Can tough economic times be the catalyst for strengthening relationships in an organization? Can tough times help an organization clarify and stay true to its values? Can tough times strengthen organizational performance?

Yes they can, if the leadership can help the organization stay deeply anchored in its soul in the midst of stormy seas. A leader must play two roles, must know how to be both a spiritual leader and a competent manager. These two roles rise to the fore in tough times more than in any other time.

At Pendle Hill, a Quaker study center near Philadelphia, the crash of the stock market in October 2008 significantly affected the endowment. Lauri Perman, Pendle Hill’s executive director, knew that Pendle Hill’s “biggest challenge was not financial but spiritual.”

Lauri knew that fear that arises and is not acknowledged in a group can become corrosive. In the midst of the financial crisis, Lauri had continued to practice meditation and prayer, both individually and corporately, at the daily Pendle Hill meetings for worship and in staff and committee meetings. Through these times, Lauri felt guided to address directly the fears of board members and managers when she met with them. She knew that her job “was to stand firm even when I was feeling buffeted.”

Through serving as a spiritual leader as well as a competent manager, Lauri invited the board and the management team to a deeper level. They moved below the “chop” at the surface of the water to a calmer place beneath, and made good decisions from the place of calm.

With both the board and the management team, in the months following the October 2008 crash, Lauri helped people work together from that place of calm. “We needed each other more than ever,” she reflected. “And we needed to make sure we could listen to one another very deeply. We needed to really have faith that, together, we had among us everything we needed.”

As she worked with the management team on the budget, facing questions of whether layoffs or salary cuts would be necessary, the group labored together, seeking the good of the whole organization. Ultimately, they found ways to decrease costs and increase income enough that layoffs and salary cuts proved unnecessary. By the time the staff learned that Pendle Hill would be able to move into the next year by committing to do without pay increases, by decreasing the employer contribution to health insurance to 80% of the cost for employees and children (and eliminating the employer contribution to spousal premiums) and by decreasing Pendle Hill’s contribution to retirement funds, some staff thanked the management team for their hard work and their commitment to the values of the organization.

The academic year ended with stronger relationships on the board, stronger relationships on the management team, and stronger relationships between the board and the management team. Pendle Hill’s values were clarified and reaffirmed in the budgeting process. And, because of the stronger relationships and the reaffirmation of values, morale remained good and the programs Pendle Hill offered were stronger than ever. Soulful leadership in tough economic times deepened and strengthened the organization.

Margaret Benefiel, Ph.D., author of "Soul at Work” and "The Soul of a Leader" works with leaders in healthcare, business, churches, government and non-profits to help them stay true to their souls. Visit her website at www.ExecutiveSoul.com. © Copyright 2009 by Margaret Benefiel.