Some images (c) 2001-2002 www.arttoday.com. | |  Applying Spiritual Values on the Job by Nancy R. Smith
Here you will find links to articles and websites on ways to apply spiritual values in the workplace. Tell us you how you have applied your own spiritual values on the job and how work situations have helped you grow spiritually: click here to email us your experience. |
["How I Did It" Articles] [Articles] [Links to Other Articles] [Links to Other Sites] 
- Integrity essential to true power
By Laura Matthews
Leadership at its most powerful and effective is also dependent on being honest.... I had a co-worker who lied all the time, even about little things. If he had even the slightest idea he might get in trouble, he'd lie to cover his tracks. He wasn't always successful, and often got in even more trouble with our volatile bosses. Finally, the bosses made him my subordinate, and told me to take care of it or they'd fire him. - Practice Active Listening
By Sally Santana
What surprises me the most about this way of listening is that it doesn’t happen often. I know most of the time we rush about under time constraints, each ear a part of a different conversation. But when being heard is vital, isn’t that what you want? - In Search of True Nonviolence
By Chris Haw.
A teacher reflects on his faith, his participation in civil disobedience, and his time in jail as well as their impact on his 7th-grade students. "How may I help you?": the other side of customer service
By Sarah Nelson.
I realized how easy it was to treat my customers with love, because now I better understood how much God loved me. Reaching Out From Around the World
By Patrick Noland.
How one man discovered a ministry to those who, like himself, cannot attend worship regularly. The Golden Rule of Selling
By Christopher Michael.
A shoe salesman learns three important lessons. Guarding Human Dignity
By Rachel Day, DDS.
The story of a dentist whom God has called to serve those patients whose dignity has been stripped by dental disease and emotional trauma. Peace: Being Faithful to Conscience
By Earl J. Prignitz.
The experience of one man who refused to compromise his religious beliefs at work: "I was the only employee who refused..." Living My Faith at Work
A Christian Federal Law Enforcement Officer describes his sense of calling to the work that God wants him to do and how it empowers him in my faith life.
Back to the Top  Unaware of Unresolvable Dilemma?
 By Ragini Elizabeth Michaels
Letting go, relaxing, being present and aware come to us through the counter-balancing experiences of holding on, being tense, absent, and unaware. Yet we all strive for the unreachable goal of a positive and pleasurable life without negativity and pain. The idea that there is sustainable success and prosperity without any ebb and flow has blossomed into a cultural belief.
- Values and Meanings in the Workday Desert by Alice Houghtaling A reflection on some core beliefs of mine about life experience in general and what I think is important. I believe that life is all about “growing, learning, and becoming” on a day to day course, and that most of this learning is done unconsciously.... Sometimes, that “course” is just plain boring, or exhausting, or confusing, or exasperating.
- INTERPERSONAL EFFECTIVENESS: CONSCIOUSLY SHIFTING FROM A STRESSED TO A BALANCED STATE OF MIND by Kate Ludeman, PhD, & Eddie Erlandson, MD All executives periodically experience frustrations, pressures and setbacks. While it can be difficult to not react to these, they're a normal part of your role. The only real question is how you handle stress and how you respond when challenges arise. Some people get sidetracked more easily than others. You can learn to identify your feelings of frustration and tension and take proactive actions to shift into a more positive state.
- The Power of Simplicity in Holistic Living by Prem Nirmal. Holistic living is all about being human! More and more human!! . . To begin with, create wholeness in the grosser trio of Body-Mind-Emotions. Once these grosser dimensions are brought in a state of balance, then we can actualize the more subtle dimensions.
- Secret of Effective Leadership in 21st Century By Roger Herman and Joyce Gioia. Subject matter experts who learned management in the latter half of the last century will find themselves competing with a new kind of worker, a new kind of leader. People with a liberal arts education are now in demand because of the breadth and multidisciplinary nature of their post-secondary education.
