Eps 1512: Business spirituality
— The too lazy to register an account podcast
| Host image: | StyleGAN neural net |
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| Content creation: | GPT-3.5, |
Host
Priscilla Alvarez
Podcast Content
No one can coach you in the ideal way to practice spirituality, since in the end, it is up to you how. Spirituality and Spiritual Practice, Religious Rituals, and Devotion to God are undeniably spiritual. Sometimes, we do not even know that we are following a spiritual path, as it is so deeply embedded in our culture.
Either way, spirituality is the experience of knowing there is something bigger than just our confined, self-centered perspective on life. Spirituality does not require following any particular religion, it simply requires being open-minded about life outside the Earth.
While spirituality is not a concept talked about a lot in business , I believe that it is the most underrated leadership tool available to us all. I really hope that reading this you begin to recognize the power and potential Spirituality holds for the business world, and look forward to diving into more about how we can harness it and make it practical and actionable in our work.
Spirituality refers to an experience with Spirit, and James Ritschl believes the business community will come to see Spirit as something that is most important to them. When James Ritscher mentions the realm of spirituality in business, I like to watch the reactions on peoples faces. When James Ritscher goes on speaking tours across the country, I am surprised by how much interest there is in this field of Spirituality in Business.
A growing trend in spirituality studies is the focus on spirituality in the workplace and in business. Increasing numbers of businesspeople are finding that the key area to applying spirituality is how employees are treated.
It is encouraging to see an increasing number of businesses discussing spirituality publicly, as a component of their company culture. More and more businesses are openly discussing spirituality as an integral part of their corporate culture, says Vijay Eswaran.
A number of emerging studies have shown a correlation between entrepreneurs spiritual practices and their businesses growing. Curious about how other entrepreneurs are incorporating spirituality into their business practices--and what results they think it is produced--I asked four women to share their experiences.
Many successfully integrate spirituality into their organizational culture, and demonstrate this by committing themselves to 3Ps, or Triple Bottom Line. Many have incorporated spirituality successfully into the organisational culture and show it through their commitment to the 3Ps of triple bottom line. Corporate leaders have organizations to run, and they do not usually have the time to think about ways they can incorporate spirituality into the workplace.
Research has already shown that including spirituality in businesses significantly improves performance, decreases absenteeism and employee turnover, and turns a workplace into a more joyful, calm, and serene environment. For some, spirituality at work is about making their company socially accountable, either by the way they affect the environment, the way they serve their communities, or how they contribute to creating a better world.
Bringing your spirituality into the workplace can be something that you want to do in private, or it can be something that you integrate in team meetings. Much interest comes from individuals who have done private spiritual work and are interested in bringing some of this experience into the workplace.
As we are seeing the prevalence of mindfulness practices in the workplace, we are starting to see many of the teachings from spiritual traditions showing up in the workplace. There is a growing body of research showing that bringing ethical and spiritual values to the workplace leads to increased productivity and profitability, and to retention, customer loyalty, and brand recognition. Through my own experiences, I have found that running a business in alignment with spiritual values helps establish a general feeling of wellbeing.
Key spiritual values embraced in the context of business include integrity, honesty, accountability, quality, collaboration, service, insight, confidence, respect, fairness, and serving. Business is a spiritual practice that requires devotion, belief, hope, love, and questioning, just like faith in a higher power. Consider, for a moment, that practicing giving the world your greatest talents--and being rewarded for it--is the most spiritually fulfilling thing you could possibly do.
We are going to begin by asking questions about inner tensions surrounding money and business and spirituality, then we are going to talk about some practical, practical steps that you can take from here that will carry over into your life and your business. As we tap into this third level of our being, with whatever practices resonate with us, we are going to find that our business and our life of leadership is going to become more fulfilling, inspired, and naturally, successful. Many mindfulness practices that are popular come from spiritual practices like meditation, and their techniques are explicitly designed to tap into this third level of our being. In that talk--and I have been in a few talks lately focused on women--I know that the panel included a few men, but it was focused on women knowing their values, from being entrepreneur, starting businesses, really knowing what you value, and then charging what is reflective of your values, or even if you are doing work on spirituality, reflecting your values, again.
In this essay, I examine the connection between spirituality, business, and leadership, and how a Jesuit education has a unique ability to support the spiritual awareness and growth of leaders, both in Silicon Valley and beyond.