A Higher Plane: Tapping Into Team members’ Spiritual Intelligence
bySpiritual intelligence is considered by some as an essential component of both personal and professional development. This article discusses how project managers can tap into team members' spiritual intelligence to create close ties to the project and improve creativity, motivation and performance. It explains the concept of spiritual intelligence and details how it is related to Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It shows how organizations that use bottom-of-the-pyramid motivational levers run the risk of inadvertently keeping their employees at the wrong end of the motivational spectrum. The article then explores how spiritually intelligent team members identify with and feel engaged by the broader mission of their organization. It overviews Danah Zohar's book SQ: Spiritual Intelligence, the Ultimate Intelligence and explains how negative drivers such as fear, greed, anger, etc., often lead to destructive behavior, while project managers who lead according to spiritual intelligence result in more positive behaviors. The article concludes by listing do's and don'ts when tapping into teams' collective spiritual intelligence. Accompanying the article is a sidebar listing the 12 indicators of spiritual development.
