The Discerning Capacity of Generative Leaders: Achieving Success Flowing with Synchronicity Moments

Abstract

Five people in leadership positions in two Midwest higher education institutions were selected because of their familiarity with synchronicity experiences, those meaningful coincidences that draw on spiritual intelligence. Four research questions would illuminate how they identified their synchronicity moments; how each used their spiritual intelligence to make meaning of the moments and integrated that knowing into generative outlooks within their organizations or themselves; how their transpersonal evolutions from the synchronicity experiences resulted in more mindful, generative leadership styles; and any implications the experiences have for generative leadership in general. Narrative inquiry for this transpersonal human research allowed for capturing the stories, and provided a direct knowing of how they became mindful of their internal personal events. Sixteen themes emerged from the collective narratives that illustrated the leaders’ capacity to discern the incidents; attended to interconnections between them and God or something beyond them guiding them toward higher purposes; how they relinquished their self-focused thinking to participate with the incidents to a greater outcome; and submit that this way of internal discerning is accessible by anyone to integrate into their leadership practice. They named successes far greater than they imagined without decimating their workforces or budgets in the process.