14.56 E. Stanley Jones, Gandhi: Portrayal of a Friend (Nashville: Abingdon, 1993), 8.57 Opinion cited, Whitman, “Toward an Understanding of Gandhi.”58 Victor Frankl, The Doctor and the Soul: From Psychotherapy to Logotherapy, Revised and

Expanded (New York: Vintage, 1986, 3rd edition), 67–68.59 Dean Keith Simonton, Greatness: Who Makes History and Why (New York: Guilford

Press, 1994), 153.

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been seen to spur the development of eminent people in world history. Biographies of a number of historic figures show upsetting circumstances, such as parental loss, in the early part of their lives.

Simonton quotes a study of 699 historic figures, of whom 61 percent lost a parent before the age of 31; Gandhi lost both of his parents early—his father died when he was 16 and his mother when he was 22. However, two other groups, juvenile delinquents and depressive or suicidal psychiat-ric patients, show similar orphanhood rates. This shows that some people are able to rise above their early traumatic experiences while others lack the inner strength to cope; in other words, orphanhood is not a precondi-tion for achieving greatness.60 It all depends upon what we do with what happens to us. The same fire that purifies gold also burns down wood.

guIdIng lIghts on gAndhI’s leAdershIp Journey

Holistic leaders mature slowly and steadily amidst the vicissitudes of life through myriad interactive processes of nature and nurture. Where did Gandhi draw his inspiration about life and leadership? Which role-models did he revere? Which books served as the fonts of wisdom for him?

Gandhi’s saintly and devout mother, Putlibai, and his equally devout nurse, Rambha, were early spiritual influences. Stories of three legend-ary figures from the Puranas61—Shravana Kumar, Harishchandra, and Prahlada—instilled in him the values of parental devotion, unconditional adherence to truth and steadfast faith in the Lord.

Among the key influences on Gandhi’s life and thought, pride of place must go to the Bhagavad Gītā—the moral and spiritual anchorage of Gandhi. Gandhi’s firm and sustained belief in moksa (spiritual liberation) and self- realization were almost entirely shaped by the teachings of the Gītā. The key Gandhian concepts of selfless service (niskamakarma), nonviolence (ahimsa), steadfastness in truth (sthitaprajñata), and nonpossession (apari-graha) proceed directly from his unique interpretation of the Gita.

60 Ibid., 153–155.61 Puranas (Sanskrit: “of ancient times”) denote sacred lore of Hinduism that depict vari-

ous myths about various Hindu deities. According to the online Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Pura nas represent “a class of Hindu sacred writings chiefly from AD 300 to AD 750 com-prising popular myths and legends and other traditional lore”. Retrieved February, 12, 2016, http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/purana.

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Gandhi tells us that the Gītā “opened to me a new view of life … I had found at last, as I believed, the light I needed.”62 Gandhi was convinced that self-realization is “the only ambition worth having”, and to him the Gītā appeared to show “the most excellent way to attain self- realization.”63 The Gītā soon became the guiding star of Gandhi’s life and leadership. From the Gītā, Gandhi also learned to approach every act in a spirit of sacrifice that aims for the welfare of all beings, in a spirit of offering to the Supreme.

Of all the heroes in Gandhi’s pantheon, Gujarati jeweler and saint–philosopher, Raychand, would unquestionably rank first—the only liv-ing example to inspire Gandhi in the spiritual realm. Gandhi regarded Raychand as his friend, philosopher and guide. Gandhi writes about him in his autobiography: “In my moments of spiritual crisis … he was my refuge.”64 Gandhi further tells us that Raychand had been a constant influ-ence on him all his life and that among the religious people that he had met, he had not found another person to equal Raychand in religious perception.65 Gandhi revered him for “his wide knowledge of the scrip-tures, his spotless character, and his burning passion for self-realization. I saw later that this last was the only thing for which he lived.”66 These spiri-tual qualities combined to become a light in Gandhi’s life and the founda-tion for his future role as a leader. Gandhi’s own quest for self-realization was inspired by Raychand’s.

What were some other formative influences on Gandhi? Gandhi was a practical moralist and imbibed his ethical values from many sources. He was influenced by religious and moral writings from both East and West. Gandhi imbibed the virtues of both cultures, by-passing their vices for the most part. He read abundantly during his days in England as a law student and later during his long stay in South Africa as a political activ-ist. In particular, he was influenced by the writings of Leo Tolstoy, John Ruskin and Henry David Thoreau. In his autobiography, Gandhi tells us about his heroes:

62 Cited in Kripalani, Gandhi: A Life, 9.63 M. K. Gandhi, Introduction, in John Strohmeier, Ed., The Bhagavad Gita According to

Gandhi (Berkeley, CA: Berkeley Hills Books, 2000), 17–18.64 Gandhi, Autobiography, 77.65 Satish Sharma, Gandhi’s Teachers: Rajchandra Ravjibhai Mehta (Ahmedabad: Gujarat

Vidyapith, 2005), 4.66 Gandhi, Autobiography, 76.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 259

Three moderns have left a deep impress on my life and captivated me. Raychandbhai by his living contact; Tolstoy by his book, The Kingdom of God is within you; and Ruskin by his Unto this Last.67

Elsewhere he tells us that of these three great influences, “I give the first place to Raychandra Kavi, second to Tolstoy and third to Ruskin.”68

All of Gandhi’s teachers in life and spirit hold one thing in common—they had the courage to live according their convictions. There was no distinction between what they preached and what they practiced. This quality—living the teachings—became the hallmark of Gandhi’s life and leadership. If there is one characteristic that sets him apart from most leaders of the past and the present, it is this. Since Gandhi practiced what he preached, he did not have to preach it. His very life became the per-sonification of his ideals—a living testimony to steadfastness in truth and nonviolence. He became the living embodiment of the change he wanted to see in the world. “To be or not to be” was never an option for Gandhi.

lessons from the hero’s Journey

Joseph Campbell, the renowned American mythologist and author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces, held that various myths from different times and places share certain fundamental stages and patterns, which he described as follows: “A hero ventures forth from the world of com-mon day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons [gifts] on his fel-low man.”69 Campbell’s theory divides the journey of the archetypal hero found in world mythologies into a schema of 17 distinct steps. These steps are commonly organized into three classic stages or rites of passage: Separation, Initiation, and Return.

The first stage of the journey is about the separation or departure of the hero from the normal world. Separation has the figurative echo of an infant transitioning away from the mother. During the primary part of the journey, the hero is initiated into true heroic stature and cleansed by various trials, tribulations, and rites. Persevering courageously through inner battles, the

67 Gandhi, Autobiography, 77.68 Cited in Sudarshan Iyengar, Foreword in Satish Sharma, Gandhi’s Teachers: Leo Tolstoy

(Ahmedabad: Gujarat Vidyapith University, 2009), vi.69 Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces (Princeton: Princeton University

Press, 1948), 30.

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hero’s true character emerges, and the hero receives the ultimate boon of his quest: self-mastery. After the rite of initiation, the hero returns home in triumph to share with his fellow travelers the knowledge and gifts acquired during the journey, although this stage may have its own challenges.

The life stories of mythological characters such as Prometheus and spiri-tual leaders like Moses, Jesus and the Buddha follow this sequence of a soul’s journey quite closely. We can perhaps add Gandhi to this select list. The three stages fit neatly into Gandhi’s story as well in terms of his years in England (1888–1891), South Africa (1893–1914), and India (1915–1948). Gandhi left for London to study law at the age of 18, and shortly before his return to India from England in 1891, his mother died. This formative period, which laid the foundation for his life’s spiritual quest, may be regarded as the phase of departure or separation in his journey. It was in England that Gandhi discovered, for the first time, vegetarianism, the Bhagavad Gītā, the Sermon on the Mount, and the teachings of the Buddha.

The 21 years that Gandhi spent in South Africa represent the vital phase of his initiation, where he was fashioned into true heroic stature. As we saw earlier in this chapter, it was in South Africa that Gandhi had what may be called a spiritual conversion experience.70 The final phase—the 33 years Gandhi spent in India, until he was assassinated—marks the hero’s return to his homeland to share the knowledge acquired during the transforma-tive phase of the journey. Thus, we see that Gandhi’s leadership develop-ment follows the three stages of a hero’s journey—Separation, Initiation, Return—that Campbell described.

Gandhi had embarked upon a hero’s journey in England, conquered his demons in South Africa, and returned to India in a state transformed, to bestow his gifts on his brothers and sisters. Gandhi was beset with chal-lenges through all three phases, but he persevered courageously every day in his quest for truth and self-realization. “Gandhiji, it has been well said”, wrote J. M. Upadhyaya, “could fashion heroes out of common clay. His first and, undoubtedly, his most successful experiment was with himself.”71 It is true that self-exploration is the greatest journey that we take. This is a journey of self-realization in which we thoroughly become who we are. This is the journey Gandhi avowed to take, eventually paying the price with his own life.

70 See: Arvind Sharma, Gandhi: A Spiritual Biography (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2013), 54–56.

71 J. M. Upadhyaya, Ed., Gandhi as a Student (New Delhi: Publications Division, 1965), 3.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 261

gAndhI’s legAcy

Gandhi viewed his life as an undivided whole, and his political work was an extension of who he was as a person. He practiced what he preached and struggled relentlessly to live up to his principles. He “humanized politics” by approaching his life-work in an utterly selfless manner, renouncing the usual trappings of outer title, authority and position. Every time Gandhi confronted human frailties in the outer world, he turned his search light within (a phrase Gandhi loved using) to find answers in the deeper recesses of his soul. This spiritual and moral anchorage was the key to Gandhi’s political potency and innovation, and it became his most important dis-covery: a person’s capacity for self-control enhances his capacity to influ-ence the environment around him. And no power on earth can make a person do a thing against his or her will. He who disciplines himself gains the strength to shape the environment.

These are all valuable lessons for modern leaders to emulate.“He did not preach about God or religion”, writes Louis Fischer,

Gandhi’s pre-eminent biographer, “he was a living sermon … His great-ness lay in doing what everybody could do but doesn’t.”72 What sets Gandhi apart from most leaders of the present and the past is the spiritual and moral anchorage of his leadership. Gandhi chose politics for deeply spiritual reasons. He viewed his life as an undivided whole. In fact, his “politics” was deeply rooted in morality and spirituality.

Gandhi relied on the power of inner resources to effect change out-side. By his own life’s example, he showed that a person’s capacity for self-control enhances his capacity to influence the environment. He main-tained that indomitable individual will can bring about social and political change. His innovation as a leader lies in placing the right means above the desired ends.

dIspellIng some myths About gAndhI

Myths about Gandhi abound. While he possessed many unusual qualities of head and heart, there was no mystery about his faults and failings. We need to reclaim Gandhi as a human being apart from the myriad myths sur-rounding him. At least two of those myths require some active dispelling.

72 Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1950), 369, 379.

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Myth 1: Gandhi was a Saint

Perhaps one of the most common (and most dangerous) myths about Gandhi is that he was a saint. First, “Mahatma”—or great soul—was not Gandhi’s first name. “Mahatma” is an honorific he received from the poet and Nobel laureate Sir Rabindranath Tagore. Commenting on Gandhi’s role in India’s independence movement, Will Durant wrote: “We have the astonishing phenomenon of a revolution led by a saint.”73 But was Gandhi really a saint? Gandhi did not like to be regarded as a “saint”, a charac-terization implicit in the title “Mahatma”. He noted in his autobiography that the title “Mahatma” often pained him deeply; in fact, he writes with characteristic humility, “There is not a moment I can recall when it may said to have tickled me.”74

In the West, it has become a fashion to put Gandhi on a pedestal as a saint and thereby deny the practical significance of his vital contribution in the political arena. We need to reclaim Gandhi in totality—in moral, spiritual, and practical realms all at once. In Gandhi’s view, the term “Mahatma” was too sacred to be applied to a simple seeker of truth. Writing for the weekly journal that he published, Young India, he explained: “I myself do not feel a saint in any shape or form. But I do feel I am a votary of Truth in spite of all my errors of unconscious omission and commission.”75

Gandhi never felt comfortable being viewed as a saint. In fact, he objected when people called him “a saint trying to be a politician”. He said that he was instead “a politician trying to be a saint”. We ought to take his word for it. Religious conviction was an integral part of Gandhi’s being, but to call him a saint would be to do him a disservice: it would make his virtues too lofty to be emulated and his vices too glorified to be instructive. “If we label Gandhi a perfected being”, observed Mark Shepard in his book Mahatma Gandhi and His Myths, “we lose our chance to view his life and career critically and to learn from his mistakes.”76

73 Durant is reported to have said this during his visit to India.74 Gandhi, Autobiography, viii. It is generally believed that the honorific title “Mahatma”

was first applied to Gandhi by Tagore. “‘Great Soul in peasant’s garb’, the poet wrote,” says Louis Fischer, “and the crown sat forever on the politician-saint’s head”. Louis Fischer, Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World (New York: A Mentor Book, 1982), 50.

75 Young India, January 20, 1927, 21.76 Mark Shepard, Mahatma Gandhi and His Myths (Los Angeles, CA: Shepard Publications,

2002), 6.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 263

Myth 2: Gandhi Single-Handedly Wrought the Miracle of India’s Independence

Before Gandhi arrived on India’s political scene, the struggle for India’s independence had been progressing for several decades, and this very likely would have borne tangible results of its own accord. That is why it isn’t accurate to say that Gandhi wrought the miracle of India’s indepen-dence. However, “the extraordinary manner in which it was achieved can be pointedly ascribed to him.”77 It is one of the great ironies of history that the country that Gandhi led peacefully to freedom in 1947 came to be brutally divided amid communal chaos and violence into two nations, India and Pakistan. Gandhi did not want this “two-part independence” achieved in August 1947 and announced that he “cannot participate in the celebrations.”78 How could he?

