Your 168

CHAPTER 10FAITH AND SPIRITUALITY: STRENGTH AT THE CORE

My faith is very important to me, to the point that I have a specific bucket to allocate time for prayer and spiritual practice each week. In discussing this, though, it's not my intention to preach or try to convince someone to see things my way. Whether you have a bucket for faith and spirituality is up to you—just like it's your choice as to how to define each of your life buckets. I'm writing this chapter the same way I approach faith and spirituality in my classes on values-based leadership at Kellogg: I share my personal experiences while being sensitive and respectful to the faith traditions, spiritual practices, and perspectives of others.

By being open about my faith and spirituality, I can make it safe and welcoming for others to express and explore their own. No matter how different our perspectives and practices—even when I'm talking with someone who is an agnostic or atheist—as we frame our discussion around living a values-based life, there is much common ground.

Here's how it usually happens in my leadership classes: in the first session of every quarter, I introduce the importance of self-reflection and being self-aware, just as I did in the first chapter of this book. I encourage students to practice turning off the noise and engaging in 15 minutes of reflection daily. I am happy to leave it at that. Then someone usually asks, “How do you do that?” and the conversation goes a little deeper into my daily ...