Spirituality for Leaders by Voynnet Fourboul, Catherine; Holm, Marie; Raei, Mohammed;

Short description:

Spirituality for Leaders delves into the integration of spirituality within leadership practices and highlights how spiritual beliefs and practices can enhance ethical decision-making, organizational culture, and well-being. The book appeals to business leaders, managers, HR professionals, and coaches.

Long description:

Spirituality for Leaders delves into the integration of spirituality within leadership practices and highlights how spiritual beliefs and practices can enhance ethical decision-making, organizational culture, and well-being.

This book emphasizes the essential role of spirituality in fostering holistic and ethical leadership in today’s interconnected world. Drawing on diverse traditions, including Indigenous practices, traditional and New Age philosophies, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hinduism, it examines spirituality through lenses such as contemplation, philosophy, religion, and practice. Practical applications such as mindfulness and meditation are presented as pathways toward workplace well-being and leadership effectiveness. This book addresses the role of spirituality in leadership, coaching, identity, inclusion, and organizational transformation. Including authors from both the Global North and Global South, it offers a panoramic and multidisciplinary perspective and provides a roadmap for fostering compassion, inclusivity, and integrity in leadership practices.

Combining theoretical insights with practical tools, this book appeals to business leaders, managers, HR professionals, and coaches seeking values-driven leadership models, as well as students and researchers of leadership, organizational psychology, business, philosophy, and religious studies. Individuals wishing to align their inner life with public action would also gain insight from this book.

"This landmark contribution bridges academic theory and lived spiritual practice in leadership. This volume is a powerful testament to the global emergence of spiritual leadership as a vital path toward human flourishing, organizational vitality, and sustainable transformation. An essential resource for all seeking to lead with wisdom, purpose, and compassion."

 - Louis W. (Jody) Fry, PhD, Regents Professor of Management and Leadership at Texas A & M University and author of Maximizing the Triple Bottom Line Through Spiritual Leadership and Spiritual Leadership in Action: The CEL Story

"This wisdom collection provides leaders with insights from Christian servant leadership, Islam and its Qur'anic values, Eastern Orthodox religion, Hinduism plus practices such as Mindfulness, Attunement and Consciousness; as well as diagnostic tools for workplace spirituality assessment. With the mounting challenges facing today’s institutions, the reader will find guidance in the rich choice."

- Prof. Dr. Yochanan Altman, WU Vienna, Austria and University of Haifa, Israel; Chair, International Association of Management, Spirituality & Religion; Founding Editor, Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion

"This book does not disappoint; it lives up to its title with a collection of insights intended to assist today’s leaders.  It offers a selection of practical tools that leaders can apply in their workplace (for example, mindfulness, yoga, love, from a variety of different religious contexts); while also offering insights informed by existing theories such as, for example, motivation, work-life balance, and quantum perspectives."

- Kathryn Pavlovich, PhD, Professor and Director of Postgraduate Studies, within Strategic Management and Entrepreneurship; Waikato Management School, University of Waikato, New Zealand; and Editor-in-Chief: Journal of Management, Spirituality & Religion

"As the world grows more complex, leaders need to lean into inner and spiritual development to be able to thrive and be effective in this time. This book is rich with research, practices, and tips for leaders that will enable them to dance within complexity and create pro-social environments where everyone is able to do their best work."

- Stacey K. Guenther, PhD, co-editor of Leadership at the Spiritual Edge and Redefining Sacred Spaces in the Age of Technology, and assistant professor of organization development and knowledge management at George Mason University

"What spiritual leadership is and how to enact it can be confusing. This book deftly integrates many views of spirituality, including mindfulness, from the West to the East, from the religious to the secular, across work domains. It provides insights from under-represented academics and practitioners on how leadership can align with one’s sense of spirituality."

- Andrew Hafenbrack, PhD, Evert McCabe Endowed Associate Professor of Management and Organization, Foster School of Business, University of Washington

"This volume provides helpful insights into how spirituality can infuse leadership around the world. In some workplaces, spirituality operates as a new force, while in others it re-emerges tied to extant religious traditions. This volume points to the need for deeper investigations of how such forces operate, and where they are limited by capitalism."

