{"id":20478,"date":"2014-10-21T07:29:14","date_gmt":"2014-10-21T07:29:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/new-wp\/?p=20478"},"modified":"2014-10-21T07:29:14","modified_gmt":"2014-10-21T07:29:14","slug":"islam-and-the-corporate-mystics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/islam-and-the-corporate-mystics\/","title":{"rendered":"Islam and the \u201cCorporate Mystics\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

As intriguing as the anomaly \u201ccorporate mystic\u201d might sound, it is in fact the title of one of the most practical books ever written in the field of corporate leadership. Published in 1997,\u00a0<\/span>The Corporate Mystic: A Guidebook for Visionaries with Their Feet on the Ground\u00a0<\/em>was authored by Dr. Gay Hendricks and Dr. Kate Ludeman, renowned American psychologists whose prolific writing and training of top executives span more than three decades.\u00a0<\/span>The<\/em>Corporate Mystic<\/em>\u00a0is based on a study done by the duo of hundreds of successful global entrepreneurs and business owners ranging from companies such as Motorola, Dell, Nike, Intel and the like. Their findings led them to make a prediction that successful corporate leaders of the 21<\/span>st<\/sup>\u00a0century would be spiritual leaders, hence, the term \u201ccorporate mystic\u201d. As is commonly understood, a \u201cmystic\u201d, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is \u201cA person who seeks by contemplation and self-surrender to obtain unity with or absorption into the deity or the absolute, or who believes in the spiritual apprehension of truths that are beyond the intellect.\u201d So, the \u201ccorporate mystics\u201d or individuals heading their companies, are grounded in vision, integrity and intuition, and they know how to nurture these qualities in others. Interestingly, the \u201cmystics\u201d are in their businesses not just solely for their heart and soul, they are also there for their wallets. They have beaten back the fear that robs the less hardy of their authenticity. With their ability to focus easily and non-dogmatically on the tasks at hand, these \u201cvisionaries with their feet on the ground\u201d are also problem-solvers who inspire commitment, speak plainly, listen well, manage projects and create wealth. Both Hendricks and Ludeman also detailed 12 common characteristics of \u201ccorporate mystics\u201d as follows: 1. Absolute honesty; 2. Fairness; 3. Self-knowledge; 4. Contribution-focussed; 5. Non-dogmatic spirituality; 6. Getting more done by doing less; 7. Calling forth the best of themselves and others; 8. Openness to change; 9. A special sense of humour; 10. Keen distant vision and up-close focus; 11. An unusual self-discipline; and, 12. Balance \u2014 (Focus on four areas: intimacy, work, spirituality, and community).<\/span><\/p>\n

From the list above, the first four\u2014honesty, fairness, self-knowledge, contribution-focussed\u2014are in themselves the ground of a perennial and universal spirituality.<\/p>\n

In describing absolute honesty, the authors found that, based on their interviews with the \u201ccorporate mystics\u201d, every one of them said the same thing that, \u201cthe first secret to success in business is to say only things that are true and to say them with total consistency\u201d. Perhaps as widely been recognised in many organisations nowadays that honesty isn\u2019t the best policy, it is the only policy. Nevertheless, it is still typical to find that business-people get into trouble when they say one thing to the banker, another thing to the customer, and yet another to the board.<\/p>\n

On fairness, Hendricks and Ludeman argued that everyone in an organisation wants to be treated fairly, but many forget this under the stress of decision-making. Hence, they found that one of the edges of \u201ccorporate mystics\u201d is their ability to apply the question \u2014 Is it fair to all concerned?\u2014 even when the pressure is fully on.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cCorporate mystics\u201d are particularly concerned with learning about themselves or referred to as self-knowledge. They recognise that our minds, bodies, and spirits are the instrument by which we carry out our actions, so they put a great deal of attention on examining their motives, history, and feelings. More importantly, \u201ccorporate mystics\u201d are committed not just to their own learning, but also helping others learn at the same time.<\/p>\n