It pained him deeply to see 32 years of selfless work come to “an inglorious end”—“to watch India being torn apart into two bleeding fragments.”79 He could not prevent the partition of India because religious divisions were stronger than feelings of nationalistic cohesion.80 This writer has spoken with countless people who witnessed the inhuman slaughter that took place during partition. Those bloody days are some of the most minutely documented facts in the history of the Indian subcontinent. “Yet without Gandhi”, writes Rajmohan Gandhi, “the violence would have been even greater, the parts more than two, and the future unity, pluralism and democracy of the Indian part far more vulnerable.”81 The following tribute by Lord Mountbatten , the last Viceroy of British India and first Governor-General of Independent India, sent in a letter to Gandhi, is liv-ing testimony to the saving grace of Gandhi’s nonviolent power:

My dear Gandhiji, in the Punjab we have 55 thousand soldiers and large-scale rioting on our hands. In Bengal our forces consist of one man, and there is no rioting. As a serving officer, as well as an administrator, may I be allowed to pay my tribute to the One-man Boundary Force.82

77 Yogesh Chadha, Gandhi: A Life (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1997), vii.78 Fischer, Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World, 176.79 Robert Payne, The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi (New York: Konecky & Konecky,

1969), 14.80 Fischer, Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World, 176.81 Rajmohan Gandhi, Gandhi: The Man, His People, and Empire, xi.82 The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Electronic Book), New Delhi, Publications

Division Government of India, 1999, 98 volumes, Vol. 96, p. 303. Retrieved: October 27, 2014, http://www.gandhiserve.org/e/cwmg/cwmg.htm.

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leArnIng from mIstAkes

Perhaps Gandhi underestimated the toxicity of warring religious factions. Perhaps he let his idealism and optimism get the better of him. Perhaps his constant use of Hindu symbolism alienated Muslims irrevocably. Perhaps he pushed his dietary practices and his experiments with celibacy beyond scrupulously reasonable limits. Or perhaps humanity was not evolved enough genuinely to embrace Gandhi’s creed of love and nonviolence. It is no wonder that none of Gandhi’s campaigns of civil disobedience won by bringing about a “change of heart” in his adversaries—not directly at least. A “change of heart” they did bring—but of the public, not his opponents.

There are some great leadership lessons to be learned here. For example:

1. Not all people share the same values. Leaders need to understand their own and others’ values and intentions. It is not always wise to be good to a fault; discretion is indeed the better part of valor.

2. When dealing with racial diversity, it is not prudent to overplay cer-tain ethnic themes. And one needs to be moderate about moderation, too. To know when enough is enough is the hallmark of wisdom.

3. Perfection is not given to us mortals; nor does nature give us the ability to see our flaws as others see them.

Perhaps, in our yearning for perfect heroes, we place our leaders on a pedestal and thereby do them a great disservice. “Perhaps he will not succeed”, Tagore wrote of Gandhi. “Perhaps he will fail as the Buddha failed, as the Christ failed, to wean men from their inequities, but he will always be remembered as one who made his life a lesson for all ages to come.”83 History has borne out the wisdom of Tagore’s precise assess-ment of Gandhi the leader. And unquestionably, “no myth raking can rob Gandhi of his moral force or diminish the remarkable importance of this scrawny little man”, as Time magazine declared in its millennium issue on December 31, 1999. How so? Because by the very definition, myths can-not match, let alone surpass, the truth. Gandhi’s moral truth will always sparkle brighter than any scathing myth.

Today Gandhi’s critics call him idealistic, impractical, and even politi-cally naïve. But much of what is written today about Gandhi by his most bitter critics reveals more about the critics than it does about Gandhi. The

83 Louis Fischer, Gandhi: His Life and Message for the World (New York: A Mentor Book, 1982), 143.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 265

propensity to find faults with others—by trying to light one’s torch on others’ candles—should eventually bring one back to contend with one’s own faults. Great leaders, like great teachers, act only as mirrors, faithfully revealing the truth, goodness and beauty that dwell in the hearts of us all. After all, the image reflected by the mirror cannot be any different or bet-ter than the original.

Providing an essential key to the understanding of Gandhi as both a person and a leader, E. Stanley Jones wrote: “After you have looked at him through a microscope, you have to look at him through a telescope to get the total man. For he stands against a background of the ages and must be interpreted with that background to get the full stature and meaning of the man. … Many get caught in subsidiary statements and miss the sum total of the meaning of his teaching.”84 Future researchers and readers of Gandhi would be well served by this advice.

We can learn some key leadership lessons from Gandhi’s successes and failures. “I have worked hard”, said the great composer J. S. Bach, “any-one who works just as hard will go just as far.” Gandhi agrees: “I claim to be an average man of less than average ability. … I have not the shadow of a doubt that any man or woman can achieve what I have, if he or she would make the same effort and cultivate the same hope and faith.”85 The life example of Gandhi shows us that we can also achieve what great lead-ers have achieved, if we are willing to put forth the necessary effort and to cultivate the values that such exemplary leaders embodied. Herein lies the real purpose of studying the lives of great leaders.

Lives of great men all remind usWe can make our lives sublime,And, departing, leave behind usFootprints on the sands of time.86

84 E. Stanley Jones, Gandhi: Portrayal of a Friend (Nashville: Abingdon, 1993), 5.85 Harijan, October 3, 1936, as quoted in R. K. Prabhu and U. R. Rao, Eds., The Mind of

Mahatma Gandhi (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1996), 24.86 Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “A Psalm of Life,” The Complete Poems of Henry

Wadsworth Longfellow, Kindle Edition, Amazon Digital Services. Retrieved February 11, 2016: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Poems-Henry-Wadsworth-Longfellow-ebook/dp/B0084761KO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1410108836&sr=1-1&keywords=Poems+Of+Henry+Wadsworth+Longfellow.

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Gandhi’s life and thought embodied a truth applicable to humanity as a whole. His leadership effectiveness proceeded from his categorical adher-ence to his ideals and principles. It was a value-based, principle-centered leadership. Commenting on the uniqueness of the living fire that was in this man of peace and humility, India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, wrote, “The amazing thing about Gandhi was that he adhered, in all its fullness, to his ideals, his conception of truth, and yet he did suc-ceed in molding and moving enormous masses of human beings.”87 The amazing thing was not that Gandhi succeeded. The really amazing thing was that he strove to be steadfast and to adhere to his ideals and principles without compromise or concession.

In the foreword to D.  G. Tendulkar’s eight-volume magnum opus Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Nehru wrote, “No man can write a real life of Gandhi, unless he is as big as Gandhi.”88 Perhaps even when an author is as exalted as his subject, the truth of the subject’s greatness will always elude him. This is true of the life and work of all great masters. Artur Schnabel, an Austrian pianist, having played Beethoven’s piano music all his life, is reported to have said: “This music is better than it can ever be played.” Gandhi’s majestic harmonies likewise have a quality that exceeds all accounts of them.

leAdIng holIstIcAlly: seven exemplAry gAndhIAn vAlues

Values represent the heart of leadership and guide behavior and per-formance. As Samuel Blumenfeld has clearly pointed out, “You have to be dead to be value-neutral.”89 Values are like a lighthouse; they do not change. It is the ship of practices that has to find its way guided by the lighthouse of values. Can an evil leader be an effective leader? The answer to this question depends on whether we consider ethics to be a necessary condition for leadership. It also begs the fundamental question, “What good is leadership if it is not ethical?.”

87 Cited in D.  G. Tendulkar, Mahatma: Life of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (New Delhi: The Publications Division, Government of India, 1961), Vol. 1, p. 8. E-book edition. Retrieved January 10, 2016: http://www.mkgandhi.org/imp_bks_mahatma.html.

88 Ibid.89 Cited in Christina Hoff Sommers, “Teaching the Virtues: A Blueprint for Moral

Education”, Chicago Tribune Magazine, September 12, 1993, 16.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 267

In his seminal essay titled “Notes toward a Definition of Values-Based Leadership”, James O’Toole calls Gandhi the “most manifestly values- based of all leaders.”90 Besides Gandhi, the author’s shortlist of such lead-ers includes Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, Mother Teresa, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Jean Monnet.91 Since leadership is an expression of who we are, in discovering, living, and sharing our deepest values lies the fulfillment of our life and leadership.

Gandhi consistently embodied the perennial values of authenticity/personal integrity, transparency, harmlessness (ahimsa), truthfulness (satyagraha or truth-force), humility, self-discipline and selfless service in and through his life and death. He believed that the universe is not amoral and that it has a structural bias toward good. His leadership effectiveness proceeded from his categorical adherence to these values and his openness to learn from his own mistakes. Gandhi’s innovation lies in extending them from the personal to the public arena. His was essentially a values- based, principle-centered approach to leadership. Despite his faults, or perhaps because of them, we find there is much to learn about Gandhi’s develop-ment as a leader—who lived and died for the values he held most dear.

Authenticity and Transparency

An authentic leader operates from a strong personal and moral stance embodying the unity and purity of thoughts, words, and deeds. Gandhi underscores this alignment by noting: “I say as I think and I do as I say”. He viewed his life and work as an undivided whole and approached his lifework in an utterly selfless manner, renouncing the usual trappings of title, authority, and position. If true living or leadership is an expression of who we are, authenticity becomes the most essential value in life and lead-ership. According to Warren Bennis, “The ‘Dean’ of Leadership Gurus,”92 the real task of becoming a leader boils down to becoming an authentic

90 James O’Toole, “Notes Toward a Definition of Values-Based Leadership”, The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 1(1), Article 10 (2008): 4.

91 Ibid., 6–7.92 See: Rob Asghar, “The ‘Dean’ of Leadership Gurus Passes At 89,” Forbes (August 1,

2014), accessed February 10, 2016, http://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/08/01/the-dean-of-leadership-gurus-passesat-89/.

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individual first: “At bottom, becoming a leader is synonymous with becoming yourself. It’s precisely that simple, and it’s also that difficult.”93

Authenticity does not mean being perfect. It is accepting oneself (and others) as one truly is, warts and all. It is about being aware of one’s flaws and learning from them. In fine, it is about leading from within. Gandhi led from within—from the deep moral and spiritual core of his being. His life and leadership were inseparably one. His life was an open book for all to see. His autobiography is an exemplary model of candour and transpar-ency. Such a level of “transparency” has not been observed in the life of any other public leader before or after.

Harmlessness or Nonviolence

Gandhi believed that the only test of truth is action based on the refusal to do harm—ahimsa. The commonly used English equivalent “nonvio-lence” may be misleading as it seems to give the impression that ahimsa is just a negative virtue. Ahimsa is not mere abstention from injury in thought, word and deed; it also implies the positive virtues of compassion and benevolence.

For Gandhi, ahimsa was a positive force of love. In addition, nonvio-lence is not a cover for cowardice. Gandhi has said that “where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence.”94 Gandhi’s distinctive contribution in this area lies in his unique interpreta-tion of “passive” forms of violence such as hatred and anger. The passive violence that we commit consciously and unconsciously every day causes the victims of passive violence to get angry, and their anger eventually leads to physical violence.

We have been told by experts that anger instigates almost 80 percent of the violence that we experience either in our personal lives or as a society or nation. Anger leads to conflict and conflict to violence. Learning how to use the powerful energy of anger intelligently and effectively is the foundation of Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolence. When used properly, rightly channeled anger can go a long way to reducing the passive violence

93 Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader (New York: Basic Books, 2009, Fourth Edition), xxxvii.

94 Young India (August 11, 1920, as quoted in Joan V. Bondurant, Conquest of Violence: The Gandhian Philosophy of Conflict (New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1958/1988), 28.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 269

at the workplace. Nonviolence is both the end and the means. For Gandhi, nonviolence was the means and truth was the end.

Truth

Truth and nonviolence are interrelated; for there is no spirituality without morality. Taken together, truth and nonviolence constitute the alpha and omega of Gandhi the man, as well as Gandhi the leader; every form of discipline or vow that Gandhi observed in his life was just a variation on these themes. And based on all the available evidence, Gandhi remained true to both of these vows in both letter and spirit.

For Gandhi, there was the “relative truth” of truthfulness in human interactions, and the “absolute truth” of the Ultimate Reality. This ulti-mate truth is God (as God is also Truth) with ethics as expressed in the moral law as its basis. Gandhi was humble enough to acknowledge that the truth we experience at the level of human interactions is “relative, many- sided, plural, and is the whole truth for a given time. Pure and absolute truth should be our ideal.”95 This humility gave Gandhi the understanding to be on the side of the truth rather than insisting for the truth to be on his side. Such humility and courage of conviction are object lessons for con-temporary leaders. Even while committing to truth and nonviolence as the absolute ideals, leaders should remain open to the fact of many-sidedness of truth encountered at the level of human interactions.

Humility

Many spiritual traditions speak about the need to “be poor in spirit and pure in heart”. Of all the leadership qualities, humility is perhaps the most difficult to develop. Ben Franklin tells us in his legendary Autobiography that the reason humility as a virtue is hard to cultivate is because by the time one gets to be good at it, one becomes proud of it!

Gandhi strongly believed that the “truth is not to be found by anybody who has not got an abundant sense of humility. If you would swim on the bosom of the ocean you must reduce yourself to a zero.”96 In fact, humil-

95 Cited in Raghavan Iyer, The Essential Writings of Mahatma Gandhi (New Delhi: Oxford University Press/Oxford India Paperbacks, 2012), 236.

96 Young India (December 31, 1931), 427, as quoted in Nirmal Kumar Bose, Selections from Gandhi: Encyclopedia of Gandhi’s Thoughts (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 1950), 7.

270 S. DHIMAN

ity is both the means and the goal. In the field of leadership, the impor-tance of humility can hardly be overemphasized. Only humble leaders can serve a cause higher than themselves. Howard Schultz, the founder and chairman of the Starbucks chain of coffee shops, says that the great leader-ship expert, Warren Bennis, once told him that to become a great leader you have to develop “your ability to leave your own ego at the door, and to recognize the skills and traits that you need in order to build a world- class organization.”97

“True humility”, said C.S.  Lewis, “is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less.” The power of humility and gentleness is illustrated through the life of this “little brown man in a loincloth”98 who brought the mightiest empire on earth to its knees.

