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The world is always changing, and the business world along with it. Recently, there has been a trend toward something called “conscious leadership.”
Touted by such luminaries as John Mackey of Whole Food Markets, Eric Schmidt of Google and Anna Roddick of the Body Shop, conscious leadership is a leadership style that focuses on guiding others and cultivating growth by supporting the people who work in the business. Instead of a “me” attitude, a conscious leader takes the more inclusive “we” approach.
An increasing number of business leaders view conscious leadership as an essential priority for both the sustainability and profitability of businesses — whether it’s a Fortune 500 or a small entrepreneurial business. The world has changed and continues to change. Leadership styles have been a bit slow to catch up. Conscious leadership can be the answer to these dynamic and challenging times. You’ll often hear the phrase “people over profits,” but I don’t believe that’s a binary choice. With truly conscious and talented leaders, your business can have both.
So, what does conscious leadership look like? It starts with awareness. Conscious leaders are acutely aware of patterns in their environment — how employees are interacting, whether people are learning and growing, where areas of dissatisfaction are. This allows leaders to concentrate on the issues that, if ignored, damage long term profitability of the company. Conscious Leadership is about seeing what’s in front of you, rather than staring into the future.
The conscious leadership paradigm uses a simple methodology. It’s called the line.
Every leader either leads from above the line or below the line. This is the starting point to becoming a conscious leader. If you’re above the line, you’re a conscious leader. If you’re below the line, you have some work to do. Leaders who are below the line are often closed and defensive — it’s human nature to protect your position, but it’s not good business. Those above the line are open and curious, and more in line with their employees, and thus, are more conscious leaders.
But leaders aren’t born above or below the line — and they’re not stuck where they start. Leading from above the line is about self-awareness. In their work on Conscious Leadership and in their book, “The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A new paradigm for sustainable success," by Jim Dethmer, Dina Chapman and Kaley Warner Klemp, the authors suggest there are four basic ways of thinking for leaders, and they represent a ladder to Conscious Leadership:
As you might imagine, “letting go” is the gateway to moving from below to above the line. But what else can leaders do to become conscious leaders? Here are five steps to becoming a conscious leader:
Becoming a conscious leader will do wonders for your business, its employees and your future. And the best news is, it’s not rocket science. Honesty, self-awareness and empathy are the keys to becoming a conscious leader. And though they can sometimes be painful, the results are worth it. And it all starts with self-awareness.
(This story was updated to add the book on Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Dina Chapman and Kaley Warner Klemp.)
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