Spirituality For Managers

What Is Spirituality And Why It Matters

Many leaders today sit at the pinnacle of achievement yet sense an invisible depletion. They’ve mastered metrics but lost meaning. They are efficient, not fulfilled. The heart of leadership has gone quiet. Spirituality, once dismissed as a private concern or religious matter, is re-emerging as a crucial dimension of effective leadership. But how do we remove millennia of dogma and superstition and transform spirituality into a way of living.

What Is Spirituality (and Isn’t)?

Spirituality is often mistaken for religion, moralism, or escapism. But spirituality, in its psychological sense, is not a belief system but the way we make connection to something bigger than us. Psychologist Kenneth Pargament defines spirituality as “the search for the sacred,” a process through which people seek ultimate significance and coherence in their lives (Pargament, 2013).

Empirical research backs this up. Studies show that individuals who experience a sense of meaning or transcendence demonstrate higher wellbeing, stronger ethical awareness, and lower burnout (Steger, 2012; Emmons, 1999). In the workplace, such meaning-making translates to greater resilience and moral integrity.

Without a sense of deeper connection, whether to people, purpose, or principle, leadership becomes performative: all crown, no pulse. As one colleague once put it, when such a connection is present, people function like phones on a 5G network (fast, responsive, and full of energy). But when connection is missing, they slip into a 2G state (disconnected, sluggish, and limited in capacity), which is where most companies are.

The Inner Compass of the Leader

So what does this mean to you? A helpful metaphor is the difference between an external GPS and an internal compass. The GPS can tell you where to go, but it is your internal compass that will show you where you need to go or how to enjoy the trip. True leadership is not the art of commanding followers but of aligning with truth. The inner compass is that felt sense of integrity which orients action toward coherence rather than convenience.

Neuroscience research on mindfulness and prefrontal regulation shows that leaders who cultivate reflective awareness engage more empathy, long-term planning, and ethical reasoning (Davidson & Kabat-Zinn, 2004). In short: self-transcendence rewires the executive brain. When this happens you are not moved by petty ego nudges or peer pressure. Your are your own person.

Imagine a manager facing a painful downsizing decision. The ego asks, “How do I protect myself?” The spiritual compass asks, “What future can I create where the best wellbeing for all is created? This may not mean stopping the downsizing but rather changing the approach of what you are trying to achieve. Through your inner compass you can access intelligence that is beyond your current understanding and bring a sense of clarity far beyond what you though possible.

Spiritual Intelligence as Strategic Competence

Zohar and Marshall (2000) defined SQ as “the intelligence with which we address questions of value and meaning.” If emotional intelligence (EQ) taught us how to empathise, spiritual intelligence (SQ) teaches us how to contextualise. It is the capacity to situate daily actions within a larger frame of meaning.

Leaders with high SQ display humility, compassion, and an ability to integrate paradox, qualities increasingly recognised as vital in complex, adaptive systems (Wigglesworth, 2012). They see business not merely as a mechanism for profit but as a living ecosystem where every decision resonates through people, communities, and the planet.

Studies in organisational psychology reveal that meaning-oriented leadership correlates strongly with team engagement, trust, and psychological safety (Fry, 2003). In other words, when leaders operate from a sense of sacred purpose, teams become more coherent and creative. This is not idealism, it is strategy. The best leaders are not simply efficient; they are lucid. When they connect to spirit, the spreadsheets start to make sense again.

5 Steps Towards Spirituality For Managers

Leadership, at its deepest level, is the art of remembering what we serve. Spirituality in leadership is not about withdrawing from the world but meeting it more truthfully. It invites leaders to trade the armour of performance for the vulnerability of presence, to turn attention inward not as retreat but as recalibration. If you would like to explore this approach, here is a practical set of steps you can do:

1. Step 1: Create Space for Inner Listening: the reason you are too busy for life is because you do not give space to listen to what truly matters. You follow the noise. Create a daily 5 minute practice where you ask: What truly matters today? How will I bring life to myself, those around me and to the world?

2. Step 2: Align the Inner and Outer: Become aware of what you value and what is important to you, not personally but at work as well. Ask yourself how could you stay true to what you believe and achieve the targets that were set. You would be surprised of what emerges.

3. Step 3: Lead Through Coherence: when you lead with coherence a shift happens. First people will feel repulsed that you have changed. Second, those who do not believe in you will move away or you will move away from what doesn't matter. Third, you will find yourself in a place that looks more aligned to you than before. The question is are ready to risk the safety of misery & fakery for what truly matters?

4. Step 4: Integrate Coherence Into Systems: no, you do not have to be a CEO or manager to do this. Start aligning what you do and who you are deep inside. Many people will say who I am is the one sitting on the beach with fu** you money. The reason people are seeking this is because they believe that once they have money they will be free. But free to do what? To get all the pleasures of the world that will make you feel lonelier and more miserable. Pleasure is not fulfillment. In fact the more you satisfy pleasure the more the desire for it grows.

5. Step 5: Challenge What You, Others & Society Believes: all the heros in the spiritual traditions were not weak men or women. They challenged what they found. At first it may sound daunting, but then it is liberating and joyful.

Spirituality in leadership is not about becoming more “mystical.” It’s about becoming more real. When a leader’s inner life becomes coherent, the organisation itself starts to breathe differently, meetings get lighter, decisions clearer, and relationships truer. As one could say: the leader’s presence is the organisation’s vibe. The true crown, it turns out, is invisible. It rests not on the head, but on the rhythm of a heart that remembers what it serves.

References

1. Davidson, R. J., & Kabat-Zinn, J. (2004). Alterations in brain and immune function produced by mindfulness meditation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 66(4), 564–570.

2. Emmons, R. A. (1999). The psychology of ultimate concerns: Motivation and spirituality in personality. Guilford Press.

3. Fry, L. W. (2003). Toward a theory of spiritual leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 14(6), 693–727.

4. Pargament, K. I. (2013). The psychology of religion and coping: Theory, research, practice. Guilford Press.

5. Perls, F., Hefferline, R., & Goodman, P. (1951). Gestalt therapy: Excitement and growth in the human personality. Julian Press.

6. Steger, M. F. (2012). Making meaning in life. Psychological Inquiry, 23(4), 381–385.

7. Wigglesworth, C. (2012). SQ21: The twenty-one skills of spiritual intelligence. Select Books.

8. Zohar, D., & Marshall, I. (2000). SQ: Connecting with our spiritual intelligence. Bloomsbury.