I am drawn to two very different subjects: mysticism and business leadership. To me,
they seem incredibly similar in many ways. Here’s one example:
“The land they
see, and of which they report to us, is the land towards which humanity is
going. They are like the look-out men upon the cross-trees, assuring us from
time to time that we are still upon our course.”
Do you think this
passage is talking about a mystic, or a business leader? In today’s world,
leaders are being expected to not only keep profit in mind, but also take into
consideration the impact the organization has on employees, the community and
the surrounding ecology. To understand all of these elements, they must be visionary,
looking out ahead from the tree tops at more than where there own organization
is going. They must also look at where humanity itself is going, and expecting,
in order to see how their own organization can adjust to meet those future
needs. In fact, it was just a few years ago that I heard the
leader-atop-the-tree-tops analogy from an international business leader.
On the other hand,
mystics have been looking at where humanity is going and how best to address
those needs for centuries. There world appears to be the tree-tops with a firm
foundation in universal virtues, living examples of servant leadership hundreds
of years before the term was coined by Robert Greenleaf.
As I begin to
contemplate the foundations of leadership, and the impact of servant
leadership, coupled with my ongoing fascination with spirituality and
mysticism, I am seeing through a new lens. Servant leaders appear to be to the business community what mystics have been to the church.
The quote above,
by the way, is from The Essentials of
Mysticism and Other Essays by Evelyn Underhill (p. 43). She made a lifetime
study of what mysticism is and how to define a mystic, originally writing this
passage in 1910.
~LC
You present a great comparison: that business leaders appear to be the mystics of their organizations; more accurately, that “servant leaders appear to be to business community what mystics have been to the church” (LC, 2010). This should resonate with every student of leadership in that leaders must be in tune with the world that surrounds them—a world shaped by so many factors determining whether or not their decisions are sound, insightful, and will lead others well.
Some time ago, I remember hearing some interesting pop-culture prophecies about leaders of the future. Given the direction of technology and connectivity, businesses would be looking for leaders possessing MFAs rather than MBAs.
The more I study, read and experience, the more I realize that everything is connected and – more often than one would expect – many things are really the same. In other words, like your post above notes, there are so many things, dynamics or outcomes that are metaphorically exactly the same across other things, dynamics or outcomes (culture, a city project, human interaction, plant life, music, etc etc…) It is as if there are a small number of metaphors in the world, and they just show up in infinite places with varying accents, clothes and mannerisms to try and fool us that they are unique and separate . . . but ultimately just telling us the same story, lesson or idea as in a million other places. Life is fascinating.
Systems Thinking. Shamanism. Literary Theory. Chaos Magic. Learning Organizations. Science. Cultural Studies. Religion. Servant Leadership. Philosophy.
All of these things have one thing in common: seeing the world with and through various perspectives. Understanding world views and connections between the world and it’s people is the primary function of a leader. A leader has to be able to forecast the coming tides of change and opportunity. They have to be able to provide answers for the people under them and ensure that they can get them what is needed to do the job. Leaders look at the goals and hopes and dreams of their people and provides a way for them to succeed.
So for me Lori, it’s not really a huge stretch to see the connections between mysticism and business leadership. I think it’s a ripe area for further research.