Spiritual Leadership Business Environment Analysis

Spiritual leadership has become a very contentious and often combative topic in society. For one, the concept of spiritual leadership has often misunderstood by the public at large. Here, many casual observers perceive spiritual leadership as akin to a religious doctrine that can potentially overshadow the organization with no freedom of thought. Although some examples exist, this form of spiritual leadership is far from common. Likewise, casual observers often are quick to cite the fact that spiritual leaders have often been embroiled in controversies that expose them for being fakes or frauds. Kenneth Copeland, Creflo Dollar, TD Jakes, and Benny Hinn, are just a few of the religious charlatans that have claimed to possess extraordinary spiritual powers and abilities. These individuals are often later exposed for their fraudulent leadership abilities, but not without harming millions of individuals in the process. In the case of Benny Hinn, he performed miracles such as curing cancer, curing paralysis, removing illness, and even causing blind men to see, all with the touch of a hand. Of course, these activities were all fake, which had a disastrous impact on the belief of spiritual leadership principals by others in society (Ajala, 2013).

Likewise, there are also very honest spiritual leaders such as Mother Teresa or Gandhi who actually lived the and embodied the principles they expected their congregation to follow. Not only were these leaders adopt in the religious community but also in the business community as well. Here, these individuals sacrificed both personally and professionally for their spiritual beliefs. As a result, they garnered a following of like-minded followers and influenced a generation of individuals to track their behaviors. Their leadership style was in stark contract to the lavish suits, fake miracles, and overconsumption that encapsulate many of the modern-day spiritual leaders. Instead of advocating for a spiritual relationship that focuses on a lavish lifestyle, the love for objects and immaterial objects, Gandhi and Teresa focused on methods to help others. They inspired others professionally and spiritually. This dichotomy of religious leaders ultimately culminates is separate philosophies as it relates to spiritual leadership. Fry’s spiritual leadership model for example, is a causal theory that is developed from the intrinsic motivation theory, and is established on the basis of such features as intrinsic motivation, religion, ethics, and values. These elements ultimately combine to form a spiritual leader by integrating the concepts of hope, faith, and altruistic love. Fry’s leadership model is depicted below in Figure 1.

This is often geared towards the human tendency to help others even to their own personal detriment. The model appeals to the internal and intrinsic values inherent in each individual. These leadership values go far beyond financial gain and focus primarily on other values such as helping others or improving society as a whole. This commonly manifests itself in those who are poor giving their dollars to those who are even less fortunately. Here, the poor individual suffers but that suffering ultimately improves the well-being of other individuals who can return the favor to yet another individual. This leadership model does not only have applications in the religious industry but it also has implications for the corporate world as well. In fact, Fry adopted his model to encapsulate leaders looking to adopt corporate, social, responsibility initiatives within the organizations. This model can be used to help improve profitability within an organization along with employee engagement and comradery (Amanchukwu, 2015).