Self-Discipline

Gandhi once said, “Our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world as being able to remake ourselves.”99 Every time Gandhi con-fronted human frailties in the outer world, he turned his moral searchlight within (a phrase Gandhi loved using) to find answers in the deep recesses of his soul. This spiritual and moral anchorage was the key to Gandhi’s political potency and innovation and became his most important discov-ery: A person’s capacity for self-discipline enhances his capacity to influ-ence the environment around him. And no power on earth can make a person do a thing against his will. He who disciplines himself gains the strength to shape the environment. Peter Senge concurs and regards self- mastery to be the key aspect of growing as a leader.

“The call to lead India”, Gandhi tells us, “did not come to me in the nature of a sudden realization. I prepared for it by fasting and self- discipline. My political work grew out of my spiritual preparation.”100 Through prayer, contemplation, self-abnegation and self-purification, he cultivated his

97 “Guru: Warren Bennis”, The Economist, July 25, 2008, Online extra. Retrieved: January 30, 2016, http://www.economist.com/node/11773801.

98 John B. Severance, Gandhi: Great Soul (New York: Clarion Books, 1997, Reprint edi-tion), 100.

99 Quoted in Eknath Easwaran, The Compassionate Universe: The Power of the Individual to Heal the Environment (California: Nilgiri Press, 1989), 20.

100 The Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (Electronic Book), New Delhi, Publications Division Government of India, 1999, 98 volumes, Vol. 48, p. 63. Emphasis added. Retrieved January 20, 2016: http://www.gandhiserve.org/e/cwmg/cwmg.htm.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 271

being to such an extent that it emanated a gentle soul-force that endeared him even to his severest critics and detractors. Even Gandhi’s critics agree that his strength lay in his towering spirit that resided in his frail frame. With his indomitable spirit Gandhi was able to win his ideological wars in the long run, even when he seemed to be losing his battles in the short run.

Selfless Service

A leader’s true inspiration comes from doing selfless work. Selfless work brings equanimity of mind which in turn contributes to leadership effective-ness. Exemplary leaders are not motivated by personal desires or interests. They recognize that selfless service is the highest principle of life and lead-ership. They become instruments of the Whole and selflessly work for the well-being of all beings. This is where their true fulfillment lies. Gandhi was right: the best way to find oneself is to lose oneself in the service of others.

Gandhi believed that only by not regarding anything as their own can leaders truly devote themselves, body and soul, to the selfless service of others. For, unless mind is purged of personal desire and attachment, even service is but an inflation of the ego. These are all valuable lessons for contemporary leaders to emulate. The path to leading others starts with self-awareness through self-discipline and ends with self- transcendence through selfless service. It is paved with authenticity, humility and compassion.

gAndhI’s tAlIsmAn

This was Gandhi’s advice to a fellow seeker, given five months before his assassination:

I will give you a talisman. Whenever you are in doubt, or when the self becomes too much with you, apply the following test. Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man [woman] whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him [her]. Will he [she] gain anything by it? Will it restore him [her] to a control over his [her] own life and destiny? … Then you will find your doubts and your-self melt away.101

101 Cited in Narayan Desai, My Gandhi (Ahmedabad: Navajivan Publishing House, 2011), 189.

272 S. DHIMAN

This admirably sums up Gandhi the humanist. Gandhi lived his life by this acid test of whether an action would benefit the poorest of the poor. The Bhagavad Gītā talks about a person of steady wisdom who is deeply immersed in the welfare of all beings. Such a person no longer has any per-sonal desire or ambition left to fulfill. His very existence becomes a boon to society. Gandhi was one such person.

concludIng thoughts

History bears testimony to the distinctive and authentic voice of Gandhi. Even his greatest critics agree that Gandhi was one of the handful of human beings in history to experiment with the application of nonvio-lence on such a large scale. At a time when the human conscience was tarnished by the holocaust and nuclear war, his was a solitary voice vehe-mently opposing the horrors of violence in any form. Gandhi has come to be recognized as the archetypical moral force whose appeal to humanity is both universal and lasting.

Gandhi’s greatness lies in stirring the conscience of humanity, in dem-onstrating the power of spirit over material things, in turning his moral searchlight inward, and in extending the gospel of love and peace from personal level to the social arena. “Perhaps never before”, writes Robert Payne, “on so grand a scale has any man succeeded in shaping the course of history while using only the weapon of peace.”102

Gandhi believed that life is one single unitary movement. The moral and spiritual reality that we encounter is but a reflection of who we are. The world we live in is a grand existential mirror, faithfully reflecting our very own reality:

We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the ten-dencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.103

102 Robert Payne, The Life and Death of Mahatma Gandhi, 16.103 M. K. Gandhi, Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi (New Delhi: Publications Division,

Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, 1994), Vol. 13, 241.

BEING THE CHANGE: A HERO’S JOURNEY AND LEGACY 273

Thus, if we want to bring about any change in the world, we have to begin with ourselves: We have to be the change that we wish to see in the world. This was Gandhi’s most important discovery and his greatest gift to humankind. He inspired emulation not so much by his professed set of values and beliefs as by the exemplary nature of his life and conduct. He made his life his message.

Gandhi had his failings and favorites. Yet for his abiding passion con-stantly to “remake” himself until his last breath, his dogged determination to walk the straight and narrow path of truth and nonviolence, his excep-tional ability to reduce his personal self to zero, his disarming humility, and his excruciating self-honesty, he will continue to shine as a beacon for humanity as long as might oppresses right.

Aldous Huxley once said that the central technique for humans to learn is “the art of obtaining freedom from the fundamental human disability of egoism.”104 Gandhi achieved that freedom. Only those who dare achieve this freedom can truly serve.

beIng chAnge: reflectIon QuestIons

1. What qualities or traits you admire in a leader and why? How are these qualities important in contemporary organizations?

2. Are these traits inborn or developed? Take an example of a leader that you admire and briefly discuss these traits.

3. From the various defining moments of Gandhi’s life discussed in this chapter, select two “crucibles” that directly contributed to Gandhi’s development as a leader.

4. Was Gandhi really a saint? How effectively did he address his fail-ings? What did you learn from Gandhi’s mistakes?

5. How did Gandhi succeed in shaping the course of history while using only the weapon of peace? What was the real source of his moral and spiritual mainstay?

6. How relevant is Gandhi’s leadership message today? Briefly discuss how contemporary world leaders might secure peace through his primary method of nonviolence?

7. Did Gandhi succeed in his life’s mission? What is his greatest legacy to humanity?

104 As cited in Jacqueline H. Bridgeman, Ed., Aldous Huxley: Huxley and God, Essays (New York: HarperSanFrancisco, 1992), 4.

274 S. DHIMAN

275© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_11

CHAPTER 11

“Leadership’s First Commandment: Know Thyself …No tool can help a leader who lacks self-knowledge.”

—Harvard Business Review editorial, December, 2001.

IntroductIon

Holistic leadership is a moral and spiritual journey whose guiding compass is found within a leader’s soul. The first step in that journey begins with self-knowledge, as the opening quote succinctly demonstrates. In this cul-minating chapter, we distil the key holistic leadership lessons presented throughout this book. In the first part, we will focus on self-leadership, an emerging paradigm that underscores the vital importance of authentic-ity and responsibility in developing exemplary leaders.1 It is built on the simple premise that it is hard to lead others if one is not able to manage oneself. If we want to be effective leaders, we first need to be able to lead ourselves effectively.

By way of summing up, the chapter consolidates the emergent lessons of holistic leadership as presented in the previous chapters around key leadership themes for the sake of clarity, conciseness and convenience. It presents key self-leadership competencies starting with Self-knowledge and culminating in self-transcendence. In the final reckoning, leadership

1 Charles C. Manz, “Taking the Self-Leadership High Road: Smooth Surface or Potholes Ahead?”, The Academy of Management Perspectives, 29 (1), (2015): 132–151.

Epilogue: From Position-Power to Self- Power—Integrating the Lessons

of Holistic Leadership

remains an art of self-expression and our leadership style is an extension of who we are. It is about discovering our authentic voice and expressing it in influencing others in a wholesome manner.

Self-Knowledge In lIfe and leaderShIp

As noted in the chapter on emotional intelligence, self-awareness is consid-ered to be a foundational leadership competency. This chapter takes as axi-omatic that leadership is a voyage of inner discovery and that self- knowledge is the key to leading from within. This journey begins with knowing one-self and culminates in living one’s deepest values at the personal, team and organizational level. For without Self-knowledge one can overlook one’s essential reality, even when completely immersed in it! All wisdom traditions of the world have upheld the importance of self- knowledge as a prelude to every pursuit of happiness and fulfillment. In the Greek wis-dom tradition, Socrates framed it succinctly as “know thyself”. It is consid-ered the alpha and omega of all searching. Since happiness or fulfillment is sought for the sake of the self, it stands to reason that the journey should begin with knowing the self.

The following story demonstrates the power of knowledge and its rela-tion to peace and security:

A certain billboard pictured a dog and a cat looking at each other.The ferocious dog was trying to pounce at the cat, yet the cat seemed unper-turbed and even amused, sitting quietly in front of the dog.The caption simply read: The Power of Knowledge!The dog was on a leash. The cat was aware of this fact.This knowledge gave the cat the freedom to enjoy the moment with great peace of mind.2

Such is the power of knowledge!

If mere knowledge of our surroundings confers such security, imagine what level of security Self-knowledge can engender. This, then, is the true fulfillment of the Delphic Oracle (gnothi seauton): get to know yourself!

Socrates, however, did not care to elaborate precisely on how to go about this search. One common pitfall here is to take Socrates’ injunction to know thyself to mean to know oneself intellectually or emotionally. Those in the know have repeatedly pointed out that one has to know oneself in the very

2 This vignette is based on a discourse of Swami Paramarthananda, a contemporary teacher of Vedānta.

276 S. DHIMAN

depth of one’s being, exactly as one really is, with diligence and without any masks whatsoever. And this requires some serious work on oneself that calls for self-insight, sincerity, courage, patience, and discernment. It seems that the faculty of self-awareness serves as both the cause and effect of Self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is born of self- reflection and blossoms as a cer-tain unmistakable quality of self-awareness that accompanies and pervades everything one does—a sort of glow that illuminates all our activities. This condition is often referred to as the faculty of mindfulness.

One may ask at this stage, know oneself at what level—at the body/physical level or at the mind/intellectual level? Or is there something more lurking behind these intuitively obvious categories? In our com-mon usage, we tend to refer to these as “my body”, “my mind”, and “my intellect”. We do not say “I-body”, “I-mind”, “I-intellect”. This is not just a linguistic contrivance or convenience but a fundamental distinction that goes to the very root of who we are. To refer to our body as “my” body and our mind as “my” mind is to say that I am not my body, nor my mind. For example, we are used to saying “my body is strong/weak” or “my mind is sharp/clear”. In other words, “I” and “my body/mind” are two separate things. After all, I “experience” my body and mind. It is a fundamental principle that “I am different from whatever I experience.”

This intuiting of separation between “I” and my “body-mind-senses” apparatus is sometimes referred to as the awareness of “I-Amness”, the awareness of our innermost being or felt presence. Come to think of it, this feeling of “I-Amness” is our only true capital. Everything else is either borrowed or construed knowledge/information. That we exist is the only thing we know beyond any shadow of doubt, for no one can deny one’s own existence. To say that “I do not exist’ is illogical for it presumes that I had to exist in order to claim that I do not exist! So this awareness reverses the Cartesian logic of Cogito ergo sum, “I think, therefore I am,” into Sum ergo cogito, “I am, therefore I think.” It is not that “I think therefore I am”; rather, “I am, therefore I think!” This is the most essential point to grasp in approaching the question “who am I?” It is also a master key that opens the door to the abode of meaning and fulfillment.

The following tale illustrates this point succinctly:

Just as the Great Revolution was getting under way in Russia, a rabbi on his way to the synagogue was stopped at gunpoint by a soldier. With his rifle pointed directly at the rabbi, the soldier said in a gruff voice, “Who are you, and what are you doing here?”

EPILOGUE: FROM POSITION-POWER TO SELF-POWER—INTEGRATING... 277

The rabbi replied with a question of his own: “How much do they pay you for doing this job?”The soldier replied, “Twenty kopecks.”Then the rabbi said, “I will pay you twenty-five kopecks if every day you stop me right here and ask me those two questions.”3

If a leader knows the answer to those two questions, “Who are you?” and “What are you doing here?” all else will follow in good time and good measure. These two fundamental questions capture the essence of Self-knowledge and personal meaning and mastery and furnish the nec-essary foundation for the development of purpose-driven leadership. It must be noted that discovering one’s highest purpose in life presupposes Self- knowledge and self-understanding. Warren Bennis, a noted leader-ship expert, provides the following four lessons/rules for facilitating self-knowledge with reference to leadership:

One: You are your own best teacher.Two: Accept responsibility. Blame no one.Three: You can learn anything you want to learn.Four: True understanding comes from reflecting on your

experiences.4

Self-knowledge is not a matter of knowing something new; it is a mat-ter of removing false notions about the self. It is a matter of re-cognition of who we truly are. Self-knowledge is not a journey; it is a home-coming.

Self-leaderShIp: leadIng from wIthIn

“It is not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves.”5

—Sir Edmund Hillary

Sir Edmund Hillary’s humility is born of Self-knowledge, for at the personal level he considered it more of a conquest over the Self

3 John C. Bowling, Grace-Full Leadership (Kansas City, MO: Beacon Hills Press, 2000), 91; See also: Kevin Cashman, Leadership from the Inside Out (Provo, UT: Executive Excellence Publishing, 2001), 31.

4 Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader, 4th edition (New York: Basic Books, 2009), 52.5 Edmund Hillary Quotes. Retrieved: April 2, 2016. http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/

Edmund_Hillary.

