Abstract
This book suggests that the solution to the current leadership crisis lies in leaders’ self-cultivation process, emanating from their deepest values and culminating in their contribution to the common good. Traditional approaches to leadership rarely provide any permeating or systematic framework to garner a sense of higher purpose or nurture deeper moral and spiritual dimensions of leaders. Learning to be an effective leader requires a level of personal transformation on the continuum of self, spirit, and service. Achieving insight into the art and science of exemplary leadership is not as easy as it may seem. While some people may develop personal and professional mastery, many people need specific guidelines. This book provides those guidelines.
Synthesizing the best of contemporary approaches to leadership in a holistic manner, this book presents a unique model of leadership that is built on the sound principles of Self-Motivation, Personal Mastery, Creativity and Flow, Emotional Intelligence, Spiritual Intelligence, Optimal Performance, Appreciative Inquiry, Authentic Leadership, Transformational Leadership, Servant Leadership, Positive Psychology, Moral Philosophy, and Wisdom Traditions of the world. This is a daring thesis but I believe that such a broad interdisciplinary approach is well-suited to effectively address the multifaceted issues faced by contemporary organizations and leaders. The integral nature of the function of leadership vindicates Lao Tzu’s matchless wisdom: to lead, one must follow.
An erratum to this chapter can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_12
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Notes
- 1.
D. Ikeda & A. Peccei, Before it is too late (Tokyo: Kodansha International LTD), 104.
- 2.
See: Joanne B. Ciulla, “Leadership Ethics: Mapping the Territory,” in Ciulla, ed., Ethics, The Heart of Leadership, (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2004, Second edition), 3–4.
- 3.
Warren Bennis and Burt Nanus, Leaders: Strategies for Taking Charge (New York: Harper Business, 1997), 2.
- 4.
Ciulla, “Leadership Ethics: Mapping the Territory,” 3.
- 5.
David Bohm, Wholeness and the Implicate Order (London: Routledge, 2004), 3–4.
- 6.
B. J. Avolio and W. L. Gardner, “Authentic Leadership Development: Getting to the Root of Positive Forms of Leadership,” Leadership Quarterly, 16 (2005): 315–338.
- 7.
See: Rob Asghar, “The ‘Dean’ of Leadership Gurus Passes At 89,” Forbes (August 1, 2014), accessed February 10, 2015, http://www.forbes.com/sites/robasghar/2014/08/01/the-dean-of-leadership-gurus-passesat-89/. Also see: Jena McGregor, “Remembering leadership sage Warren Bennis,” Washington Post (August 4, 2014), accessed February 10, 2015, http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-leadership/wp/2014/08/04/remembering-leadership-sage-warren-bennis/.
- 8.
Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization (New York: Doubleday, Revised and updated edition, 2006). See chapter 8: Personal Mastery, pp. 129–162.
Peter M. Senge, C. Otto Scharmer, and Joseph Jaworski, Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future (New York: Crown Books, 2008), 92.
- 9.
Warren Bennis, On Becoming a Leader (New York: Basic Books, 2009, Fourth Edition), xxxvii.
- 10.
Eknath Easwaran, The Compassionate Universe: The Power of the Individual to Heal the Environment (California: Nilgiri Press, 1989), 20 (emphasis added).
- 11.
Mayer, J., Caruso, D., & Salovey, P. (2000). Emotional intelligence meets traditional standards for an intelligence. Intelligence, 27(4), 267–298. See also: Salovey, P., & Mayer, J. D. (1990). Emotional intelligence. Imagination, Cognition, and Personality, 9, 185–211. Goleman, D. (2001). An EI-based theory of performance. In Cary Cherniss & Daniel Goleman (Eds.), The Emotionally Intelligent Workplace (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass), 27–44.
- 12.
Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why It can Matter more than IQ (New York: Bantam Books).
- 13.
As quoted in Larry Chang, ed., Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (Washington, DC: Gnosophia Publishers, 2006), 436.
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Dhiman, S. (2017). Introduction: On Becoming a Holistic Leader. In: Holistic Leadership. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-55571-7_1
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