How Leaders Develop Spiritual Intelligence: a Phenomenological Study on Leaders in Jamaica's Financial Services Sector

Recent discussions on leadership have led to new opportunities for viewing leadership development through the lens of spiritual intelligence. Research into factors that contribute to consistently high performance in organizations indicated that leadership, and especially the spiritual intelligence of the leaders, was pivotal in creating the organizational environment that led to high performance. Little information exists on the critical events and paths that lead to the development of spiritual intelligence across a leader?s lifetime and career. This qualitative phenomenological research explored the lived experiences of 21 leaders in Jamaica?s financial services sector to determine the factors, events, and experiences contributing to their spiritual intelligence development and how spiritual intelligence contributed to their development as leaders. Spiritual exposure early in life, the influence of parents, teachers and mentors and traumatic experiences contributed to spiritual intelligence development. Participants use their spiritual intelligence to guide decision making, build relationships and create the organizational climate for high performance.