- Jaime Kucinskas, PhD, Associate Professor of Sociology, Hamilton College. Co-editor of Situating Spirituality: Context, Practice and Power and author of The Mindful Elite and The Loyalty Trap: Conflicting loyalties of civil servants under increasing autocracy

I appreciated this volume’s rigorous yet accessible approach to spiritual leadership. It thoughtfully integrates diverse traditions with practical applications, offering a valuable resource for scholars and practitioners alike. The book bridges theory and practice, making it a compelling contribution to leadership studies, organizational ethics, and values-based management education.

 - Mira Karjalainen, PhD, Associate Professor, University of Helsinki, with research projects: Blurring boundaries of work: a model (Foundation for Economic Education), and Friendships, networks and the blurring boundaries of work (Kone Foundation)

Table of Contents:

List of Figures

List of Tables

List of Contributors

Series Editor Foreword

Foreword

Introduction

Catherine Voynnet-Fourboul

Part I: Meditation and Contemplative Practices

1.      Time and Inner Life

Elisabeth Martini

2.      Leading in Five Dimensions

Laurence Baranski

3.      Spiritualism: Leadership Insights from a New Religious Movement

Marie Holm

4.      Mindfulness: Fad or Managerial Innovation?

Michaël Roux and Mathilde Gollety

5.      The Way of St. James

Muriel De Fabrègues

Part II: Religious Enlightenment

6.      Lived Faith in the Practice of Christian Leaders

 Désiré Rigobert Ayina

7.       Managerial Practices in Eastern European Countries

Stefka Mihaylova-Marburger

8.       Beyond Power: Jewish Roots as Transformational Leadership

Lisa A. Berkley

9.      Hinduism, Spirituality, and Transformational Leadership in the Digital World

Balakrishnan Muniapan

10.  Taoist Leadership

Laurent Chateau

11.  The Spirituality of Leadership in Islam

Yacoub Babali

Part III: Embodied Practices

12.  The Radiant Leader

Sandrine Meyfret

13.   Well-Being, Quality of Life (at Work) and Spirituality

Stéphanie Carpentier

14.  Spirituality and Work-Life Balance

Patricia Niglis and Ilda-Ilse Burgunder

15.  The Art of Ethics in Practice

Mohamed Makkaoui

16.  Transformation: Virtue Ethics and Spirituality

Richard J. Major

Part IV: The Self as Inner Architecture of Leadership

17.  Vulnerability as a Spiritual Experience of the Leader

Sophie Izoard-Allaux

18.  Fil de Soi, the Virtue of Experience

Michèlle Schitter

19.  Intrinsic Motivations and Commitment

Andrea Micheaux

20.  Creative Freedom

Quentin Lefebvre

Part V: Leadership and Organization

21.  Toward a Full Recognition of the Human Being in the Organization

Miguel Delattre`

22.  A Manager's Path to Spiritual Transformation

Laurent Ledoux

23.  Spirituality at Work: Miller’s Faith-Work Integration Scale

Philippe Jacquinot and Arnaud Pellissier-Tanon

24.  Stories of Executive Inner Shifts that Spark Organizational Change

Hervé Essa

25.  Corporate Social Responsibility and Spirituality: A Path to the Common Good

Sandra Latour and Catherine Voynnet-Fourboul

Part VI: Leadership Coaching

26.  Spirituality within the Coaching Relationship

Xavier Garcia-Weibel

27.  The Spiritual Dimension in Education and in Technontology

Florent Pasquier

28.  Codevelopment & Spirituality

Anne-Marguerite Ferreira

29.  Evocative Leadership

Xavier Garcia-Weibel

30.  Quantum Leadership: Science, Consciousness, Change

Catherine Voynnet-Fourboul

Part VII: Identity and Inclusion

31.  Negotiation and the Place of Spirituality

Stéphane Pradines

32.  The Inclusive Role of the Consultant

Eric Gautier-Laurent

33.  The Uniqueness and "Raison d’Être" of Companies

Patrick Mathieu

34.  Indigenous-Based Leaderless Leadership and Spiritual Awareness

Four Arrows

Conclusion

Catherine Voynnet-Fourboul

Index