The Transcendent Leader

“No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.” Albert Einstein

Imagine, for a moment, that you’re working with a leader who honors the wisdom of the heart over the cleverness of the mind. Using the power of unconditional loving, this leader organizes others to emphasize operating for the benefit of humanity, while continuing to accomplish the material objectives of the organization.

The Latin verb ascendere (the root of the word transcendence) means "to climb", so transcendence has the qualities of climbing and crossing boundaries. Transcendent leaders are aware of and have the ability to transcend – rise above – the boundaries of human experience.

In this awareness they are able to hold in a consciousness that naturally lifts those around them and helps unbind them from their often self-imposed restrictions. They help us to “see” our filters and blind spots by facilitating insights that allow us to consciously choose our behaviors rather than mindlessly defaulting to our ingrained habitual actions. As we experience the freedom coming from an expansion of our self-awareness, we begin to challenge deeply held assumptions or habitual ways of behaving and the possibility of our own transcendence becomes real.

Opening the door to significant personal evolvement, transcendent leaders genuinely value others as people: not their status or position but who they are. They are open and transparent about themselves and build a trusting relationship with others. In this trusting relationship they are impartial and patient, always looking for a solution that takes into manifestation the highest good of all concerned.

Transcendent leaders are able to connect purpose with loving, and move past the anchors of ego-centric limitations. Having deep self-awareness of being human while transcending the boundaries of humanness, these leaders guide themselves and others through a constantly shifting landscape of personal, interpersonal and organizational challenges.

Transcendent leaders assist us to see organizations as mechanisms that offer meaning instead of only being vehicles for money, recognition, self-preservation and lusting for a self-indulgent life.

?It is not so much what we do that matters, it is rather who we are when we drop the mask of self-fabricated identity. Bringing forward our inner wisdom enables leaders to touch events or persons with a quality of loving that can be transformational. This way of being has its own calling of leadership.

To truly be a transcendent leader one needs to be a bit of a mystic. This means moving from only awareness of our human expression to a deeper awareness of the Sacred, or a transcendent state of Being.

?"We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.” Pierre Teilhard de Chardin

The role of leaders in nurturing the sacred in the workplace has also been a topic of discussion since the dawn of organizations. Being a Sacred-led leader has been in consideration for more than two millennia.?

These leaders are curious and proficient at learning about the transcendent nature embedded within our humanity. Instead of acting as the teacher whose intention is to instruct those around them, they ask, “What has this person come to teach me?” The transcendent leader recognizes that each human being has value and seeks to find how that value can contribute to him/herself and/or to the situation at hand.

Using awareness of Self, leaders sort out how their own projections may be blurring their perceptions of reality. Achieving clarity about our projections—defense mechanisms used to deny our unconscious impulses or qualities while assigning them to others—is seen as a significant way to rise above or go beyond (transcend) the limits of human expression.

Our human expression operates from a limiting exclusive focus on scarcity. Transcendent leaders operate from inner wisdom, precipitating an unbounded, inclusive focus on abundance. Having the courage to challenge ingrained human perspectives that are stagnant and position this inner wisdom to be the catalyst for transcendence is critical for our evolvement as leaders.

The Sacred expresses itself not so much in words or preaching, but in the embodiment and demonstration of our beingness. All wisdom teachings emphasize the need for individuals to engage in reflective practices such as prayer, contemplation, or meditation. The purpose of these practices is to assist an individual to lift above the illusions of the world and remember their connection to what is Sacred or Divine Presence. In turn, the reflective practices of a leader have been shown to affect followers’ behaviors resulting in alignment between individual purpose and organizational purpose.

Connected to this focus is holding the discipline of unconditional loving. The real energy of an organization is released through unconditional loving for all stakeholders as they evolve in awareness. Leveraging loving results in a purpose-driven and meaningful organization.

Transcendent leaders see the organization from a greater altitude and develop insight into the unique wisdom within each individual stakeholder. Wisdom is known by one critical quality: insights gained from the experience of doing. If there are no insights from the experience of doing, then it is merely data, information or knowledge that can be found in books or articles posted on the Internet.

Collective wisdom emerges from the collaboration of individuals sharing their experiences. Transcendent leaders harness this collective wisdom for the benefit of both the organization and humanity at large.

Transcendent leaders are critical for the next evolutionary step in creating long term vitality in organizations of all types. The word vitality emerged from the Latin word “vita”, which means life. One definition of the word vital is “full of life.”

The Never-ending Question of Leadership

For several decades there has been great devotion to educating people to become leaders. Despite a deluge of articles, books and videos that have been produced, a key question remains: What, specifically, is leadership?

Current leadership studies consistently reveal a familiar set of foundations or purposes leaders are supposed to fulfill:

1.????Finding common purpose,

2.????Seeking opportunity or possibilities, and

3.????Building relationships as a way of leading.

This triad has also created a complex labyrinth filled with stumbling blocks for the leader to navigate.

For example, finding a common purpose can become an exercise in frustration in many organizations. However, during times of crisis, the common purpose is placed naturally and directly before us. There is no need for mission statements or strategic plans. The purpose of the organization is recognized and acted on by the majority.

