Ever wondered what style of leader you are? Leadership theory is simpler than we’ve been led to believe… conscious, unconscious and anti-conscious are the three choices every leader has. We’ve all met unconscious leaders who are simply unaware, or worse, anti-conscious ones who deliberately create havoc! So what does it take to lead consciously?
“Consciousness is correlated to the intensity of one’s connection with oneself, with one’s acceptance of unlimited talents and abilities and the resulting expansion of one’s ability to be in communion with all things.” -Gary Douglas
Sound a lot like the leaders you know and love?? No, leading consciously is not such a common approach just yet. Here’s five strategies I use daily in my personal quest for leading more consciously…
1. Are you asking questions or assuming? Conscious leaders ask questions about everything so that unlimited, unexpected possibilities can show up. Unconscious leaders ask questions that tell them only what they want to hear.
2. Are you BEing or DOing first? Conscious leaders take time to slow down and just BE before perceiving and choosing what to do. Unconscious leaders focus on getting things done, without BEing aware of what requires focus right now.
3. Are you allowing expansion or contraction? Conscious leaders create expansion, allowing what is light, unlimited and indefinable to be explored. Unconscious leaders create contraction, giving priority to what is dense and limited and keeping the status quo in place.
4. Demands or Excuses? Conscious leaders make the demand for transformation and innovation beyond current limitations. Unconscious leaders make excuses, keep control and allow fragmentation.
5. Choices or Decisions? Conscious leaders make choices that move with the constant motion in the world, without a point of view or judgment about creating purposeful change everyday. They are risk-aware. Unconscious leaders follow rules, cling to their decisions and are unaware of the changes influencing their challenges. They are risk-averse. Conscious leaders transcend past reference points, knowing that there is no right or wrong, just the possibility of a new choice.They use their capacities of awareness to choose from all that is possible in a situation. We can make a new conscious choice in any moment… no matter how often we fall back into unconscious leading (and we all do!!) What would it take to choose a little (or a lot!) more consciousness in your leadership approach today?
