Spiritual and Knowledge Leadership in Driving Evidence-Based Decision-Making in the Data Science Field: Self-Awareness as an Individual Outcome

In October 2017, accompanied by a few close friends, we conquered Mt. Kilimanjaro through the Lemosho route in seven days, walking more than 14 kilometers per day, and sleeping less than six hours per night. Our guide insisted on a rhythmic walking called 'pole, pole' (meaning, 'slow, slow') and cautioned against hurrying, which he duly convinced us on the first day, would kill our passion for seeing the peak of the beautiful African mountain. It was during this passionate and challenging adventurous trek that self-awareness became solidly implanted in my mind. The realization that I was doing an activity that I cared for and lived for was quite humbling because I was able to look inward and reflect on myself for long periods while walking and climbing.

So, why write about self-awareness? In the corporate world today, little time is left for personal reflection during the working time as employees churn out deliverables under stringent timelines. Being cocooned with ready distractions and easy work options that do not allow our imaginations to run wild is another malady in the workplace. This neurotic fear of time will continue to take a toll on many individuals until they realize that the most valuable time is the one we engage in the habit of stillness or silence with our minds. Why? The real things of life, such as peace, harmony, integrity, security, and happiness, are intangible. They come from the deep self-awareness of the individual. Sustaining this awareness is crucial to our success in life, work, and all we aspire to accomplish. According to Zohar (2005), spiritual self-awareness means to recognize what I care about, what I live for, and what I would die for. It's to live true to myself while respecting others. Being authentic in this way is the bedrock of genuine communication with our own deeper self, and with others, whom we would lead. It allows us to bring the truth of the inner self into the outer world of action.?

A high degree of self-awareness is considered an indication of highly developed spiritual intelligence. A systematic literature review was performed to explore how spiritual and knowledge leadership influences self-awareness as an individual outcome. The quality appraisal of twenty-three published peer-reviewed articles was conducted, and findings synthesized into themes (Gathoni, 2020-a; 2020-b; 2020-c). The results showed that self-awareness was positively attributed to spiritual and knowledge leadership styles in driving evidence-based decision-making.?

Self-Awareness

Self-awareness is an individual antecedent that can be developed in a data-driven organizational culture. This theme was reported in twelve studies. Rubens et al. (2018) posit that the key to the success of managing and leading others is understanding yourself. The findings by Chen et al. (2004) suggested that leaders should be aware of the consequences of their leadership and adjust themselves to create a positive working environment, guiding, and developing employees. The study by Gotsis and Grimani (2017)?stated that inclusion is a transformational, results-oriented, and sustainable strategy that requires intercultural competences, namely self-awareness, curiosity, and empathy, incorporating the cognitive, affective, and behavioral skills to enhance prospects of inclusion, through constructive interpersonal interactions.

According to Nonaka et al. (2000), because of turbulent environments, individuals become self-aware of the opportunities to re-order, re-arrange, and re-design, which leads to the creation of tacit knowledge. Tacit knowledge may be considered to refer to an individual's intuition, beliefs, assumptions, and values, formed as a result of experience. This becomes a call to organizations and leaders to develop a way to encourage individuals to externalize, share, and document their tacit knowledge. Intezari and Pauleen (2017) argued that, although making wise management decisions requires reliable and relevant knowledge, and experience and the ability to implement this knowledge and experience, emotions and emotion-related qualities such as empathy, intuition, are essential and form the foundation of wise management decision-making. Such individual traits of awareness of personal abilities are constructs critical to the decision-making process.

Ladkin and Taylor (2010) indicated that without self-knowledge, the leader might be unaware of just how afraid they are, and even though they tried to present themselves as being courageous, the fear would be likely apparent to others. Additionally, Ladkin and Taylor (2010) posit that relating starts with the capacity to be present in the here and now, having a self-awareness with the particular context and situation as it presents itself in a given moment. The conclusions from their research showed that authentic leadership involves the balancing and resolution of paradoxes and tensions, many of which have their origin in bodily and unconscious processes. Wang and Hsieh (2013) found that both supervisors' consistency between words and actions, as well as their moral perceptions, are positively related to employee engagement, while only supervisors' consistency between words and actions is positively related to an employee trust.

Phipps (2012) posit that there are three dimensions to spirituality in a workplace context: connection with something more significant than the self (transcendence), and integration of the various aspects of the self (holism), and realization of one's potential (growth). Workplace spirituality promotes entrepreneurial views of the self and attempts to adapt the individual to new workplace arrangements. Spiritual leadership integrates self-awareness, self-esteem, effective communication, decision-making acumen, which allows for multiple leadership approaches designed to motivate and inspire followers to promote positive results (Smith et al., 2018).?

