If you do a search on the various definitions of Conscious Leadership, you will of course see a variety of perspectives on what this concept represents. Yet, most of the definitions and applications of this concept are either unnecessarily confusing or lack sufficient clarity in the application elements of Conscious Leadership. When you read many of the perspectives on Conscious Leadership, you will often see this sort of ambiguous wordplay or the interchanging of related concepts, such as, “Conscious Leadership is leading with awareness.” Okay… uh, thanks for that. Or, “Conscious leaders work to support others’ growth while also growing the organization.” Once again, this is obviously a good thing but it provides no real clarity about the key drivers of Conscious Leadership. So, let’s explore this concept a little more deeply; to bring some needed clarity to the concept of Conscious Leadership; so that we can begin to apply this in a very real way to our current challenges.

Let’s start by understanding the foundational meaning of Conscious Leadership by breaking it down from a functional perspective. From a practical standpoint, Consciousness could be viewed as all that we are able to perceive and experience as a human species. Consciousness or the field of Consciousness is sort of like our common playground as human beings. And it represents all of the various places or perspectives that we can possibly explore and come from, both positive and negative. From this perspective, we are already “Conscious Leaders” to some degree.

But let’s take this exploration a little deeper into the mechanics of where the concept of Conscious Leadership is attempting to point us. In order to perceive and understand what is available to us in the immense field of Consciousness, we must utilize our Awareness. Our Awareness is essentially our clarity of perception or our faculty for perceiving and understanding internal and external stimuli. And, it is our level or degree of Awareness that allows us to reach out and explore the field of Consciousness. It is our Awareness that becomes the limiting or liberating factor in our ability to perceive the deeper realities of our experience in the world, or our experience in Consciousness. It is our Awareness that we can more directly work with and influence to create a more expanded experience in life, and to become a more Conscious Leader.

It is our individual Awareness or our Awareness Quotient then, that is the linchpin to our personal experience in life and leadership.

To take this exploration even further into the nuts and bolts of how to do “Conscious Leadership”, let’s discuss the contributing elements of our individual Awareness. The growth or limitation of our Awareness is heavily influenced by our Attention, our directional discrimination. Where we choose to place our Attention, or where our Attention is pulled to or programmed to go, has a major impact on our experience in life and our expression of leadership. If we “pay Attention” to more expanded mutually beneficial approaches to life, our experience and the experience of those we serve tend to reflect this. If we put our Attention on the more limited, self-serving elements within our Awareness, this also gets reflected in our collective experience. The act of choosing where we place our Attention, as opposed to letting it go where it has been programmed to go, is therefore a key to growing our Awareness in a more positive, supportive direction. This is also one of the keys to expressing more “Conscious Leadership.” As an example, we must first be Aware that people are important and valuable, and maintain our Attention there for our efforts to more consistently reflect this perspective.

Now let’s explore one more key element of our Awareness for a more complete understanding of this topic. Our ability to utilize our Focus, our spatial concentration, allows us to discern both the broad and discreet details of wherever our Attention is placed… inside of our individual Awareness… within the field of human Consciousness. Did you catch that? It is our ability to Focus or to exercise our concentration on the object of our Attention, that enables us to see and discern the key elements of a situation, challenge, decision, or of our vision. Taken together as an integrated structure, the purposeful application of our Awareness, Attention and Focus has the ability to more deeply and completely inform our experience and to support us with accessing more of the options available to us within the field of Consciousness. It is this dynamic structure that determines and creates the outcomes of what is termed Conscious Leadership. And why is it important for us to understand all of this?

Well, the examples that are held up to represent Conscious Leadership are typically those of entrepreneurs or CEOs that have developed a company that incorporates “green”, sustainable building designs, or some unique, sustainable business model, or those in the high-tech industry were workers get all kinds of interesting perks and flexible work schedules. And this is great, especially if you happen to be fortunate enough to work or lead in one of these organizations. There are many other examples like these but the point is that these examples tend to place the practice and results of Conscious Leadership outside of the realm of most organizations and most leaders out there. And with a functional understanding of the foundational elements of Consciousness or Conscious Leadership, nothing could be further from the truth.

When we understand and apply ourselves to the foundational elements of Consciousness, we can be a more “Conscious Leader”, no matter where we work or no matter what type of organization we belong to. Whether we lead or work in a lumber yard, machine shop, bowling alley, hospital, governmental organization, or comic book store, we can bring greater levels of Awareness to our leadership being and doing. We can purposefully work to expand our Awareness, which expands our access to what is available to us within the field of Consciousness. This leads to the ability to perceive and choose even more thoughtful, more supportive, more effective options with the challenges we face. This leads to an expanded ability to understand ourselves and relate to and connect with others more deeply. And as a result, anything that we do can become an expression of more Conscious Leadership. It all starts and ends with Awareness, and our Awareness Quotient is the key determiner of everything in between. This is The Leadership Revolution that I am talking about.

In Service,
Brian

What do you think? Please share a comment or question that further explores this topic.