Spirituality workplace

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Spirituality _at_ workplace
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Spirituality _at_ workplace

• Theres a wide range of perspectives
• Some would say that its simply embodying their
  personal values of honesty, integrity, and good
  quality work.
• Others would say its treating their employees in
  a responsible, caring way.
• For others, its making their organization
  socially responsible in how it impacts the
  environment, serves the community or creates
  social change.
• And for still others, its holding religious
  study groups or using prayer, meditation, or
  intuitive guidance at work.
• Some see God as their business partner or even
  their CEO.

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Need for Spirituality

• It is a motivating force in personal and public
  life
• It is connected to moral development and ethical
  behavior
• Growth, meaning, development and purpose in life
  are not separate from Spirituality
• Workplace is a critical avenue for the expression
  of spiritual in contemporary life.

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• According to a survey conducted by Mitroff and
  Denton (1999), people in the organizations that
  have stronger sense of spirituality are
• Less fearful of their organization
• Stronger in values and ethical beliefs in their
  workplace
• Able to show creativity and intelligence at work
• Respectful toward the vision of the organization
• Able to relate with co-workers better even
  outside the workplace

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• A study of business performance by the highly
  respected Wilson Learning Company found that 39
  of the variability in corporate performance is
  attributable to the personal satisfaction of the
  staff. Spirituality was cited as the second most
  important factor in personal happiness (after
  health) by the majority of Americans questioned
  in a July 1998 USA Weekend Poll, with 47 saying
  that spirituality was the most important element
  of their happiness.

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Success behind Spiritual Organizations

• Work is not solely about stock options, vacations
  and coffee breaks
• Work is animated by meaningful actions
• Work is directed towards wholeness
• Work connects to events and people beyond
  themselves
• Vision is personal transformation
• Motto is common wellness

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Definitions of Spirituality at workplace

• Inner Personality
• Not about social or institutional religion
• It is about inner peace and feelings of
  equanimity in different situations
• Virtuous Behavior
• Rejection of those that threaten human dignity
• Following personal code of conduct
• Service
• Performing work as a meaningful relationship with
  others
• To act as a healing descent associated with
  nurturing of family and group
• Personal Motivation Health
• Renewal of personal awareness and behavior
  through meditation
• Key factor for physical and mental health

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Nature of Action

• The definition of action varies from person to
  person profession to profession
• Once you set an ideal of life
• Enthusiasm enters in all your actions
• Keen appetite for life
• Shift from Laborer to Worker
• As selfishness in action gets reduced you move
  from Worker to Achiever

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Secret of Success

• Value of work is measured by the idea that
  inspires us to act
• Fatigue in work results mainly from mental
  dissipation
• Mental exhaustion is caused by anxiety for
  result, disinterest in work, and unclear picture
  of personal ideal
• Solution?
• Create a larger field of work
• Result of work helping more than ones own self,
  and family

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What is your role?
Your Core Values achieve

• Brahman
• Brahma
• Vishnu
• Shiva

Integration Quality Sustenance Innovation
CEO Manufacturing/Recruitment Marketing/Finance/Sa
les/Service Research Development
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Four-fold division of work
Human Face
Head Values/ Principles
Visualize Lead (SR)
CEO
Shoulders Responsibility

• Responsible
• Execution
• (RS)

Board of Directors
Finance Marketing Department
Thighs Stability

• Develop Resources
• Cash flow (R)

Feet Productivity

• Productivity
• (R)

Production Sales Dept
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Ganesha, the Stress-free Manager!
Think before you speak
Big Head
Listen carefully!
Big Ears
Use discretion in decision-making
Trunk with Sharp end
Digest all problems
Big Stomach
Use even little skills, efficiently!
Little Mouse
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V
asana
Cause of Experiences
Equipments of Experience
M
I
B
ntellect
ind
ody
Experiencer
T
F
P
erceiver
eeler
hinker
E
T
O
bjects
motions
houghts
Experiences
Human Personality
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The way we meet the results is the reaction
Spiritual Values to be embedded here
Impressions are the basic inclinations. They give
birth to intentions
IMPRESSIONS
Change of Attitude
Reactions get stored in our psyche, results in
shaping the personality
Reorganizing the priorities
REACTIONS
INTENTIONS
Intentions trigger thoughts
ACTIONS
Improving the quality
THOUGHTS
Broader vision and Selflessness
Thoughts lead to actions. Quality of thoughts
decide quality of actions
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Personality Types
S
Enlightened Soul
Leader With Spirituality
Sattvik Noble, Man of Perfection, embodiment of
Love Compassion
Unmotivated Learner
Commercial Businessman
ST
SR
Simple minded, lacks worldly expe-rience
Assertive, Stands for Principles Values
Commoner, no guidance, prone to influences
R
T
Rajasik Aggressive, full of selfish drive, prone
to active life, control-freak
Tamasik Lazy, sensuous, inactive prone to be
anti-social
Opportunist, wants others to work for him
power-mad
SRT
Criminal, Law-breaker
Politician
Trainee
RT
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Leadership
?
?
?
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Spiritual Leadership