The Shoemaker and the Brat Choose your battles wisely and always deliver them with respect....Our responses to a difficult situation show our true character. Acceptance, forgiveness and understanding are key elements to a healthy outlook on life. Comp Time What's Stopping You? Find out through Haiku To gain and keep your competitive edge, Haiku! Don’t brush away or asphyxiate on the word Japanese poetry. It’s a great way to get organizational movement and momentum. The Disposables Over the past few years, as employers have struggled to control costs, they've reduced overhead by removing from the payroll people who might be described as "disposables." They have discarded people in a similar fashion to the way we throw away soft drink containers or food wrappers. Spiritual Management Technique Leads to Stronger Sales Although there was no immediate turnaround in sales goals, there was a growing sense of harmony and respect. But then, after two months or so, sales began improving. Slowly more team members began to make their goals. What a joy it was when the whole team met their quota! Change Your Boss By Changing What You Think My boss had a reputation for being a bully, but in the two years I had been consulting with him, he treated me with respect. Then one day, out of nowhere, he yelled at me in a meeting.... I had gone from two years of being treated like a superstar to being publicly humiliated—for no apparent reason. "Cubicle, Sweet Cubicle" An increasing chorus of complaints by employees indicates increased friction between workers, a lack of privacy, and an inability to concentrate due to disturbances by others’ conversations. I wasn’t alone in my grumbling. RELAX Feel-good interfaith events may paper over deep differences By Charles C. Haynes. Americans are rediscovering what most of the world has never forgotten: Religious differences matter.... Now comes the inevitable backlash from people angry about “feel-good” attempts at religious unity.... Ignoring differences doesn’t work. But neither does stirring up anger between religions with hot rhetoric. The Ten Commitments By Rabbi Michael Lerner. Many of us find the notion of "commandments" oppressive and hierarchical. Yet we know that a community cannot be built on the principle of only doing what feels right at the moment--it requires a sense of responsibility to each other. The Golden Rule of Selling There was a problem, however, with the assistant manager's management. In theory, sales people took turns waiting on customers. In practice, the assistant manager took the customers who looked the most prosperous. Tadpole Days The Wells of Our Wounds Teamwork as a Spiritual Value
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Putting Spirituality to Work
Leaders can make hard decisions a matter of faith.
By Charles D. Kerns, PhD., M.B.A.
Virtuous character does not come without challenges, however. Challenges can arise in any situation. For example, there may be the temptation to compromise honesty and veracity for economic gain, to not adhere to legal and moral boundaries in order to get more work out of employees, or to disavow responsibility for a mistake if it appears that no one else knows for certain who made it. At the heart of this article is a straightforward framework to help managerial leaders meet the challenge of strengthening and maintaining virtuous character even in the face of contrary temptation. Who Me? A Prophet??
By Whitney Wherrett Roberson
Organizations that begin with a sense of purpose can lose their way until those working within them have little understanding of the vision that may have guided their founders....what's the vocation of your organization? And what is your vocation when you see your organization forgetting its vocation? Where has your institutional "yes" become "no," and how will you respond? Discovering your archetypes
By Erwin Rimban "The archetypes of humanity are the guiding templates for the development of personal and collective consciousness. Today, let us learn how we can get in touch with these universal symbols, which form the basis of behavioral patterns throughout life." The author discusses seven practices or exercises or activities that can be of help.Praying on the Job Prayer has a place in every area of one's life -- even work. Especially work.  By Marcia Menter Mantra for the Bad Days: Somewhere within all this noise is an enormous silence. If I just shut up for a moment, I'll be able to hear it. Getting Time on Our Side By reclaiming Shabbat--Hebrew for 'pausing'--in the true sense of the word, we can regain peace of mind and the eight-hour day. By Rabbi Arthur Waskow “Underwork” and “overwork” are, in fact, closely related. Corporations that seek to keep workers “part-time” and “temporary” so as to pay them less and avoid providing medical or pension benefits drive workers into finding extra jobs in order to hang on to a barely adequate income. . . . For all the traditions that take the Hebrew scriptures seriously, there is a teaching: For the sake of remembering and taking to heart the grandeur of Creation and for the sake of freeing ourselves from others' pharaonic power, and others from our own