Written by: Albana Vrioni, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
You may want to search inside and get an answer to this question. Especially if you are in the look to create more resilience, fitness for the future, and sustainable development.
What is the making of a conscious leader?
For this, we consulted the works of Robert Dilts on “Conscious leadership”, which offers a comprehensive framework to understand and nurture conscious leadership.
From groundwork with leaders of Apple, Tesla Motors, GoogleX, Rolls Royce Motors, 3M, Disney Interactive, Microsoft, etc., he has observed that a conscious leader is someone who creates a sustainable business or project to live his dream while delivering a product or a service that makes a positive difference in the world and personally growing through it.
They achieve these results by attending to the creation of a resonating alignment:
Horizontally – between Ego and Soul.
Vertically ‒ between Outcomes, Actions, and Mindset,
On the horizontal integration:
A conscious leader considers that the motivations arise from two complementary aspects of our reality: from our existence as a separate, independent whole, which is our ego and from our existence as a holon, part of a larger whole, which is our soul. The primary questions relating to our ego are about what we want to achieve for ourselves in terms of our ambition and role. These are about living out our dreams for ourselves. The primary questions with respect to the soul are those related to our vision and mission for the larger systems of which we are part.
Dilts’ research on Success Factor Modeling indicates that the highest levels of performance of an individual, team, or organization occur when the levels of success factors related to both ego and soul are balanced, aligned, and integrated. Conscious leadership is not just about creating value for shareholders. It is creating value for all stakeholders including those that do not yet exist. Clarifying and aligning one’s vision and mission (soul), ambition, and role (ego) are an essential part of achieving this balance and integration. These four guideposts ‒ Vision, Mission, Ambition, Role ‒ are the foundation of a successful entrepreneurial mindset and form the basis for conscious leadership.
On the vertical integration
There are four essential organizational outcomes of successful ventures: Promoting change, Realizing value, Developing people and Achieving result. These outcomes are achieved as a result of four fundamental leadership actions: Empowering, Coaching, Sharing and Stretching. And the four leadership actions are supported by nine inner qualities: Passion, Vision, Determination, Ambition, Openness, Generosity, Motivation, Consistency and Example.
Aligning the desired outcome with the actions and the inner qualities required to achieve these outcomes are fundamental to leading consciously.
This horizontal and vertical integration helps develop greater wisdom. This wisdom comes with a broader and balanced perspective that allows a person or group to make better and more ecological choices and decisions. Greater wisdom is a natural consequence of conscious leadership.
How can leaders achieve this horizontal and vertical integration?
One first step in this direction is to get familiar with the different factors influencing our functioning: the environmental, behavioral, capabilities, beliefs and values, and identity factors.
On top of those factors stand our sense of purpose and connection to the system (holarchy).
Purpose: Our sense of purpose comes from our perception of being a part of larger systems surrounding us. It determines the overall direction and meaning behind the actions, capabilities, and identity of an individual, team, or organization. Purpose is perhaps the strongest of all motivations. The focus on and commitment to a higher purpose is one of the hallmarks of all conscious leadership.
Connection to the system (holarchy) : The primary measure of the “consciousness” of a conscious leader is how much of the larger holarchy he can hold in awareness as he is planning, making decisions, and taking action. When our consciousness is limited a “win for one part of the holarchy is achieved at the expense of another part. This creates imbalances that can become major crises. Creating sustainable success is a matter of consciousness and balance with respect to every part of the system.
So, are you a conscious leader?
Conscious leaders are authentic, emotionally intelligent, purposive, and responsible.
Conscious leadership involves the ability to build a sustainable venture and guide yourself and your team from a state of centered presence, accessing multiple intelligences and living your highest values in service to a larger purpose to the benefit of all stakeholders. These abilities are related to a commitment to personal mastery of emotional intelligence, somatic intelligence, system intelligence, and the ability to tune into the field of creative consciousness.
So, are you a conscious leader?
Take a moment to score how you rate yourself on a scale of 1-10:
You are:
Authentic,
Emotionally intelligent,
Purposive, and
Responsible.
You are able to:
Build a sustainable venture,
Guide yourself and your team from a state of centered presence,
Access multiple intelligences,
Live your highest values in service to a larger purpose to the benefit of all stakeholders.
How do you score? And what can you do to increase that scoring with one point in any of the components?
Leaders are made, not born. These abilities are related to commitment to personal mastery of emotional intelligence, somatic intelligence, system intelligence, and the ability to tune into the field of creative consciousness.
Stay tuned. In the next article, we will be talking about how leaders can step up their conscious leadership game.
Co-author: Alain Léo Landry, CEO and Founder of Wellnessfinances.
Albana Vrioni, Exexcutive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Albana Vrioni coaches and advises business leaders worldwide on Generative Leadership and Entrepreneurship – supporting them re-imagine the future, see beyond what’s obvious, and reconcile conflicting truths and competing values. Having succeeded in critical transitions, Albana developed strategies on how to shift the mindset for creative achievement, boost resourcefulness, and manage one's energy to achieve what matters and thrive in changing the game.
Albana is a contributor in the Forbes Coaches Council.
Her mission: A conscious leader in each game changer.