• Capacity to integrate
• Spirituality as a vision setting awareness
  raising
• Spirituality as a social servant justice leader
• Spirituality as task competency and exemplary
  behavior
• Spirituality as moral leadership and agent for
  cultural change
• Leadership that acknowledges and integrates the
  spirituality does not flee the deep divide
  between the private and the publicIt is the
  integration of the inner and outer worlds that
  true spirituality can be distinguished from false

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Spiritual Perspective

• If you want your mission statement to reflect
  more soul, ask questions about the larger
  community. As how your company fits into the
  whole, as if we our business, our employees,
  everyone in our community were one. This is a
  spiritual perspective.
• - Alan Nohre (2001)

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Practice of Spirituality

• It is about the connections between the whole
  person and the whole community
• Organizations demand more of us all the time.
  Without nourishing the whole person, it cant
  have the whole person
• Organizations must give and contribute much to
  the whole person as they want in return
• Enthusiasm (a Latin word) means god within or
  spirit
• Charisma (a Greek word) means divine gift
• Willing (in old English) means well-being

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Important traits of a manager who has human
approach

• Thoroughness (clarity in thought, word and
  action)
• Fairness
• Initiative (courage, self-confidence and
  decisiveness)
• Loyal to the group he leads
• Genuine appreciation
• Enthusiasm Creativity
• Emotional Balance
• Maturity in thinking
• Skill in communication
• Readiness to assume responsibility

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How to integrate Spirituality and work?

• Strengthen your spiritual awareness through
  yearly retreats and daily meditation
• Shift your center from Individual Ego to the Self
• Look at the world from the platform of the Self
• Do not disengage from work to practice
  spirituality
• No need to change your work, but surely change
  the purpose of your work

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Work

• Work is an indulgence when your aim is only money
• Work becomes a labor when you do not like what
  you do
• Work becomes a service when you love what you do
• Work becomes worship when you offer it to God
• Work becomes spirituality when you enjoy your own
  company at work.

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Trend of Spirituality _at_ work

• An evident factor in the popularity of
  spirituality at work is the fact that there are
  more women in the workplace today and women tend
  to focus on spiritual values more often.

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• Using spiritual values as guiding principles has
  many positive effects on business.
• Business Week reported that
• 95 of Americans reject the idea that a
  corporations only purpose is to make money.
• 39 of US investors say they always or frequently
  check on business practices, values and ethics
  before investing.
• The Trends Report of 1997 reported that
• 3 out of 4 consumers polled say they are likely
  to switch brands associated with a good cause if
  price and quality are equal.

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• The ABC Evening News recently reported that
• American Stock Exchange has a Torah study group
• Boeing has Christian, Jewish and Muslim prayer
  groups
• Microsoft has an on-line prayer service.
• Lunch and Learn Torah class in the banking firm
  of Sutro and Company, Woodland Hills, CA.
• Koran classes at defence giant Northrop Grumman.
• Wheat International Communications in Reston,
  Virginia has morning prayers open to all
  employees, but not compulsory.
• Spiritual study groups at noon are sometimes
  called Higher Power Lunches - replacing the
  usual power lunches...

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• In addition to prayer and study, other spiritual
  practices at companies include
• Meditation
• Centering exercises such as deep breathing to
  reduce stress
• Visioning exercises
• Building shared values
• Active, deep listening
• Making action and intention congruent
• Using intuition and inner guidance in
  decision-making.
• According to a study at Harvard Business School
  published in the Harvard Business Review,
  business owners credit 80 of their success to
  acting on their intuition

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• Tom Chappell, CEO of Toms of Maine, stays
  mindful of profit and the common good by giving
  away 10 of pre-tax profits to charities, giving
  employees four paid hours a month to volunteer
  for community service, and by using all natural
  ingredients that are good for the environment.
• Chappell re-engineered his business into a sort
  of ministry, saying I am ministering - and I am
  doing it in the marketplace, not in the church,
  because I understand the marketplace better than
  the church.
• The American Manufacturing Association recently
  organized a conference called Building Community
  at Work Profiting from a Values-Based Corporate
  Culture, saying Spirituality and ethics or
  doing the right thing are proving to be crucial
  components of your strategy for success.

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• Consulting firms using spiritual approaches are
  doing a booming business.
• The Enlightened Leadership International in
  Colorado has been teaching top executives at
  major companies such as GTE, Georgia-Pacific and
  Lockheed Martin how to focus on whats positive,
  instead of problems, because our beliefs create
  what we experience.
• Other major firms such as the Covey Leadership
  Centre and the Centre for Generative Leadership
  teach Fortune 500 executives how to align their
  companys mission with their deeper values

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• Do not do your work as a ritual. Bring in Spirit
  in what you do make it Spiritual