oppression, we make “not-making”: We celebrate Shabbat .... Donald Trump's Leadership Lessons: The Great Man Myth Lives On By Kris Laroche. The wildly successful show, The Apprentice, has hit on something big. It responds to an ongoing and unresolved fascination with the mysterious, complex and universally meaningful phenomena called Leadership.... Seven Leadership Lessons Courtesy of THE DONALD: A How Not-To Guide of Great Leadership Spiritual Values at Work By Karen Louise Booth. April, 1998 Americans are searching for greater spiritual meaning - even at a time when church attendance is declining. That's because more and more people are finding new ways of spiritual exploration through non-traditional practices such as meditation, environmentalism, and even work. Here is what one person is doing to find a greater meaning in the work he does: advertising. If Kevin Lynch had to put God on a billboard, he has a slogan ready to go. Speaking up for racial dignity in the day-to-day by Joe Schrecengost. Maybe no white person ever talked to this young guy about respect for people and how words show attitude. Don’t know. Do know that speaking up, right then and there, taking action, makes this a better place. The Spirituality of Work by Joan Chittister Just as our ancestors invented new ways of serving - each a new service according to their own character - so each one of us in our own way must devise something new and of service to others and do what has not yet been done. Servant Leadership: Quest for Caring Leadership and On Character and Servant-Leadership: Ten Characteristics of Effective, Caring Leaders by Larry C. Spears. After some years of carefully considering Greenleaf's original writings, I have identified a set of ten characteristics of the servant-leader that I view as being of critical importance--central to the development of servant-leaders. Servant Leadership: the "spirit of work" by Judith A. Ryan. Spirituality in the workplace has to be manifested as behavior or it doesn't mean anything. Spiritual Values Are Human Values Debra & William Miller explores five human values that are found across all spiritual traditions: Truth, righteousness, love, peace and non-violence....our collective business experience showed us that these five human values were the fundamental roots of a healthy, vibrant, viable organisation – and of healthy, vibrant, viable individuals. Creating a Context of Spirituality in the Workplace A list of "do's" for individual workers. Keeping faith in the public square By Bill Roberts. The Toronto Star.Of the thousand-plus people surveyed, more than 80 per cent say they believe in God .... While non-traditional practices such as doing good deeds and experiencing nature rank ahead of traditional religious forms such as prayer and attending services, the survey found significant growth since 1993 in all categories of activity. For local funeral directors, work is 'more than a job -- it's a ministry' By Beth Britton. "What they do is so much more than a job -- it's a ministry," Walter said. "When families come in here, they can be very devastated and we can provide comfort to them." Add some play to your job -- you'll work better by Rick Rothacker. Crazy hat, toys, being silly renew creativity, consultant says. Marianne Frederick of consulting firm WorkPlay in Taylors, S.C., talks about using humor and play to improve productivity and creativity in the workplace. Turning Holes into Holy Moments Rural Values, Christian Values Moving Beyond the Idols Moral Courage
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Faith at Work is a training and research programme developed in partnership with the Christchurch branch of the Bible College of New Zealand (BCNZ).... to enrich the sense of connection between God's work and our work.... Faith at Work (NZ) provides training and resources related to career and life planning, the theology of work and vocation, everyday spirituality, ethics for business and the marketplace, and the ministry and mission of the laity in daily life from a Christian perspective.Faith at Work An ecumenical network of progressive Christians at the growing edge of the church; grounded in Biblical faith; related to God, self, others and the earth; sustained through intentional community; and committed to faith at work in the world.... Faith@Work magazine, events & resources.Marketplace Network ... applying faith to work A non-profit organization whose primary mission is to motivate and equip Christians to apply faith to work by providing relevant resources, encouraging mentoring relationships, and building partnerships with churches and other organizations.Employee Wellness: Spirituality in the Workplace Resources listed on the website of The Management Assistance Program for Nonprofits.Back to the Top |
| | During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. -George Orwell |
There is no joy in living without joy in work.
-Thomas Acquinas |
If the creator had a purpose in equipping us with a neck, he surely meant us to stick it out.
-Arthur Koestler |
| I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. -Bill Cosby |
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