Spirit On The Margins

 

The past two weeks, I have been engaged in a fascinating discussion with people about the links between leadership development, spiritual formation / character development, and  intentional relationships with persons on the margins of society.

There are books and leaders in the world that have made the argument that leadership development is more than just a skill set - that it is about character formation. That includes people like Stephen Covey, Kevin Cashman, and many others.

Stephen Covey’s web site 

Leadership From The Inside Out by Kevin Cashman

I have been drawn to the work of Janet Hagberg the past 15 years. Janet is also part of our faculty for the “Will You Drink From This Cup?” program.  Her book, Real Power, does a marvelous job of describing the developmental stages of leadership and the individual’s spiritual formation as part of that process.

Janet Hagberg’s web site 

In fact in Janet’s book, she has a section entitled, “Leading From Your Soul”.  There she describes behaviors and practices that can take one on this journey. One of the practices is to find yourself a mentor on the margin.

I find her book so aptly descriptive of my own experience both in my career and particularly in my time at City House. I am feeling drawn to creating a program where mainstream leaders can have this unique experience - leadership development, through a transformational relationship with someone on the margins. I have been meeting and discussing this possibilty with leaders in the community. There has been an enthusiastic response from many.

One of the leaders I talked to was Jeff Pauley, CEO of Magellan Executive Resources. They have a servant leadership program based on Robert Greenleaf’s work. He and colleagues are hosting a Servant Leadership Training Academy in partnership with St Mary’s College.

Magellan Executive Resources Servant Leader Training Academy announcement

Jeff was very supportive of this new programmatic idea. We had a great conversation and have committed to meeting again.  I will keep you posted as additional discussions take place.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 2nd, 2008 at 5:36 pm and is filed under Servant Leadership. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.