7 Things Monks Can Teach You About Leadership

Recently I attended my first retreat at St. Anthony’s Greek Orthodox monastery having received a blessing to stay for 3 nights. The monastery, which covers over 100 acres in the Sonoran Desert, is dedicated to St. Anthony the Great, the father of monasticism. There is a main church, several unique chapels, living quarters for the monks, the dining hall and guest facilities. A vegetable garden, a small vineyard, citrus orchards and an olive grove dot the landscape. An elaborate system of gardens, pathways and gazebos with Spanish fountains truly create an oasis in the desert.

The monastery follows the rule of monastic life: a brotherhood of monks and novices holding all things in common follow a daily schedule of prayer and work under obedience to the abbot, their spiritual father. There are over 40 monks there today.

Most striking to me was that the monks are totally committed and focused on the task at hand and do not spend time looking over each other’s shoulders. They have a direction in life and the abbot sets overarching goals for what they need to achieve on a daily basis.

What we can learn from the monks is a leadership philosophy that is underpinned by these 7 basic principles:

1. A high overarching mission that is worthy of being served.
2. Selflessness. At St. Anthony’s the mission is so noble and well articulated that the monks are inspired to focus on it selflessly.
3. A commitment to excellence. At St. Anthony’s monastery every grain of incense and basket of olives is packaged with a “prayerful attitude”.
4. Dedication to the highest ethical standards.
5. Faith. The monks faithfully serve their mission while trusting that the monastery will take care of itself.
6. Trust. This is perhaps the most important element of a harmonious, synergistic and efficient environment.
7. Living the life. Monks follow a rigorous methodology for constantly reinforcing these principles.

Does your organization live any of these principles?

Total Rewards: How to Set your Workforce Programs Back to the Future

How do you attract the right talent, motivate, grow and engage employees and ensure employee retention?

Widely known as “total rewards”, this term has been used by HR practitioners for well over 10 years to describe an array of financial and non-financial ways to invest in a company’s workforce in order to attract, engage and keep the people it needs to achieve business success.

There is renewed interest in the concept of total rewards as organizations are under significant pressure to deliver on business commitments in the face of economic challenges, global competitive pressures and a shortage of talent in key labour markets. In order to find and keep the right talent, top companies have learned that they need to differentiate themselves from their competitors in ways that go far beyond salary and incentives.

1. Begin by reviewing, and if necessary, redefining, your compensation and rewards philosophy. You may find that you are currently taking a “scattered” approach to rewarding employees instead of looking at your workforce programs as integrated investments that relate to one another with complementary purposes and desired outcomes.
2. Work with your internal financial experts to assess and quantify your total investment in workforce programs to ensure that it is affordable and meets business needs. Allocate your scarce dollars where you get the biggest bang for the buck!
3. Create a total rewards framework that is nimble, reflects your culture and can readily adapt to changes in your business strategy and composition of your workforce over time. Consider rewards including pay, benefits, career, work

Identifying the essential elements of a 21st century total rewards strategy for your organization and implementing that strategy requires focus, experimentation and flexibility. The pay-offs are many including giving you a distinct competitive advantage by helping to link desired employee behaviour with business goals and by creating an engaged and productive workforce.