Wilhelmsen (1956) notes that human expression of knowledge occurs both as an interior and an exterior process (p. 53). The interior process is primarily a spiritual exercise and as of yet, humans are not able to effectively communicate with one another at the spiritual (or metaphysical) level. Therefore, expression must occur as an exterior (usually spoken) process. However, the exterior process is a reflection (even if imperfect) of the interior process. The Bible says, “out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks” (Matt. 12:34). Therefore, leadership is a spiritual process to the extent that the leader is able to understand his or her own interior expressions as well as to discern the spiritual longings of the followers and to summarize and coherently communicate these desires as shared goals, values, and vision.
The effective leader will understand universal spiritual concerns—life and death; meaning and purpose; existential and eternal—and weave these concerns into the exterior expression as communally hold truths and core values worthy of pursuing as an organization. These words, the exterior expression of the leader, then become the glue of human existence and coexistence.
Sadly, many organizational goals, visions, plans, and communicated objectives are divorced from the spiritual longings of humanity and it is those universal longings which bind us together as fellow travelers dependent upon one another for a successful journey. The cold calculated decisions made solely on profit margins and investor’s returns strips the workers of their humanity and as such divorces them from one another as interdependent “beings.” They are pressed into the role of self-serving entities with frustrated spirits that are never given the freedom of expression in a greater, communal, concern.
Wilhelmsen, F. D. (1956). Man’s knowledge of reality: An introduction to Thomistic epistemology. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
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