Success with Soul™
by
Dr. Jennifer Whitaker
PUBLISHED BY:
Executive Brilliance on Smashwords
Success with Soul™
Copyright © 2012 by Dr. Jennifer Whitaker
All rights reserved. No part of this book, concept, or model may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the author, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review.
Discover more about Dr. Jennifer Whitaker at: www.smashwords.com
Other Books by Dr. Jennifer Whitaker:
“The Brilliant Leader Model™—for the Executive Evolution™”
“The CEO Evolution™”
Copyright © 2012 Dr. Jennifer Whitaker and Smashwords, Inc. All rights reserved.
This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook and concept may not be re-sold, used in other media such as motion pictures or television or cable productions, or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. All motion picture, television, audio and cable rights are the copyrighted intellectual property of the author. Thank you for respecting the creativity and vision of this author.
Discover why your own definition of success is more important
than Webster’s or Wall Street’s
Gain remarkable insights about success from candid CEOs
Learn why CEOs like Warren Buffett give priority to personal relationships
Define and grasp the value of soul in business and relationship
Claim inspired leadership over greedership
Understand how heart-centered success leads to profit-rich results
Learn why sadness lurks in successful people without a fully engaged soul
Enhance your 3Cs: Clarity, Confidence, and Collaboration
Understand why “Success with Soul™” is success for the whole!
Success with Soul™ © 2012
Your guide to creating and enjoying authentic soul success!
Dedication
I dedicate this book with deepest gratitude
to Ms. Jackson, my angel, my friend, my light.
Acknowledgements
I gratefully acknowledge the many CEOs and executives
who shared generously the deeper meanings of success and prosperity.
Foreword
“Success with Soul™” is the third book in the Executive Brilliance Trilogy by Dr. Jennifer Whitaker. It is a culmination of the integrated self theory described in “The Brilliant Leader Model™—for the Executive Evolution,” and the application of inspired leadership practices found in “The CEO Evolution™.” Executive Coach Dr. Whitaker helps CEO’s access inner resources that shape better external relationships and outcomes. She is dedicated to helping people elicit and reflect more of their unique brilliance, resulting in more ease and flow.
Table of Contents
Preface
What Drives You
A Cry for Soul in the Marketplace
Sea Change: CEOs with Soul
Soul—What Is It and Who Needs It?
Inspiration as Soul Energy
Greedership--Success without Soul
When Success Isn’t Enough
The Great Escapes
Surface or Soul
Let the Game Come to You
How Soul Impacts Business
Yay for Chick-fil-A!
Shining Examples of Soul
Dwarf or Giant, Soul Matters in Business
A New Dream
The Leap
Mastering the 3Cs--Three Soul Qualities
First C--Clarity
Clarity in Leadership
Second C--Confidence
Confidence in Leadership
Third C--Collaboration
Collaborative Leadership
Authentic Soul Success--A Doctor with Soul
The Rewards of Soul
Tell Us Who You Are
Order E-Books and Reprints
About the Author
Copyright Notice
Preface
Regardless of your title, role, or financial status, “Success with Soul™” has a valuable message for you. If you have always known deep down that your own definition of success is far more important than that of Webster or Wall Street, this book is meant especially for you. Based on a CEO study and in-depth interviews with over 85 CEOs and executives, “Success with Soul™” addresses the top executive pains expressed by many top business leaders. The remedy? Discover and bring more soul into your experience.
We all value the visible things we can touch, measure, and buy, but the most valuable aspect of life is an invisible force, the soul within you. It is my hope that you will make the journey to your inner self, your soul, to explore the hidden realms that contain unlimited wisdom, freedom, direction, innovation, and inspiration. May you use this message to help you identify what really matters to you in business and relationship. With a renewed sense of clarity, you can discover how your deepest values inform your life today and ensure a meaningful legacy in the future. Learn to reframe current social and economic breakdowns as potential breakthroughs, and to envision new structures through hope, service, and creativity. Practice awareness and redefine a more meaningful success for thriving in these transformative times.
