Spiritual leadership development: An exemplar protocol

ABSTRACT

The nexus of spirituality and leadership infuses many leadership theories. However, there is a gap in our understanding regarding how organizations integrate spirituality with leadership development. This article makes a significant contribution to understanding the intersection of spirituality and leadership development by examining a specific facilitation protocol. It is a natural bookend to the seminal article titled “Spirituality for Business Leadership: Reporting on a pilot course for MBA’s and CEO’s” in which André shared his first attempt at such work. In contrast, the protocol discussed in this article has been refined by André’s continued leadership and practice in this area. As well, this protocol was designed and implemented as a formal leadership development initiative within an organization. In this paper, we begin with a literature review on spiritual leadership development: the intersection of spirituality, leadership and learning; the primacy of contemplative practice; and the importance of structure. Second, we describe a leadership development program design that explicitly integrates spirituality. Finally, we discuss the implications of this protocol for future practice and research on spiritual leadership development.

KEYWORDS:

• Contemplative practice
• leadership
• leadership development
• organizational development
• Spirituality

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. Administered through the Ministry Leadership Centre, see www.ministryleadership.net.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stacie F. Chappell

Stacie F. Chappell, Associate Dean of Graduate Programs in the Faculty of Management at Vancouver Island University.  She has expertise in leadership effectiveness, spirituality, emotional intelligence and ethics. She teaches leadership, ethics, corporate social responsibility and organizational behavior. Stacie is active in the Academy of Management (AOM) and serves as a member of the Management, Spirituality and Religion (MSR) executive, the MSR newsletter editor, and a facilitator of the annual MSR retreat. Prior to joining academia, Stacie worked as an organizational development consultant in Canada, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia. She is a talented facilitator and has worked with individuals and teams at all levels of organizations in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors. Her mission is to contribute to developing authenticity and leadership within and beyond organizations.

Andre L. Delbecq

Andre L. Delbecq, (†) was the J. Thomas and Kathleen L. McCarthy University Professor at Santa Clara University, where he served as Dean of the Leavey School of Business from 1979 to 1989. His research and scholarship focused on executive decision-making, managing innovation in rapid-change environments, and leadership spirituality. He was the Eighth Dean of Fellows of the Academy of Management. He was Director of the Centre for Spirituality of Organizational Leadership at Santa Clara, and hosted dialog between management scholars, executives and theologians. For more than twenty years Dr. Delbecq was a member of the Estes Park Institute faculty for medical staff and trustee education and a member of the faculty for the American College of Physician Executives. ACPE named him an Honorary Fellow in recognition of service in the education of physician managers. He served on the Board of Directors for the American Journal of Nursing and was a member on the Board of Trustees for Ascension Health for nine years where he chaired its Mission, Spirituality and Ethics and Transformational Development Committees. He was a Sponsor for Ascension Health Ministries, a Fellow of the Ministry Leadership Centre and a member of its faculty.

William C. McCready

William C. McCready, Ph.D., After retiring from NIU in 1999–2000, Bill joined Knowledge Networks, Inc., (now GfK), as VP for Government and Academic Research where he worked with academic, government, and nonprofit clients to help them design projects that used the online panel capabilities. [http://www.knowledgenetworks.com/ganp/ga-staff.html]. While at GfK:KN he worked on over 150 projects including the evaluation project for the 2000 census and the University of Pennsylvania’s Annenberg School of Public Policy projects on election participation. He still serves as a GfK consultant, but since 2010 he has been the Senior Fellow for Evaluation and Strategic Planning with the Ministry Leadership Centre (MLC) of Sacramento, CA. [http://www.ministryleadership.net] This centre provides formation training for the executives in six Catholic healthcare systems in ten western states. Bill has worked in the survey research field for more than 45 years, both as the first Program Director at NORC at the University of Chicago and then as Director of the Public Opinion Lab at NIU. While at NIU he directed the CDC-funded Illinois BRFSS as well as projects for the Ford Foundation, the Smithsonian Institution, NIAAA, and McDonald’s Corporation and is a past member the National Academy of Science’s Committee for a National Urban Policy.