Thanks to Pete Burden for this quest blog. Pete is a partner in SeeStep, a consultancy focussed on helping people build conscious businesses. Check out www.seestep.com or www.conscious-business.co.uk if you are interested in learning more. Also find Pete on Twitter.

What is “Conscious Leadership”?

Leadership is one of those topics about which people seem to hold pretty strong views. Maybe it is because it’s very personal. We ask ourselves “am I a leader?” or even “am I good enough to be a leader?”.

When we say people hold strong views, we usually mean they hold those views tightly. They have a strong grip on their assumptions, attitudes and beliefs about that topic.

I want you to try and relax that grip for just a moment. Imagine that you don’t need to hold those views quite as tightly as you did just a moment ago.

After all, we all value learning, don’t we? And surely learning is the process by which we open ourselves up to new ideas? However, strange those ideas may seem at first sight?

Actually, I’m not claiming to teach anything here. I don’t know that I am right. But I do believe that considering new ideas is the way that society advances. So all I want to do is float a slightly different idea about leadership. To float that idea in front of you; and maybe you’ll like it?

So what makes a leader? I’d say it’s followers. For me, a leader is defined by the fact that there are followers.

Of course, there are different ways to follow. Some followers are coerced. Some bribed. Some follow without really knowing what they are doing.

But I am interested in the kind of following where people follow another person consciously. That is, where they make a choice. Where they exercise their free will, and follow because following gives them something.

Conscious followers also have particular ways of following. They don’t attend slavishly to every word. They don’t parrot their leader’s behaviour. Yes, they listen. And they learn. But they also interrogate. They interact and they engage in dialogue. In fact, taking it further, they collaborate.

Conscious followers are self-aware. They’re aware of themselves, and of other people. They respect those other people. And they dig deep inside themselves to understand their needs, their drives, and their purpose.

This isn’t about learning new skills, things that sit superficially on top of the inner human core. This is about fundamentally adjusting that core. About changing patterns of thought, patterns of feeling, and, ultimately, patterns of behaviour.

These are people that are self-responsible. They understand that what happens to them is their business. And theirs alone.

They’re congruent. They reveal their thoughts and feelings. They voice their concerns and ideas, and they’re assertive.

They live in the present, enjoy the process, and give up attachment to goals and outcomes.

And what are their goals? Mostly, they seek to become more of themselves. To be more of what they already are.

These are all attributes of a very special kind of “follower”. They’re the kind of follower that you’d probably like to meet. That you’d like on your team. That perhaps, like me, you’d like to be.

And what might a business full of that kind of person be like? I think it would be a business that delivered results that were less about individual ego, and more about what was good for the entire team. In fact, what was good for all the stakeholders.

That is what I’d call a Conscious Business. It’s a business that is innovative and creative. That’s resilient and sustainable. And very profitable. Because that is where I believe, ultimately, profit comes from: innovative, creative, empathic, purpose-driven, collaborative people.

And you know, just to be different, I might just stop calling those people followers. After all, follower isn’t such a great word is it? For someone who is so innovative, creative, empathic, purpose-driven, and collaborative. And all those other things.

I think I’d rather call these people Leaders.

And admit that we all lead, most of the time. Sometimes we don’t but mostly we do.

Some imagine the CEO of a big corporation as a shining white knight, a solitary hero. Someone who steers the ship and rescues all his crew and cargo from danger.

Yet, in reality, nearly every person in that corporation (including the CEO) makes a life for themselves. Looks after themselves, raises children, feeds them. Deals with much bigger matters than are required to run a corporation: matters like birth, life, love and death.

With aplomb. With charm. With strength. With humanity.

That is what I call a Conscious Leader. You.

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