What Drives You
"We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles but no personality. It cannot lead; it can only serve."
Albert Einstein
A very prominent man from India was visiting the United States. As he walked the busy Wall Street district, he was incredulous at how fast people were walking. He asked his guide, “What are these people doing? Is there a tiger behind them?” The guide responded, “No, there is a dollar sign in front of them.” Oftentimes, people who visit the USA from other countries are amused by our values and how we spend our time. They see us chasing money in order to be happy. Friends from the East have asked with sincerity, “Americans make money in order to be happy, but why don’t you learn to just be happy first?” For millions of people around the world, happiness is not connected to income at all.
As a worldwide movement, many executives are now risking the security of traditional ways and leading with spiritual values in business and relationship. Status symbols may be worth the price we pay for them, and we may genuinely enjoy them. But for success to be truly fulfilling, it must be tied to something greater than ego or personal assets. For example, the great philanthropists Bill and Linda Gates continue to make a huge difference all over the world. Their personal success extends into meaningful collective causes that touch millions and reshape the future before it happens.
If you can sense the current social pain, you understand a massive transformation is happening globally, one that challenges our core values and leadership contributions as never before. As you listen to your intuition you will discover what really drives you beyond making money in the areas of service, relationship, and evolution.
A Cry for Soul in the Marketplace
“Love is what we are born with. Fear is what we learn. The spiritual journey is the unlearning of fear and prejudices and the acceptance of love back in our hearts. ….Meaning does not lie in things. Meaning lies in us."
Marianne Williamson
Inspired leaders know what drives them, their own soul power. Inspired leaders build inspired businesses, large and small, based on realized soul qualities that express a dynamic presence. Living and working from a soulful place within helps us dismantle outmoded stereotypes of success, address the pains of the executive lifestyle, and realize authentic soul success in terms of freedom, relationship, and individuality. Today more than ever with so many economic and political structures disintegrating, there is a vacuum that money and profits cannot fill. The good news is that vacuum that can be filled with new structures, better attitudes, and inspired values. Today’s social and economic chaos provides the perfect opportunity to examine traditional leadership and begin anew--retaining what is valuable from the old and creating new systems and a relevant leadership style based on internal values rather than exclusively external results. This current crisis can be our greatest opportunity to craft a business environment that is still profitable and inclusive, caring and sustainable.
What if we were motivated by living and leading from our deepest desires like freedom, generosity, inspiration and a sense of belonging--instead of chasing stereotypes of success that limit and confine rather than expand and free us? Powerful feeling states, like exhilarating freedom and the passionate pursuit of what brings us joy, are the reward of soul work. Inspiration such as this cannot be purchased at any price and is the prize beyond measure.
As members of an obsessive success culture, executives are taking a hard look at the cost of success and how they bought into the dream of being mega-successful at any price. Early in our careers, many of us did not know that success could be joyless or would limit our basic freedoms—to choose, to express, to influence. We were not taught tools to help us choose a healthy “soulful” success instead of a heavily-burdened one.
As I work with highly successful executives who are polished ‘shiny and bright’ on the outside but are often tough and jaded on the inside, I invite them to redefine success by discovering their unique, individual essence. Success cannot and should not replace soul, but success can certainly be enriched with soul qualities. After all, success is simply an outcome. To fully empower our souls, we need to detach from the outcome of success and live to a song welling up from our inner silence.
In our high-tech, low-touch world, it is important to connect the dots between seemingly disparate elements. While it may seem counter-intuitive, there should be a connection between business and spirituality; profit and soul, head and heart. The time is right to bring these once separate elements into harmony with each other. It’s time to replace collapsing traditions and systems with exciting new ways of seeing and being.
