The Soul of Leadership: Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness [Hardcover]

Deepak Chopra (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 28, 2010

Leadership is the most crucial choice one can make—it is the decision to step out of darkness into the light.
 
   Bestselling author and spiritual guide Deepak Chopra invites you to become the kind of leader most needed today: a leader with vision who can make that vision real. Chopra has been teaching leadership to CEOs and other top executives for eight years, and the path outlined in The Soul of Leadership applies to any business, but the same principles are relevant in every community and area of life, from family and home to school, place of worship, and neighborhood. “At the deepest level,” Chopra writes, “a leader is the symbolic soul of a group.”
   
   With clear, practical steps, you are led through the crucial skills outlined in the acronym L-E-A-D-E-R-S:
L = Look and Listen
E = Emotional Bonding
A = Awareness
D = Doing
E = Empowerment
R = Responsibility
S = Synchronicity
   
   After identifying your own soul profile and the core values you want to develop, you can use these seven skills to allow your potential for greatness to emerge. Only from the level of the soul, Chopra contends, are great leaders created. Once that connection
is made, you have unlimited access to the most vital qualities a leader can possess: creativity, intelligence, organizing power, and love.
   
   The Soul of Leadership aims to fill the most critical void in contemporary life, the void of enlightened leaders. “You can be such a leader,” Chopra promises. “The path is open to you. The only requirement is that you learn to listen to your inner guide.” In this unique handbook you are shown how to do just that, in words as practical as they are uplifting. The future is unfolding at this very minute, and the choice to lead it lies with each of us, here and now.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Mindfulness, meditation, and awareness of the power of emotions is helpful in every area of life, and now, after 55 books, Chopra offers a succinct guide that employs his principles and specifically addressing managers. With a focus on spirituality, Chopra analyzes problems faced in the workplace and offers guidance for reversing negative attitudes and fostering a harmonious office environment. The examples he gives are realistic, his analogies are often compelling, and the exercises he outlines are always clear and helpful. Chopra has coined a terrific acronym-L.E.A.D.E.R.S.-for his leadership system, starting with "Look and Listen" and ending with "Synchronicity." And the stories of two leaders who made millions following the deepest inclinations of their souls (which Chopra argues is the only path to true success) make this leadership system appear deceptively simple to employ. Its basis is the idea that true leaders use their power to achieve visionary goals, but a leader must also have integrity. Chopra brings deep meaning to the discussion, rebranding success as something far beyond financial gain, which seems wise in light of recent economic events.
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Review

“I greatly enjoyed Deepak's newest book The Soul of Leadership.  From the chapter on synchronicity on, I couldn't put it down.  It's got so many quality ideas that it must be read a second time. The book inspired me to become a better leader.”
—George Zimmer, Men's Wearhouse
 
“The Soul of Leadership unfolds as an exceptional guide for remembering how to access the peace and clarity the soul brings to any vision, decision, action, or non-action. Deepak Chopra’s latest book lights the way to 21st century leadership, where consciousness, love and compassion redefine the locus of power in relationships and organizations. A truly aware leader in touch with his or her soul will always be in the flow of the world. Like a tuned-in kayaker in white water, when you are in the middle of it, you continually contribute your own creativity and good intentions to the overall flow, while inspiring and empowering your team to do the same.”
—John Mackey, co-CEO Whole Foods Market
 
“Leadership begins at home and in the heart. Deepak Chopra offers not only a blueprint, a step by step guide to releasing the power of leadership within each of us, but a powerful call to action. By evolving toward an ever higher level of spiritual awareness, we have the capacity to change our lives and the world itself. An insightful, inspirational and much needed book.”
—William Cohen, Former United States Secretary of Defense

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Harmony; 1 edition (December 28, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 030740806X
• ISBN-13: 978-0307408068
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.9 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,016 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Deepak Chopra, M.D.
Founder of The Chopra Foundation
Senior Scientist, The Gallup Organization
www.deepakchopra.com
www.facebook.com/DeepakChopraCommunity
www.twitter.com/deepakchopra