278 S. DHIMAN

than Nature. In one stroke, he highlights the two main pillars of self-leadership: Self- knowledge and humility. If leadership is about influ-encing others, self- leadership is “the process of leading oneself.”6 Neck and Manz believe that the concept of self-leadership is derived pri-marily from the research in two areas of psychology: social cognitive theory and intrinsic motivation. Social cognitive theory recognizes that we influence and are influenced by the world we live in.7 This theory puts the charge of controlling or managing oneself in one’s own hands. Intrinsic motivation refers to a person’s internal desire to do something. It is based on the premise that the real motivation for performing great tasks can only lie within a person. As Manz clari-fies, self-leadership is “a comprehensive self-influence perspective that concerns leading oneself toward performance of naturally motivating tasks as well as managing oneself to do work that must be done but is not naturally motivating.”8 Intrinsic motivation is not about just doing what one loves; it is also about learning to love what one has to do.

Self-leadership is not about leading others. It’s about mastering one-self for self-excellence. Self-leadership fosters the holistic development of a leader’s personality in all its dimensions (physical–psychological, emotional, intellectual and spiritual) by providing guidance on the three essential spiritual practices: “training the mind”, “transforming the pas-sions” and “guarding the heart”. When as leaders we are in touch with our deeper, truer authentic self, we are also able to connect with the authentic self of others. Since leadership is an expression of who we are, in discover-ing, living and sharing our deepest values lies the fulfillment of our life and leadership.

Self-leadership is built on the understanding that everybody has two most basic needs. The first is the need to express oneself. Leadership is the art of self-expression and our leadership style is an extension of who we are. If it is not, it’s not authentic. The second need we all have is the need to surpass ourselves. Every human being has these needs. They are not always very well-articulated, but they are there behind all our striv-ings and pursuits. Everyone wants to self-express and everyone wants to

6 Christopher P.  Neck and Charles C.  Manz, Mastering Self-Leadership: Empowering Yourself for Personal Excellence (New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2010), 4 (Emphasis added).

7 Ibid., 4–5.8 Cited in Manz, “Taking the Self-Leadership High Road”, 134–135.

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surpass themselves. Self-leadership accomplishes both in one stroke. Self-leadership is the art of inspiring excellence in oneself and others by enabling people to express and surpass themselves.

Guided by Self-knowledge, holistic leaders express their authentic self in all that they do and surpass themselves by serving for the good of oth-ers. Self-leadership emerges from self-awareness which leads to greater self responsibility and self-adaptability. Self-leaders have the ability to posi-tively inspire others to become self-leaders. They have clarity of vision for themselves which enables them to translate it to organizational vision and goals.

Self-leaderShIp competencIeS

Self-leadership starts with knowing clearly one’s personal mission, values, passions and purpose. It entails aligning one’s vision with one’s values and one’s passions with one’s purpose. Self-leaders focus on long-term vision and the big picture. They have heightened self-awareness and a realistic understanding of their strengths and weaknesses, their expectations and assumptions. Self-leaders develop self-awareness and emotional intelli-gence in all spheres of their life. They take ownership and feel responsible and accountable for their actions and reactions.

Manz classifies these competencies into three fundamental components as follows:9

1. Authenticity: Attention to higher-level standards that guide lead-ers’ behavior consistent with their own personal values as opposed to forfeiting values to external influences.

2. Responsibility: Self-led intentions and behaviors that relate to responsible ends. This component is consistent with CSR and higher-level values such as courage, compassion, integrity and tran-scendent purpose.

3. Expanded Capacity: Emphasis on areas beyond what we already know and venturing into less developed areas of self-leadership such as emotion and collaborative processes that contribute to the poten-tial for the previous two components.

9 Manz, “Taking the Self-Leadership High Road”, 134.

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parKIng the ego at the door: Key to Self-leaderShIp

One of the most important preconditions for the spiritual quest is humility. Only humble leaders can serve a cause higher than themselves. Defining the process of becoming a leader in terms of authenticity and self-mastery, Bennis equates it with becoming yourself, which is not as simple as it sounds. He gives out all the keys to exemplary leadership in an interview with Fast Company:

The process of becoming a leader is, if not identical, certainly similar to the process of becoming a fully integrated human being. It’s got to do with authenticity, it’s got to do with candor, it’s got to do with the fact that one cannot truly lead unless one is an expert in self-management.10

Leadership qualities, Bennis maintains, can only emerge from an “inte-grated self.”11 Howard Schultz, the founder and chairman of the Starbucks chain of coffee shops, says that Bennis once told him that to become a great leader you have to develop “your ability to leave your own ego at the door, and to recognize the skills and traits that you need in order to build a world-class organization.”12 This goes on to show that humility is an essential ingredient of effective leadership. Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great, fully concurs and regards compelling humility to be one of the two hallmarks of level 5 leaders, the other being fierce professional will.13

Bill George, the exemplary former head of Medtronic, who popularized the concept of authentic leadership, includes humility along with purpose, transparency, and integrity to define authentic leaders.14 Humility is also a precondition for serving others for without it, even service could be but an inflation of ego. Therefore in learning, as in leading, humility constitutes

10 Warren G. Bennis (interview, December 26, 2011), “Have the requirements for being a good leader changed?”, Fast Company: Leadership Hall of Fame.

11 “Guru: Warren Bennis,” The Economist, July 25, 2008, Online extra. Retrieved: August 30, 2014, http://www.economist.com/node/11773801.

12 Ibid.13 Jim Collins, Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap … and Others Don’t

(New York: HarperBusiness, 2001).14 See: B.  George and P.  Sims, True North: Discover Your Authentic Leadership (San

Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2007); B.  George, P.  Sims, A.  N. McLean, and D.  Mayer, “Discovering Your Authentic Leadership”, Harvard Business Review, 85(2), (2007): 129–138.

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the key ingredient of living a profoundly significant life. Many wiser souls, somewhat jaded with cynicism, however, have pointed out that there is no humility; only different shades of pride!

Of all the leadership qualities, humility is perhaps the most difficult to develop. Ben Franklin tells us in his legendary Autobiography that the rea-son why humility as a virtue is hard to cultivate is because by the time one gets to be good at it, one becomes proud of it! A story is told about Frank Lloyd Wright, the famous architect, who was once testifying in court for his friend. While taking oath, he is reported to have said, “My name is Frank Lloyd Wright, the greatest architect on the planet!” Later when his friend questioned him about his exaggerated sense of self-importance, Frank Lloyd Wright maintained, “I was under oath to tell the truth!”

The following Sufi story highlights the dangers of self-conceit and the need to stay humble in all pursuits. The Sufi—one who is not— narrates the story as follows:

… and my third Master was a small child. I entered into a town once and a small child was bringing a candle, a lit candle, hiding it in his hands. He was going to the mosque to put the candle there. In the lighter vein, I asked the boy, “Have you lit the candle yourself?” He said, “Yes, sir.” And I asked, jokingly, “Since you saw the light coming when you lit the candle, can you tell me from where the light came?”The boy became serious first and then laughed and blew out the candle, and said, “Now you have seen the light going, where has it gone? You tell me!”My ego was crushed, and my whole knowledge was shattered. And that moment I felt my own foolhardiness. Since then I dropped all pretense to knowledgeability.15

Does humility mean low self-regard? To be humble does not mean to have a low opinion of oneself, it is to have an accurate opinion of oneself, says the psychologist Robert Emmons. Emmons describes humility as the “realistic appraisal of one’s strengths and weaknesses—neither overesti-mating them nor underestimating them.”16 True humility is a matter of right perspective.

Is humility the most important quality to cultivate in life and leadership? Humility is unquestionably the most essential requirement when it comes to learning: without being humble, one cannot learn at all. And both his-

15 A traditional Sufi tale. Author unknown.16 Robert A. Emmons, The Psychology of Ultimate Concerns: Motivation and Spirituality in

Personality (New York: The Guilford Press, 2009), 171.

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tory and current research testify that the best leaders are humble. In their recent Harvard Business Review study, Prime and Slib clarify that hum-ble leaders should not be mistaken for weak ones for it takes tremendous courage to practice humility. These authors cite Google’s SVP of People Operations, Lazlo Bock, who says humility is one of the traits he is look-ing for in new hires. Based on their current research and ongoing study of leadership development practices at Rockwell Automation, they share the following practices to garner a humble, inclusive leadership style:17

Engage in dialogue, not debates. Engaging in dialog is good way to practice humility. When people debate to sway others to win them to their viewpoint, they miss out on the opportunity to learn about other points of view. When leaders are humble enough to suspend their own agendas and beliefs, they not only enhance their own learning but they validate follow-ers’ unique perspectives.

Embrace uncertainty. When leaders humbly admit that they don’t have all the answers, they create space for others to step forward and offer solutions. They also engender a sense of interdependence. Followers understand that the best bet is to rely on each other to work through complex, ill-defined problems.

Role model being a “follower.” Inclusive leaders empower others to lead. By reversing roles, leaders not only facilitate employees’ develop-ment but they model the act of taking a different perspective, something that is so critical to working effectively in diverse teams.

Inclusive leaders are humble enough to admit that they do not have all the answers and that the present day problems are too complex for any one person to tackle them single-handedly. Doing so, they garner the wisdom of the followers and allow them to come up with shared solutions.

dIScoverIng our dIvInIty wIthIn

The English word “enthusiasm” comes from the ancient Greek word enthousiasmos –en + theos meaning “to be inspired by or possessed by a God.”18 Holistic leaders first discover their own divinity within and inspire others to discover theirs. This is a journey that everyone has to undertake for himself or herself. The wisdom traditions of the world have always

17 Jeanine Prime and Elizabeth Salib, “The Best Leaders Are Humble Leaders”, Harvard Business Review, May 2014. Retrieved April 2, 2016: https://hbr.org/2014/05/the-best-leaders-are-humble-leaders.

18 Retrieved March 29, 2016: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/enthousiasmos.

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pointed out the fact that we are divine in our essence. But this fact remains hidden from us until our crucibles or some conscious teaching directs us to turn inward and search there. Such knowledge lays shrouded in many of the world’s ancient myths and legends and requires real efforts to decipher it. By way of a sample, consider the following story told by Nobel laureate Rudyard Kipling in his February 1923 Address to the Royal College of the Surgeons:

There is a legend which has been transmitted to us from the remotest ages. It has entered into many brains and coloured not a few creeds. It is this: Once upon a time, or rather, at the very birth of Time, when the Gods were so new that they had no names, and Man was still damp from the clay of the pit whence he had been digged, Man claimed that he, too, was in some sort a deity. The Gods were as just in those days as they are now. They weighed his evidence and decided that Man’s claim was good—that he was, in effect, a divinity, and, as such, entitled to be freed from the trammels of mere brute instinct, and to enjoy the consequence of his own acts. But the Gods sell everything at a price. Having conceded Man’s claim, the legend goes that they came by stealth and stole away this godhead, with intent to hide it where Man should never find it again. But that was none so easy. If they hid it anywhere on Earth, the Gods foresaw that Man, the inveterate hunter—the father, you might say, of all hunters—would leave no stone unturned nor wave unplumbed till he had recovered it. If they concealed it among themselves, they feared that Man might in the end batter his way up even to the skies. And, while they were all thus at a stand, the wisest of the Gods, who afterwards became the God Brahm, said, “I know. Give it to me!” And he closed his hand upon the tiny unstable light of Man’s sto-len godhead, and when that great Hand opened again, the light was gone. “All is well” said Brahm. “I have hidden it where Man will never dream of looking for it. I have hidden it inside Man himself”. “Yes, but whereabouts inside Man have you hidden it?”, all the other Gods asked. “Ah”, said Brahm, “that is my secret, and always will be; unless and until Man discov-ers it for himself.”19

And here in lies the real test of a leader’s work: discovering the divin-ity within. Its true fulfillment lies in journeying from position-power to self-power.

19 Retrieved March 27, 2016: http://www.telelib.com/words/authors/K/KiplingRudyard/prose/BookOfWords/surgeonssoul.html.

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one hundred one maxImS of holIStIc leaderShIp

A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.—John Maxwell

Holistic leaders are authentic leaders. They invest in learning about the way first and strive hard to model the way by living it. Holistic leaders build their life-work on the solid moral ground—they do right things for right reasons. They exalt means over ends. They approach their work in the spirit of service and as an offering for the good of others. They stay away from the traps of fame and power and humbly lead from behind. Their humility is born of the strength of their character. In the following section, we distil and present key holistic leadership lessons to illumine a leader’s journey to self-leadership.

on BecomIng holIStIc leaderS

1. Holistic leadership marks the transition from position-power to self- power. It is a voyage of inner discovery that begins with knowing oneself and culminates in living one’s deepest values at the personal, team, and organizational level. Effective leaders holistically engage the body, mind, heart, soul and spirit of those whom they lead.

2. The quest for holistic leadership starts with self-awareness and self- mastery, progresses with living authentically one’s core values, and culminates in leaving a legacy by fulfilling life’s purpose through selfless service for the greater good.

3. Holistic leadership is not about the goads of money, position, power or fame; it is about contribution and empowering others. It is a responsi-bility to share and not a position to wield. Holistic leaders are not con-cerned with who gets the credit but simply that the work gets done.

4. Holistic leaders do not look for what they like to do. They do what needs to be done. They know very well that leadership is not only about doing what one loves; it is also about learning to love what one has to do.

5. Holistic leaders are dealers in hope. They invite everyone to share in the dream that together we can make our world a better place. They have a deep understanding of human systems. They learn to master the language of transformation and help ordinary people accomplish extraordinary things.

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6. Holistic leaders are ever-mindful of their true calling: While building their external career, they do not neglect their inner character and spiritual needs. In fact, they holistically tend to their physical, psy-chological, emotional and spiritual needs.

7. Holistic leadership fosters a leader’s harmonious development in all its vital dimensions. It is primarily a self-cultivation process emanat-ing from one’s deepest core values and beliefs. Accordingly, learning to be an effective leader needs to be approached essentially as a vital dimension of one’s personal growth and transformation.

motIvatIng the whole perSon

1. The basic human needs are organized into a hierarchy of relative prepotency. Holistic leaders recognize that the deficiency needs are also important for securing basic measure of happiness. However, they focus on the awakening and fulfillment of higher order needs of themselves and others. They are aware that the movement towards psychological health is also the movement toward spiritual peace and social harmony.

2. Holistic leaders understand that we all have unused potentialities and that it is certainly possible for most of us to be greater than we are in actuality. Maslow found out that one of the reasons that blocks the growth of individuals is the “fear of one’s own greatness” or “running away from one’s own best talents”.

