Sarah offers five reasons why all business owners and managers need to tap into their innate ‘Spiritual Intelligence’ if they really want their business to thrive.
Within each and every one of us is a valuable resource, a font of wisdom and an intelligence that goes beyond all that we have learned in our education and further training. This vast well of knowledge, that can easily be accessed, is our inner Intelligence or ‘Spiritual Intelligence’.
As business owners and leaders, integrating the wisdom that we receive from our Spiritual Intelligence is an essential tool in our leadership tool kit.
To be Spiritually Intelligent requires one thing: that at any given moment you are willing to shift your awareness out of your thinking mind and into a place of quietness within. For example, giving yourself five minutes just to focus on your breath.
Sarah Alexander, author of “Spiritual Intelligence in leadership: From Manager to Leader in Your Own Life” believes there are five reasons why every business owner should pay attention to, and ideally develop, their ‘Spiritual Intelligence’ if they want their business to thrive:
- 1. Our Spiritual Intelligence knows far more than our rational thinking and logic can possibly know.
While we may have much experience and knowledge around our chosen business area, we don’t always know quite enough to make truly informed decisions. Our predictive powers are far too limited for us to know what is around the corner, and invariably we bring our personal biases into every decision we make and these mental attitudes do affect how we look at the facts.
In contrast, our Spiritual Intelligence can see all the facts and the bigger picture in every situation.
- 2. Our Spiritual Intelligence knows the solution to every seeming problem, a solution that is a win-win for all concerned.
When a problem arises, we think we have to work out how to resolve it logically. Sometimes there is a clear way forward, but when clarity is lacking then Spiritual intelligence can guide our thinking and actions to bring the issue to an ideal resolution.
- 3. Our Spiritual Intelligence can give us a whole host of creative business ideas.
These may be ideas about how to enhance and develop our products and services, how best to market and sell our offerings and how we can organise our business for optimal growth and increased profits. All of this is practical, down to earth guidance that is a genuine help to any business leader or owner.
Once we have these new inspired ideas it is then for us to commit to them and take action, following our step by step guidance, to bring them to reality.
- 4. Our Spiritual Intelligence can guide us to enhancing our business relationships.
As we become more connected to our Spiritual Intelligence, we naturally and gradually change our values. We become less “me” focused and more aware of others. We become more understanding and willing to listen.These softer skills, so often overlooked within a business, pay huge dividends for retaining employees and generating a flourishing work environment.
- 5. Our Spiritual Intelligence guides us to have positive intentions behind our actions.
These intentions draw together business success, as well as a genuine desire to make a significant difference to the lives of others.
If our intentions are to add value, to support others in their growth and success and to serve the greater good, then we are putting a very positive energy into our business that will reap its own rewards.
However, this is where we need to find a place of balance. We must come to our business with an energy that generates and sustains inspiration, passion, motivation, collaboration and co-operation. If we are tired from our work and acts of kindness given to others, we are not able to benefit ourselves or our business. In order to focus on the needs of our clients and staff we must honour our own needs first. In short, if we come to our business “full” internally then we are well placed to spread our good energies out to others.
As business leaders and owners, we all need to be Spiritually Intelligent. We need to merge our learned knowledge and experience, all of which is of tremendous value, with the quiet whispers, the gut feelings and the inner intuitive hunches and visionary ideas that tell us we are on the right path. When we do this, we see that we can combine both the hard work necessary to get our business products or services out into the world from an inner foundation of connection, awareness and access to a vast Intelligence.
