Why Bring Spirituality into Business?

WHY Bring Spirituality into Business?

There is a growing body of research that shows that bringing ethics and spiritual values into the workplace can lead to increased productivity and profitability as well as employee retention, customer loyalty, and brand reputation.

Workplace spirituality encompasses many aspects like meaningful work, sense of community, and organizational value. Workplace spirituality is intended to interconnect past experiences and develop trust among employees in a way that would lead the organization into a better and productive environment.

The benefits are real, measurable and tangible. By bringing spirituality into our lives, we’re able to 

reduce our stress, 

foster better relationships, 

increase tolerance, 

build resilience, 

coping skills, and 

reduce negative conflict.

Spirituality gives us a sense of peace, wholeness and balance among the physical, emotional, mental, and social aspects of our lives.  This doesn’t mean its always a bed of roses, often we must move through hard times, fears, forgiveness, and struggles and suffering, This can be perceived as hard or painful but once through it one finds the peace and wholeness they were seeking. 

Spirituality in the workplace draws on the ethics, values, motivation, work/life balance, and leadership elements of your organization. Some unique characteristics that differentiate a spiritual organization from others are: strong sense of purpose, focus on individual development, trust and openness, employee empowerment and encouraged expression of Self. 

Some recommendations for organization looking to incorporate spirituality in the workplace are: 

1.  Put the book Bringing Spirituality into Business into the hands of every employee and enroll your organization in the 29 week book club

2.  Employee Assistance Program (EAP), assisting employees with the cost and time required for personal and professional growth

3.  Meditation breaks

4.  Inviting teamwork and group huddles that promote support, encouragement, and accountability in ones work, growth, and advancements

5.  Honing spiritual skills for better job performance 

6.  Promoting and setting up of a spiritual group

7.  Taking risks to open one’s spiritual self

8.  Bereavement programs 

9.  Leadership practices that build integrity and promote empowering leadership qualities in others‗

In conclusion, organizations that encourage workplace spirituality experience satisfied, calm, confident employees along with increased organizational performance and profitability. 

Here are 4 easy ways I’ve learned to bring my spiritual self to the workplace:

CHECK MY ATTITUDE

Whether Positive or Negative -my thoughts and feelings will spread like a virus throughout the office. So check your attitude.

KINDNESS

Be kind in your thoughts and actions.  If it isn’t nice don’t say it.  Instead of using the Golden Rule try the new Platinum Rule, treat others how they want to be treated. This act recognizes that we all are unique with different wants and needs.

SLOW DOWN TO SPEED UP

The Power in a PAUSE will bring you more than you think.  Close your laptop, Push yourself away from your desk, Close your eyes, Be still,  Imagine bringing all your energies back home to you – Fill yourself UP with all of you, Allow the thoughts in your mind to slow and when you’ve slowed down enough to feel your own powerful self —-think about how you want to be in the world and how you want the world to be with you.  Think about the project or task before you that you wish to address and see yourself focused and completing it with ease.  When you are ready ——come on back to work and watch, Observe yourself as you seem to tackle the task with record speed and ease.  

BREATHE

It sounds cliché, but taking a few deep breaths can work wonders for relaxing and centering you.  With stress running rampant in the workplace, it’s easy to get caught up in other peoples stress as well as our own.  Stress causes us to take shorter, shallower breaths.  So, next time you’re in a conflict or feeling less than great, take a BIG breath, breathe deep, and release slowly to allow your cooler head and calmer self to prevail.  When you slow your breathing down, you slow your brainwaves down, allowing harmony and balance to happen. 

Bringing your spirituality into the workplace may be something you wish to do privately, AND it can also be something you incorporate into team meetings, group huddles, and the way the department and organization operates. Organizations have started coupling parts of it like meditation, yoga, and mindfulness with management and finding that it’s helped teams decrease negative emotions, increases creativity, improves memory and allows for states of flow.

I feel confident that just doing one of the acts regularly will make your day–and life–more nourishing and fulfilling.  Maybe even bring more meaning and purpose to what you do. 

For more information reach out, let’s have a conversation about how to best serve your organization moving forward.