In a world where individuals too often feel spent and uninspired on the job, leadership that fails to incorporate the invigorating power of spirit is nothing short of incomplete. Leadership and Spirit gives all of us the perspective and guidance we need to invest ourselves, our fellow workers, and our entire organizations with the essential sense of purpose, commitment, and fulfillment that spirit can confer. Author Russ Moxley of the Center for Creative Leadership shows leaders at all levels how they can link leadership and spirit to spawn a more vibrant and essential brand of leadership-one that, in turn, promotes the creativity, vitality, and well-being of others. Basing his advice on nearly thirty years of work with hundreds of executives and managers in all kinds of organizations, Moxley encourages readers to elevate their understanding of leadership practice and embrace the concept of leadership as partnership—a model that involves all employees at various times. This model, he maintains, will help everyone concerned find new meaning and satisfaction in their work. And he offers specific suggestions on who each of us must be and what each of us must do in order to make partnerships work. Here, Moxley explains what spirit is and shows why leadership and spirit must be woven together. He analyzes prevalent leadership practices and demonstrates how many of those practices cause spirit to whither and wane. He focuses on the skills and behaviors that give voice to our true selves and increase our capacity to engage in the activity of leadership. And he demonstrates how spirited leadership serves to create a totally engaged workforce; one that brings the whole person-mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual-to work. Most of us have experienced the difference and realized the impact it can have on individuals and organizations: Leadership can be practiced in ways that either suffocate the spirit or liberate its boundless potential. Leadership and Spirit helps us choose the latter.
About the Author
RUSS S. MOXLEY is a senior fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, North Carolina. Over the past thirty years, he has been an executive coach, a trainer/facilitator in a variety of management and leadership development programs, an OD practitioner, a writer and editor, and a senior-level manager in two different organizations. He received his masters degree in theology from the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.