Monday, September 26, 2005
7 ways to spirituality in the workplace
You are a spiritual being, even at work! Use your intuitive awareness and natural empathy and kindness in the workplace and you will be amazed by the way that others respond. Show them that their contribution is important...
Spirituality is not something we should practice only when it suits us according to time and place.It should be cherished and cultivated wherever we go. And since we spend most of our time in the workplace, it is imperative that we take our spiritual values with us even where we work. These values are creativity, communication, respect, vision, partnership, energy and flexibility. All these seven are related, and all are important.
By spirituality,we mean expressing more humanity; it has no religious component or preference. This interpretation is important since each person has their own beliefs, which should be respected.
1. Be creative
Creativity includes the use of colour, laughter and freedom to enhance productivity. Creativity is fun. When people enjoy what they do, they work much harder.
Creativity includes conscious efforts to see things differently, to break out of habits and outdated beliefs to find new ways of thinking, doing and being.
Suppression of creativity leads to violence - people are naturally creative. When they are forced to crush their creativity, its energy force turns to destructive release - their inherent humanity must express itself!
2. Communicate
Communication, communication, communication! This is the vehicle that allows people to work together. In our society, our learning process is based on learning to communicate with teachers and parents.
So when we come to the real world, this social conditioning leads us to resort to subterfuge - trying to figure out how to beat the system,gain extra favours, say the “popular” thing or to keep our views to ourselves rather than “rock the boat.”
We should change this mindset and express what we feel about without fear and let others know where we stand. It doesn’t matter your views should match your superiors. Your peers will respect you as a man with principles.
3. Respect your colleagues
Respect of self and of others includes: respect for the environment; other people’s personal privacy, their physical space and belongings; different viewpoints, philosophies, religion, gender, lifestyle, ethnic origin, physical ability, beliefs and personality.
When we learn to respect our peers, we accept their differences. We can learn to use those differences for our mutual benefit. For example, the person who can sit all day in front of a computer and be productive can help the person who works best by talking and moving around. Both functions are important. Rather than criticising the other for being different, we can learn how different people see the world. Lack of respect and acceptance lead to conflict and hostility.
4. Have a vision
Vision means seeing beyond the obvious - seeing the unseen. It is a trait used to describe leaders and entrepreneurs. Where does vision come from? For some people, it is an inborn trait. They have always seen things that others cannot see. And, having seen the vision, they head straight for it ! They follow their vision in spite of obstacles or non-believers.
5. Learn to be a partner
Partnership encompasses individual responsibility and trust that other people will perform according to their commitments for the good of the team and partners. Partnership accepts that different people have different viewpoints and beliefs; those differences are used as positive aspects for broadening the team experience.
Partnership encourages the female and male aspects of ourselves to work together, without either one over-ruling or dominating the other. Lack of partnership leads to isolation and unhealthy competition.
6. Be energetic
Very positive energy forces are released when people feel creative, have the freedom to express their opinions, and feel respect from their management and their peers. The opposite energy force creates hostile workplace situations.
Your contribution to the collective positive energy is using your own creativity, communicating well, having respect for others, adapting to changing situations, working well with others and enjoying what you do. Your contribution to the collective negative energy is withholding your talents, communicating without respect, fighting and arguing with others, resisting changes, creating tension with others and hating what you do.
7.Be flexible
Flexibility includes the ability to adapt to changing situations and allowing one’s own beliefs and habits to change as needed. Learning to see trends and prepare for them is one way of learning flexibility. Another is to learn about ourselves, our own strengths and our weaknesses.
Then, work to operate from our strength, allowing others to help us with our weaknesses.
BUILDING SPIRITUALITY IN THE WORKPLACE
Verbally recognise the value of individuals in all you do
• Get to know the people with whom you work and know what is important to them
• State your personal ethics and your beliefs clearly
• Support causes outside the business
• Encourage leaders to use value-based discretion in making decisions
• Demonstrate your own self-knowledge and spirituality in all your actions
• Do unto others as you would have them do unto you
Indiatimes
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