Soul-Based Leadership: A New Way to Lead in a New World of Work

Each and every day I talk to executives across the globe who want to find better ways to lead; stabilize, secure and prosper from a vision going forward that can work for everyone during these difficult days .

In my last book, published just before the U.S. and other nations locked down in March of last year because of Covid-19, I chronicled more than 15 years of workforce data and cases that showed how Virtual Distance had impacted organizations in more than 55 countries, across 36 sectors and in the context of more than 1400 cases I have worked on so far. 

I also showed that when organizations purposefully manage Virtual Distance there is a rise in almost every key success factor. But just as importantly and even more so now, addressing the Virtual Distance challenge also brings measurable benefit in the form of increasing employee well-being and harmony - no matter where the work location – regardless of whether people are physically together or remote. 

And I also demonstrated through many metrics, analytics and case studies that we can sustain and even excel at building close relationships that also drive purpose and meaningfulness – for both the organization and to support employee self-actualization. 

Alongside the data, the figures and the cases, I also introduced a new way to look at leadership in the age of virtual and remote work. 

For many years I had been wrestling with how to shape, define and practically apply a different way that leaders could think about their roles that was more integrated directly with our humanness. 

And as I detail in the book, my inspiration came unexpectedly - as most inspiration does – during a chance helicopter ride:

 “I was on holiday in Antigua, a small island in the Caribbean Sea. Nearby is the tiny island of Monserrat, the main feature of which is a giant volcano. The volcano exploded on July 18, 1995, spewing ash for miles and making much of the island itself uninhabitable. However, I found out there were helicopter tours available to see the still-seething Monserrat up close from the air. So I decided to take a ride.

 I sat in the front seat of a four-person helicopter, right next to the pilot. As the small craft began to lift off, the pilot was talking to the air traffic controllers and I heard him say:

“Four souls on board. Four souls on board. Over.”

I couldn’t help wonder why the pilot used the word “souls” to describe the people on the helicopter. So I asked him.

He told me that in aviation, all types of aircraft carry people who are alive and some who are not alive. All of them are listed by name on the manifest. On takeoff, the air traffic controllers need to know how many people on board are alive. To distinguish those who are alive, they are counted as “souls.” – excerpt from The Power of Virtual Distance: A Guide to Productivity and Happiness in the Age of Remote Work.

In that moment, the main issue for leaders in this new age of work, suddenly became clear to me.

The term “soul,” as defined in aviation as passengers who are “alive,” was an exceptional metaphorical way to embrace my attempt at describing a model for the restoration of a fully formed sense of shared vitality and meaningfulness to the workforce, when much of our days are spent in computer mediated environments and remotely.

Therefore, at the heart of Soul-Based Leadership lies a laser focus on bringing forth our "felt" experience of shared aliveness – with a deliberate and intentionally directed emphasis on the workforce as a collective of living, breathing, human beings first and foremost.

The approach relies not on procedural, process-based or more disembodied constructs and frameworks but instead, draws from our lived experiences and the neuroscience behind Theory of Mind which is an essential and required pre-cursor to learned empathy. I also paired this approach with guidance inspired by other ways of knowing. 

Drawing from perspectives on our relationships with one another, ourselves and the world, I introduced an initial set of Soul-Based Leadership practices that rest on an expansive set of eastern philosophies and grounded exercises. 

I designed them such that they can be implemented within organizational contexts to showcase and celebrate shared authentic life encounters, when for many reasons - much of them positive and geared toward flexibility and increased access to talent, but nevertheless, narrowly define our physical work context via screens - flat metal boxes through which our "joie de vivre" can get lost in transmission. 

And this was all before Covid-19 appeared on planet Earth.

So, after this first year since the publication of my most recent book, during which I shared with all of you, a challenging set of personal circumstances while also working with my clients on the lessons learned about workplace transformation over the last two decades, I’ve decided to start the new year by putting even greater emphasis and integration of Virtual Distance tools together with Soul-Based Leadership practices.

In these most demanding times, if we are to take the giant steps needed to forge ahead and find ways to organizationally manage the many long-term crises of the virus, global climate change, geopolitical uncertainties, racial injustices and economic difficulties for families and businesses alike, then leadership at the same time, can take a giant leap forward by reimagining how to lead people across the global enterprise.

Soul-Based Leadership can help to usher in a new era whereby the corporation can become a central player in helping to heal and bring purpose and meaning forward more than ever before. 

Our work lives and the lives we lead outside of that context, are no longer experiences that can be separated. However this somewhat upending blend can be made more manageable by leaning in to these crises in new ways with courage and a commitment to let go of - or at least loosen our grip on - leadership ways that were mainly defined on assumptions that have largely ceased to exist.

Instead, we can become aware of, reflect upon and then thrive through new sense-making models built in the light of our new world of work.

Corporations and the leaders that drive them, are pivotal because almost everyone must work for many reasons. Importantly people work for the sake of building camaraderie and socialization to bolster a kind of embodied sense of social significance and the security it brings.

So, to understand the leadership role rooted more directly in our basic human nature, I invite you to subscribe at www.thepowerofvirtualdistance.com. 

During the next week or so, I will be sending out invites to my subscribers and collegial network with specific dates and times for an introductory session to discuss how to begin becoming a Soul-Based Leader.

Best Regards and thanks again for your interest and passion around making work a better place to be and to spend our time - no matter our circumstance or where we actually are in relation to one another across the globe.

Karen

Soul-Based Leadership is a trademark of Virtual Distance International.