In the focus on contribution, \u201ccorporate mystics” always realise and fully understand why people work, and are motivated to contribute to their organisation. Above all, spirituality means deeds, not words, to the \u201ccorporate mystics\u201d. They are comfortable with being a source of\u2014producers rather than consumers\u2014integrity, vision, and intuition, three rare commodities. Inspired leaders, though, have something extra, the commitment to everyone else being a source. In other words, they are committed to being a source of sources. This is how spirituality is translated into action and getting others to be highly motivated to contribute.<\/p>\n

Hendricks and Ludeman concluded that successful businesses require a type of mystical leadership, in which the leader is grounded at least as much in the spiritual as in the physical, and they also believed that such a characteristic is crucial even in an environment where changes occur at a very fast rate.<\/p>\n

Speculation as to why both authors used \u201ccorporate mystics\u201d was because it might have referred to a society which the conventional paradigm embraced by all was that a successful business was often viewed as competitive, numbers-driven game, and relied on hard facts, financial analysis, and exploitation and manipulation of the people and markets\u2014dealing with cutting overheads, downsizing or meeting the following quarter’s budget and then showing wonderful bottom-lines at the end of every financial year. Such a paradigm was based on the notion of \u201cgreed\u201d and \u201cfear\u201d brought about by capitalism. Hence, for business leaders to align themselves with novel spiritual values, and became successful with would most certainly leave many baffled, and thus, was considered an unexplained situation, one shrouded with mystery. Hence, the term, \u201cmystic\u201d, came into being.<\/p>\n

As such, Muslims in particular\u2014from leaders, workers and subordinates alike\u2014should very well realise how even more of a mystery it would be if we did not embrace the 12 characteristics discussed by Hendricks and Ludeman, as they are far from alien in the Muslim liturgy. For 17 times a day, seven days a week, the following seven all-important Quranic verses are practically an anthem:\u00a0In the name of Allah, the Beneficent, the Merciful. Praise be to Allah, Lord of the Worlds, the Beneficent, the Merciful, Master of the Day of Judgment, Thee (alone) we worship; Thee (alone) we ask for help. Show us the straight path, The path of those whom Thou hast favoured; Not the (path) of those who earn Thine anger nor of those who go astray<\/em>.(The Opening Chapter: 1-7). Evidently, we need to seek Divine help to show us the way He condones as previously led by His Prophets whose main attributes were, amongst others, siddiq<\/em>\u00a0(truthfulness),\u00a0amanah<\/em>\u00a0(trustworthiness),\u00a0tabligh<\/em>\u00a0(advocacy), and\u00a0fathonah\u00a0<\/em>(wisdom). Indeed, the four distinctly echo the 12 listed in\u00a0The<\/em>\u00a0Corporate<\/em>\u00a0Mystic<\/em>. Hence, it is incumbent upon Muslim individuals, for praying and not merely regurgitating The Opening Chapter for the umpteenth time daily, to internalise and practise its essence so that one\u2019s immediate family, community, organisation, nation and the entire humanity can benefit from us.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Hendricks and Ludeman\u2019s assertion that successful businesses require a type of \u201cmystical\u201d leadership, who is grounded as much in the spiritual as in the physical, strengthens our thoughts on how to nurture Great Leaders of tomorrow for our nation\u2014be it in business, government, community and family\u2014not only in equipping them with excellent qualifications, experiences and physical attributes, but also with the highest spiritual quality.<\/p>\n

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As intriguing as the anomaly \u201ccorporate mystic\u201d might sound, it is in fact the title of one of the most practical books ever written in the field of corporate leadership. Published in 1997,\u00a0The Corporate Mystic: A Guidebook for Visionaries with Their Feet on the Ground\u00a0was authored by Dr. Gay Hendricks and Dr. Kate Ludeman, renowned…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_analytify_skip_tracking":false,"_wpzoom_pinterest_image_url":"","_wpzoom_pinterest_hidden_image":"0","_wpzoom_pinterest_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[220],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20478","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-star","category-220","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20478","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20478"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20478\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20478"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20478"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ikim.gov.my\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20478"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}