There is a deep connection between authentic leadership and spirituality. Simply put true leadership consists of navigating untried, difficult, contentious, troubled or simply new waters. In these circumstances people, systems, current assumptions, and past experiences are tested to the limit. These limits stir uncertainty, chaos, adventure, fear, doubt and a desire for the familiar. Often the leader must not only stand-alone but also foreshadow an anticipatory future for others of what’s ahead. Think of the Martin Luther King’s, ” I have a dream speech,”- pure genius. Such was true of “Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address”, Ronald Reagan’s “tear down this wall”, John Kennedy’s ” ask not…”. We even remember their words as they reverberate through history in their timeless and profound spiritual depth. These leaders and countless others reveal a spiritual truth embedded within us not quite yet revealed to the human condition but awakened for history as a timeless lesson forevermore true. We live in a time where authoritarianism is on the rise also. It however is void of a spiritual center as it promises nothing except a reductionist and brutally simple view of humanity and its challenges. Power is the ultimate tool and aphrodisiac which leads to nowhere and delivers nothing but the scent of despair.
Leadership at all levels is grounded in a serenity and contemplation where the contention and friction of the moment are diffused and dispersed by the alternate calling to a deeper reality. In solitude leaders are born. In adversity, they are tested. In community, they are validated. In some tomorrow, they are acknowledged, but in faith they are always at home.