Leadership is an expression of Consciousness

Frederic Laloux, author of Reinventing Organisations wrote “an organization cannot evolve beyond its leadership’s stage of development.” This is a powerful and indeed significant statement when we consider our levels of investment in leadership. Investment not just in the obvious sense of ‘training’ but, in particular, in the deeper sense of what we really mean by leadership and how that impacts an organisation.

In a recent three year review of Leadership hosted by the Community of Living Ethics – the title of the conferences revolved around Activating New Leadership. It demanded a deep exploration of what we really mean by leadership and how we let go of the old, outdated models that have characterised our organisations, our institutions and indeed lives at a very deep, we might almost say, DNA level.

To open to the idea of ‘New Leadership’ begs the question ‘why’? Why is a New Leadership needed? It is needed because we need to construct a very different world in which the essence of leadership needs to be anchored in the higher consciousness of the Collective Greater Good. Whether it’s Politics, Religion, Business, Education, Finance or any other part of human life, we need a new mindset around the role and responsibility of leadership if we are to create a better world than we are living in right now.

This then becomes a matter of consciousness – where is our awareness as leaders focused? What matters to us as we wield the positional power invested in our functions – whatever they may be? Are we pursuing self-interest? Are we dedicated to building a system in which every person thrives? Are we willing to challenge the old models that favour the few? As Martin Luther King so famously said: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter."

So elevating our consciousness means being honest with ourselves about what matters and not what we are told by others matters. It means examining our own ethics, our values and our ways of working to stand up for the future that Humanity, and indeed the planet, as a whole deserves. Leaders have a responsibility to envision a future. The quality of our consciousness defines the way we see that future.

If we value qualities such as love with all its facets (kindness, courage, compassion to name but a few), interdependence, equality, fairness and many others in this same note, we will envision a very different future to one that is characterised by survival of the fittest, the power of financial wealth, and selfishness.

Leaders don’t wait for someone else to stand up and inspire change. Leaders don’t duck their responsibilities to the higher ideal. Let us look to the quality of leadership governing our world today and ask ourselves, what can I do to shift the level of consciousness that underpins leadership. We are each drops in the vast ocean of life and in that, fundamentally vital to the existence of that ocean. Let us take that awareness and lift it to a higher level. Let’s make the practice of leadership matter in the creation of a better world for all.???????