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Invoking the spiritual in campus life and leadership
5. They do not depend only on themselves for the vision of the organization or the cause to which they are committed.
6. They use power ethically and can give it away without feeling a loss of self.
7. They do not project pain or addiction on others-they recognize and mediate their shadow side.
8. They create conditions that release human possibility and creativity.
9. They are life-giving. (Hagberg, 1994; Lopez, 1995; Zohar, 1997).
If all of us in student affairs were to lead from our souls in our work, how might we shape the climate of higher education institutions to enhance the sense of wholeness, connection, and community for all members? How might the use of our spiritual intelligence create a workplace where our multiple selves can be expressed? Soul leaders in student affairs need to attend to infrastructures that will allow the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of faculty, administrators, staff, and students to be tapped and applied to the work of the university. What might some of these infrastructures comprise?
Soul Leaders Open Space Where a Democratic, Caring Community can be Envisioned and Cocreated With All Members
Spiritually intelligent student affairs leaders, grounded in a sense of connectedness, intimacy with community, and the penchant for giving power away, collaborate with all institution members to create a vibrant community, the kind of community that Boyer (1990) and Tierney (1993) described. Soul leaders in student affairs operate in service to a vision of campus life that incorporates community in every aspect. Tierney laid out the daunting challenges that this commitment entails:
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The democratic community revolves around contradictions. We search for commonalties while encouraging difference. We seek community through conflict. We act as leaders by following. We develop voice by listening. We learn about ourselves by trying to understand others. We develop goals by concentrating on processes. We teach about norms while we encourage new members to change them. (p. 143)
This kind of community work-living with paradox, owning the views of reality that shape one's thinking, suspending one's assumptions so that one can hear the needs and desires of the Other, making oneself vulnerable, accentuating difference rather than suppressing it, acting in ways that are just and equitable for all-calls on student affairs leaders to transcend their own ego needs. Student affairs leaders have to rise above their individual desires and perspectives and take a broader view. Spiritual intelligence can inform this kind of community work allowing student affairs leaders to move beyond favored paradigms to change entrenched structures and transform patterns of thought. Student affairs leaders who are grounded in spirituality, model a commitment to equity and justice. If communities of difference are to exist, spiritually intelligent student affairs leaders know that they must be committed to working with others to make it happen.
