I got word today that both my proposals for the International Leadership Association's (ILA) International Conference have been accepted. The conference will take place in Vancouver, Canada during November of this year. I am really pleased and grateful for this acceptance since these proposals reflect some of my thinking and writing that took place after my trip to India earlier this year. I came back from the conference in Spirituality and Organizational Leadership at the University of Delhi with a renewed sense of the importance to explore sin in Leadership and the promise of moral regeneration that the Gospel of Jesus offers to leaders. Here follows the abbreviated abstracts of my presentations:
Presentation 1: Leadership Sins: Towards an understanding of Leadership Failure.
Moral developments during the advent of Christian-Judaic Monastic traditions provided early faith communities and organizations with a diagnostic matrix to understand, identify and remedy moral failure. Applying insights drawn from a philosophical and ontological exploration of sin to contemporary leadership contexts provides leadership scholar and practitioners with a conceptual base to locate and identify the contributing factors of moral failure in leadership and in doing so to strategically construct programs and environments that will facilitate the formation of moral leadership in organizations. This presentation aims to illustrate how a critical examination of our historical and philosophical roots can assist in addressing the myriad problems and implications of leadership failure.
Presentation 2: Leading from the Desert: The Christian Monastery as a Spiritual Organization.
Christian Monasticism has its origin in the organizational and societal crisis of the Church in the fourth century of the Common Era. The Desert Fathers and Mothers Movements of this time understood that societal and organizational development is only possible once personal inner transformation has taken place. In a theological sense they followed the call of the Spirit into the Egyptian and Palestinian deserts in an attempt to imitate Jesus as he faced certain leadership temptations in preparation for societal service. These Desert Fathers and Mothers constructed a diagnostic matrix in their quest to describe an ontology of leadership sin and in doing so provided the early Christian Communities with a conceptual framework for personal and organizational renewal and transformation. The word monk from this time came from the Greek word "monos" which at the same time means "one/alone" and "united". Thus, a leader could only be united with the followers in t he community/organization once he/she was able to be healthily alone, interiorly integrated and transformed. This presentation builds on the ancient wisdom of the beginnings of Christian monasticism and illustrates the principles of building healthy and effective spiritually-based organizations led by integrated and grounded leaders.
