An Interview with CEO Margaret Benefiel, Author of Soul at Work

As the CEO of Executive Soul, Dr. Margaret Benefiel works with individuals and organizations to help integrate spirituality into the workforce. I found much food for thought in her books Soul at Work: Spiritual Leadership in Organizations and The Soul of a Leader: Finding Your Path to Fulfillment and Success. So I asked her to share some of her insights with others who are also wondering how to create more soulful work environments, especially during these troubling financial times.

How do you define leadership?

A leader is one who influences. Each of us has a sphere of influence. It's up to us to decide what kind of influence we want to have. A leader who leads with soul has a more profound, long-lasting influence.

How can we combine our head and our heart in our work?

In too many workplaces, employees, and managers are trained to check their hearts and their souls at the door. When you can bring your whole self to work, you have a much greater impact.

How to start? Pray that God will give you eyes to see where your heart and soul can be an asset in your workplace. Then, open your eyes to see where your prayers are being answered. Bring your best self to work and see who resonates with you.

For example, Clarena Tolson, Streets Commissioner for the city of Philadelphia, prays for difficult people at work and finds that her heart is softened toward them, and she gains insight into how to approach them to build a better working relationship. Colleagues marvel at what she has been able to accomplish, and they have joined her in practicing prayer and compassion. Compassion is contagious.

What are the signs that a person has integrated spirituality into his or her work?

The simple answer is that the fruits of the Spirit will appear in you and in those around you: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, and self-control. Translating this into common workplace terminology: There will be more energy and creativity, more respect and listening, better teamwork, recognition of one another's gifts and contributions, higher morale, higher productivity. The mission of the organization will be operationalized into the day-to-day life of the workplace.

How do we maintain this soul when dealing with difficult situations at work?

Difficult situations at work, like difficult situations in the rest of life, can be opportunities for deepening spiritually or occasions to lose faith. We've all seen people who deepen and grow through life's challenges, as well as people who lose faith and fall apart when they encounter life's difficulties. In some workplaces, leaders and organizations have grown stronger in these tough economic times, and in some, leaders and organizations have been weakened. How to use tough times to grow stronger? 1) Focus on mission. 2) Build relationships. 3) Draw on the wisdom of the whole. 4) Be transparent.

For example, at Pendle Hill, an adult Quaker study center near Philadelphia, Executive Director Lauri Perman realized that she needed to be both a competent manager and a spiritual leader for her board and managers after the stock market crashed in 2008 and Pendle Hill's endowment suffered. She focused on mission and built relationships as she invited board members to tell stories of how they had seen God at work over the years at Pendle Hill, bringing the mission into being. She drew on the wisdom of the whole and invited transparency when she invited managers to work together on the budget, laying out the financial realities and challenging them to work for the good of the whole. Through working together, the managers achieved the necessary budget cuts without resorting to layoffs. Even more importantly, they grew stronger in their relationships as a team, they improved their financial literacy, they developed stronger relationships with the board, and the board grew stronger in its competency and relationships.

How can leaders nurture their soul?

Leaders can nurture their souls in a multitude of ways, some very simple. Ask yourself, "What keeps me alive spiritually?" and then do it. Think of things you can do outside the workplace—daily devotions, weekly worship, Bible study or prayer group, or taking walks in nature. Then think of things you can do inside the workplace. Perhaps you need to stop and pray before going into a tough meeting or ask a colleague to pray for you. Perhaps you need to look out a window and take a deep breath before plunging into a project. Perhaps you have a colleague with whom you can pray during your lunch break. Think of feeding your soul in substantial meals and light snacks. Unless you are very fortunate in your choice of workplace, the substantial meals will probably occur outside your workplace and the light snacks will be practices you can wedge in here and there at work.

How do we see our work as a gift when, due to the economy, we find ourselves in a less than desirable job situation?

It's easy to fall into the trap of seeing your work as a burden; we all do it sometimes. That perspective drains your energy, and then the work feels even more burdensome—a vicious cycle. Start by making a list of what you're grateful for about your work. You'd be surprised how much you can find once you prime the pump and start listing a few things. Then share your list with someone else, preferably someone at your workplace who also generated a list. Challenge yourselves to find something each day for which you are thankful at work and to share it with one another. Once your perspective shifts, the atmosphere in the workplace itself may begin to shift.

Let’s talk a bit about that dreaded word “layoff.”

For employer and employee alike, layoffs are the most dreaded implication of a recession. Because layoffs are dreaded, employers often do not face the necessity of layoffs until the last possible moment, and as a result, do not carefully think through how to best implement them when they do become necessary to minimize damage to individuals and to the organization. Consequently layoffs leave in their wake not only wounded former employees but also shell-shocked remaining employees, who are now expected to do more with less. Furthermore, the remaining employees get the message that they shouldn’t have any negative emotions; they should be feeling full of gratitude toward their employers because they still have their jobs.

Yet the remaining employees often suffer the most. While laid-off employees may be recipients of counseling, job training, and job placement assistance, the remaining employees are expected to soldier on with no extra support. They are experiencing grief from the sudden loss of coworkers with whom they shared daily work for years, even decades. They are experiencing fear, wondering when the other shoe will drop and they too will be let go. They are experiencing “survivor guilt,” wondering why they still have jobs while their equally or better-qualified colleagues do not. They are experiencing exhaustion, both emotional and physical, from what they have been through in the organizational downsizing and from the heavier workload placed upon them with no end in sight. Because of this emotional overload, the remaining employees can’t work to capacity. Morale plummets. Teamwork suffers. Malaise sets in across the organization.

How can a layoff be conducted soulfully?

Layoffs can be done in a way that honors and respects the remaining employees. They can be done in a way that keeps the life and energy of the organization alive. They can be done in a way that helps the remaining employees bring their full commitment and motivation to work at a time when the company most needs them to be their best selves.

Debora Jackson, downsizing revitalization expert, points out some ways to do this in her article, “Revitalize Post-Downsize with New Emphasis” (Boston Women’s Business, March 2004). There are seven strategies for revitalization after layoffs.

1. Develop a communications plan that meets employees at each stage of the grieving process. Be sensitive, honest, and clear.
2. Develop an employee support plan, recognizing that different employees have different needs.
3. Acknowledge feelings, providing opportunities for employees to express their feelings both individually and corporately.
4. Reestablish organizational goals with the input of all employees.
5. Develop an overall organizational plan to achieve the organizational goals.
6. Explore how employees’ career plans mesh with the organizational plan.
7. Establish metrics to measure success against organizational goals.

These seven principles can be used in any company after layoffs, tailored, of course, to the particular culture of the company. The remaining employees need at least as much attention as those laid off. By paying attention to the needs of the remaining employees after a layoff, an organization can experience revitalization and can return to working at full capacity.

How do you apply your teaching in your own work?

I start my day with prayer and journaling, thanking God for the gifts of the previous day. Then I take moments throughout my work day to stop and breathe and pray, sometimes for only two seconds, enough to get me regrounded. For my writing, I schedule contemplative writing days with colleagues, in which we start with prayer, share about what we're feeling led to write, spend some time writing, and then close the day with prayer. For my consulting work, I pray for clients (almost) daily and reach out to them as I feel led. When I'm irritable or anxious or heading toward burn-out, that's a good sign that my ego has taken over and I need to get regrounded.