Speed is the modern god. Choice and flexibility rule. In this environment a new and deeper intelligence is required to help managers manage better and leaders lead more effectively.

The three conditions of spiritual intelligence at work
If you are a cynic who tends to see work purely as a functional process, spiritual intelligence is unlikely to register on your radar. To the more enlightened manager who seeks to generate a cohesive team and release the potential of each individual, it makes perfect sense.

Practical applicationm
Spiritual intelligence is something everyone has but few learn to develop. While our academic education was focused around rational intelligence, some of us may have encountered and perhaps trained in emotional intelligence. Rational intelligence manages facts and information, using logic and analysis to make decisions. Emotional intelligence is necessary to understand and control one's emotions and feelings, while being sensitive to the feelings of others.

Spiritual intelligence, on the other hand, is necessary:

• to find and use the deepest inner resources from which comes the capacity to care and the power to tolerate and adapt
• to develop a clear and stable sense of identity as an individual in the context of shifting workplace relationships
• to be able to discern the real meaning of events and circumstances, and be able to make work meaningful
• to identify and align personal values with a clear sense of purpose
• to live those values without compromise and thereby demonstrate integrity by example
• to understand where and how each of the above is sabotaged by the ego, which means being able to understand and influence true cause.

Results can include an ability to stay calm and focused in the face of crisis and chaos, a more selfless and altruistic attitude towards others and a more enlightened and relaxed perspective on life.

While many people think there is nothing spiritual about work, there are many areas of working life in which spiritual intelligence can be applied. These are perhaps three of the most important:

• personal security and how that affects personal effectiveness
• building relationships and interpersonal understanding
• managing change and removing the roadblocks.

Personal security and how that affects personal effectiveness

Self-awareness is the core competency of spiritual intelligence. Unfortunately it is never formally taught so we tend to learn it by accident, and even then only to a shallow and superficial level. Most of us learn to believe we are only physical/material beings, that life is a physical/material experience – hence the obsession with faces, forms, functions and facts. It naturally follows that we believe our security is dependent on the physical/material components of life (money, property, objects etc) which, in turn, depend on our job. In fact, this material mindset creates feelings of insecurity, as everyone knows that jobs and possessions come and go, and we have little or no control over when they do. This insecurity generates fear, otherwise known as stress, which then affects performance at work and relationships within the workplace.

The development of spiritual intelligence is the awakening of a deeper awareness of oneself as a non-material being, a source of many intangible talents, previously undiscovered character traits, undeveloped personal qualities and innate values. These invisible inner attributes of the self can never be taken away, and when consciously developed and used they become the ground within the self in which a stable sense of security is anchored.

For example, who would you prefer to work with? Who would the organisation tend to retain when the downsizing begins? Is it person A who is:

• always competing with others
• getting upset with others which means they are attempting to control others, and failing
• always expressing their insecurity by criticising others/organisation/authority
• always fearing and therefore worrying about themselves should the worst happen, and thereby demonstrating a self-centred approach in their relationships with others?

Or person B who:

• always offers to help and support others
• always sees the positives even in what seem to be negative events
• realises their value to others and is able to express their innate personal values such as caring, trusting, understanding and empathy?

Person B has learned to use these internal attributes and capacities to define the spirit of their interactions. Even if organisational change results in job loss, their inner resilience and stability, based on their innate values, plus their awareness of their value to others, assures them that they will easily find a position elsewhere. And if they don't, they are prepared to do something completely different.

Person A will have a low spiritual quotient (SQ), a low level of self-awareness and infrequent access to their inner resources and innate qualities of being. Their sense of personal security is extrinsic and therefore unstable. Person B will have a high SQ, a developed awareness of their inner resources and qualities, and will know how to use them in work and relationships at work. Their sense of security is intrinsic and therefore more stable.

Building relationships and interpersonal understanding
One of the foundations for healthy relationships is empathy. The building of an empathic relationship is difficult for many managers as it challenges them to reach beyond the facts and functions of a task, and into the feelings and emotions of the person carrying out the task. In a culture that is largely task-focused, it is only in the past 10 to 15 years that relationship building has been perceived as an important part of a manager's remit.

Now that more people are acknowledging that they don't leave the organisation, they leave their manager, retaining staff is one of many reasons why managers need to understand others at a deeper level. Being able to recognise, understand and respond to the emotions of others requires a level of emotional literacy that can only be developed by learning to recognise one's own feelings and emotions (self-awareness again). This falls squarely in the arena of emotional intelligence.

However there is another layer below, which is the cause of the emotions. We tend to learn that the cause of our feelings and emotions are external events and other people's actions. But they are not. All emotions are caused by the self. Seeing the original cause, and understanding what it means, is the territory of spiritual intelligence.

When a manager coaches staff through performance problems they will need intelligence quotient (IQ) to gather and marshal the facts, emotional quotient (EQ) to identify the emotions that are affecting performance and SQ to discern the true cause and why the emotions were created in the first place. It doesn't mean today's manager becomes a psychologist or spiritual teacher, but it helps to know and understand specific aspects of this inner landscape.

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Mike George is lead trainer at Reed Training, United Kingdom. This article is contributed by CIMA (The Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) and it first appeared in Insight, CIMA's on-line newsletter for its members. Insight is accessible at www.cimaglobal.com/insight.