The CEOs and leaders who work with me are highly competent and gifted executives who choose to integrate head and heart, to marry money and meaning, and to combine passion and profit. Together, we lighten the social and stereotypical baggage that burdens their experience of success. These executives inspire and surprise me with their courage to journey inward. They have learned to share spiritual essence in their relationships and businesses, and they know why this is incredibly life-affirming and “just good business.”
In the midst of a paradigm shift, the magnitude of which the world has never before seen, today’s executives are quickly redefining success. Freedom, joy and peace are states of being more and more leaders of the 21st Century are using as a new benchmark for their success. In short, they want “Success with Soul™.” From a healthy consciousness, a new kind of success can arise, a success that blends passion with compassion, one that is profitable at the same time. As we move into the Inspiration Age, the collective cries out for a new kind of dream, a global vision that combines financial prosperity with soulful peace within. Imagine a creative, life-affirming business made possible by leaders who mirror and embody spiritual values. It is happening more and more as demonstrated by the exemplary leaders highlighted in these pages.
When I think of soulful success, Warren Buffett comes to mind. I frequently mention his secret to success, and it bears repeating! Buffett identifies a key component of success as being surrounded by people you love and who love you. How ironic that one of the wealthiest men and best financial advisors in the world believes the most important factor in a successful life is love. Freely given, his best advice is pure gold.
Sea Change: CEOs with Soul
“The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.”
Since the early 1800s, CEOs have reflected their social, business, and spiritual environments. In the last century, CEO styles have transformed through many roles--from iron-fisted industrialist, to empire builder, to authoritarian, to tech bubble guru, to innovative team builder. Today, suddenly, the world seems to expect intangible, soulful qualities from CEOs. We need and expect corporate leaders to be brilliant across multiple dimensions.
Employees, the media, and the public are asking for more than a CEO’s social persona or business mask. They want to see and relate to an expression of a leader’s soul or personal essence so clearly embodied in brilliant business leaders like Truett Cathy, Oprah Winfrey, Richard Branson, Warren Buffett, Tony Hsieh, and spiritual revolutionaries like Martin Luther King, Jr., Nelson Mandela, Mother Teresa, and Maya Angelou. As the consciousness movement continues to expand, many executives are creating businesses in which profit and peace work together in a “both and” way. Today’s executive understands the importance of bringing inspiration as well as business acumen to the table.
Over the last twenty years, the motivational mandate to HAVE MORE and DO MORE has gradually shifted to an inner longing to BE MORE. Many CEOs may cringe at this trend, as “bringing soul” is not in their job description. But with the amazing legacy of a leader like Truett Cathy, it is clear his soulful inspiration is his differentiator. He puts soul into his vision of serving youth, and millions are grateful to him for demonstrating that profits and caring can and do work together.
In the wake of so much negative corporate exposure, new models for leadership are emerging. Conversation at executive luncheons and networking events all confirm the public perception. The position and title of CEO have been sullied. Much of today’s leadership is simply “greedership.” Many CEOs have earned a bad name and defiled the important position as they focused solely on profiteering at the expense of human values. Once a symbol of business royalty and executive exclusivity, the CEO title no longer automatically commands respect as in years past. If anything, the title can elicit negative associations of ruthless, dishonest, and arrogant personas. People are hungry for soul. We want to be inspired. The public yearns for leaders who inspire our lives and make success meaningful in a new way. We want visionary leaders who seamlessly combine profit and peace, creating conditions that elicit excellence through rich collaboration.
Soul—What Is It and Who Needs It?
Soul…“The seat of real life or vitality; the source of action; the animating or essential part.”
John Milton
It can be difficult to explain to rational types the need for more soul, especially when soul is essentially indefinable but unquestionably real. Throughout the ages, soul has been defined as that Divine spark in the human heart or the invisible self of a human being that contains vast wisdom. There is no “soul manual” or quick how–to book, but quantum physics validates what the sages have known for thousands of years. Awake or asleep, we each carry the cosmic intelligence within. Applicable to life, love, and business, the soul is an inexhaustible treasure.