The Leader's Most Difficult Choice: Self Determination or Spiritual Contract
August 2006
Studies indicate almost 90% of Americans believe in a Higher Power. Our experience is that many business leaders are reluctant to talk about their spirituality, but privately engage in a personal practice or tradition in an attempt to make sense of our chaotic world. An assumption that we invite people to consider, is that there are spiritual principles subtly operating in our lives with just as much certainty as gravity – predictably working the same way every time. Our observation is that these principles are mysterious and elusive to many, yet known and accessible to a few.
Believing in a Higher Power Who created and cares for humanity is quite a stretch when you watch the evening news these days. However, it is humanity and not divinity that is performing in disharmony with spiritual principles and causing the chaos we abhor. It is one thing to believe in God, and it's totally another thing to surrender to the spiritual flow and "trust that gravity will do its job." In other words, we're not living up to what we believe our highest spiritual principles to be and the world is a mess as a result. Whether your orientation is spiritual or ethical, all business leaders have a very tough time with the dilemma we are about to explore. In fact, if your first reaction isn't "you're crazy" we'd be surprised. However, upon further inquiry into the subtleties of what we are offering here, we trust you'll understand the enormous opportunity available.
The American economy has been successfully built upon the boot strap mentality of the healthy ego: reasoning, calculating, setting goals, imagining outcomes, prioritizing strategies, implementing plans, and making it happen. In fact, LionHeart was founded in 1983 on the notion that "we create our own reality" and it worked! Let us be clear there is nothing wrong with this approach, but we have come to learn that it is incomplete on at least two levels. On the first level it is important to ask the question, "which way is your heart turned?" Are you engaged in selfish calculation to attain what you want and think you need at the expense of others? Are you fabricating needs and selling stuff that depletes society so that you can make a profit at the expense of others? We hope not because that type of success is predictably miserable for yourself and those around you. But when your heart is turned toward serving humanity from your highest values then you do literally reap what you sow – planning and creating goodness begets more goodness. But you already understand this part. It's what comes next that gets even more interesting.
There is a very fine line between all of the "create your own reality practices" outlined above and the worrying, manipulating, pushing, and striving activities that subtly send the message "if I don't take care of business it won't happen." We live in a disempowering paradigm that is so pervasive we can't see it: it's all up to me. In that paradigm where is our trust in the divine support that is caring for us well beyond our capacity to care for ourselves? Our point is that we can't sufficiently care for ourselves; and we are not really the masters of our own destiny. Haven't you ever tried to make something important happen and no matter how hard you worked at it there was no way to succeed? Haven't you had spontaneous successes and breakthroughs that had nothing to do with your own efforts? Life dishes up both desirable and undesirable events regardless of how hard we try or how good we are. We can't manage or control that. What we can do is open our hearts to our inner wisdom in order to embrace both the desirable and undesirable events of our lives so we learn to express our positive character traits more completely. And the bad news is the more we engage in self-preoccupied practices of making it happen, the more we activate our own anxiety and waste our energy on what we cannot control. All of our ego-driven striving for a better future is only clouding our heart's ability to know the highest course to take with what is happening right now. The good news is that the more we resist the urge to make it happen by ourselves, the more we open up our hearts for the light of wisdom to shine, illuminating our world with a different, deeper kind of insight. It is from this deeper connection to our own God-given talents that we act from – in harmony with both the desirable and undesirable events of our lives. In fact, we can't know what events are desirable or undesirable until the journey unfolds. What seems wonderful one day is a huge problem the next. What looked like the worst thing that could have ever happened turns out to be exactly what we needed but would have never asked for. Leaders who understand all of this and rely upon their inner wisdom are empowered. Leaders who do not understand this burn themselves out, struggle, and add to the world's chaos. It's as simple as that.
A practical example is the sales person who genuinely cares about the customers' needs and knows intimately that's all that matters. They choose not to worry about their quotas, stay present to their own character values, and surrender to the ups and downs of the sales game with all of their focus on solving peoples' real problems. With their hearts open and turned in the right direction they know how to listen and "they are taken care of" with results that reflect their contribution.
We opened this article with the assertion that business leaders are very private about matters of the heart and their spiritual journey. Unfortunately, spirituality is getting a beating in our society because much damage is being done by people who claim to be divinely guided. Our litmus test is to look at the fruits of one's actions. It is not all that difficult to discern who is operating from a commitment to unity, love, peace and compassion and who is operating from a compromised or lower set of principles. Our invitation to all business leaders who are committed to returning our economy to a sustainable model that has a foundation of ethical or spiritual values, is to speak out on behalf of what you believe in and commit yourself to living up to those principles, as opposed to shrink back in dismay. The evening news is calling for our strongest medicine.
How do we propose you experiment with these principles if you are intrigued enough to do so? Our first recommendation is to learn the practice of remembrance and invest some time deepening your connection to your heart's wisdom. We have found this practice to decrease our anxious need for "self reliance" while expanding our access to knowing the truth of a situation and having the courage to act upon it. You can find helpful information in the Newsletter Archive and Articles section in Resources. The article is titled The Remembrance: Investing Time in Reflection. Our second recommendation is to establish your own set of spiritual practices and make a deep commitment to them, as if they are your spiritual contract. If you hold this contract as a commitment to honor what is sacred inside of yourself, as opposed to "getting to your spiritual life once a week or after you're finished making it happen for the day", you will gradually learn to trust that you are taken care of when you attend to the real priorities first. For many people, this shift in focus is brutal and sometimes seems impossible. It is worth the effort, however, because in our experience it is the most powerful way to discover your highest leadership capabilities. Only from an illuminated heart that is creating and planning with spiritual inspiration will you ever have enough wisdom to make your full contribution to the world in a way that is truly fulfilling.
If you are interested in further exploring this ancient way of being a leader, check out our book recommendation, The Book of Illumination by Ibn Ata Allah Iskandari. The evening news isn't going away and the time for wisdom is now.