Historically, a leader was a person who guided others to a destination or to a specific course of action. This is a rather broad definition, and begs this question: If a leader is guiding us over the cliff’s edge, is this still leading? Will the accomplishment of fleeting goals meant to gratify short-term lusts for money, recognition, self-preservation or a self-indulgent life qualify as an appropriate course of action for an authentic leader?

Guides or leaders are assumed to be people concerned with the welfare of those they guide. As Annabel Beerel, Ph.D. points out in her article on Transpersonal Leadership:

“The leader, took on the task, both internally and externally, of leading people through the challenging realities of the times, often across deserts to new pastures, new lands, new competencies and new mindsets. The implicit leadership responsibility was not only to face the presiding reality honestly and squarely, but to help people find a way through the trials to a new reality where existing challenges are outgrown and transcended. The leadership challenge was to call on people’s potential to rise above the old and embrace the new. The rallying cry was a call to transcending one’s fate to find freedom within.” Annabel Beerel, Ph.D.

Traditionally, leaders were automatically given a great deal of trust, assuming that they would safely guide others to this place of transcendence. Leaders today operate very differently from this historical expectation of leadership. There is an often-unspoken belief that leaders have a mission or vision that leads the organization to success. Often, however, financial outcome, rather than transcendence, is the only measure of organizational success.

When identifying future leaders, organizations often look for traditional leadership characteristics of self-assurance, aggressiveness, authority, and accomplishment. This set of characteristics sometimes provides leaders who are also manipulative and obsessed with total control. These are also the characteristics of a sociopath. Perhaps this explains why research indicates a much higher percentage of sociopaths among leaders than in the general population.

Considering Transcendent Leadership, we have a unique opportunity to identify and cultivate the types of leaders we need at the top, and not just choose from among the ones who are very good at getting there.

Wisdom

In the last 30 years, humanity has been transforming at an ever-increasing rate. We have witnessed the world shifting from the Information Age into the Knowledge Age. Humanity is currently in the midst of another shift, this time to The Wisdom Age—and the effects of this are just beginning to emerge.

In concert with this emerging age is a shift from the knowledge economy to the wisdom economy. Earl Cook coined the term “wisdom economy” in a 1982 paper on the consumer as creator. This shift implies a level of self-inquiry, non-linear and non-rational beingness, already taking place in the current environment. Information and accumulated knowledge have become commodities. What may be missing is being wise with this commodity, and then moving to action based on this wisdom.

More than any generation of leaders, emerging leaders are faced with increasing levels of collaboration, inclusiveness, ambiguity, paradox, complexity, and the need to be agile while producing results within a team environment. Command and control models of leadership are just too slow and miss too much of what needs immediate attention.

In the past, leadership models proposed that there was “a” leader. Today’s models recognize that anyone and everyone leads in moments of opportunity. We are seeing a change from what a person has to do as a leader to a model of whom a person is as a leader.

As we move forward into the wisdom age, the next evolution will require leaders who can transcend the boundaries of human consciousness and move more directly into their heart where Being leads Doing.

It is here that organizations can leverage a future asset that will be increasingly coveted by their competition. Preparing your leaders to know who they are, who others are (and how they differ) and the culture within which they find themselves is much more valuable than having them read a case study on how to emulate an influential leader from history.

Preparing leaders to be self-aware is only the first step. These leaders must then learn how to develop and direct their own innate sense of wisdom that is emerging from within themselves. They must also learn how to collaborate and include the wisdom that is emerging from within other team members. They have an opportunity to move much more quickly toward success than previous generations of leaders. The ancient Japanese proverb, “None of us is smarter than all of us,” is a good guiding catchphrase for these emerging leaders.?

From Awareness to Action

Many leaders have expressed fear connected to our inner journey into Self-awareness. This journey requires great courage to look at things that we have denied, over explained or rationalized. Being great Light bearers, we often cast shadows. If we focus our attention only on the shadows, our imagination can perceive them as monsters. Denying our shadows only gives them greater power over our consciousness. Awareness is the key to overcoming fear and its resulting restrictions.

Transcendent leaders spend time attuning to the music of Inner Wisdom. Getting to the station that is right for each of us individually requires spending time listening, contemplating and meditating. From that attunement with Self comes the intuition to follow the path laid out for us.

Aligned leaders work from their hearts creating a place of integrity. Aligning provides deep authenticity and inspires trustful relationships. In the absence of trust, organizations tend to fall apart, but this is not a likelihood for leaders following their own inner wisdom.

Alignment requires discernment, the ability to see what is real based on the insight of our hearts. These inner practices come from wisdom traditions that teach us not to turn our backs on the world.

With awareness, attunement and alignment, our actions can be guided by the sacred intuition from the center of our beingness. This is the essence of transcendent leadership.

What is your strategy to prepare yourself and the next generation of leaders to leverage the emerging wisdom economy? Are your programs focused on helping them know themselves, know others and know the culture within which they live? What are you doing as a leader to transcend human consciousness, so that you lead from a consciousness of inner wisdom?

Transcendent Leadership - Manifesting Organizational Vitality – Available on Amazon