Mind, Body, Heart and Spirit: Leader Transformation and the Coming into Being of the Leader’s Creative Vision

Abstract

This article aims to explore and discuss how the leader’s creative vision comes into being within the leader and how it triggers the attainment of organizational transformation. Adopting the embedded multiple case study approach, three descriptive cases (organizational transformation initiatives) were selected for the analysis. In-depth interviews were carried out with the leader of the organizational transformation initiatives and fifteen respondents involved in the transformations. Westley and Mintzberg’s Visionary Leadership Theory and Brook’s Theorem on Transformation were used as the theoretical lenses of the study. Findings indicate the transformation process through which the leader’s creative vision comes into being as an outcome of a ‘whole-person’ transformation involving the mind, body, heart, and spirit of the leader, which passes through the states of ‘active desire’, ‘intent’, ‘confidence’, and finally ‘action’ when the leader’s creative vision is shared with the followers. The contribution of these findings to theory and practice are also discussed.