Summary

Overall, evidence-based decision-making requires that leaders and their organizations procure and organize enough empirical and objective data to implement a scientific decision-making process. Self-awareness, as an individual outcome, provides the basis for success for both spiritual and knowledge leaders in driving the evidence-based decision-making process in the workplace. Self-awareness asserts the knowledge about what individuals believe in and value and deeply motivates them. Developing greater self-awareness is a high priority that can be achieved by first recognizing how little an individual knows about who they are. Practical application can include meditation, going for walks, keeping a diary of the days' events, and how one responded to them, reflecting on dreams, life, and at the end of the day asking oneself pertinent questions. What activities affected me most? How could the day have been different? What did I enjoy most? What do I regret? What caused me to use a particular substance or eat a certain type of food? By answering these questions and many more, an individual can find their center, which is the place from which transformation can occur.?

References

Chen, C.-Y., Chen, C.-H. V., & Li, C.-I. (2011). The influence of a leader’s spiritual values of servant leadership on employee motivational autonomy and eudaemonic well-being. Journal of Religion and Health, 52(2), 418–438. doi:10.1007/s10943-011-9479-3

Gathoni, P. (2020-a). Can spiritual and knowledge leadership drive evidence-based decision-making in the data science field? Retrieved from?https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/can-spiritual-knowledge-leadership-drive-data-science-gathoni/

Gathoni, P. (2020-b). Creative and Critical Thinking as Individual Outcomes of Spiritual and Knowledge Leadership in the Data Science Field. Retrieved from https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/creative-critical-thinking-individual-outcomes-data-science-gathoni/

Gathoni, P. (2020-c). Competitive Advantage and Innovative solutions as organizational outcomes of Spiritual and Knowledge leadership in the Data Science Field. Retrieved from https://www.dhirubhai.net/pulse/competitive-advantage-innovative-solutions-outcomes-data-gathoni/

Gotsis, G., & Grimani, K. (2017). The role of spiritual leadership in fostering inclusive workplaces. Personnel Review, 46(5), 908–935. doi:10.1108/pr-11-2015-0286

Intezari, A., & Pauleen, D. J. (2017). Conceptualizing wise management decision-making: A grounded theory approach. Decision Sciences, 49(2), 335–400. doi:10.1111/deci.12267

Ladkin, D., & Taylor, S. S. (2010). Enacting the “true self”: Towards a theory of embodied authentic leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(1), 64–74. doi:10.1016/j.leaqua.2009.10.005

Nonaka, I., Toyama, R., & Konno, N. (2000). SECI, Ba, and leadership: A unified model of dynamic knowledge creation. Managing Industrial Knowledge: Creation, Transfer, and Utilization, 14–43. doi:10.4135/9781446217573.n2

Phipps, K. A. (2011). Spirituality and strategic leadership: The influence of spiritual beliefs on strategic decision-making. Journal of Business Ethics, 106(2), 177–189. doi:10.1007/s10551-011-0988-5

Rubens, A., Schoenfeld, G. A., Schaffer, B. S., & Leah, J. S. (2018). Self-awareness and leadership: Developing an individual strategic professional development plan in an MBA leadership course. The International Journal of Management Education, 16(1), 1–13. doi:10.1016/j.ijme.2017.11.001

Smith, G., Minor, M., & Brashen, H. (2018). Spiritual leadership: A guide to a leadership style that embraces multiple perspectives. Journal of Instructional Research, 7(1). doi:10.9743/jir.2018.7

Wang, D.-S., & Hsieh, C.-C. (2013). The effect of authentic leadership on employee trust and employee engagement. Social Behavior and Personality: An International Journal, 41(4), 613–624. doi:10.2224/sbp.2013.41.4.613

Zohar, D. (2005). Spiritually intelligent leadership. Leader to Leader, 2005(38), 45–51. doi:10.1002/ltl.153

About the Author

Priscilla Gathoni?is an author, coach, mentor, skilled facilitator, inspirational, and motivational speaker. As an author, her papers have been featured in the PharmaSUG, SESUG, and CDISC global conferences.?Priscilla holds a Doctor of Management/Business Administration degree from the University of Maryland, Global Campus (UMGC). Her research interests include evidence-based decision-making, organizational culture, spiritual leadership, and knowledge leadership.

?Priscilla Gathoni.?This article is available under the ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4410-5205. This ORCID permits non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.?