The Pope (Retd) is to spend the rest of his days quietly in the Vatican’s Mater Ecclesiae nunnery (sans nuns). It may be that a scandal has yet to emerge, which would explain a little better why this pope really decided to retire, the first to do so in 600 years. But if he has genuinely decided to throw in the towel on grounds of ill-health, he may have just performed his most important act as a global leadership role model. His exit contains valuable insight for those in any sacred or secular profession, particularly where a role has become vocational.
I have just been reviewing an article on spirituality in management for a management journal. In many ways it was a useful contribution to the growing corpus in this field, but I was struck by the author’s easy commitment to the orthodoxy that spirituality naturally leads to ‘spiritual behaviour,’ which in turn can be measured in order to decide whether or not facilitating spirituality at work makes good sense. Read More
