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Path for Greatness: Spiritualty at Work

by Linda Ferguson

289 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #00-0163; ISBN 1-55212-498-3; US$25.00, C$29.00, EUR20.50, £14.50

This book is about seeing our work as central to our spiritual growth. It outlines ways that our work is done in spiritual service to others.

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About the book About the author Sample excerpt Catalogue info

About the Book

"Dr. Ferguson succeeds in advancing significantly our understanding of how to bring the spiritual side of our lives to the office on a daily basis. She shows, irrespective of one's particular religious credo, how to tap that often neglected side of one's persona and how to be a complete person. Her objective, besides increasing one's personal fulfillment, is to craft organizations with higher consciousness-firms that attend to all those they reach (customers, employees, stockholders, etc.) as people, not as objects. Dr. Ferguson lays out practical steps to achieve this.
I applaud Dr. Ferguson for addressing this important topic, and I commend her for the progress she has been able to achieve in helping organizations and individuals to more fully realize the spiritual side of their lives, their actions, and the impacts they have on others. I feel energized and excited reading her book, and I can't wait to put some of her suggestions to use in my daily life."
Francis D. Tuggle, Ph. D., former Dean of Business at Rice University and American University

"In a world where quarterly earnings can become a relentless focus, this book is a refreshing reminder that one's workplace interactions with others provide countless opportunities to learn about oneself and appreciate what's really important in life."
Lisa Long, Executive Vice President of Time Inc.

Dr. Linda Ferguson's recent book, Path for Greatness: Work as Spiritual Service, informs us in clearly understandable language how important our work and our workplace are to our own spiritual growth. It is a clearly written treatise, which if followed, will empower the worker and the manager to transform the workplace into a more vibrant environment that will facilitate our own and our co-workers’ spiritual growth.
Dr. Ferguson has provided us with a powerful guide for elevating ourselves to a higher spiritual plan and for transforming our workplace into a more vibrant and satisfying work environment. This book gives us a whole new way of looking at ourselves as workers and our workplace in terms of spiritual growth.
I wish all my staff and I had this book as a guide during my 30 years as CEO of a human service organization. This book should be in the hands of every person in the workplace including every CEO (especially every CEO). It has the power to transform a dreary and unsatisfying place of employment into a more vibrant arena promoting greater productivity as well as individual satisfaction and spiritual growth. Ferguson has created a new paradigm which employers and employees can use to change their workplace into an environment promoting a happier and more productive workplace.
Richard Hawkins, Retired Exec. Director Roanoke Valley Speech and Hearing Center

"Linda, I loved your book and really want you to share about it in Pittsburgh and am glad you are being called to talk about it in other places. You have taken a step that others have been shy about doing. I am so honored to know that you come from our Hollins University faculty. I very much look forward to meeting you in person. I am most impressed with your "calling" and your response to it in such a concrete manner."
Elizabeth Hobbs, Hollins University Trustee & retired social worker

About the Author

Dr. Linda Ferguson is an assistant professor of business administration at Hollins University. Her research interests are in the areas of organization development and spirituality at work. She is also president and owner of New Paradigms Consulting, a consulting firm specializing in organization development and leadership development.
Dr. Ferguson facilitates groups, leads retreats, and conducts workshops on such topics as group dynamics, leadership development, team building, strategic planning, rites of passage, and working spiritually. A seasoned trainer and facilitator, Linda finds her joy and wholeness in helping others find greater clarity and understanding.
Linda earned her Ph.D. from Indiana University (I.U.- Bloomington) in Organizational Behavior with a Masters also from I.U. studying Social Psychology. While at I.U. she taught various undergraduate courses in psychology and management. Following graduate school, Linda worked in Atlanta as a program evaluation manager, consultant, and community organizer. On leaving Atlanta, she took 6 months to travel through Asia, Australia, Israel, and Europe before moving to Roanoke, VA.
For more information please visit the author's web page: www.lindajferguson.com

Sample Excerpt

INTRODUCTION

Everybody can be great because anybody can serve.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
THE VALUE OF WORKING SPIRITUALLY

Imagine having a sense of personal wholeness, meaning, and connection in your work. How differently would you feel if you worked in that manner? My guess is your personal greatness would shine through your work if you did. One way to follow your path for greatness is to focus on your spiritual growth through work. We spend most of our waking hours at work. Thus it is essential we find ways to bring spirituality to our work so we grow to our fullest potential. This book provides ideas for personal spiritual growth that will lead you on your journey for greatness.
Often it is in our work that we find the best opportunities for spiritual growth to take place. Through encounters with co-workers we have the opportunity to be more compassionate, understanding, accepting and forgiving. In seeing our work as loving service, we develop ourselves as spiritual beings.
As the global market place forces organizations to be more competitive, often resulting in companies producing more with fewer people, one of the distinguishing features between a well run organization and one that flounders will be the creativity, motivation and cooperation of the workforce. People who work spiritually are those who see themselves serving a greater purpose through their work, who see the spiritual value of working with others, and who have a stronger spiritual foundation to cope with increasing demands.
For those people who have little to no control of how their work is structured or conducted, the frustration can be enormous. In these situations people are looking for ways that their job can be less stressful and more tolerable, if not even more joyful and more meaningful. Working from a spiritual base helps people learn how to cope with changing circumstances and stressful conditions. Working spiritually allows people to see how they can grow through their work and how they can shift their attitudes towards work.
It is essential we see our work life as a place to follow our spiritual journey. The focus of this book is on growing spiritually to find and live our greatness. To live our greatness doesn't necessarily mean we must accomplish great things, only that we live true to who we are, offering our best gifts and passion to the world in service. It is the spirit and intention with which we do our work that determines whether our greatness shines forth.
Many of the stories in this book about working spiritually may seem rather ordinary. Indeed, seeing the sacred in ordinary day to day living is part of following a spiritual path. Working spiritually involves a holistic perspective of how we live and work. We must not separate our lives so that we are spiritual only on the weekends. Our spirituality grows when it becomes one continuous flow in our life.