3. Holistic leaders are well aware that cultivation of one’s capacities requires hard work, dedication, discipline, training, practice and often postponement of pleasure. They strive to be the very best in whatever they undertake. Self-actualization means going through an arduous and demanding period of preparation in order to real-ize one’s possibilities.

4. Holistic leaders know that the best way to inspire people is to make them realize that they are a part of something important, some-thing larger, something greater, grander and that their contribu-tion matters to make a difference in the world. True fulfillment comes from working well at something one considers worthwhile. The self only finds its true actualization in giving itself to some higher purpose outside oneself, in altruism and spirituality.

5. Holistic leaders are aware that the real motivation for performing great tasks can only lie within a person. You cannot expect a great art performance just by offering lucrative pay or better working conditions.

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6. Holistic leaders are well aware that the best way to destroy motiva-tion is to expect and accept mediocre performance from others. They honor the relationship between the degree of goal difficulty and performance. They know that just “trying to do one’s best” is not good enough.

7. Holistic leaders acquire a sense of significance by doing significant things, from being active participants in their own learning and development. They understand that to be motivating, the work itself needs to be meaningful, valuable, engaging or relevant.

8. One of the key findings of goal-setting theory is that specific, dif-ficult goals lead to higher performance than no goals as well as vague, abstract goals such as “do your best”. In fact, the research shows that “do-your-best” goals lead to low performance.

9. Holistic leaders are well aware that it is better to concentrate more on self-control and self-discipline than self-esteem. Self-esteem over- promises but under-delivers. Self-discipline under-promises and over- delivers. There are at least three things one can do to improve performance where self-esteem has failed to deliver: effort, will power and self-compassion. Trying harder and sustained will power leads to better performance.

10. New motivation research shows that money is a motivator mainly for basic, repetitive and rudimentary tasks. For tasks of increasing complexity, the three key motivators are: autonomy, mastery and purpose. Autonomy: the urge to direct our own lives. Mastery: the desire to get better and better at something that matters. Purpose: the yearning to do what we do in the service of something larger than ourselves.

maSterIng the “me” In leaderShIp

1. Holistic leaders have the ability to envision the universal dimension of personal struggles. They surname all grief as “grace” and trans-mute personal challenges and champion universal causes. While ordinary people tend to take the “slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” too personally, holistic leaders approach them as opportu-nities for individual and collective transformation.

2. As a part of their personal mastery regimen, holistic leaders employ their intellect effectively to direct their mind. Whereas ordinary leaders are constantly driven by a wayward mind and unruly desires for sense objects, holistic leaders use the power of intellect to discern between what is pleasant (preyas) and what is right (śreyas).

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3. The key to acting morally right lies in finding a moderate position between those two extremes—one of excess and the other of defi-ciency. For example, courage is a virtue, but if taken to excess it would appear as recklessness, and, in deficiency, as cowardice. Aristotle’s principle of the golden mean is not the exact arithmetical mean; it depends on the situation. There is no universal middle that would apply to every situation.

4. On the path of personal mastery, morality acts as a necessary prelude to spirituality, for scriptures do not cleanse the ethically impure. There is no holistic leadership without ethical and spiritual founda-tion. Holistic leaders act as a “witness” of high moral leadership without which the limits of higher human possibilities would neither be known nor sustained.

5. Excellence, according to Aristotle, is not an innate gift; it is achieved through repeated practice until it becomes a habit, a settled disposi-tion, for we are what we repeatedly do. For Aristotle, happiness is the “virtuous activity of the soul in accordance with reason”. A good life is one that has been lived by making morally virtuous choices or decisions.

6. Nobody comes to work to put in a shoddy performance. Everyone is looking for creative self-expression. And when we create opportu-nities for meaningful self-expression, we help build a workplace where people act with self-fulfillment and not merely work for it. Creating such a liberating work environment is the real job of a holistic leader.

7. Research on expert performance shows that many characteristics once believed to reflect innate talent are actually the result of intense, deliberate practice extended for a minimum of 10 years or 10,000 hours. The 10,000-hour rule of thumb is not about mechanical practice though. Practice is important but it is perhaps not the only thing. Quite a number of studies suggest that aside from practice hours, individual differences—ranging from socioeconomics to coaching to IQ—help explain expert success.

8. Excellence is a complex, multifaceted issue and the jury is still out on the respective roles of natural endowment and deliberate practice in human performance. The perennial debate over nature vs. nurture continues. Perhaps it is both practice and genes that make champi-ons. Genes perhaps make practice enjoyable and practice likewise makes it easier to actualize genes’ promise. Perhaps the best thing is to be born as a genius. The next best thing is to work at it!

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creatIvely remaInIng In the flow

1. Creativity has now come to be recognized as important in educa-tion as literacy. IBM’s Institute for Business Value has named cre-ativity the single most important attribute for success in leading a large corporation in the future. Some of the world’s most iconic companies are embracing creativity as a way of life.

2. Now more than ever, to stay competitive, leaders must inspire a vision for creativity by fostering an environment of workplace engagement, encouragement and commitment. It has been rightly observed that one doesn’t manage creativity; one manages for creativity.

3. Given the fact that majority of US workers are not engaged, as indicated by a series of recent Gallup polls, it becomes paramount for present-day leaders to foster conditions of flow at work. Recent research has underscored the vital link between happiness at work and workplace success: Flow directly correlates to happiness at work and happiness at work directly correlates to success.

4. In business, originality isn’t enough. To be creative, an idea must also be useful and actionable. If creativity is about discovering what is novel and useful, innovation is about implementing it and bring-ing it to successful fruition.

5. Creativity is a function of three components: expertise, creative- thinking skills and motivation. Leaders can proactively influence these components through conducive workplace practices and conditions.

6. There is mounting research—both at the qualitative and quantita-tive level—that shows that creativity is very much a science. It is like a muscle. If you train yourself properly, you can become more creative. Under the right conditions, anyone can learn to be cre-ative and it pays organizations to support the creative processes.

7. Flow has been described as an optimal state of consciousness in which we feel and perform our best. It is the art and science of being alive to profound possibilities. Flow follows focus. This important fact underscores the close relationship between flow and mindfulness. Both flow and mindfulness can only happen in the now, in the present tense.

8. Mindfulness and creativity are natural partners. By its alert focus on the present state of mind, the practice of mindfulness contrib-utes to the successful attainment of both flow and creativity. Intense

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focus on the task at hand is a hallmark of creativity, thus linking flow, creativity and mindfulness as one single movement.

9. Research shows that mindfulness boosts creativity through greater insight, receptivity, balance and clarity; ensures greater engage-ment at workplace through increased energy and sense of well- being and expanding awareness and range of our responses, and lesser burnout.

10. Mindfulness serves as the basis for personal transformation. This has far-reaching implications for leaders as well as followers. When we are more aware, more mindful, we are greatly open to the new possibilities and fresh opportunities. This reduces stress. Most stress arises by missing the present because we are busy living in the past memories or future dreams.

11. When we dwell in the present, we are more sensitive to the present context and thus less judgmental. This enhances engagement in any human interaction. Mindfulness generates a more positive result, a better performance for almost any activity.

10 dIfferent wayS of BeIng Smart

1. The constructs of emotional intelligence and multiple intelligences show that there are more ways to identify human capacities than just through logical and linguistic intelligence, as traditionally measured by IQ.

2. While traditional IQ scores are useful for predicting how we will do in school, they tell little about our performance once we leave school. IQ proves to be a weak predictor of how well we relate with others, perform at work and cope with a variety of daily tasks and challenges.

3. IQ and EI are not opposing competencies, but rather different ones. EI is not about the primacy of heart over head—it is the unique harmony of both: emotions enhancing thinking and think-ing regulating emotions. We need both the sensibility of mind and the sensitivity of the heart to succeed in the business of life.

4. Proponents of EI advocate that it is leaders’ primal job to create a progressive emotional environment that frees the best in people. By effectively harnessing both emotional and multiple intelli-gences, holistic leaders can recognize and nurture the myriad gifts that people bring to work in an integral manner.

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5. Studies have shown that empathy is the number one practical com-petency of a successful life. There is zero correlation between IQ and emotional empathy. They are controlled by different parts of the brain.

6. Emotional intelligence and various multiple intelligences are ame-nable to conscious development and their mastery can contribute to the development of a holistic leader. Research has shown that EI changes over time and can be learned and expanded, at any time during one’s life.

7. According to Howard Gardner, leaders demonstrate a generous degree of at least three of the eight multiple intelligences: linguistic intelligence, interpersonal intelligence and intrapersonal intelli-gence. Leaders can empower themselves and others through their understanding of multiple intelligences.

8. Postulated as intelligence beyond the traditional notions of ratio-nal intelligence (IQ) and emotional intelligence (EQ), spiritual intelligence (SI or SQ) has been hailed as the critical intelligence for leadership success in the twenty-first century.

9. Spiritual intelligence pertains to the inner life of mind and spirit and its relationship to being in the world. It is the intelligence that inspires us to ask ultimate questions, seek meaning and purpose, and strive for the greater good. It is the intelligence that makes us whole—“most human”. Spiritual intelligence serves as a necessary foundation for both IQ and EQ. The full and proper development of human capacities is achieved through spiritual growth alone.

10. Spiritual intelligence is the outcome of spiritual growth: We move from immature ego-driven behaviors to more mature higher Self- driven behaviors …. We develop the ability to hear the voice of our higher Self, to understand and transcend the voice of our ego and to be guided by deep wisdom and compassion.

harneSSIng the BeSt In people and organIzatIonS

1. We are constantly shaping our reality through our assumptions, expectations and core beliefs. Each organization has a two-part exis-tence: the positive and the problematic—the abundant and the defi-cit. Which part wins depends upon what we care to feed.

2. Traditional approaches to problem-solving focus on what is wrong in a given situation and proceed to “fix” it with all the analytical

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tools available. For achieving quantum breakthroughs, we need to go beyond the dark images of the past. We need clear, bright images of the future; we need a quantum leap into the field of possibilities. Appreciative inquiry is about tapping into the river of positive pos-sibilities, a way of harnessing the untapped creative energies of peo-ple and organizations.

3. Appreciative inquiry (AI) is about discovering and nurturing the best in people and organizations by focusing on the possibilities and potential. It is built on the premise that if you truly wish to change your world, you must change your way of asking questions.

4. When you search for problems, you find problems. You and your organization can get stuck in negativity. On the other hand, if you seek what is positive in individuals and organizations, you tap into the emergent field of possibilities and potentials.

5. Along the lines of Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences, Appreciative Intelligence is “the ability to see the mighty oak in the acorn”—the intelligence to perceive the positive inherent generative potential in the present. Like emotional intelligence, we can nurture it and sharpen it once we realize the presence of it within us.

6. Let’s stop feeding problems and start nurturing potentials and pos-sibilities. Let’s all become “goodfinders”. Since everything depends upon everything, we transform the world by transforming ourselves. Every thought we think is changing our future. If we become what we think, as the Buddha taught, the best way to transform ourselves and our organizations is to change our thinking.

7. We need to imagine big and we need to think bold. Words create worlds and images evoke actions. Positive images of the future lead to positive actions. We need to have a vision that clearly sees a mighty oak tree in a tiny acorn. For, limitations in our perceptions are not limitations in the things perceived.

leadIng wIth Soul

1. It is perhaps not an exaggeration to say that while material progress has occurred, humanity’s spiritual life has declined. The conse-quence of misplaced emphasis on the external has been the neglect of the inner workings of human spirit. Man’s most pressing task today is the elevation and reformation of his inner spiritual life.20

20 D. Ikeda & A. Peccei, Before It is Too Late (Tokyo: Kodansha International LTD), 104.

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2. The traditional forms of leadership and organizational structure are proving inadequate to deal with emerging reality that is com-plex, multidimensional and virtual. We need new thinking, new metaphors of resonance to dance with the emergent reality. We need holistic systems that are able to integrate the spiritual and the material perspectives in a dialectical manner.

3. Spiritual leadership is an emerging paradigm within the broader context of workplace spirituality designed to create values-driven, intrinsically-motivated organizations.

4. It encompasses the values, attitudes and behaviors necessary to motivate oneself and others intrinsically by appealing to humani-ty’s fundamental yearning for spiritual well-being realized by living out one’s higher consciousness, calling and contribution.

5. Authentic leadership and servant leadership are primary expres-sions of spiritual leadership. Authentic leaders are altruistic, honest and trustworthy. Servant leadership represents a shift from followers serving leaders to leaders serving followers. It denotes increased service to others, a holistic approach to work, and a greater sense of community.

6. Spiritual leadership is a vital expression of holistic leadership since it covers all of its three important elements: self, spirit and service. It begins with being authentic and ends with serving others. This requires that we cultivate both of these dimensions and mandates that before leading others, we lead ourselves first.

7. While religion often looks outward, depending on rites and rituals; spirituality looks inward—the kingdom within. Spirituality is an inner quest, highly individual and intensely personal (the flight of the alone to Alone).

8. Spirituality takes it as axiomatic that there is a higher principle, force, being or intelligence that sustains the universe. It believes that ours is basically a just and fair universe and we are put here to do good. There is a purpose for everyone and everything. It pos-tulates that entire world is one family with a common identity and heritage and everything is connected with everything else. People have both an inner and outer life. The cultivation of the inner life can lead to a more meaningful and productive outer life.

9. The goal of all spiritual life is to discover the truth of our existence and to cultivate a sense of harmony with all that exists. Most reli-gious and spiritual traditions postulate a state of inner freedom from limitations and variously denote it by such words as mukti,

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mokṣa, nirvāna, liberation, salvation, enlightenment or self-realization.

10. Spirituality helps us to discover the deeper, transcendental mean-ing in our work; while workplace spirituality helps us find meaning at work. Recent research shows the link between workplace spiri-tuality and employee engagement.