As a global leader and pioneer in the field of mind-body medicine, Chopra transforms the way the world views physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social wellness. Known as a prolific author of over sixty books with eighteen New York Times best sellers in both the fiction and non fiction categories.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Time to Step Up!, December 29, 2010

By 

Lissa Coffey, Host of coffeytalk.com "DoshaDiva" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Soul of Leadership: Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness (Hardcover)

"The Soul of Leadership" is a guidebook that not only encourages us to step up and take a leadership role in our lives and our communities, it shows us exactly how to do it. Deepak Chopra based this book on a course that he teaches at Kellogg's School of Business at Northwestern University. We may not be so lucky as to be able to take his class at this prestigious school, but we can read the book, and benefit from the wisdom in it. I'd like to see every college student have this book as required reading. The potential for greatness is within each one of us. By accessing it we help ourselves, and the world. Isn't that what we need right now?

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Spiritual Leadership in the Real World, February 27, 2011

By 

Sampo Kaasila "Author of Spiritual Stepping S... - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Soul of Leadership (Kindle Edition)

This book is inspired by a course that Deepak Chopra teaches at Kellogg's School of Business at Northwestern University. It is full of great wisdom and practical advice.

Chopra points out that a great leader has a vision that inspires others, and the ability manifest this vision. Where does this ability to manifest a vision come from? It comes from knowing your spiritual self and from being aligned with and rooted in a place of inner peace, love and joy on the level of the soul. Both emotional and spiritual intelligence are needed. Additionally a leader needs to understand and know how to meet the different levels of needs within the group.

A great leader leads the group towards evolution instead of stagnation, towards an increase in the group's consciousness instead of a decrease, towards expansion instead of constriction, and towards serving the souls purpose instead of the opposite. Chopra also warns against leadership traps such as: obsessing over risk, avoiding problems, not being in tune with the groups needs, not taking responsibility for bad decisions and their consequences, blaming others and making excuses, craving approval and reassurance, not delegating authority - or delegating but still keeping a tight grip on all decisions, looking out more for yourself than the group, only listening to a few select voices, lying or covering up the truth.

The book guides you with Chopra's L-E-A-D-E-R-S formula:
-Look and Listen both inside and outside of you on the level of body, mind heart, and the soul, and ask the right questions.
-Emotionally bond with employees and customers and form real relationships. Employees need to feel they are truly part of the business, so deep motivation, and a sense of purpose and loyalty can form.
-Awareness is important so you can be conscious of who you are and of your impact on others, as well as the role of the business in the world. Intuition allows the leader to go beyond logic and reason, but still use those for justification.
-Do and be action oriented. Allow your vision to come to life.
-Empowerment beyond the ego level ("I", "me", and "mine") motivates and enables both you and employees to contribute.
-Responsibility is the freedom to choose and make changes. Allow employees the freedom to take their own risks. This means allowing both your own and employees' growth and expansion.
-Synchronicity is generated from the level of the soul, and it purposefully paves the way for the change you are looking for. This goes far beyond good luck.

Read this book so you can learn to know yourself and increase your ability to manifest change in an effective way, both inside and in the world. Allow yourself to move towards greatness!

Spiritual Stepping Stones - Kindle Edition, Spiritual Stepping Stones - Paperback Edition.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Leadership as it should be, January 5, 2011

By 

Gerry Hartigan "Author, speaker, coach and ma... (Virginia, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Soul of Leadership: Unlocking Your Potential for Greatness (Hardcover)

As a great fan of Deepak's I was thrilled to read this book. He brings the elements of leadership to the fore as a spiritual as well as practical issue. You cannot separate a leader from what he or she is like on the inside and what their foundation is because out of that flows their decisions and actions.

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in leadership as well as to all managers in the business world. There is much here to provoke your thinking.