ORGANIZATION OF BOOK

Part I outlines a framework for seeing how your work is a path for spiritual greatness. Part II provides ideas for strengthening your spiritual practice in your work. I describe how to create new metaphors for work, find your right livelihood, and be intentionally spiritual. By doing so, you will find greater meaning for what you do and bring the fullest of who you are to your work and organization. Part III focuses on ways to work spiritually with others. It includes ways to bring forth your gifts and create greater awareness to enhance teamwork, group processes, and meetings. The chapters on teamwork and organizational rituals examine how we work spiritually as a group or collective. Exercises are provided at the end of most chapters to help you practice the ideas presented.
Part IV outlines a new paradigm for organizations based on the premise that organizations are arenas in which people's personal spiritual journeys take place. By being intentionally spiritual at work, and bringing our personal greatness to our work, we help our organizations become more spiritual places. It is time to call for the creation of "Higher Consciousness Organizations" - organizations that believe in all people's quest for wholeness, meaning, and connection. Teams, departments, and entire organizations can be intentional about supporting members' spiritual growth. Throughout this book I provide examples of organizations that believe they must be intentional about developing their people.
One difference between this book and others that address the issue of spirituality at work is my discussion of the organizational influences that shape our individual spiritual journey. If we want to work fully spiritually, organizations must support our spiritual growth. It is through dialogue and relationships with others that we discover more about ourselves. In our daily work encounters, we travel further along our spiritual path by being in relation with one another in more authentic and compassionate ways.

GOALS FOR THIS BOOK

I want to briefly explain my purpose and process of writing this book. My purpose for doing this book comes from my desire to propose another way of working, a way that leaves people feeling fulfilled rather than empty, enriched rather than drained, affirmed rather than angry. We must focus on growing spiritually during our daily work to live our personal greatness.
Like so many others, I have a strong yearning to bring my wholeness of being into alignment with my work. The task of writing this book has been a challenge for me to work spiritually, to keep open to guidance and inner clarity as I struggle to find the right words to put on the page. My process of living in the moment with my work - being both task-oriented and spiritually aware - provided me the experience of living what I was writing.
The focus of this book is on service in your vocation. However, since volunteerism in community groups is an important way to develop greatness through loving service, I hope the ideas will be applied to work in civic groups and other places where people combine their talent and efforts for a greater good. When we understand that our life quest is to grow spiritually, we can live this quest through the myriad of experiences that allow us to be more compassionate and loving, anywhere and at any time we choose. That is the ultimate in living a spiritually great life. I invite you to enter this book from whatever point along your spiritual path you are.

CROSSING LANGUAGE BARRIERS

The ideas presented in this book build on numerous views regarding spirituality and work. Many modern and ancient writers have reflected on how work is an essential part of spiritual development, as well as how life can be more spiritual through work. I reference such writers to demonstrate the diversity of ideas on this topic and to acknowledge their work.
Since this book bridges ideas from various writings on spirituality and management, it creates challenges for language usage. Because people will encounter the ideas of this book from different spiritual and/or organizational perspectives, it is a challenge to anticipate how different people will react to words related to working spiritually.
Words such as compassion, authenticity, awareness or trust may be easy to accept as workplace language, whereas words such as forgiveness, mindfulness, atonement, or love may be harder for some people to use at work. Because there are so many interpretations and characterizations of a divine power, I want to be explicit in how I am referring to such a power here. Words that are capitalized throughout the book refer to the Abiding, Abundant Love that goes by many names, yet is beyond naming. This is done in recognition that one word for this Source is too limiting.
I use language from various faith traditions so that people will understand the universality of the concepts presented. I use stories from various faith traditions to show that working spiritually isn't based on one belief system or connected to any singular religious doctrine. It is important that people understand the distinction I make in chapter 4 between spirituality and religion. I hope to reclaim some traditionally "religious" words as universal human characteristics so they can be used at work and in organizations.
Finally, references to personal pronouns will be varied such that "he" may be used in one sentence and "she" in the next. The intent behind this is to be as inclusive as possible and to avoid focusing on one gender exclusively when making a point. The process of working spiritually transcends gender.

CLOSING REMARKS

I hope you will find a message in this book that resonates with you so that you too can work spiritually and live your personal greatness. As we become intentional about our spiritual journey, we can be beacons for others who want to follow a spiritual path. Following such a path is not easy. However, the rewards from living your authentic self through your work will be worth the hardships.
This book is meant as a catalyst for other books and deeper conversation on this topic, not as a be-all end-all text. You are invited to explore, to question, to experiment with these ideas in the hope that you will be able to experience your wholeness of being and connectedness with others as well as the Divine Spirit.
If you are reading this now, then you are ready to grow towards your greatness. If this book speaks to a truth inside of you, then you are ready to find ways to work spiritually.

Catalogue Information