11. Spiritual leadership is not about how high you climb on the orga-nizational ladder; it is about what you are, what you contribute and stand for. For what does it profit a leader if, having climbed high up the proverbial ladder, such a leader discovers that the ladder was leaning against the wrong wall all along!

lIvIng our hIgheSt purpoSe In lIfe

1. To succeed in the twenty-first century, leaders of organizations must offer a greater sense of meaning and purpose for their work-force. Holistic leaders first seek fulfillment through meaning, pur-pose and contribution and help others to do the same.

2. Research shows that 90% of workers are either “not engaged” with or “actively disengaged” from their jobs. This state of disengage-ment is not limited to workers alone. Research also shows that “fewer than 20% of leaders have a strong sense of their own indi-vidual purpose.”

3. Articulating purpose and finding the courage to live it are the most important tasks that a leader can undertake. For when the why of a leader’s work is clear, the task of how becomes quite easy.

4. Since meaning can only be found in our social interaction, it is important that leaders strive to create a rich organizational culture that enables individuals to come together to carry out a meaning-ful common purpose.

5. The meaning that we bring to our strivings sustains us through trials and tribulations of life. Research on the survivors of concen-tration camps and prisoners-of-war has shown that people who had something important yet to do in their lives—or who had a task wait-ing for them to fulfill—were most likely to survive.

6. Victor Frankl states that the first avenue to finding meaning in life is through work. By devoting ourselves to a task, to a cause bigger than ourselves, we create meaning in our lives. The second way to

294 S. DHIMAN

discover meaning is “by experiencing something—such as good-ness, truth, and beauty”. The third avenue to finding meaning in life is by formulating a right attitude towards unavoidable suffering.

7. According to Victor Frankl, life’s meaning is an unconditional one, for it even includes the potential meaning of unavoidable suffering. Suffering is not necessary to find meaning, only that meaning is possible in spite of suffering. If suffering is avoidable, the most meaningful thing to do would be to remove its cause. There is nothing heroic about enduring it.

8. A fulfilled life is not that which is achieved through chasing momentary pleasures, but the one attained through bearing suffering nobly and courageously and transforming it into oppor-tunities for meaning, wisdom and growth.

9. Effective leadership is about having impactful purpose and pur-poseful impact. This then is the essence of holistic leadership: know your purpose and live it fully. The meaning of life is to discover our purpose; the purpose of life is to live it.

10. We are put on this planet with a mission to accomplish and a pur-pose to fulfill. It is our soul’s mission and the reason we were born. It is our silent pact with the universe. Unless we fulfill this purpose, this mission, we are not given to experience the deepest joy of ful-fillment that life has to offer, no matter how successful, rich or famous we may become.

SharIng our gIftS In lIfe and leaderShIp

1. A holistic leader’s voyage of fulfillment begins with knowing one-self and culminates in living one’s deepest values in the service of others. Holistic leaders find fulfillment in discovering, polishing and sharing their gifts—and in helping others to do the same.

2. The quest for holistic leadership entails transforming a leader’s search for success into a discovery of profound meaning and sig-nificance. This journey to “significance”, which is cultivated from within, is not about “acquiring” anything new; it is a matter of “rediscovering” and “harnessing” what one already has.

3. A holistic leader cultivates certain virtues of head and heart, called habits of highly-fulfilled people: pure motivation, gratitude, gener-osity, selfless service, harmlessness, acceptance and presence. These

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abiding virtues are cultivated within first before they are manifested in a leader’s outer life.

4. The path to a fulfilled life starts with pure motivation because it serves as a necessary foundation for all other habits. If our motiva-tion is impure, we will not really be able to practice gratitude, gen-erosity, harmlessness and selfless service because our self-interest will always be lurking in the background.

5. Pure motivation signifies that, whatever we do, our every action should be motivated by the desire to help, to benefit others, with-out expecting anything in return. The moment we ask the question “what is in it for me”, our motivation ceases to be pure!

6. Gratitude is a master key to living a fulfilled life. Gratitude is the art of wanting what we have. It is the first and last step on the journey to contentment. Actually, gratitude and contentment are two sides of the same coin. When we are thankful … thanksgiving leads to having more to be thankful for!

7. Research has shown that keeping a daily gratitude journal leads to an increased sense of well-being (positive affect and life satisfac-tion), better sleep, more willingness to accept change, greater opti-mism and a sense of connectedness to others, and even can help lower symptoms of pain. Develop the habit of keeping a gratitude journal “if you want to dramatically improve the quality of your life”.

8. Researchers in the field of positive psychology note that if there is a magic pill for happiness and longevity, it is called generosity. Countless studies have found that the benefits of practicing gener-osity are substantial: lower blood pressure, lower risk of dementia, less anxiety and depression, reduced cardiovascular risk and overall greater happiness.

9. The gift of harmlessness represents the perfect embodiment of the Golden Rule and can serve as a sound foundation for any ethical and spiritual practice. In essence, harmlessness signifies non- harming by thought, word and deed. When we understand that a harm done to others is essentially a harm done to ourselves—since there are no others—we have understood the real import of harmlessness.

10. Our planet is plagued by mindless exploitation, rampant destruc-tion, dogged self-centeredness and unbridled greed that has manifested in terrorism, war and violence. If there is one thing that

296 S. DHIMAN

can save our species from the mad self-destruction of war and vio-lence, it is the gift of harmlessness.

11. Selflessness is the best thing you can do for yourself! It is also the best gift you can offer to the universe. In true service, the giver, not the receiver, is humbled. When all is said and done, there is no human ideal higher than the gift of selfless service. For in serving others, we find our true joy and fulfillment.

12. True acceptance is born out of understanding life’s profound real-ity and entails surrendering to its wisdom. It is about realizing our proper place in the universe—accepting our relative existence with all its vulnerability, precariousness, and transience. As long as we are not happy with what is and pine for what is not, the supreme joy of contentment will elude us.

13. The best gift we can to offer our fellow human beings is the gift of our presence, our attentive listening, our empathy, our kindness and compassion. This is possible only if we are truly present in all our engagements and interactions. Mindfulness means being alertly present in the present moment. This culminating gift facili-tates the practice of all other gifts, as we mindfully remain alert from moment to moment.

14. There is no calling higher than living humbly for the good of oth-ers. Holistic leadership is the path of loving service and altruistic love. A fulfilled life is a gratifying consequence of selfless service.

15. The seven habits of highly fulfilled leaders work in an integral man-ner. When we cultivate one gift completely, the other six gifts fol-low. Additionally, these gifts should be approached as seven offerings that highly-fulfilled leaders share with others. The good news is that, paradoxically, when we share these gifts with others, we receive many more blessings in return.

BeIng change: a hero’S Journey and legacy

1. Effective leaders establish their conduct on the high ground of eth-ics. For them, means are ends in the making for nothing right can ultimately come from wrong means. Ethical means are ends in themselves because “virtue is its own reward”.

2. Holistic leaders understand the origins of social change: when faced with challenges, they dive within, train their mind, and

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transform their emotions to be the change they wish to see in oth-ers. This is the alchemy of Gandhi’s leadership development.

3. Gandhi considered morality as the basis of all things and truth as the substance of all morality. For him, any path that did not finally lead to common good and oneness was a mere detour. In this web of mutual coexistence and interdependencies, the existence and well-being of each entity ensures the existence and well-being of all others.

4. Every time Gandhi confronted human frailties in the outer world, he turned his searchlight within to find answers in the deeper recesses of his soul. A person’s capacity for self-control enhances his capacity to influence the environment around him: this was the key to Gandhi’s political potency. He who controls himself gains the strength to shape the environment.

5. Holistic leaders know that leading with authenticity first requires delving into the core of one’s being and engaging in a process of deep self-exploration characterized by self-reflection, self- understanding and self-mastery. Gandhi’s abiding quest continu-ously to “remake” himself bears ample testimony to his commitment to self-mastery.

6. The greatest lesson that Gandhi learned from his lifelong study of the Gītā was the path of selfless action (Karma Yoga)—a discipline he lived his life by: use the right means for a just cause and leave the results in the hands of God. In Karma yoga, motivation or intention behind the action determines the moral quality of an action.

7. As a leader, Gandhi used culturally rich symbols to convey his mes-sage and to demonstrate its moral and practical value. In this man-ner, he was able to appeal to shared expectations and recognitions. This is the alchemy of his true influence as a leader.

8. Only those who have renounced personal ambition can truly serve. This is clearly evident from the influence and gentle power that Gandhi commanded as a leader even though he did not hold any official title, office or position. This is the epitome of servant leadership.

9. Gandhi inspired emulation not so much by his professed set of values and beliefs as by the exemplary nature of his life and con-duct. He lived his values and made his life his message.

10. We have to be the change that we wish to see in the world. Gandhi became the source and embodiment of his own teachings. This was

298 S. DHIMAN

Gandhi’s most important discovery and his greatest gift to humankind.

11. Holistic leadership is a voyage of inner discovery that begins with knowing oneself and culminates in living one’s deepest values in service of a cause higher than oneself. The image of the path or the journey could be misleading for all paths are paths away from home. Strictly speaking, it is not a journey; it is a home-coming. This is called self-discovery—a journey of recognition, from here to here.

12. The alchemy of transformation in life is not any different from that of leadership. Discipline, humility and right attitude are as critical in life as they are in leadership. Nobody has ever become a great leader without first becoming a good human being.

concludIng thoughtS

Only when we find higher meaning and purpose and seek to live in accord with moral and spiritual principles will we find true happiness, peace and fulfillment. The unbridled worship of individualism, greed, pride, fame and consumerism is contrary to the virtues of truth, love and justice. Developing moral and spiritual virtues can help us transcend self-cen-teredness and create a caring, compassionate society built on the values of truth, love and justice. By seeking perennially who we truly are and serv-ing selflessly, we may redeem our existence and be fulfilled. “The mark of the immature man”, said J. D. Salinger, “is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.”21 There is no calling higher than living humbly for a noble cause. It is the path of loving service and altruistic love. This is the hallmark of holistic leadership. A fulfilled life is the gratifying consequence of selfless service.

It has been said that the function of leadership is to produce more lead-ers, not more followers. What is the alchemy of producing more leaders? Most of the time, it is about leading from behind. In his autobiography entitled Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela, equated a great leader to a shepherd: “A leader … is like a shepherd. He stays behind the flock, letting the most nimble go out ahead, whereupon the others follow, not

21 J. D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye (New York, Little, Brown and Company, 1991), 224.

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realizing that all along they are being directed from behind.”22 Elsewhere Mandela states that “It is better to lead from behind and to put others in front, especially when you celebrate victory when nice things occur. You take the front line when there is danger. Then people will appreciate your leadership.”23 Within the short compass of these two quotes, Mandela encapsulates the leadership lessons he learnt having spent 10,000 days in jail over a period of 50 years of struggle (1944–1994) for ending bondage. Leading from behind is a leadership style whose time has come. It is a style which puts followers in the forefront of the leadership line. However, it requires supreme humility.

Lao Tzu, the great Chinese sage, stated so well, “A leader is best when people barely know he exists, when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say: we did it ourselves.” He recognized the importance of humility as the key ingredient of leadership for only the humble can truly serve a cause higher than themselves. The following free-flowing, interpretative translation of Lao Tzu’s wisdom splendidly captures the essence of holistic leadership in terms of building on the best in people:

Learn from the peoplePlan with the people

Begin with what they haveBuild on what they know

Of the best leadersWhen the task is accomplished

The people will remarkWe have done it ourselves.24

I conclude this book with a wise saying of the Buddha: “Carpenters fashion wood; fletchers fashion arrows; the wise fashion themselves.”25 Fashioning oneself is a life-long process. There are no short cuts here; as

22 Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom: The Autobiography of Nelson Mandela (New York: Little, Brown and Company, 1995), 22.

23 As quoted in Ryan Lizza, “Leading from Behind”, New Yorker, April 26, 2011. Retrieved March 31, 2016: http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/leading-from-behind.

24 As Quoted in Richard Pascale, Jerry Sternin, and Monique Sternin, The Power of Positive Deviance: How Unlikely Innovators Solve the World’s Toughest Problems (Boston: Harvard Business Review Press, 2010), 193 (emphasis added).

25 As quoted in Lou Marinoff, Plato, Not Prozac! Applying Philosophy to Everyday Problems (New York: Harper, 1999), iii.

300 S. DHIMAN

Voltaire reminds us in Candide: “We must cultivate our garden.”26 The grass is not greener on the other side; it is greener where we water it. Let us keep hoeing our gardens and watering our grasses, with faith.

Thomas Merton, the great Trappist monk and a preeminent 20th cen-tury philosopher, concludes his masterly autobiography, The Seven Story Mountain, with a famous Latin saying—sit finis libri non finis quaerendi: “the book is finished, the seeking goes on.”—for him and for all of us!

from poSItIon-power to Self-power: reflectIon QueStIonS

1. What are the two most important qualities that enable holistic lead-ers to transition from position-power to self-power?

2. Explain the approach of leading from behind, as practiced by the great African leader, Nelson Mandela. How did this approach help him in becoming an exemplary leader?

3. The wisdom traditions of the world have always pointed out the fact that we are divine in our essence. Briefly explain why this fact remains mostly hidden from us and how our crucibles direct us to turn inward and search our divine essence within.

4. Narrate an incident where you were able both to express yourself and to surpass yourself. How did this incident enrich your self- leadership journey?

5. Briefly explain how developing moral and spiritual virtues can help us to transcend self-centeredness and create a caring, compassionate society built on the values of truth, love and justice.

6. What is the role and importance of authenticity and responsibility in self-leadership? What can leaders do to nurture these qualities in themselves and others?

7. Explain how the fulfillment of our life and leadership lies in the pur-suit of Self-knowledge and selfless service.

26 As cited in Will Durant, Fallen Leaves: Last Words on Life, Love, War, and God (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2014), 25.

