Spirituality and Business

Author: Dr. Cheryl Cottle

Spirituality and business is a modern day way of thinking about business. We often look at using the best management style to manage our business or identifying the best business strategies we can use, as well as our best customer service strategies — but we only think about them from the perspective of the bottom line of our business.

What drives the business and management approach that we use has not been given full thought. They are however driven by how we value and treat others. Our attitude and attributes play a large part in how we perceive others and threat them. Our love for others also play a great part in how we relate to others and facilitate our customer service, the relationships we formed with our clients and the other personnel that we relate to on a daily basis to keep our business going.

When I talk about spirituality, I am not talking about religion, I am not talking about belonging to a particular religion. It is about a way of doing business. It is a way of leading and managing your business. It is a way of managing your business from a human-centered perspective with love and respect at the core. It is a value system that you can ingrain in to your business. In addition, it can become a part of your business culture and be held by your employees and transcend your customers.  Here are some questions that you can ask your self if you have been able to integrate spirituality into your business:

1. What are some of the attributes or characteristics that one must have to acquire this stage of development? 
2. In what ways has my business benefited as a result of it and 
3. When your business has spirituality how does it affect your customer relations?

Research shows that a company, an organization or small business can integrate spirituality into their environment; and it is not difficult. Research also shows that if one uses an approach to business leadership that focuses on the human aspects of the organization or business, spirituality will be integrated into it. The research also suggests that a "transformational leadership style" will serve to achieve it. Further a decision-making model that looks at the business objectives, the people that your serve (customers) and employees, your profit, and a social/environmental /community contribution, is a design plan that can best meet one's need in bringing spirituality into one's business. 

As a system analyst and an expert in the adoption of a change program into organizations (companies & small businesses), a design plan that includes all four areas will facilitate the integration of spirituality into any business type. The customers and employees must also be included, therefore using a humanistic approach to decision making would facilitate it. In this model, all the areas has to be given the same weight in the decision making phase and through the implementation phase. In making a decision that this is what I want or this is where I want my business to go, all four must be assessed and given equal weight; and the decision making around them must also be done in a proactive methodology. 

Included is a pod cast from the discussion with Dr. Cottle's interview and Donya Zimmerman on Women in Business Radio on the topic of "The importance of spirituality and business: How important is it?.

Check Out Business Podcasts at Blog Talk Radio with Dr Cheryl Cottle on BlogTalkRadio

Mental and Physical Wellness

 Author: Dr. Cheryl Cottle

Mental and physical wellness is a concern that women should have, particularly women in business because we lead multifaceted lives — lives that are complex and very busy. Our lives as a business woman entails that we know our business. It involves working "in" our businesses and "on" our businesses. It entails working and facilitating the everyday operation of your business as well as working on the continued development of your business. As business women, we are also expected to be successful — there isn't any room for failure. In addition to what vocation we may engage in — we are also wives, mothers and caregivers to our parents, and we also serve as community leaders. 

By leading very busy lives, you often neglect who you are. You very often find yourself at the bottom of your daily to-do-list. Finding a balance is sometimes difficult to achieve — finding balance between your mental and physical health and well being is sometimes difficult for many of us to achieve, resulting in us crashing, or becoming burn-out. In order not to get burn-out and crash, you must pause to look after your mental and physical well-being, or risk the chance of becoming ill — and the chance of having the other aspects of your life that you strive to outperform in, fail.

We are aware that our mental and physical health and well-being is influenced by the way that society sees women. There are a lot of social expectations on what a successful woman is. She is not judged by the same standards that her male counterpart is judged. A man is primarily judged by how well he performs in his job or business. The focus is not on whether he is a great husband, a caring father, or a devoted son to his parent, or even if he contributes to his community's growth. Whereas a woman is judged not only by her job performance, or the success that she achieves in her business, but also how well her performances are as a mother, caregiver and also in her role of community leader.

A woman has to meet the requirements of multiple roles within society. Having so many standards of performance to meet, can result in her becoming burnout and becoming sick. Having to conform to the norms and expectations of society can be very stressful in itself, and not just working very hard and very long hours without a focus on you, must have a negative impact upon your mental and physical health and well-being. While, hard work and attempting to achieve the accepted notion of success and continuing to achieve the highest standard of performance, will result in poor mental and physical health. 

While society's norms and beliefs, together with the debilitating negative limiting beliefs that we have, impact our health and mental well-being negatively; there are also other factors that affect us — and it is a global social phenomenon. For many women entrepreneur, finance is often a problem that we have that affect our cash flow and the resources that we need to grow our businesses. We also have to deal with many other challenges, including divorce and or dealing with the death and loss of our parents. Dealing with life challenges can have a devastating effect on your health and well-being, resulting in you becoming ill. Many of us prefer to deal with sickness by wishing it away, and seems to believe that if we do not think about it or talk about it, it will not come our way. It comes regardless and what happens if it comes or you become disabled?

You should have a continuous cash flow to support your business to help you to also defray your medical bills. If we find that we are over working and it is having an effect on our mental and physical well being, visit your physician. Don't wait until it's too late. Maybe an early visit may prove an early intervention and be a preventative measure against anything serious. You can also talk with a professional — a personal coach, counsellor, psychologist or psychiatrist could be a great help and prevent the onset of sickness. In addition, there are also several self-care practices that you can integrate into your life if you only pause to include you into your to-do-list. Walking, meditating, stretching, exercise, swimming, a visit to your local spa, or hair dresser are some things that you can do to prevent an onset of burnout and to maintain your mental and physical well-being.

You can read this article that was published in our volume I of Simply Inspirational for Women in Business Journal™ entitled: Creating a Balance: Things to do.