Günümüzdeki esneklik, hareketlilik ve hızlı değişimler, liderlikte başarı için zihinsel zekanın (IQ) yetmeyeceği ve başarılı liderlerin başka birtakım yeteneklere sahip olması gerektiği fikrini ortaya çıkarmıştır. Bu yeteneklerden bir tanesi de ruhsal zeka (SQ)’dır. Ruhsal zeka, liderlerin, çalışanları örgütsel amaçların gerçekleştirilmesi yönünde teşvik edebilmeleri için onların ruh hallerini gözlemleyip, ruhsal ihtiyaçlarını karşılayabilmelerini ve onlara anlamlı ve değerli olan şeyleri göstererek motive olmalarını sağlamaktadır. Bu çalışmada, liderlikte ruhsal zeka kavramsal olarak incelenmiş ve liderlerin ruhsal zeka özellikleri ile ilgili bir alan araştırması yapılmıştır. Araştırma bulgularına göre liderler ruhsal zeka ile ilgili yargılara genellikle katılmaktadırlar. Bu bulgular, liderlikte ruhsal zekanın önemine işaret etmekte, ilerde yapılacak araştırmalar için bilgi sağlamaktadır.

Nowadays, flexibility and rapid changes, leaders care for the needs of the individual, aim at commitment of individuals by addressing at their feelings and spirits, share what they learn with their subordinates and encourages them to produce new ideas and creative solutions, try to develop values like respect, love and altruism in the organization (Shamir, 2001:112). So, Intelligence Quotient (IQ) isn‟t enough to be successful in leadership. Successful leaders should have other qualities, too. One of them is Spiritual Intelligence (SQ). Spiritual Intelligence ensures leaders to encourage the employee towards organizational goals by observing their spirits, meeing their needs and motivating them by showing meaningful and valuable things. The aim of this study is to investigate “spiritual intelligence”. In the direction to this aim, spiritual intelligence is defined, spiritual intellince in leadership is explained. Also there is a field reseach in the study. Because of restricted studies on this topic (Aydıntan, 2009), this study expected to contribute to the literature on spiritual intelligence inTurkey. As a result leaders express that they own the characteristics of spiritual intelligence. This research indicates the importance of spiritual intelligence in leadership and provides knowledge for further studies The first researchers of spiritual intelligence were Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall. According to Zohar and Marshall (2000), although spiritual intelligence was a sort of ability that is as old as the history of humanity, the mankind does not have much knowledge about it since the science is not yet ready for the situations that cannot be measured objectively. Spiritual Intelligence (SQ) is a sort of intelligence which include IQ (Intelligence Quotient) and EQ (Emotional Inteligence) and it is beyond these intelligences (Bozdağ, 2005: 18). There are two reasons for this: The first is, it ensures to ask the question, “why”, and the second is, it is accepted as a connection for the other types of intelligence. According to Nasel (2004), Spiritual intelligence is the application of spiritual abilities and resources to practice. People use spiritual intelligence to make meaningful decisions, deliberate over existential issues, or attempt problem solving in daily life (King, 2008: 46). The spiritual intelligence mentions a “broad love” flows through the hearts. It was found out after many studies and event analysis that, leaders easily use the word, “love” in the management of their motivation. The word, “encourage” which is one of the most significant functions of leaders originates from the word in Latin “heart”. Leaders inspire others with courage when they encourage them by appreciation and celebration. Researches have shown that the most successfully hidden secret of leaders is the “love” (Kouzes and Posner, 1995:305). Characteristics of spiritual intelligence are “self-consciousness, spontaneousness, wholism, greeting differences, area independence, asking fundamental questions (tendency to radical questioning), ability to redesign and modesty, affection” (Zohar, 2004: 40-45). Leadership is a deliberate choice that makes aiming at positive change. In this choice leaders have the characteristic of self-consciousness of the spiritual intelligence. Leaders query themselves and their lives through the aid of their spiritual intelligence to realize this change, and try to change the things they dislike (Bender, 2000:21). Affection is one of the characteristics of the spiritual intelligence (Zohar, 2004: 40-45). According to Alexander Lucia, employees working in today‟s organizations want to be more listened, understood and helped than ever, namely they need affection. Thus, leaders must listen to employees and develop empathy to be more effective, in other words, they must have “big ears and hearts” (Lucia, 1997:25). Another characteristic of the spiritual intelligence is integrative thinking (wholism) (Zohar, 2004: 40-45). Bender (2000: 34) separated the leadership into two as internal and external leadership, and argued that internal leaders were more integrative since they integrated the “heart” and the “mind”. The leaders who appreciate the differences of the characteristics of employees and welcome them can convert these differences to opportunities for the organization (Acar, 2001:60). Thus, leaders practise the characteristic of greeting the differences of the spiritual intelligence. The characteristic of area independence of the spiritual intelligence is a psychological term that means the individual knows his beliefs, lives with them, think separately from the assumptions and beliefs of others and becomes aware of wrong beliefs and it is described as the ability to stand against the crowded even if it causes isolation or being unpopular (Zohar, 2004:40-45). Modesty being another characteristic of the spiritual intelligence is described as a concept that awakens the feeling of a deep gratitude to the ones who help people or the life itself (Zohar, 2004:40-45). The success of the leader does not arise from his theoretic investigation of management, but also from his success in his instinctive humanistic talent (Alder, 2002: 182). This situation shows similar characteristic with the spontaneousness characteristic of spiritual intelligence. Additionally, the spiritual intelligence is explained as a type of intelligence that provides leaders with the ability of taking lesson from failures and convert problems into opportunity. This situation shows similar characteristics with the characteristic of asking fundamental questions and ability to redesign of spiritual intelligence The aim of this research is to evaluate the spiritual intelligence of leaders and provide knowledge to academicians and practitioners that “what extent today‟s leaders agree with the considerations about the spiritual intelligence”. In the direction of this aim, a research that includes the leaders of 11 organizations which are registered in Kayseri Chamber of Commerce takes place in this part of the study. The study will be carried out on 100 leaders who work in different levels of management/leadership in the organizations that operate in Kayseri Industrial Zone. The reason why the research was conducted in Kayseri is that Kayseri is one of the most significant industrial cities in Turkey. A survey was applied on the leaders to collect the data for the study in line with the aim. The results of the survey were analyzed through SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) packaged software. It is observed that most of the leaders response as, “I agree” with the judgements about the characteristics of the spiritual intelligence in Table 1. “I absolutely agree”, on the other hand, is the second popular answer. This situation indicates the significance of the spiritual intelligence in the leadership, and shows that the participant leaders think that they are spiritually intelligent. Spiritual intelligence is a recently studied concept. Thus, studies on this subject are inadequate yet, it is understood from the answers of the survey that, leaders are sensitive to spiritual intelligence. Leaders should meet emotional and spiritual needs of their employees as well as their physical needs so that they can lead them to synchronize their goals with the goals of the organization. Leaders must have the abilities of spiritual intelligence, besides intellectual intelligence and emotional intelligence to achieve these goals. Spiritual intelligence is a type of intelligence that can help leaders to establish the goals of the organization by looking through the point of view of spiritual intelligence, and address to the soul of the “human” that is the most important factor in organizations. Spiritual intelligence of leaders must be developed so that they can realize an efficient leadership style in their organizations. Leaders must know the characteristics of the spiritual intelligence and carry the applications that develop themselves to their organizations.