A trend that happily is gaining enormous strength today. Increasingly, in the corporate world there is talk about spiritual values in business. But how is it possible?
Ken Blanchard, the famous co-author of “The 1 Minute Manager,” says that “It's the first time in business history that you can be great at what you do today, and go bankrupt tomorrow. My feeling is that people are interested in the spiritual when they feel that things are beyond their control. It's amazing how they start to think about spirituality when they get sick, or when they have a major problem, and end up realizing that they can't figure it out on their own. "
People are looking for balance and fluidity, and also for success.
Although in today's world, there are many more opportunities for success thanks to technology and cultural changes in the world. Peter Drucker said that in this time, people who have been successful all of a sudden, at 40, are trying to decide what else is in life, what else life offers you besides success. Some do not see it, and think that it is convenient for them to continue accumulating symbols of success, and others begin to search within themselves for a spirituality that says that there must be something more than material success. People began to change their search: from success to the meaning of life.
Servant leadership is the great trend in management for the coming years. This movement is led by executives who are not ashamed to carry the word love to the corporate world and believe that professional success passes through the awareness of their role in the world.
This model is not new, but it is only now gaining strength, as a reflection of the growing movement of spirituality in organizations. Robert K. Greenleaf (1904-1990), who spent most of his professional life at AT&T, first used the expression "Servant Leadership" in an essay published in 1970. His initial message was that new leadership it had to attend to the needs of many, and not of few in the company.
This current emerges as a response to the alarming existential crisis that plagues the corporate universe. Many professionals are no longer just satisfied with the prospect of reaching goals and receiving great prizes and cash bonuses at the end of the year. They no longer want to act in a company that has values so different from their own. They are no longer willing to sacrifice their family and personal life. People are looking for something that will lessen the storm of daily chores and prevent them from being swallowed up by the world of work.
But what was it that led professionals to this existential crisis?
Despite the fact that spiritual concepts in organizations have already been discussed for several years, it is only now that these values are really gaining strength. The reason is simple: the professionals reached a limit situation and simply are not holding out any longer. “There is a strong demand for another type of relationship with work. People do not want to feel more dehumanized and pay the price of losing their identity, of losing their charm for life ", says the philosopher Mário Sergio Cortella.
Some specific reasons:
- Humanity broke its relationship with nature, which, instead of being respected as it was in the past, was destroyed. Man also broke ties of blood, devaluing the relationship with the family. He got rid of norms, rules, of absolute values that guaranteed its stability. It disconnected from God, as shown by the great crisis that religions go through. As a consequence of all this process, there came a deep anguish and an expressive existential questioning, which now results in an attempt to rescue those bonds - in a more conscious and particular way, through spirituality.
In an interview with the American consultant and specialist James C. Hunter, author of The Monk and the Executive (La Paradoja in Spanish), a product that ranked first in the ranking of best-selling business books in the world, especially in Brazil, with more than 1,100,000 copies marketed to date; He says that “Many executives think that because they are in command, their officials have a duty to serve them. But that system no longer works. Today, companies need to have the heart, mind and spirit of their employees. And you only get that when the leader puts aside the desire for power and serves others, instead of being served, "says James.
Some executives have already realized that, to achieve high performance, the organization needs to consider the people behind it. ”Many times organizations use only the legs, arms and hands of their employees. In this case, the company is counting on them from the neck down. And the result is this: professionals become apathetic. They lose interest, creativity, excellence. And that is not competitive in the globalized market. To be very successful, it is necessary to have professionals from the neck up. Because that is exactly what the competitors are trying to do.
What do new leaders need to learn from Jesus Christ?
Servant leadership represents your ability to influence people to action. And in that Jesus was unbeatable, says James Hunter. No one can deny that this man had a great influence on the planet. It is not a religious point of view. It is a fact. Once we agree on this, we move on to the second point of this truth. If Jesus was so influential, we should pay attention to what He had to say about leadership.
Because he was very good at it. And what he said was this: people must follow you of free and spontaneous will. That means exercising leadership through authority, not power. When you use power, you force people to do your will, on account of the position you occupy. When you use authority, people do what you want willingly, because of their personal influence. That is the only way to count on the hearts, minds and spirits of professionals.
But how do you get to "perform this feat"? To be a leader committed to people, according to the American guru, it is necessary to go through an inner change, the result of which will be the incorporation of at least five new attitudes in your life:
- Listen attentively without judging Being authentic Having a sense of community Sharing power Valuing people's development
31 years ago, Sam Palmisano started at the IBM company as a salesperson. In 2002, he became the president of the Company. Since then, he started a campaign to transform the blue giant into a company driven by values. He justifies this change: “Many people became skeptical. They lost faith that a company can operate on belief. I believe that we are creating something totally new, which will extend far beyond our time. In the past, IBM computers were our greatest asset. Today, we live in the age of knowledge and people are our greatest asset. On account of a model in which orders are dictated from the top down, IBM became a bureaucratic enterprise. We were burying people's capacity for innovation.Only with management focused on values is it possible to unite and motivate a workforce as large as IBM's. «
When Servant Leadership concepts are moved from ideas to practice, that spiritual movement is reflected in productivity, creativity and innovation. «When they are aware of their role in the company and in society, they like what they do and believe in the values of the organization, professionals feel much happier and more motivated
Marcos Cominato, director of human resources for Nokia's subsidiary in Brazil, a Finnish cell phone manufacturer, maintains that “Spirituality is the awareness that we did not come into the world to satisfy ourselves, but to place ourselves at the service of other people. And that does not mean an isolated act. It is a position for 24 hours a day, "says the executive.
Servant leadership is summarized in the following reflection: Do you manage to influence the people with whom you work to be better after they leave your company or your home?. This is ultimately the great test to know whether or not you are a servant leader.