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303© The Author(s) 2017S. Dhiman, Holistic Leadership, DOI 10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7

Index

Aabsolute truth, 270acceptance, 69, 75, 206, 207, 228,

295, 297healthy, 231–2total (see total acceptance)unhealthy, 230–1

Adams, Ansel, 87Adams, John Quincy, 242Adler, Alfred, 188aggression, 189, 223AI. See appreciative inquiry (AI)Alcoholics Anonymous, 160altruism, 26, 27, 42, 286

distinguished from generosity, 218altruistic love, 123, 160, 167, 178,

297, 299Amabile, Teresa, 29–30, 68–9, 71, 73anger, 223–4, 269

emotion of, 44–6, 48–9anticipatory principle, 146appreciative inquiry (AI), 12, 292

4-D model, 135–6, 149–51abundant and deficit, 134, 153, 291appreciative intelligence, 139, 292Buddha, 133

characteristics, 138collective attention, 144–5culture of deficit, 153definitions, 136–8engaging questions, art of asking,

141–4forward movement, 145holistic leadership, role in, 134management, implications for, 151origin and development, 134–6“positive organizational studies”,

135principles of, 146–8problem-based vs. strength based

approach, 135, 139, 148–9Pygmalion effect, 140–1science of “seeing” and “sensing”

possibilities, 133–5appreciative intelligence, 139, 292Aristotle, 202, 288

anger, 48–9Excellence, 24, 55happiness, 56happy life, definition, 55law of diminishing marginal

utility, 56

304 INDEX

Aristotle (cont.)Nicomachean Ethics, 54–5one-size-fits-all strategy, 55sort of equilibrium, 55virtue, 55

aspiration, levels of, 21Astin, Alexander W., 166Astin, Helen S., 166attention, 234–5attitude, 27, 33, 51, 104, 166, 167,

181, 186, 189, 190, 206, 210, 213, 295, 299

Aung San Suu Kyi, 243austerity (tapas), 49authentic happiness, 193authenticity, 12, 85, 157–8, 168, 173,

268–9, 272, 275, 280, 281, 298, 301

authentic leadership, 5, 8–9, 124, 157, 165, 168–70, 173, 179, 281, 285, 293, 298

authentic self, 5, 14, 156, 241, 279–80authors and portraits, 6–7Avolio, Bruce J., 169awareness principle, 148

BBach, J. S., 266Bar-On model, 100

adaptability, 104EQ-i T, 103, 104general mood, 104interpersonal, 103intrapersonal, 103“self-report” test, 104–5stress management, 103

being, 238change, 13, 241–2smart, 290–1

Being-Values or B-Values, 22, 23, 26belonging, 26, 148, 158, 206, 238

needs, 19, 20

Benioff, Marc, 177Bennis, Warren G., 2, 7, 45, 172, 173,

175, 268–9, 271, 278, 281best, harnessing, 291–2Bhagavad Gītā, 10, 24, 62, 83–4, 123,

196, 202, 211, 223–4, 236, 247, 251, 258–9, 261, 273, 298

curbing desire, anger and greed, 48–9and imposter ego, 50–1mind, 46–7and passion for excellence, 54personal mastery, 51–4sacrifice, charity and austerity, 49–50and self-mastery, 45yoga, 54

Blumenfeld, Samuel, 267B-Needs, Growth Needs, 22, 26Bock, Lazlo, 283Bohm, David, 3–4, 225Bolman, Lee G., 161, 178A Brief History of Time, 152Brown, Donald, 175Bryner, Jeanna, 219Buber, Martin, 196Buddha, 41, 89–91, 133, 153, 181,

194, 197, 209, 219, 221, 223, 232, 234, 257, 261, 265, 292, 300

Buddhism, 24, 67, 162, 177, 222–3, 233

Four Noble Truths, 194nonviolence, 222–4presence, 232, 233, 235right livelihood, 24, 181

business scandals, 2–3‘by-product’ theory of happiness,

23, 187

CCampbell, Joseph, 260, 261Camus, Albert, 12, 182, 194–5caring, 108–9, 156, 176, 178,

299, 301

305INDEX

Cavanagh, Gerald F., 157Cedillo, Marie, 166Center for Creative Leadership

(CLL), 108cerebral cortex, 114Chanakya, 239character, leadership and, 175–6charity (dänam), 49choiceless awareness, 235Churchill, Winston, 218, 253Cicero, 212civil disobedience, 251, 253, 265collaboration, 107, 165Collins, Jim, 58, 177, 281common good, 4, 13, 165, 169,

175–6, 227, 235, 298community living (āshram),

177, 248, 252compassion, 13, 175–6, 178, 200,

206, 217, 221–2, 224–5, 233, 235, 269, 272, 280, 291, 297, 299, 301. See also self-compassion

composure, 177, 228, 230–1conflict, 50, 119, 206, 223, 269

management, 107constructionist principle, 146Cook, Tim, 176courage, 25, 54, 79, 181, 186,

187, 190, 191, 201, 231, 260–1, 283, 288

Covey, Steven, 44, 123, 172, 190Craig, Nick, 170, 201, 202creativity, 289–90

business practices for, 71–2creativity and innovation, definition,

68–9Csikszentmihalyi, creative people,

81–3definition, Gardner’s, 69design thinking, 73–4elements of flow experience,

80–1and flow, 11

and happiness, implications for leaders, 78–9

and innovation, 68–9inspiration, 71Langer, 83–9mindfulness and flow, 67–8, 92–3myths of, 74–7optimal experience, psychology of,

77–8practice of mindfulness, 89–91seven intelligences, 69–70

Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention, 82

Csikszentmihalyi, Mihaly, 45creative people, 75, 81creativity and mindfulness, 82–3flow, 66–8, 77–8, 80, 92–3

curiosity, 35, 143, 172cycle and framework, 7–8

DDalai Lama, 35, 125, 162, 221, 243,

257Dandi march, 252–3Daniel Goleman model, 100, 105–7

leadership competencies and skills, 107

self-awareness, 106self-management, 106social awareness, 106social skills, 106–7

daring, 172Das, Ram, 176Deal, Terrence E., 161, 178de Chardin, Pierre Teilhard, 155Deficiency Needs (D-Needs), 26Denton, Elizabeth, 158, 161, 163–4depression, gratitude and, 215desire

self-centered, 48unsatisfied and unfulfilled, 48

dharma, 54, 196, 245

306 INDEX

Dhiman, Satinder, 158discernment, 230–1, 277‘discipline of speech’, 49–50diversity, 77, 165, 226, 265divinity within, discovering, 283–4divisiveness, 223Durant, Will, 55–6, 263

EEaswaran, Eknath, 250Eckhart, Meister, 202Edgewalking leadership, 174ego, imposter, 50–1Einstein, Albert, 18, 70, 71, 142,

185–6, 225, 242–3emergent reality, 1–2, 174, 293Emmons, Robert A., 125–6, 182,

191–2, 194–5, 213–15, 217, 282emotion, positive, 193, 215emotional intelligence (EI), 9, 11,

290, 291Bar-On model, 103–5Daniel Goleman model, 105–7definition, 97–8, 99–100and emotions, 98–9, 129–30Goleman’s version, 114human brilliance, 113–14and leadership effectiveness, 107–11marshmallows, 112Mayer and Salovey’s Four Branch

model, 100–2“mixed models”, 115models of, 99–100psychological qualities, 115self-awareness, 97self-confident and happy

workers, 115star leadership performance, 111–12

Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More than IQ, 105

emotional leadership, 279“emotional quotient” (EQ), 109–10

Emotional Quotient Inventory, EQ-i T, 103, 104

empathy, 11, 98, 103, 106, 110, 119, 121, 129, 175, 224, 233, 235, 291, 297

employee engagement crisis, 181, 183–5

enactment principle, 147–8engaging in dialog, 283excellence, 59, 62, 288exemplary leaders, 1, 3, 5, 41, 175,

236, 242, 266, 272, 275exemplary leadership, 173, 242–3,

247, 267–72experience, 189–90expert performance

elite performance, 58–9Excellence, 59high levels, 58mechanical practice, 59world-class, 57

Ffairness, 156Fischer, Louis, 262flow, 11, 66, 94–5, 289

benefits, 92creative people, 81–3elements of, 80–1experiencing, 77–8happiness and, 78–9mindfulness and, 67–8

forgiveness, 175, 2244-D model

collaborative design approach, 150–1

collective discovery process, 135–6

deliver, 151discover, 149dream phase, 149–50

Four Noble Truths, 194

307INDEX

Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, 69, 116, 119

Franklin, Ben, 77, 270, 282Frankl, Victor E., 13, 182–3, 186–91,

195, 203, 257, 294–5free choice principle, 148Freud, Sigmund, 69, 188Fromm, Eric, 193Fry, Louis W., 155–6, 166–7fulfillment, 12–13

internal nature of, 235–6and leadership, 236–7

GGallup-Healthways

Well-Being Index, 183Gandhi, Kasturba, 245–6Gandhi, Mahatma, 156, 187, 206, 224,

226, 227, 238, 241–74, 298–9. See also nonviolence

assassination of, 255–7Dandi march, 252–3disagreements, division and tragedy,

253–5early formative years, 244–5exemplary leadership, 267–72father’s death, 246–7greatness, 257–8leadership journey, 258–61learning from mistakes, 265–7legacy, 262London years, 247–8marriage, 245–6momentous years in India, 251–2moments of life and leadership, 243–4myths about, dispelling, 262–4“Quit India” campaign, 253as saint, 263satyāgraha, 250–1South Africa years, 248–9talisman, 272–3transformation as a leader, 249–51

Gardner, Howard, 11, 69–70, 98, 116–121, 125–6, 130–1, 139, 291, 292

Gardner, John, 167Gardner, William L., 169generosity, 94, 153, 206, 207, 211,

217–21, 226, 296distinguished from altruism, 218and happiness, 219–20preciousness within and without,

220–1George, Bill, 97, 168–70, 201, 281Giacalone, Robert A., 158Gibran, Khalil, 236giving, forms of, 218, 219goal-setting theory

‘do-your-best’ goals, 31–2, 42, 287

empirical research, 32and human motivation, 30–1self-regulation, process of, 32–3

Godse, Nathuram, 255, 256Gokhale, G. K., 251good life, 55, 56, 193–4, 196, 288Good to Great, 281Gotsis, George, 163GPS system, 238gratitude, 211–14, 296

and depression, 215and happiness, 215–17journal, keeping, 214–15and positive psychology, 213–14

greed, 48Greenleaf, Robert K., 171growth, and meaning in life, 184–7guiding vision, 172Gurdjieff, G.I., 60, 62, 84, 209, 235

Hhappiness, 192–4, 288

generosity and, 219–20gratitude and, 215–17

308 INDEX

happy lifecompared with meaning in life,

191–2Hardy, Thomas, 194harmlessness, 206, 207, 211, 221–6,

269–70, 296–7hatred, 223–4. See also self-hatredHavel, Vaclav, 153, 268healthy acceptance, 216, 231–2hedonic adaptation, 231helping, 224–6helplessness, acceptance out of, 230–2The Hero with a Thousand Faces, 260Herrigel, Eugen, 230Herzberg’s two-factor theory, 17

HBR article, 29intrinsic motivation, 29–30job dissatisfaction, 28–9job satisfaction (and motivation),

28–9motivation-hygiene theory, 28

Herzog, Patricia Snell, 218Hesse, Hermann, 171Hidden Wholeness: The Journey Toward

an Undivided Life, 122highest goal, living with, 198highest purpose in life, 294–5

discovering, 196–7highly-fulfilled leaders, habits of,

205–39generosity, 217–21gratitude, 212–17harmlessness, 221–6mindfulness, 234–5presence, 232–4pure motivation, cultivating,

207–12selfless service, 226–8total acceptance, 228–32

Hillary, Sir Edmund, 278–9holistic leader framework,

development of, 6, 8–9holistic leaders, 285–6, 297–8

holistic leadership, 2–10, 12–15, 18, 43, 134, 155, 157, 179, 241–3, 275–301

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, 93creative fulfillment or flow, 93–4meditative practices, 94silence, 94

Homer, 224honesty, 106, 156, 172human brilliance, 113–14humanistic psychology, 18, 28, 136humility, 124, 156, 177, 178, 270–1,

281–3, 285, 300

I“I-Amness”, 277IBM

Institute for Business Value, 66, 289

IDEO, values, 73–4ignorance, 223Iliad, 224impermanence, 221Indian National Congress, 254insensitivity, 223–4institutions, positive, 193integrity, 112, 124, 156, 168, 172–6,

242, 268, 280, 281intellectual leadership, 279intelligence, 290–2interpersonal intelligence, 116,

118–19, 121, 291intrapersonal intelligence, 116, 118,

119, 121, 291intrinsic motivation, 29–30, 37–40,

72, 166, 279Isaacson, Walter, 176, 177

JJainism, 222–3James, William, 230

309INDEX

jealousy, 223Jobs, Steve, 176–8Jones, E. Stanley, 255–6, 257, 266Judeo-Christianity, 162Jurkiewicz, Carole L., 158

KKant, Immanuel, 208Kanter, Rosabeth Moss, 69karma, 210karma yoga, 210kindness, 35–6, 41, 156, 211, 217,

220, 223, 224, 233, 235, 297The Kingdom of God is Within You,

251, 260kingly giving, 219King, Martin Luther, Jr., 156, 187,

191, 206, 221, 243, 268King, Richard, 158King, Ursula, 158, 159Kipling, Rudyard, 284“Know-Do-Be” continuum, 238Korb, Alex, 216Kortezi, Zoi, 163Kottke, Dan, 176Kouzes, James M., 172Kriger, Mark, 166Kripalani, Krishna, 255Krishnamurti, J., 91, 229, 235Kurtz, Jaime, 193

LLanger, Ellen, 92

Bhagavad Gītā, 83–4creative self or mindful creativity, 89mindfulness, definition, 84–5mindful vs. mindless perspective, 85On Becoming an Artist, 83–9

Lao Tzu, 256, 300Law of Elsewhere, 233leadership

authentic, 12, 85, 157–8, 168, 173, 268–9, 272, 275, 280, 281, 285, 298

case study, 176–8challenges to, 2character and, 175–6crisis, 171Edgewalking, 174effectiveness of, 107–11exemplary, 173, 242–3fulfillment and, 236–7holistic, 2–10, 12–15, 18, 43, 134,

