Quehl offers several specific suggestions concerning how a leader can begin to “work spiritually smarter.” Suffice it to say that future understanding of effective appreciative leadership functions and the experience of being an appreciative leader may require re-examination of the spiritual foundations that support contemporary organizations. It may also require that we come to recognize and appreciate the spiritual roles that have always been played by those who are privileged and burdened with the responsibility of leadership.
Concluding Comments
I have laid out a formidable set of developmental tasks for contemporary leaders in this set of essays. We must appreciate the many challenges associated with leadership in a 21st Century context and cut our leaders some slack as they figure out how best to meet these challenges. But there are great rewards associated with great leadership. When we are doing our best work as appreciative leaders, and when we are making full use of appreciative strategies, then we will be in a position to release an enormous reservoir of human capital in our organization. This capital is indispensable to the newly born world of the 21st Century. Without this capital, we can’t possibly solve the problems that inevitably arise from the complexity, unpredictability and turbulence of our new century.
Given the leadership challenges that I have identified in this final set of essays about appreciative leadership, perhaps it is best to close with a wish. Or is it a prayer? May we all succeed in serving a fundamental sacred function . . . . the appreciative release of human capital in our organizations and in our societies.
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