Hidden key to leadership? It may be spirituality

In 2005, a group of management scholars embarked on an unconventional study - examining the role of spirituality in the workplace. Eric Dent, Eileen Higgins, and Deborah Wharff combed through 87 academic papers, not to preach, but to compile a comprehensive dataset. Their findings were surprising. Among the papers that took a clear stance on performance, 48 showed evidence of a link between spirituality and productivity.

Just one paper found no correlation at all. For decades, academic institutions had steered clear of discussing spirituality in leadership. Performance was typically measured by revenue, employee retention, and quarterly figures. Spirituality, however, proved resistant to these metrics. It rarely appeared in a straightforward manner in performance evaluations, even when researchers resorted to surveys and interviews.

This made spirituality a somewhat awkward cousin in the world of leadership theory, often mentioned in commencement speeches but shunned in serious research. Yet, the 2005 review revealed that spirituality could be categorized into eight distinct areas. These included how spirituality was defined, its connection to religion, and whether it could be taught, measured, or tied to productivity.