Leading with Soul is about a man name Steve Camden on a journey to find why his business is not as successful when all he does is work hard. He has a friend named John, who sends him to a spiritual guide named Maria. Maria helps Steve throughout his journey by making him think of what he has been doing wrong and what he should/ needs to do right. At first he thinks Maria is a crazy woman and does not know what she is talking about but he soon realize that she does know what she is doing. All through his journey he takes frequent walks, learned from his mistakes, and visit Maria often. By the end of his journey, Steve recognized in order for him to be a successful leader in managing his business, he needs to have authorship, love, power, and significance. Maria died at the end but Steve still remembered everything she taught him and says she is still with him in spirit.
Yes, the book I read changed my view of leadership. I used to think that leadership was just about being in control of a group, having a purpose, to guide others in the right direction, and be knowledgeable, which are all true but leading is more than just that. This book made me realized that leadership is also about authorship, love, power, significance, spirit, and leading with what's in your heart/ soul which in the book are known as the gifts of leadership. Showing people that you care about them and what they would like to get out of the journey, reward or punish people depending on their performance, give them a little power but not too much, and have a reason behind what you're doing because nobody wants to participate with a leader who has no meaning as to why they are doing things. Leading with Soul also made me understand that you have to lead from something deep inside. Just because one person is leading a certain way doesn't mean you have to lead that way too, you have to find what works for you and love doing it.
What similarities and differences do you see between your view of leadership and that of the author?
Similarities between my view of leadership and that of the author are we both believe that a good a leader should have significance. As I mention before no one would want to participate with a leader with no goal. They probably wouldn't even respect the leader and feel like they are just wasting their time. The difference between our view of leadership is that the authors also include spirit in their view of leadership. They want the leaders to be happy, show that they care about other people in their organization by rewarding them, and give them chances to have power. For instance, in chapter thirteen of the book, when Steve and his employees were at their management retreat sharing stories about a peak or valley from the previous year and Steve shared a story about a time when he thought he did a good job at this corporate leadership but he didn't and he felt that they were leading him instead of him leading them.
What parts of the book really “spoke” to you, and/or which parts did you particularly enjoy?
A couple of parts from the book that really "spoke" to me was in chapter four when Maria was talking about discovering new teachers with Steve. Two things that Maria said from this chapter that stood out to me was "Control is an illusion" and "Life's deepest lessons are often where you least expect them". After I read this chapter I sat and thought about those two things and realized that they were true. We tend to think that we have control over others but we really don't. If we did, when someone tell us to do or not to do something we would listen EVERY time and not just sometimes or at all. People are going to do whatever they want to do know matter what anybody has to say about it and we have no control over it. Also when she was talking about life deepest lessons, I never actually thought about it in that way, I just thought you live and you learn from your mistakes as life goes on. But overall I enjoyed the entire book and I'm glad my group got this book to read!
Were there any concepts or parts of the book that were confusing or challenging for you?
No, there weren't any concepts of the book that were confusing or challenging for me. The interludes between each parts of the book did a good job helping understand the book more.
In what ways are the concepts in your book applicable to your life and leadership experiences?
Tragedy was one concept in the book that is applicable to my life. In Leading with Soul both Maria and Steve lost a loved one in which made them "throw" themselves in their work to try to deal with the pain. This is something kind of like what I would do/ has done.When somebody in my family past away I would either request more hours at work so I would have something to do to keep my mind off of it or just sit alone and just think for the day or even weeks. Tragedy also is applicable to my leadership experiences. A couple of years ago in Cleveland at an Cleveland public school (not my school), a young man who was always bullied on brought a gun to the school one day and shot a few students, a teacher, and then turned the gun on his self. This incident lead my English teacher to the idea of the Diversity Summit I've mention in previous blogs. Where we were to get my school to come together as one to stop the bullying, gossiping, and putting one another down. Which brings me back to the saying "Life deepest lessons are often where you least expect them", no one thought that this incident would have every happened but it taught us a lesson not to bully on one another.