155, 157, 179, 241–3, 275–301

as influence, 165ingredients of, 172integrity and, 172–3meaning and purpose in, 12,

181–203“me” in, mastering, 287–8as mutual purpose, 165, 167positive theories of, 165purpose-driven, 201–2research in twentieth century,

164–6self-leadership (see self-leadership)servant, 165, 171–3,

228, 293spiritual, 155–79, 279, 293transformational, 4–5, 7,

169, 172values-based, 173

Lewis, C.S., 271life satisfaction, 215, 296limbic system, 114, 209Lincoln, Abraham, 257, 268linguistic intelligence, 117, 119, 130,

290, 291love, 265

altruistic, 123, 160, 166, 167, 178, 297, 299

luminaries, remarkable, 6Lyubomirsky, Sonja, 193, 214

310 INDEX

MMahābhārata, 224Mahatma Gandhi and His Myths, 263Mahatma: Life of Mohandas

Karamchand Gandhi, 267Malraux, André, 205mama dharma, 196Mandela, Nelson, 21–2, 156, 187–8,

191, 206, 243, 257, 268, 299–301

Mansfield, Katherine, 231Man’s Search for Meaning, 182,

186–7, 195Manz, Charles C., 279–80Marinoff, Lou, 185Marques, Joan, 158marshmallow test, 112Maslow, Abraham H., 134, 136, 182,

193, 202hierarchy of needs, 18–28, 41

Matherly, Laura L., 166Mayer and Salovey’s Four Branch

Model, 100–2, 114ability model of EI, 101–2definitions of emotional

intelligence, 101IQ scores, 100, 129managing emotions, 102perceiving emotion, 102understanding emotions, 102

Mccullough, David, Jr., 187McCullough, Michael E., 215McLean, Andrew, 170meaning in life, 181–203, 215

compared with happy life, 191–2compared with purpose in life, 185defined, 191discovering, 189–92growth and, 185–7positive psychology and, 192–4search for, 187–9self-mastery and, 185–7through suffering, 194–6

meditation, 235“me” in leadership, mastering, 287–8mesolimbic pathway, 218metaneeds, 23, 26mind

greed, hatred, and ignorance, 46self-knowledge and self-mastery, 46self-leadership, importance of, 47and senses, 47

mindfulness, 206, 232, 234–5, 289–90Bodhi, elements of right

mindfulness, 89–90definition, Kabat-Zinn, 91form of awareness or presence of

mind, 89meditation traditions, 91practice of, 89–91samma-sati, or right mindfulness, 91sati, 90

Mitroff, Ian, 157–8, 161, 163–4mokṣa (spiritual liberation),

160, 258, 294Monnet, Jean, 268“more-ism” syndrome, 212‘The Most Meaningful Thing

Exercise’, 198–200Mother Teresa, 156, 165, 187, 206,

227, 268motivation, 18

intrinsic, 29–30, 37–40, 72, 166, 279pure, 206–8, 210–11, 221, 232,

235, 295–6pure, cultivating, 207–11

Motivation and Personality, 18, 193multiple intelligences, 69–70, 97–8,

116–21, 125, 130, 139, 290–2abilities or talents, 120definition, 98, 117distinct intelligences, 117–18human cognitive competence,

116–17intrapersonal and interpersonal

intelligences, 121

311INDEX

IQ tests, 116“metacognition”, 121profile of intelligences, 119self-assessment/reporting, 118–19trend-setter and paradigm-shifter,

119–20myths of creativity

Ben Franklin, story of, 77eureka myth, 74, 75expert myth, 76lone creative genius myth, 75“ordinary thinking,” process of,

75–6The Myth of Sisyphus, 195

NNanus, Burt, 172narrative principle, 148Neal, Judi, 174Neck, Christopher P., 279New Testament, 251Nicomachean Ethics, 54–5non-comparison, 229nonpossession (aparigraha), 258nonviolence, 221–3. See also violencenonviolence (ahiḿsā), 223, 252, 258,

265, 268, 269

OObama, Barack, 243Odyssey, 224On Becoming an Artist, 83–9

becoming authentic, 86blindness of knowing, 87–8life of mindful creativity, 85–6mindful choice, 88mindfulness of mistakes, 86mindlessness of social comparisons,

85, 87myth of talent, 87from reference to preference, 88

rule of absolutes, 86–7tyranny of evaluation, 85, 86

one-size-fits-all strategy, 55ordinary giving, 219organization development (OD),

134, 135other-centeredness, 238O’Toole, James, 268Outliers, 57, 59

PParks, Rosa, 156, 187passion, 172, 174passive violence, 269patience, 25, 57, 224personal mastery, or ‘private victory’,

51–4emotional maturity, 53personal qualities, 53self-awareness and inner-work, 44self-realization, 53–4wisdom of self (sthitaprajña),

51–2, 258Pfeffer, Jeffrey, 184The Philokalia, 235physical–psychological leadership,

46, 279Picasso, Pablo, 65, 68, 70, 71, 202playfulness, 82, 174pleasant life, 193pluralism, 165, 254, 264poetic principle, 146–7positive affect, 215, 296positive emotion, 192, 193, 215positive institutions, 193“positive organizational studies”, 135positive principle, 147positive psychology, 28, 38, 134,

136, 165, 209, 215, 217, 219, 296

gratitude and, 213–14and meaning in life, 192–4

312 INDEX

positive strengths, 193positive theories of leadership,

165, 167Posner, Barry Z., 172Post, Stephen G., 220“The Power of the Powerless”, 153precariousness, 221, 228, 232, 297preciousness within and without,

220–1presence, 232–4, 235Price, Heather E., 218Primal Leadership: Unleashing the

Power of Emotional Intelligence, 105

principle of simultaneity, 146problem-based vs. strength based

approach, 148–9, 152psychology, positive, 28, 38, 134, 136,

165, 209, 215, 217, 219, 296gratitude and, 213–14and meaning in life, 192–4

Purānas, 258pure motivation, 206–8, 210–11, 221,

232, 235, 295–6cultivating, 207–11practice of, 210–11rationale for practicing, 210

purpose-driven leadership, 201–2Pygmalion effect

intelligence test, 140metaanalysis techniques, 140–1self-fulfilling prophecy, 140, 141

Q“Quit India” campaign, 253

RRamakrishna Paramahamsa, 157Rāmāyana, 245Raychand, 259Ray, Michael, 182, 198–200

relative truth, 270religion versus spirituality, 161–2responsibility, 22, 29, 73, 82, 103,

106, 175, 189, 191, 227–8, 275, 278, 280, 285, 301

Reticular Activating System (RAS), 114

reward, 226, 227ReWiring the Corporate Brain, 124right livelihood, 24, 181The Rise of Superman, 79Rogers, Carl, 193role model, 147, 173, 241,

258, 283The Role of Deliberate Practice in the

Acquisition of Expert Performance, 57

Roosevelt, Eleanor, 18, 268Rost, Joseph C., 164, 165Ruskin, John, 259–60

Ssacrifice (yajña), 49Salinger, J. D., 299satyāgraha, 248, 250–1, 268Schlender, Brent, 176Schnabel, Artur, 267Schoch, Manuel, 209scholarship, 4–6Schopenhauer, Arthur, 194Schultz, Howard, 178, 271, 281Schwartz, Barry, 183Schweitzer, Albert, 18, 27, 173self, 161

authentic, 5, 14, 156, 241, 279, 280

transformation of, 156self-abnegation, 271self-actualization, 19, 20, 22, 41–2,

103, 188, 191, 202, 286motivation research, 40peak experience and B-values, 26

313INDEX

self-awareness, 5, 9, 14, 44, 97, 103, 106, 167, 169, 174, 233–5, 237, 272, 277, 280, 285

self-brooding, 220self-centeredness, 48, 50–1, 62, 208,

211, 224–7, 238, 296, 299, 301self-compassion, 34

common humanity, 36feelings of self-worth, 35healthy self-stance, 36mindfulness, 36self-hatred, 35self-kindness, 36

self-conceit, 223, 282self-control, 34, 40, 42, 106, 110,

262, 287, 298self-destruction, 226self-determination theory (STD), 18

autonomous or self-determining, 38–9

autonomy, mastery and purpose, 39–40

extrinsic motivation, 38, 39intrinsic motivation, 37–9needs, definition, 37and positive psychology, 38psychological needs, 37self-motivation, 38

self-development, 43, 169, 237self-discipline, 34, 40–3, 45, 53,

61–2, 170, 241, 246–7, 271, 272, 287

self-discovery, 15, 94, 196–7, 299self-esteem, 19, 20, 23, 215, 287

effort, will power, and self-compassion, 34

failure of self-control, 34“healthy self-esteem”, 33high sense of self-esteem, 33–4human persistence and

excellence, 40loving-kindness toward others, 41value of self-compassion, 41

self-exploration, 261, 298self-expression, 54, 203, 276,

279, 288self-focus, 220self-fulfillment, 24, 54, 211, 227,

241, 288self-gratification, 226self-growth, 186, 227, 231self-hatred, 35self-identify, 161self-insight, 41, 236, 277selfishness, 48, 51–3, 163, 176, 205,

227, 238self-knowledge, 25, 46, 51, 53, 159,

184, 206, 207, 217, 231, 236–8, 275–80

self-leadership, 5, 14, 46–7, 237, 241, 275–83

competencies, 280key to, 281–3

selflessness, 227, 256, 297selfless service, 167, 206–7, 211,

226–8, 235, 242, 258, 285, 295–9, 301

and servant leadership, 171, 228

selfless service (niṣkāmakarma), 258, 261, 271, 281, 285, 298

self-mastery, 7, 10, 173, 184–7, 241, 281

Aristotle's theory, 54–6champions, expert performance,

57–9desire, anger and greed, 48–9emotional health, 44and Gïtä (see Bhagavad Gītā)leader’s personality, development

of, 44sacrifice, charity and austerity,

49–50self-discipline, 45, 61–2self-motivation, 43–4super-discipline, 60–1

314 INDEX

self-motivation, 10, 43–4goal-setting theory, 17, 31, 287Herzberg’s two-factor theory,

17, 28–30Maslow's hierarchy of needs, 17–28self-determination theory, 18,

37–40self-preservation, 3–4, 211, 225self-purification, 210, 271self-realization, 51, 53, 160, 177, 210,

227, 258, 259, 261self-recognition, 226self-regard, 103, 282self-remembering, 235self-sacrifice, 202self-satisfaction, 211self, spirit, and service dimensions,

5, 8, 10self-transcendence, 26–8, 202, 272, 275self-transformation, 61Seligman, Martin, 193–4Senge, Peter, 44, 46, 271separateness, 225servant leadership, 157, 165, 167–8,

171–2, 173, 293, 298selfless service and, 228

Shakespeare, William, 168sharing, 295–7Shepard, Mark, 263silence, 232Simonton, Dean Keith, 257–8Sims, P., 169, 170Snook, Scott A., 201, 202social cognitive theory, 279Socrates, 49, 56, 168, 223, 276soul, 161, 178–9, 186, 188, 202, 222,

237, 238, 243, 261–3, 271–2, 275, 288, 292–4

spirit, 161spiritual intelligence (SI), 119, 131, 291

axioms of consciousness, 127behavioral indicators, 124definition, 122, 125–9

from ego to Higher Self, 129“existential intelligence”, 125highest goal, 123IQ and EQ, 124personal and professional

development, 121sacrifice and service, 123spirituality, definition, 127–8of “ultimate concerns”, 124

spirituality, 293–4definition, 127–8distinguished from religion, 161–2meaning and definition of, 157–60workplace, 155, 157–8, 167, 182,

293–4in workplace, 162–4

spiritual leadership, 12, 155–79, 279, 293

defined, 166, 167theory and practice, 166–8

SQ21: The Twenty-One Skills of Spiritual Intelligence, 127

star leadership performance, 111–12steadfastness in truth

(sthitaprajñatā), 258stingy giving, 219The Story of My Experiments with

Truth, 243“strengths-based” movement, 135suffering (dukkha)

meaning in life through, 194–6Sufism, 162super-discipline, 60–1Suzuki Roshi, 228svadharma, 196, 202Swami Dayananda, 172Swāmī Sharnānandjī, 236

TTacey, David, 159Tagore, Sir Rabindranath, 222, 251,

255, 263, 265

315INDEX

Talent Is Overrated, 57Tales of Hasidism, 196Taoism, 27, 230Tendulkar, D. G., 267Terry, R.W., 168Tetzeli, Rick, 176“A Theory of Human Motivation”,

18–19Thich Nhat Hanh, 89, 232Thoreau, Henry David, 251, 259Tolstoy, Leo, 251, 259–60total acceptance, 228–32transformational leadership, 4–5, 7,

169, 172transformation in life, 297–9transformation of self, 156transformation of the workplace, 156transparency, 106, 168–9, 268–9, 281true acceptance, 228–30, 297true service, 227–8, 297trust, 156, 172truth, 269–70

absolute, 270relative, 270

Twain, Mark, 202

Uuncertainty, 87, 88, 283understanding, 224

acceptance out of, 230–2unhealthy acceptance, 230–1Upadhyaya, J. M., 261The Upward Spiral, 216

Vvalues-based leadership, 173, 268Vasconcelos, 165

Vedānta, 127, 162, 172, 206Veda Vyāsa, 224vegetarianism, 61, 247, 261verbal discipline (tapas), 49, 223verbal nonviolence, 223violence. See also nonviolence

passive, 269psychology of, 223–4

vision, 174Vitucci, Steve, 166voyage of inner discovery, 6, 14, 276,

285, 299

WWelch, Jack, 107, 237Well-Being Index, 183What We Know about Emotional

Intelligence, 114wholeness principle, 147whole person, motivating, 286–7‘w-holistic’ approach, 4Williamson, Marianne, 22workplace spirituality, 155, 157–8,

162–4, 167, 182, 293–4wu-wei (non-doing), 230

Yyoga, 24, 54, 62, 123, 134

karma, 210, 298Yogananda, Paramahansa,

176, 177

ZZen in the Art of Archery, 230Zikr, 235Zusya, Rabbi, 196