Journal of Spirituality, Leadership and Management

Leadership SQ – The Vedic way: Enhancing the spiritual quotient of future managers

Tarun Pasricha

Goa Institute of Management, India

A high Spiritual Quotient (SQ) is increasingly being regarded as an essential pre-requisite for effective leadership. However, little research is available on the methodology one should employ to develop and increase the spiritual quotient of future leaders. This article concerns itself precisely with this question and describes a course that was designed in a business school to impart a spiritual dimension to future leaders in the corporate sector. The course relied primarily on ancient Indian scripture – Vedanta or the essence of the Vedas – along with comparative studies of Western ‘new age’ spiritual thought to enhance the SQ of young MBA students. The article describes the course structure, pedagogy and evaluation scheme employed and the feedback from the students who participated.

Keywords: Spiritual quotient, SQ, Leadership, Management, Course design, Business school curriculum, Vedanta, Vedas, Upanishads