The French philosopher Teilhard de Chardin once said, “we
are not human beings having a spiritual experience, we are spiritual beings
having a human experience.” This quote inspires me. It gives me great hope and
purpose. It generates meaning in a world where meaning is sometimes difficult
to make.
Unfortunately, the topic of spirituality is often considered
taboo in our society. It is especially taboo inside the corporate world. Much
care is taken to avoid the topic. We are afraid to open the topic because of
its close relation with religion.
I want to break the taboo and speak openly about
spirituality. It is a guiding force in my life. Because it can be a very
intangible topic it is difficult to define what it really is. Spirituality is
an enlightened focus on who we really are. It helps us understand the purpose
of our existence and to see things as they really are.
Because most levels of our society openly measures our
individual usefulness by what we do we are often blinded by an extreme
focus on producing results. We are so preoccupied with keeping our heads above
the water that most of our attention is focused on what we must do to survive.
Our obsession with doing is so powerful that it nearly consumes us, leaving
little energy left to ponder the true nature of our being. Yet the true power
behind what we do is who we are.
Corporate training courses consistently focus on teaching
the knowledge, skills and abilities people need in order to successfully do the
work required. Great value is also placed upon one’s ability to perceive,
assess, and manage the emotions of self and others.
It is very important for the corporate world to continue to
provide training for the development of cognitive and emotional intelligence.
Cognitive intelligence is about thinking. Emotional intelligence is about
feeling. Spiritual intelligence is about being. Cutting edge corporations are
now starting to focus some of their training resources on helping their people
become their best selves.
If you Google the term “emotional intelligence” you will
find over 3.2 million hits. The term “cognitive intelligence” yields 1.8
million. Spiritual Intelligence yields only 230,000 hits suggesting that the
field is now in an emerging state and yet to be fully defined. Much work is
needed to integrate this type of development into the corporate university’s
curriculum.
One of the pioneers of spiritual intelligence is David
King. His definition of spiritual
intelligence is as follows:
"spiritual intelligence is a set of adaptive mental
capacities specifically related to the nature of one’s existence, personal
meaning, transcendence, and heightened states of consciousness. When applied,
these processes are adaptive in their ability to facilitate unique means of
problem-solving, abstract-reasoning, and coping."
Many of our clients are discontinuing “employee
satisfaction” surveys in favor of
“employee engagement” surveys. They want to know how to engage employees
more fully in the organization. Many organizations hold up a generous total
rewards package as the key to engaging its employees. This is really only an
entry-level requirement. The matching and aligning of individual needs and
desires with the needs and desires of the organization is what truly breeds
engagement. Gallup’s 12-question survey on engagement continues to prove this
point.
The shiny prizes of the world including its pleasures,
power, praise, money, and preeminence—have always been and always will be
attractive. They are not enough. Those that reach the top, often find a dull
world devoid of meaning. The sacrifice to gain what the world has to offer
proves time and time again to be too steep a price to pay. Too many have
discovered too late in life that the pursuit of doing at the expense of being
yields only loneliness and despair.
The question of what is this human life experience really
all about is answered by and through the development of spiritual intelligence.
Its focus on personal meaning making insures that individuals know what they
want and that they know who they are. This enables the spiritually intelligent
individual to clearly express what they want to the organization. An
organization that focuses some of its resources on the development of spiritual
intelligence sends a clear message to its employee base that it cares about
them as individuals. One of our clients recently told us that after he reached
a certain point on the corporate latter, the organization stopped caring about
him as an individual and became solely focused on the results he was expected
to deliver. Many others have expressed the same. Of course the organization
would deny this, but that does not change that it is the message many
organizations are sending.
A person who possesses high levels of spiritual intelligence
easily identifies with his or her Higher Self or Spirit rather than with the
ego. They have less need to seek after their own interests. This fosters the
capacity to serve and develop others. What would the impact on an organization
be if its employees became so fully developed that they were able to put aside
the question “what’s in it for me?” and started asking “what can I do to help
develop others?”
Another benefit of spiritual development is a new standard
of personal accountability. Spiritual Intelligence encourages a person to take
100% responsibility for life, current situations, and self. This means no
blaming!
Nearly every organization we work with is concerned about
developing higher levels of accountability. A spiritually intelligent person is
empowered with a greater capacity for problem solving. It is natural for them
to cope better with stressful situations because they know that what they are
doing is only what they do and not who they are. As a result they are freer to
act and be, which results in greater productivity and engagement.
Each of us is blessed with a mind, a body, and a spirit—all
interconnected and when developed demonstrate that the whole truly is greater
than the sum of the parts. In the same way we can look at our intelligences.
The corporate world focuses the majority of its training
resources on the development of cognitive intelligence. In recent years a
larger investment is now being made in the development of emotional
intelligence while continuing to neglect the development of spiritual
intelligence.
As a company focused on evoking excellence in others we take
great responsibility for the complete development of our clients. We understand
that integration of intellect with emotional and spiritual growth produces the
complete and whole person.
"Health," "wholeness," and
"healing" all come from the same root. All of these come about
because of who we are and not because of what we do. We encourage you to look
for ways during this New Year to develop and use all of your talents. To be
spiritually intelligent is to be fully engaged in becoming the best you –
because it facilitates your ability to know exactly who the best you is.
The American poet Haniel Long wrote, “each of us is a being
in himself and a being in society, each of us needs to understand himself and
understand others, take care of others and be taken care of himself.” Spiritual
Intelligence allows us to do that and much more.
See you on the road!
Andrew Thorn
760-559-3548 Direct
athorn@telioscorp.com
