Monotheistic Management
It’s a labour of love.
Raised in the Protestant faith, I left temples early on, to translate the Torah from Hebrew, sing in Catholic Churches, and get invited to convert to Muslim faith.
For some time, I was also ordinated in the temple of modern-day management.
This journey shaped my ethical values away from religion, and my leadership style away from KPIs. Whilst I have been looking to integrate my experience into more conscious leadership, it has become clear that the three wise men could borrow a page or two from the Books of monotheistic religions.
Indeed, responsible governance, forgiving management, hopeful strategies, inclusive communities, and ritualised operations may do us good. I’ll let you decide whether you should invite a pastor into your board, hire a priest as a CEO, turn to a rabbi for your 5-year plan, trust an imam to manage your HR, or a pope to turnaround your business.
« But why would conscious leadership be spiritual? », asked the Mouse.
Modern-day management is often fearful of uncertainty. In response, under the guise of improving efficiency, processes tend to take away individual responsibility and enhance control, while more audacious characters can make decisions resulting in symbolically violent outcomes for teams.
For all their differences, monotheistic religions have something essential in common: a trusting approach to the unknown. Whether you call it mystery, God’s will, or the impersonate ‘it’, the unknown holds more promises than perils. Indeed, trust is the manifestation of the alliance between God and His people, which results from an invitation and a sacrifice.
« In secular terms, what invitation is worth a sacrifice? », asked the Mouse.
The undifferentiated invitation to adhere to an organisation’s sense of purpose, where the ambition of many is the alienation of the self, may not be. On the contrary, the invitation of God to His people is to believe in themselves (or « become themselves », as it is framed in Genesis, 12), and to rally around Him only when they understand that He made the original choice to join them.
As a leader, putting trust in your team means understanding that they can fail, without giving them a license for failure, and believing that they can succeed, even when they have stopped believing in victory. It is refusing to give them detailed commands of what to do, even when they ask for them repeatedly to escape the work required by a principled approach. It is addressing your team with divine respect, for they can receive your guidance in equal amount to their self-confidence. It is remembering that despite your status, you are still one of them.
In other words, it is loving them, sometimes despite themselves. And inviting them to move on, when they can finally receive your love, trusting you will be part of their journey from then on.
If you like the book of Genesis (and if your organisation’s sensitivity training allows it), you may refer to Abram becoming Abraham (chap. 17), upon God’s invitation to « go for himself » or « go towards himself » (chap. 12). If not, simply say:
Go! Go! Go!
Baptiste Raymond - 02/2022.