Image: Goodreads
Lee G. Bolman & Terrence E.
Deal
JOSSEY-BASS, 2001
$24.95, 224 pages
Reviewed by Dion Ginanto
Often
time, we see a lot of leaders achieve so many accomplishments, however they
feel something empty in their life. They feel something is missing in their
achievements. We often also read, watch, and listen to mass medias that several
successful leaders in companies, or other institutions ended up committing
suicide. Leaders who find empty space in their minds and souls will feel lonely
in the crowds. They know a lot of theory about leadership, they know how to
meet the goals and visions on their organizations, but one thing:
spiritual/soul.
I
am impressed by how Bolman and Deal make us aware that the way we live so far
has created confusion. “Too many workplaces are almost devoid of meaning and
purpose. They are ruled by technology, efficiency, and the bottom line, with
little regard for what human beings need in order to experience personal
fulfillment and success. Over time, this takes a heavy toll on motivation,
loyalty, and performance. It is a read to crisis and decay-unless we find ways
to reinfuse the workplace with passion, zest, and spirit” (p.6). Moreover, the social media and technology
surround us have created gap in our society, and we tend to interact on line
rather than in person.
Bolman
and Deal offered us to go back to our nature, to re-interact to our soul and
heart, to communicate to belief, as well as our spiritual concept. Leading with
spiritual concept is an approach introduced by Bolman and Deal in their book
“Leading with Soul”. This book is very important for us to find a harmony and
quality in our leadership capacity. This book also offers the reader how to
lead with love and heart. I like this book, and I hope you will like it too.
About the Author
Lee G. Bolman is very famous on his books
especially on leadership and organization. I have read several books of him and
I love them all. He is not only an author, but he is also a teacher and a
consultant. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He earned a B.A. degree in
history and a Ph.D. degree in organizational behavior at Yale University.
Terrace E. Deal is also an author, teacher, and
consultant. Terry (his nick name) holds a B.A degree in history from the
University of La Verne, an M.A. degree in educational administration from
California State University at Los Angeles, and a Ph.D. degree in education and
sociology from Stanford University. He
lives in Saint Luis Obispo, California[1].
About the Book
This book is so interesting,
because it combines narrative stories and thoughtful knowledge about
leadership. The book starts with one
man’s spiritual journey to find the meaning and the essence of his on
leadership style, Steven Camden. Steve is a smart corporate executive who has
achieved incredible successes in his career and organization. However, both his
boss and Steve feel that there is something missing in Steve’s life. “He told
her needing unity, but people’s never agreeing. He said he needed a vision, but
it was hard to see beyond next week. He told her he was lost. Things seemed to
be falling apart. He’d never felt that way before” (p. 21). Therefore, the boss
sent him to Maria, a great mentor who then brought Steve to several spiritual
journeys.
At the very beginning of the
mentorship, Maria introduced the concept of spirit and faith. Maria defined
sprit as the internal force that sustains meaning and hope. Maria continued
that without spirit and faith, a human being would lose their way. They live
without zest, they will go through the motions, but there is no passion (p.
22). Of course, Steve was so hard to accept the spiritual concept to be induced
to his leadership style. He argued that he was not a church leader.
Not only that, when Maria taught him
about a new journey, a journey of the heart: “your heart is more than a pump.
It’s your spiritual center. It’s courage and compassion. If you lose heart,
life is empty, lonely. You’re always busy but never fulfilled” (p.27). Steve
still wanted to argue. He wanted to protest, however the more he wanted to
react, the more curious he was.
From his spiritual Journey, Steve
learnt the concept of leading with soul. “A journey of the soul is a quest
through uncharted territory. You find your way by opening your eyes, and your
heart” (p. 31). We often discuss about the importance of integrity, but we
sometimes ignore that integrity itself is rooted in identity and faith. That’s
one reason that spirit and soul are at the heart of the most successful
leadership (p. 42).
Then how can we find our spiritual
power within ourselves? To answer this question, Bolman and Deal brings us to
the incredible dialogue between Maria and Steve: (1) by
ourselves: “Maria tells Steve to look both inside and outside because his
quest will require both an internal exploration of soul and external search for
communion (p. 63); (2) prayer:
“Prayer is primary speech; it starts without words and often ends without them…
it works some of the time in signs and symbols, lurches when it must, leaps
when it can, has several kinds of logical disposal (p. 62); (3) meditating : “meditating includes:
studying scriptures, singing hymns, following prescribed rituatls, journeying
to sacred palces, and contemplating nature (p.63). In almost every religion,
including Islam, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, and Judaism they practice
meditative tradition” (p. 64).
Our final output of leading with
soul is that we can make a change harmoniously. Of course to make a change of
our surrounding, we should be able to find ourselves and make a positive change
inside our mind and soul. I do agree with Bolman and Deal that at the end, when
we are already able to explore our inner being, a search of our spiritual
center; only then we can lead others. Eventually, it is not our techniques, our
talents, or our knowledge that matter; it is our being.
My Criticism
Regardless
of the fabulous contents of this book, I have two criticisms:
1.
At
the first time, I found difficulties to found which one is the dialogue, and
which one is the statement. Bolman and Deal were not really clear to
differentiate between the two. They do not put quotation mark on the direct
sentence for both Maria and Steve. Therefore, for several international
readers, they will find a little bit difficulties in understanding the
dialogue. Because sometimes we are
confused, which statement belongs to Maria, which questions belong to Steve,
and with sentences belong to Bolman and Deal.
2.
I
do not really agree that in order to find a spiritual/soul leadership quality,
one needs to do a journey as well as to find a mentor. Bolman and Deal listed
three steps for a spiritual journey: (1) leaving home: often physically but
especially psychically and spiritually; (2) the quest: overwhelming danger and
challenge, initial impulse to reject the journey; and (3) returning home: new
capacities and deeper understanding. I am afraid if every future leader should
be sent like Steve did, then the institution will suffer from a great loss
because everybody will leave works for a journey.
Other than these two
criticisms, this book offers readers useful tools to find ourselves, and to teach
us to go back to our nature: spirit, heart, and soul.
Conclusion
Arnold (2014) asserted
that organizations are complex, ambiguous, always changing, and dynamics,
therefore as a leader we are demanded to have a more complex and critical
thinking. In order to have a complex and critical thinking, somebody needs to
find it from within. Bolman and Deal are successfully bringing the readers to
understand one way to find the inner power by recognizing soul, heart, and
spiritual belief.
This
book is astonishing. I do recommend this book to everyone who wants to find a
love, work, and harmony. As a Muslim, I also believe that our heart is the
center of our being. As our prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) taught us that
“Surely, in the body there is a small piece of flesh; if it
is good, the whole body is good, and if it is corrupted, the whole body is
corrupted, and that is surely the heart” [Bukhari in Baianonie][2]. The three steps to find ourselves: (1) by
ourselves, (2) prayer, and (3) meditation, also taught in our religion.
Regardless of my belief as Muslim, this book has a universal value. This book
even recognizes Allah, Jahweh, Budha, God, and whatever you want to call your
God is. The most important thing is that we need to be
able to dig deeply to find our soul and spirit, in order to be able to make a
change by using our leadership. I do believe by leading with soul we can create
a better organization within our environment.
Reference:
Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E.
(2001). Leading with soul: an uncommon
journey of spirit. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Baianonie, M.I. (1997) Priority of
the deeds of the heart to the deeds of the limbs. Retrieved from: http://islam1.org/khutub/Priority_of_Deeds.htm
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