Spiritual Traits
We'll start at the metaphoric top. The following traits could be classified as spiritual:
Vision
Principles
Passion
Openness
Commitment
Instead of thinking that we're getting ready to join hands around the campfire to sing “Kumbaya,” look at this in a more grounded way. Vision is the ability to imagine possibilities that most people don't recognize until a leader articulates them. Being principled means being willing to put yourself in the service of that which is bigger than you. Passion is a drive, in the form of action, to support something; openness is being receptive to other things; and commitment is enlisting in the service of something other than yourself. All of these traits are about a connection to something outside yourself and your readiness to put yourself in its service.
There is a danger in the concept of putting yourself in the service of something else — the potential to lose yourself in that other. You can only be of help when you exist and can bring your own goals to hand. If not, then you'll find yourself used up and empty.
Some people will see this “something” as a deity. For others, it may be Beauty, Art, Truth, or some other idealized concept. Some are drawn by business success and others by social activism. No matter what, it needs to be something.
Robert Browning once wrote, “Ah, but a man's reach should exceed his grasp, or what's a heaven for?” People are genuinely attracted to those who move in reasoned, affirmative, innovative, or intrepid directions. They want to go somewhere, which means that you, as the person inspired to lead them, need someplace to go and a reason to go there.
Goals and the Spiritual
Whatever the guiding principle, it provides a context for you and, by extension, your team. All of you want to help in this greater context, which means you'll want to achieve things to support your guiding principle. You'll have goals — the very common goals outlined in Chapter 1. Without a principle, you have no real goals, and without a goal, there is no team or leader.
Trying to lead without a goal is like trying to find your way through the woods without a destination. You can load up with equipment like a fine compass, a GPS system, maps, and specialized measuring devices to your heart's content. Yet even if you can pinpoint your position within a few feet, what will it matter? If you aren't going anywhere, your location isn't important.
When you do have a principle that is important to you, leadership isn't about you; it's about something else. When you are more important than the principle, then what you do becomes ego fulfillment and the entire undertaking turns into an elaborate con game.
You cannot lead without a goal because there is no place to go and no one who wants to get there. A group following a leader who has no goal greater than ego and show is a cult of personality. The aim of the leader and others on the team has to be greater than any one individual. With a goal, there is a reason for people to work together and a reason for some individuals to lead the effort.
Choosing the Right Principle
As you can see, the term
If the principle and related goal result in something real and positive, there's something true in them and that's so much the better. However, you don't have to be grandiose. No matter what goal is governing your actions at any moment — and it doesn't always have to be the same one every time you are leading — so long as you find it honest and worthwhile, then you are making that connection to something higher.
There are people who will think you a sap for holding onto something greater. They will call you sentimental. Let them. To open up and be of service to something larger than yourself is a wonderful and ennobling experience. It's also what makes leadership necessary and possible in the first place.
Does my goal matter?
It does, at least in terms of its scope or size. A goal can be so trivial in nature that success is never a question. Such a purpose won't call forth the best in your ability to lead because you'll have finished practically before you've even started. The bigger the challenge, the better a leader you'll have to become.
Although the goal can be of various sizes, what it cannot be is something trivial. If it is, the possibility exists for everything to degenerate back into an ego trip. Additionally, such an effort would be so small that you wouldn't need to grow your own capabilities.
