Spiritual Intelligence – what makes a virtuous leader?
In my conversation with Cindy Wigglesworth, creator of the magnificent assessment instrument for Spiritual Intelligence, for the podcast to be released on October 31st, she spoke about her definition of what it means to be spiritual.
The innate human need to be connected with something larger than self.
I find it hard not to feel there is something larger than self every single time I witness the sun rise, swim in the ocean, run in the forest, look at the stars, or watch my dog play at the park.
Nature, beauty, love…they all floor me completely.
Cindy began her quest with an inquiry about what makes the Mandelas, Gandhis, and Kings of the world so different from us? How do we even begin to approach their level of leadership?
What makes a virtuous leader? A noble leader?
Who is running their choices? Their small ego, or their higher self?
From this inquiry she saw that Spiritual Intelligence, or the ability to behave with wisdom and compassion with inner and outer peace regardless of the consequences...was a leadership skill worth aspiring to.
That indeed, if we had any aspiration to this kind of intelligence…wisdom, compassion, peace… no matter what…the journey to THAT would be worth it.
The leaders from the organisations featured in Frederic Laloux’s remarkable book, Reinventing Organisations (see the podcast here), all have high SQ. To run the type of organisations they have created requires a high SQ. Hugo Spowers, Founder and Chief Architect of Riversimple, featured in the podcast on October 24, 2014, has a high SQ.
If this is something you aspire to as a leader, then I have an opening for two people who are highly committed to this journey. It is the most extraordinary, often challenging, beautiful journey. It is a profound privilege for me to work with you to move towards a higher SQ and in so doing create an enterprise that serves the well-being of all. This has been my foundation work for the last 17 years.
Photo credit: Ronounours via Compfight
