The Conscious Lifestyle: A Leader Must Be Aware (Part 2)

(In this series of posts we're discussing the qualities of leadership using the acronym L-E-A-D-E-R-S. The third letter, "A," stands for awareness.)

We've covered why it's important for a leader to be aware - only by being fully conscious can you arrive at a realistic assessment of yourself and others. Objective data can deliver information, but only awareness answers key questions like "can I handle this challenge?", "Who's my best ally?", and "Who's not telling me what he really feels?" to put it in reverse, if you aren't aware, you will quickly lose touch with the human level of any enterprise, and that's a huge loss. Not every job is about bricks and mortar or computer readouts, and even when they are that tangible, it takes humans to put the bits and pieces together.

Now let's arrive at how to become more aware. I know that sensitivity training is anathema to many, especially males, and that empathy is often equated with being squishy or weak. But in reality the greatest secret to success is knowing how to feel your way through life. As much as we exalt thinking, being able to feel your way involves empathy, bonding, catching subtle signals, sensing danger signs, knowing what others need, and much else. It takes the complete person to feel his or her way through life; a good computer can do analytical processing far better than almost any of us, but no one ever voted a computer to lead a company.

If awareness is the process of becoming more complete, what does that involve? Some steps are negative:

1. Assess where you are weak.

2. Don't trust yourself when you know you are confused, conflicted, or wandering into an area of weakness.

3. Don't be led astray by strong negative emotions like anger and fear.

4. Distrust bad memories from the past. They increase anxiety but also block clear perception.

5. Don't bottle up what you really think.

6. Don't harbor secrets.

7. Resist images of worst-case scenarios.

This list of what not to do is based on mental factors that block awareness or cause you to contract. Contracted awareness is your enemy. It arises when your perception is colored by stress, fear, anger, stubbornness, unwillingness to change, and being deaf to good counsel because you want everything to go your way or no way at all. Leaders must constantly self-evaluate to make sure that they are not subtly falling prey to the pressures that contract awareness, coming from outside and inside.

Last time I mentioned Henry Ford as someone who had a remarkable sense of his destiny even as a teenager fresh off the farm, who surmounted failure and setbacks because he knew who he was and what his vision could be. But later in life, driven by ego and insecurity, he became the opposite of self-aware. Ford indulged in paranoid anti-Semitism, abused his workers, and so ignored the human connection that he hired thugs to brutally beat anyone who even whispered of forming a labor union. He bought into the factors of ego, success, excess autonomy, and isolation that are guaranteed to constrict anyone's awareness.

The positive side of awareness centers on the factors that allow you to expand rather than contract.

1. Listen to counsel with an open mind. Seek opinions that disagree with yours.

2. Encourage diversity around you, following Lincoln's "team of rivals" approach to foster creative differences.

3. Walk away from pointless stress, hostility, internal backbiting, gossip, and cynicism.

4. Know as much as you can about the environment you are working in. Study rivals and alternatives.

5. Think first about what others need, not what you need.

6. Measure your success by how well you fulfill other people's needs, how much loyalty you inspire, and how optimistic the future looks for everyone you lead.

7. Keep abreast of change and let it inspire rather than threaten you.

At bottom, awareness is about clear, honest, uncensored feedback. Som of this feedback comes from other people, some from the general environment, some from inside yourself. All three domains are linked inseparably. In war, the soldier who survives knows how he feels, how to control his fear, what the enemy is likely to do, and what the lay of the land is. I don't look on combat as the model for life in peacetime, but it's worth noticing that when life and death depend on it, all of us will suddenly become much more aware. If we place even a quarter of that urgency on everyday awareness, our existence would improve radically.

Deepak Chopra, MD is the author of more than 70 books with twenty-one New York Times bestsellers. FINS - Wall Street Journal, stated that “The Soul of Leadership”, as one of five best business books to read for your career. Chopra is an adjunct professor of the Kellogg Executive Management Programs where he teaches the course, The Soul of Leadership. Co-author with Rudolph E. Tanzi, their latest New York Times bestseller, Super Brain: Unleashing The Explosive Power of Your Mind to Maximize Health, Happiness, and Spiritual Well-being (Harmony, November 6, 2012) is a new PBS special.