Conscious Leadership: Definition, Benefits, 15 Commitments

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Leading others is a responsibility. Leading others in this era where employees are quitting jobs and thriving in an environment where they feel valued is a new ballgame.

Enter conscious leadership, and by default, the leaders are expected to do a great job in this era. Employees are no longer willing to work under manipulative leaders who consider their efforts expendable.

Here is what you should know about Conscious Leadership to improve as well as to be an effective leader in this era.

What Is Conscious Leadership?

Conscious leadership is all about guiding others with full awareness, taming growth in an organization, and providing full-hearted support to them.

Rather than an egocentric “me” attitude, a conscious leader advocates the “we” approach.
Eventually, it leads to a legacy approach, as it is all about individuals and professionals growing to achieve more than they did in their careers.

Different leadership styles exist in the conscious context, but the binary traits between conscious and unconscious leaders are important.

Thankfully, professional life, hard skills, and position hold no relevance when we define leadership.

Conscious leaders practice mindfulness and perfect the art of self-awareness. It helps them to regulate their emotions and not have knee-jerk reactions when it comes to defending themselves.

Instead, they own up to their mistakes, invite feedback, identify areas for improvement, and make decisions to unify the group.

A conscious leader dwells on their power or emotions and pretends that they do not have any.

Benefits Of Conscious Leadership For Organizational Success

Success means leading collaborative teams that are valued in every way.

It leads to higher productivity and more effective work, leading to new business and increased client retention.

This leads to higher revenue and higher profit margins. Below are a few qualities of a conscious leader that help them succeed.

Self-awareness at a higher level

When leaders know themselves well, that knowledge enables them to accumulate their emotions and be intentional in their actions, this will lead to positive outcomes with clients, partners, prospects, team members, etc.

Intentional

The moment you are intentional, there is a purpose behind every activity. For a conscious leader, the intention is communicated as it sets an example for others to bring more meaning to their work and interactions

Constant self-improvement

More knowledge means more expertise, which indicates a bright future. It leads to a degree of coaching in shadow work, a shift in mindset, and overall leadership development for yourself, your team, and the organization as a whole.

Level- Headedness

A calm and patient leader is trusted more than one who is explosive and impulsive. Conflicts are bound to arise in a business when conscious leaders approach situations in such a way that people feel safe and secure.

Compassionate

Compassion is one of the critical characteristics of a conscious leader. It adorns the way they address challenges, speak, and encourage others to improve. With time, this sets a precedent and becomes embedded in the company culture itself.

Why Are Emotional Intelligence And Conscious Leadership Critical?

A conscious leader is fully aware of how they respond and the impact they have on the organization.

These leaders are self-aware and take stock of their emotions. Emotional intelligence inspires leaders to become creative, open-minded, and eager to learn from the defense rather than from the start.

In today’s cultural environment, people face many more challenges than they did in the early times.

Practicing conscious leadership allows you to become compassionate and considerate toward others. Rather than fix the models with the same methods, conscious leaders explore new ways of solving problems.

15 Commitments Of Conscious Leadership Summary

  • Eliminating gossip
  • Living a life of play and rest
  • Feeling all feelings
  • Taking radical responsibility
  • Practicing integrity
  • Exploring the opposite
  • Learning through curiosity
  • Generating appreciation
  • Creating win-win solutions for all
  • excelling in your zone of genius
  • Experiencing the world as an ally
  • Having enough of everything
  • being the resolution
  • Speaking candidly
  • Sourcing approval, control, and authority

How To Become A Conscious Leader?

Anyone can become a conscious leader with an open mind with some intentionality. It is not something to be feared, as any leader can become a conscious leader if they choose to do so.

Developing a growth mindset

  • The growth mindset believes that your abilities and skills can be developed with effort and consistency. Such a type of mindset is crucial for conscious leadership.

  • When you are open-minded, you can function at complex levels and can solve intricate problems quickly.

  • This healthy mindset gives you viable opportunities to explore possibilities in the world. A conscious leader understands the impact of learning and growth and is not afraid to make mistakes.

  • They aim to move out of their comfort zone and try things out regularly, even if they may not be related to their work sphere.

  • Develop the mindset of seeing mistakes as learning opportunities. Leading by example will cultivate a growth mindset too.

Dedicate yourself to inner work

Conscious leadership is all about self-awareness and living in alignment with your values. This allows you to showcase yourself as an intentional and authentic leader.

  • You must do your inner work and gain superior self-awareness to be able to lead others consciously.

  • Work with a professional coach or counselor to identify your blind spots or opportunities for growth.

  • Be conscious of how you show up at your workplace and in front of your employees.
  • Leading consciously means living with integrity and identifying gaps to bridge in those areas where you are not following your values.

  • Trimming those gaps will help you become a conscious leader.

Enhances your ability to perceive multiple perspectives at once.

To become a conscious leader, you need to understand the perspective of others, even if you do not agree with them. It enhances your ability to emphasize that this is a crucial trait for conscious leadership.

  • This makes you a better problem solver since you hold multiple perspectives simultaneously, though you may be paradoxical.

  • Such a type of nuanced thinking would be critical in a rapidly changing environment.

  • Rather than sticking to the traditional framework, a conscious leader embraces it as they consider what needs to be done and how it has to be implemented.

  • Conscious leaders actively engage with others, fully leveraging their contributions and talents. They understand the value systems and focus on win-win situations for all.

Tips For Developing Conscious Leadership Skills

If you want to develop your awareness as a leader, consider following the below tips.

Gather feedback

An ideal way to be aware of how you are leading is to gather feedback as often as you can. Feedback can come from employees or customers.

An open attitude to feedback can be one of the helpful ways to receive it.
If you make yourself approachable and constantly ask for feedback, eventually, you will learn what makes you a capable leader.

This makes employees’ reactions to big decisions meaningful for their overall improvement.

Practice accountability

To become a conscious leader, practice accountability to the maximum possible extent.
Responsibility in leadership means that you accept the decisions that you have made as a leader, whether the results are good or bad.

By practicing accountability, you prevent the blame game and are fully accountable for all your actions. The logic is simple: if you are accountable for your actions, the other employees are bound to become accountable for their actions too.

A commitment to honesty

Another quality that you can follow to become a conscious leader is to showcase commitment to your employees. An honest approach with your employees regarding expectations and their performance can help them become honest with you.

This makes the feedback exercise rather useful. If employees understand that you are honest with them and they feel they can be honest with you, this prevents unnecessary gossip at the workplace.

FAQs

Does Conscious leadership evoke curiosity among leaders?

An effective way to become a conscious leader at your workplace is to exercise curiosity whenever possible. A moderate, healthy degree of curiosity at the workplace can lead to benefits for both the leaders and the employees.

An example is taking up a venture in an industry that is slightly different from what the employees used to do. This has some risks, but rewards are bound to emerge if the department succeeds.

Does a conscious leader develop his skills through open-ended communication?

Another tactic that you can follow to become a conscious leader is to encourage open communication as much as possible.
This can apply to your department in different ways, such as by creating a chatroom where employees can have department-related conversations.

Conscious leaders are leading their businesses further than ever before and are bound to attract the natural talent of businesses that do not comply with the conscious leadership model.

For all those who are considering advocating a conscious leadership model, now is the perfect time to take a shot at it. This is going to unleash your potential as a conscious leader.

How do you become a more conscious leader?

While the focus is on others, becoming a conscious leader starts with yourself. You bring your whole self to the leadership role, which may sound simple. Though it may take a lot of time to connect with your inner self,

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