Attending to the Soul of your Organization
Are you attending to the soul of your organization? As entrepreneurs we are uniquely positioned to attend to our organization’s purpose.
“No one knows the heart and soul of your company better than you do. So you become a steward for your company, where it’s your responsibility to be able to birth and to protect your company’s soul mission. I believe that every company has a soul purpose and that we’re the guardians of that as the entrepreneur. When we truly align with divine order, there are no limits to our ability to serve”. Janie Hoffman, founder and CEO of Mamma Chia.
Soul work is a path towards the potential of your organization’s mission and the engagement of your team. Attending to the soul of your organization is attending to the purpose, mission, passion and energy of your work.
Let’s use the incarnation of the human soul as a map to gain an understanding of how organizational souls are incarnated into being, their energetic components, and practices to best nurture them.
Souls are energy, manifest into form. Every organization, company, nonprofit, etc. started as a dream, with a purpose to fulfill. This dream of possibility called upon human beings to bring it into being – to birth it into existence. Chances are, when we receive this call, we are filled with enthusiasm, inspiration, motivation and drive to bring our dream into being.
The soul of an organization is brought into form through our thoughts, words, actions and creations. It may be made manifest online, or in a brick and mortar building. It lives within us, and within each of the people who work within the organization. It is reflected in our mission and vision statements. The soul work of an organization is to fulfill its purpose – the WHY of its existence.
Our job as leaders is to bring the unmanifest into form, and tend to the soul of our organization, through aligning our team around the passion, purpose and possibility of our work. We want everyone on our team to see their personal values connected to and expressed in and through the company. Soul alignment is when our thoughts, words, actions, products and emotions align.
Tips for attending to the Soul of your organization:
Align your team: The mission and vision of your organization depends upon the alignment of your team to its values and purpose. It is essential for people to feel their work has purpose and meaning. Alignment drives productivity and efficiency. This is not a top down exercise. It must authentically come from the inside out.
Practice integrity: It is not enough to posit a theory and practice only when convenient. True soul alignment is what we say we value, and what we practice are the same, whether everyone is watching, or no one is. Our values, mission and purpose must be matched with our words, feelings, thoughts, actions, processes and products.
Invest in your organization’s wellbeing: Both individually and organizationally, attending to wellbeing is essential for health, energy and vitality. The well must be filled in order to be drawn from. Assess both the individual and organizational wellbeing through the 7 domains: social, physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, financial, and environmental. How healthy and happy are the people who work in your organization? The ROI of wellbeing is exponential.
Pay attention to how it feels: The feeling one gets at work, with their colleagues, the energy in the building, the energy that comes from doing the work is the key to walking the path of alignment with the organizational soul. We know when we are off track in our personal lives by how we feel, and this is true for organizations. Dissonance in the workplace is always an opportunity to come back into alignment. Pay attention to interpersonal dynamics, educate and model kindness, caring, deep listening with your executives, colleagues and direct reports. If your workplace is feeling like a dysfunctional middle school of gossip, backbiting and power plays, invest in some professional guidance.
Clear and harmonize the space: The Chinese art and science of feng sui is an understanding of the energy of spaces. A space holds energy, and it emanates it as well. Simple practices for clearing a space involve smudging, rearranging furniture and other items. It is said that if you really want to change the feeling in a room, move 17 items. Add plants, color, natural light. Pay attention to all the senses – touch, taste, sound, feeling and sight. Better yet, create your space with intention.
Practice presence: It really is a practice. Stop the multitasking. Show up fully for every meeting, conference call, email. It actually is more efficient. Whatever you are doing, breathe. Take time to connect to the quiet center within, and bring this awareness into the demands of work – like a hummingbird – practice stillness in flight.
Invest consciously: know the impact of the financial choices you make. Take care of the environment and each other. “How we use money is an expression of who we are and all that we believe. Put your money where your heart is. Give yourself permission to invest in what you care about.” Joel Solomon, author of The Clean Money Revolution.
When an organization comes out of alignment, when the words, actions, thoughts and feelings do not match, we can experience a soul loss within the organization. Both individually and organizationally, soul loss comes from trauma. Something happens, and we develop coping mechanisms to compensate, to keep us safe, to keep the “bad” event from ever happening again. We start to organize our processes, our strategies and tactics around the wounding.
The Soul of the organization desires to be aligned with its purpose and mission, not the wounding.
“Soul loss is felt as fragmentation and disconnection.” Sandra Ingerman, author of Soul Retrieval
Addressing soul loss at the organizational level:
Acknowledge and honor the wounding: Acknowledge the difficulty, the feelings, what happened and the affect that it has had. Bring the hurt out of the shadows and into the light of awareness.
Connect: give members of your team an opportunity to share, grieve and heal.
Learn from the loss: what are the hidden gems and gifts that have come from the difficult situation? Witness, honor and claim the gifts.
Track for the healed state of the organization – what does it look like whole. Reflect upon what the organization needs to come into vitality and alignment.
Continue to practice the values of your organization from the inside out. Ultimately, the healing of the soul of the organization is a practice of coming into integrity and connection.
Need help? Contact me for a consultation. marychrista@consciouscoalitionconsulting.com
