Written by: Anila Bashllari, 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.
I don’t know what do you think about but myself I am thinking a lot about latest development in Europe, especially Paris and London, where big crowds of people were protesting and showing violent actions. What is happening? Why? Does the political-economic system in general responds to the overall humanity growing needs and awareness for a better life?
I know that this topic might be very complex and needs to be seen and scanned from different angles.
Personally, I would like to see from one perspective that I think implicates all other factors and players to address this multilevel concern.
You might think about political leadership. And I fully agree on the imperative need to have conscious political leaders. But in this article, I am focused on the leverage to be reached through transcending from traditional business towards conscious business.
Some might consider this concept as very early to discuss but I strongly believe that now it is the time. If we wait longer, the damage will be nonrecoverable and with high costs for humanity.
Let me give some background on my topic of concern: In a long arch of human history there is no any human creation that has had the greatest positive impact on more people than free enterprise system. It is considered as the greatest system for experimentation and innovation and the latest development of technologies are witnessing this.
For about 200 years, the free enterprise system had transformed the face of the planet and improving the daily life for the majority of people. However, even though reaching the peaks of technological development and innovation, free enterprise system (capitalism) as in any interdependent system is continuously trading off the interest of one group for those of others. I am talking here for all stakeholders such as investors, employees, customers, government, environment, etc.
The myth that maximization of the bottom-line profit as the sole purpose of the business has done enormous damage for the legitimacy of the businesses and corporations. The true essence of the business is to improve people’s lives and to create value for stakeholders through financial results, intellectual growth, physical health, emotional stability, environmental sensitivity and protection, ethical standards and even spiritual growth. This in fact will be the conscious business of the future and these sets of values will be the competitive advantages for growth and prosperity.
I know what you are thinking! That this is utopic and nonrealistic. Every time an idea is emerged, it is considered as nonrealistic, not possible, futuristic, etc. But the fact is that a few companies have started this path of growth and are paving it towards conscious businesses in the future.
So, what is a conscious business? According to latest research, surveys and studies, there are four tenets that determine a conscious business:
Higher purpose: Conscious business should have a higher purpose that transcends only making money.
Having a higher purpose, articulated well among all stakeholders and based on values create a culture of inspiration, engagement and high performance.
Stakeholder interconnection and guidance: There are several stakeholders in any business (employees, customers, investors, vendors and community) and like in any other interconnected and interdepended system, healthy stakeholders lead to a healthy business. Businesses that tradeoff the interest of one stakeholder group for those of others will decline and eventually being deceased. A damage in one part within a larger system harm and threatens the whole.
Conscious leadership: To lead a conscious business there is an imperative need for conscious leaders – people who see a path and inspire others to join them along the path. They see what others can’t but share where they want to go, the values and goals, strategies and tactics. They are transparent, emotionally intelligent and people driven. They harmonize the interests of all stakeholders creating a conscious culture of values.
“Yesterday idea of the boss, who became the boss because he or she knew one more fact than the person working with them, is yesterday manager. Tomorrow’s person leads through a vision, a shared set of values, a shared objective” – Jack Welch
Conscious culture: The values, growth mindset, healthy principles and implementation – these are the pillars of a conscious culture building trust, transparency, integrity, authenticity, continuous learning, caring and empowering people.
Nowadays, businesses have not the “luxury” to neglect or undermined the conscious culture otherwise will happen as Drucker has foreseen years ago that “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.
A conscious culture needs a conscious business leadership building values as trust, authenticity, caring for each other, transparency, integrity, deep and continuous learning and empowering people to grow and develop.
If we have a look in the markets, much of the growth of a conscious business comes at the expense of their less-conscious competitors. And, as more business become conscious the competition will increase further creating space for innovation that the business and all stakeholder’s benefit.
There are many aspects that a conscious business differs from a traditional one. These aspects relate to:
1. Financial incentives
If a business uses only financial incentives to attract the CEO and other top managerial positions, they will only be driven and motivated by financial rewards and status.
A conscious business’s CEO and managerial team are motivated by purpose and service to people. They don’t see their position as status and privilege but as a responsibility, transcending self-interest and taking into consideration one of the very important laws on leadership according to John Maxwell: The Law of Sacrifice. Such leaders can motivate and inspire company employees to achieve higher performance, increase their engagement in discussion and decision-making, increase creativity, find meaning and purpose in the work they are doing and increased level of job’s satisfaction.
Leading companies as Google, Apple, Microsoft, Medtronic, E-Bay, etc. are gradually implementing a transition strategy towards a conscious business. On my opinion, that will be a powerful competitive advantage in the business to attract qualified, inspired, dedicated and high-performing employees.
2. Relationships to customers
Different from traditional businesses that outsource their production towards low-wage labor countries, conscious businesses focus to find healthy ways how to lower their costs. Conscious businesses evaluate areas where they can eliminate wasteful expenditures rather than lay off employees or reducing their salaries due to financial difficulties. In these companies, leadership and employees are aware that to get out of the situation both have to make sacrifices. The majority of these companies that came together to overcome the financial turmoil, built up a stronger culture and a deeper sense of purpose than before.
3. Investment’s impact driven vs. revenue’s growth
It is clear that the financial health of a business is determined by its ability to grow revenues and increase efficiency. In this direction, conscious businesses are doing better than traditional ones as they have carefully evaluated the needs of their customers as well as focusing not only to revenue’s increase but where the impact is higher.
Conscious businesses grow at the expense of less-conscious businesses and when the latest one grow from traditional to a conscious one, than the competition can be focused on creating additional value and innovation in meeting the customers high and sophisticated needs. They are looking for quality-focused companies that are operating in the market with the same principles and conscious culture.
4. Marketing vs. satisfied employees & customers
There is a typical point of difference between a conscious and traditional business. The conscious business spends less in marketing as they rely a lot on their employees as brand ambassadors as well as satisfied and loyal customers who become company advocators. It is really interesting the fact that conscious business spends 10-25% of the industry average spending on marketing and this can be considered as a really cost-effective mechanism.
5. Employees turnover
Employees turnover has become a real issue, especially after the pandemic lockdown. It is a higher demand now in the market and employees have a choice, finding better opportunities to firms that offer them not only salary fairness but more importantly the opportunity to find meaning and purpose in their daily job. For conscious businesses, it is very clear that they cannot offer attractive and innovative products if they have a low level of employee engagement and customers satisfaction.
Because they have low employee turnover, they are saving a lot on new employee hiring and training.
Employees at conscious companies are loyal, experienced, highly engaged and very productive as their personal passions are aligned with the corporate purpose and values. For such employees, their work it is not just a job or a career, but it is a calling.
You might ask how a business can become conscious? It starts with leadership. A leader must lead first and foremost him/herself and lead by model in order to inspire others. More than ever, we need conscious and authentic leaders that can lead the process of transformation from traditional to conscious business.
Everything in leadership is about people, empowering and growing them.
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Anila Bashllari, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Anila Bashllari is an Executive and Business Coach on mindset enhancement, mental fitness and high performance. She coaches business leaders worldwide on Conscious Leader Framework, supporting them to live a holistic life, grows their business, become real manifestos of their dreams and vision, reconciles the conditioning patterns with true deep inside values through Inner and Outer Game. She has developed strategies how to enhance the mindset for creative thinking and achievement, feel resourceful, manage the inner energy to achieve a meaningful life and purposeful business and thrive during adversity times. Her mission is to create future leaders.
