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Part Four

CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP

Leadership matters. It matters today more than ever. But the old way has run its course. Leadership today must be based on purpose, inspiration, caring, and compassion. Conscious leadership is fully human leadership; it integrates the masculine and feminine, the heart and the mind, the spirit and the soul. It blends Western systems and efficiency with Eastern wisdom and effectiveness.

For millennia, most people who became leaders were driven to attain these roles because of their thirst for power or lust for riches. They used fear, intimidation, and even brutality to achieve their goals. But their successes were inevitably partial and short-lived, because their actions continually sowed the seeds of the next upheaval, the next rebellion, the emergence of the next ruthless leader.

When businesses are led by individuals who are driven by service to people and the firm’s higher purpose—individuals who lead through developing and inspiring others—it creates, in author Fred Kofman’s resonant words, “peace and happiness in the individual, respect and solidarity in the community, and mission accomplishment in the organization.”1

The four chapters in this part of the book will help you evolve as a conscious leader and develop leaders for the organization going forward (see figure P4-1 for a summary of the chapters). We will explore why conscious leadership matters for the future of your organization, dive into the attributes of a selfless leader, offer a wide array of practices to help you develop personal mastery, and finally suggest how this leadership approach can extend to the entire organization. We will share some real-life examples to help you develop leadership in your organization.

Figure P4-1: Overview of part 4

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Summary Leadership Assessment

PARTICIPANTS: C-level executives and members of the board of directors

DESIRED NUMBER OF RESPONSES: 10

QUESTION

SCORE

1.Our leaders are deeply self-aware individuals who are in their roles because they passionately believe in the purpose of our organization and in service to our people.

2.There is a culture of transparent communications between rank-and-file employees and senior leaders of the company.

3.Our leaders are intuitive systems thinkers and systems feelers. In other words, not only do they think in systems terms, but they also feel the connectedness that exists across stakeholders.

4.In our company, power and virtue go together. We consciously seek to promote individuals with the greatest integrity and capacity for caring and compassion.

5.When we hire or promote senior leaders, we try to assess their emotional and spiritual intelligence.

6.Most senior positions in our company are filled by promotions from within.

7.Our leaders are passionate about mentoring and inspiring future leaders.

8.In our company, the accountability between employees and managers runs both ways; employees are accountable to managers for their performance, and managers are accountable for making sure employees have the resources necessary to do their jobs well.

9.Our senior leaders operate as a close-knit team.

10.Most strategic decisions in our company emerge through consensus building.

11.In our company, employees at every level can contribute to the strategic direction of the company.

12.When a new leader is appointed at our company, other leaders who were considered for the position usually do not leave the company.

TOTAL

SCORES

5: We are exceptionally good at this, to the point that others should learn from us.

4: We demonstrate this most of the time, but there is room for improvement.

3: This is true for us sometimes, but our record overall is mixed.

2: This is rarely true for us.

0: We seem to embody the opposite of this, or it is missing entirely.

Add up your scores to identify the overall gap between your company and best practice (60 points). How did you score? What surprised you? What did not? Why? What are the implications?

 

 

 

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