Leadership, Tribal Spiritual Wisdom, And The Leadership Talk
Tribal spiritual wisdom can be used along with a contemporary leadership process developed by the author to help the reader lead more effectively in the high-tech global marketplace.
By Brent Filson - 2006
You can boost your leadership skills and hence your career by
understanding this one thing that most leaders miss: great leadership
incorporates a spiritual dimension.
This spiritual dimension has been a part of leadership since time in
memorial; but in today's global economy, it is undergoing an historic,
universal transformation. It's a transformation that speaks directly to
your individual leadership and career challenges.
However, when we talk about the spiritual in leadership, we must, first
and foremost, talk about results -- the results leaders achieve.
Concrete results. Hard, measured results. Plus, we must talk about
getting more of them, getting them faster, and getting "more, faster"
continually. Otherwise, there is no sense in delving into the spiritual
aspect of leadership.
Results are the stuff that leaders are made of. If they're not getting
results, they won't be leaders for long. Results come in countless
forms and functions. But one thing they all share: they are material
consequences of actions.
You can't see spirit, you can't hear it, you can't smell it, you can't
taste it, you can't feel it; however, if you ignore the non-material
that the spiritual encompasses, you'll give short shrift to your
leadership.
Just as the root word for spirit comes from Latin "to breathe" so
spiritual dimensions of leadership are its very life-breath; for
through it, the greatest results are achieved.
Spirit has been applied to many different things in different fields:
to stealth bombers, corporations, rock bands, comic book characters,
etc. In religion, spirit is the concept of an innate essence of a
being. All religions embrace spirit in many ways. But when applied to
leadership, spirit is differently manifested than with organized
religions. The spiritual aspect of leadership I'm talking about must be
exerted universally in the global market place, across cultures,
nations, ethnic groups, etc. No religion has a corner on the spirit of
leadership.
Fortunately, there is a universal ground for the kind of spirit needed
in today's leadership: the spiritual wisdom of tribal cultures.
Anthropologists have come to identify common features in the diversity
of tribal cultures around the world. First, they are earth-based. The
relationship between the earth and the people is one of mystical
interdependence. Second, the powers of nature, the acts of daily life,
birth/death, nature and the cosmos are all invested with deep meaning
through ritual and dance. Third, most tribal cultures view all
individual things that make up our universe -- rocks, stars, mountains,
rivers, people, animals, fish, etc. -- as interdependent.
This interdependence is not just a physical dynamic. Yes, we live on
the same earth, breath the same air, and are all mortal. But tribal
cultures understand it as a spiritual dynamic as well. Unlike the
concept of human souls, which are believed to be eternal and
preexisting, one's spirit according to tribal wisdom develops and grows
as an integral aspect of a person living interdependently with the
community and its environment.
Today, these interdependent features of tribal spiritual wisdom can be
applied with dramatic consequences to global leadership. Just as tribe
members saw themselves as interdependent with their tribe and their
spiritual deities and dictums, so today's leaders in order to be truly
successful on a global stage must see themselves in similar
interdependent terms. However, the difference today is that
interdependence is not with a tribe but with people the world over and
with the world environment. That's a profound, spiritual leadership
lesson, hard but necessary to actualize, from which great leadership
results flow.
How do we actualize this spiritual imperative? Enter the Leadership
Talk. I have been teaching the Leadership Talk to leaders of all ranks
and functions worldwide for nearly a quarter of a century. It works on
the premise that great results happen primarily when leaders establish
a deep, human, emotional connection with people. When I first began
developing and teaching it, I saw it as a powerful results generator.
It is that. In fact, the Leadership Talk is the most powerful
leadership results generator of all. But I had not really understood
why until recently. Now, I see each one of those descriptors, "deep,
human, emotional", which grew organically out of my having to work with
leaders challenged to get great results, are fundamentally spiritual in
nature. That's because they are predicated on the spiritual wisdom of
interdependence. (You can find out more about the Leadership Talk on my
website.) A key reason the Leadership Talk has helped leaders get
great, material results for nearly 25 years is its driving
methodologies are fundamentally spiritual.
Globalization is forcing broad and deep changes in human relationships
as organizations are being challenged to achieve greater results than
ever before. When you understand that the best results come from
practical processes bolstered with spiritual dynamics connected to
tribal wisdom, you'll have an opportunity to achieve an unmatched
competitive advantage in the world marketplace.
2006© The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. All rights reserved.
The author of 23 books, Brent Filson's recent books are, THE LEADERSHIP TALK: THE GREATEST LEADERSHIP TOOL and 101 WAYS TO GIVE GREAT LEADERSHIP TALKS. He is founder and president of The Filson Leadership Group, Inc. – Celebrating 25 years of helping leaders of top companies worldwide achieve outstanding results every day. Sign up for his free leadership e-zine and get his FREE report "7 Steps To Leadership Mastery"