What Makes a Leader a 'Conscious Leader'?
Updated: Feb 21, 2022
Conscious leadership is a buzz phrase growing in popularity. Googling “conscious leadership” produces many different descriptions, but most share a common theme: a conscious leader is self-aware, authentic, accountable and leads from the “we”, not the “me”.
Given the popularity of the term, it’s apparent people are hungry for a more connected and collaborative form of leadership. The traditional styles of management that lean towards hierarchy, control, and other egoic behaviors just don’t resonate with much of today's workforce.
Under the legacy regimes, there are order-givers and order-takers, with a small number of people defining the overall vision for the group. These outdated approaches come from fear-based intentions and limit the creativity of all involved. Today, many people desire to be limitless creators, and they want to do work they love. They are not willing to settle for anything less.
This is where conscious leadership comes in. Conscious leaders enable their teams to show up authentically, allowing each person to use their unique gifts and talents as they collaborate to reach a shared vision. When teams of people work from inspiration rather than force, the power of creativity is exponentially magnified. Their outcomes become extraordinary.
“It's learning to let go and really empowering people at all levels of the organisation, and trusting them to doing the right thing.” – Sundar Pichai
Some powerful traits of a conscious leader include:
Is self-aware and knows themselves as the powerful creator they are
Lives and leads from love, not fear
Seeks vision and guidance through intuition
Uses the power of collaboration to create remarkable results
Holds themselves accountable for all outcomes
Inspires those they lead to grow in their consciousness
Feels peace and calm, regardless of what's going on
Self-Awareness is Soul-Awareness
Self-awareness is at the heart of conscious leadership. Without a leader knowing and embodying their authentic self, authenticity will be difficult to cultivate within their teams and work efforts.
Self-awareness is not limited to being cognizant of one's behaviors and emotions. A conscious leader is awake to the fact that they are much larger than what appears within the physical realm. They are not just a mind and body; they are a multi-dimensional being. They are a soul and they can tap into this magnificent part of themselves for guidance whenever they wish. They can live as their soul, and while acting from this powerful place, they become inspired creators.
A conscious leader constantly assesses the level of consciousness they hold across all aspects of their work (and life, in general). They seek to continuously expand their awareness so they can grow as a person and as a leader. They desire to act from love and to be in service for the greater good. They often assess: Am I operating from love or from fear? This is an important question that will impact the outcome of any initiative. Obviously, it is more beneficial to be acting with love. Being in the state of fear makes it harder to reach desired results, there is often little joy in the creative process, and the finished product is often less than expected.
A conscious leader relies on their intuition and is aware of the creative power they hold within themselves. They know that everything that happens to them is a reflection of what’s within their consciousness. Rather than trying to force results through mind-driven tactics, they go within to obtain vision and receive guidance for how to accomplish their endeavor. From here, they take inspired action that produces results with ease.
Conscious Leadership and Energy
We live in a universe that operates on the basis of frequency. Frequency ranges from low (fear-based) to high (love-based). We each emit a frequency that attracts experiences that match our vibration. Alignment to fear will create poor results in one’s life, while alignment to love will produce results you only dreamed of before. Conscious leaders execute from a state of being, not doing, and are aware of the state of their personal energy. They regularly check in with themselves to see if they are embodying the low vibration of fear or the high frequency of love. Conscious leaders ensure their energy is aligned to their vision and to each action they take, every step of the way.
When many people think of love, they think of it as the emotional and physical relationships between people. This is not what I mean when I refer to love in this context. Here, love is a state of being that represents all that is good. It emanates from the heart and can transform all lower energies. The energy of love has the power to lift others up and create extraordinary outcomes. We are, at our core, the essence of love.
Conscious leaders guide others while aligned to love-based energies. The table below compares some love-based energies to fear-based ones. Notice how fear-based energies are often present in the traditional management styles.
Love-based Energies | Fear-based Energies |
Inclusiveness | Exclusiveness |
Unconditional | Conditional |
Forgiveness | Punishment |
Compassion | Judgment |
Allowance | Control |
Gratitude | Expectation |
Nurturing | Rules |
Trust | Doubt |
Calm | Stress |
The energy of love has the power to transform another’s energy. It is imperative that a leader’s energy be aligned to the endeavor they are undertaking, A team will reflect the energy of their leader, as their energy will innately match the leader’s vibration. When a leader’s energy is aligned to love, everyone else's energy will naturally rise. The leader who vibrates in fear will reduce the energy of those around them. The end results will always reflect the vibrational alignment of the leader.
Manage Your Energy, Increase Your Impact™
Are you a conscious leader who wants to increase your impact? If so, it’s important to consistently manage the current state of your energy. This isn’t always easy, but it is a habit you can develop over time. It’s imperative to your success to stay on top of your frequency and to assess your alignment to everything you do.
You can check for alignment by performing this simple test: check into your feelings. Most of us are unaware of how we feel at any given time. We let our feelings run on autopilot in the background of our life. Through our feelings, we can immediately identify whether we are aligned with love or fear. Do you feel good, or do you feel bad? If you are feeling good, you are in the energy of love - keep doing what you are doing. If you are feeling bad, stop! You are operating from the intention of fear. This is the time to go within and seek guidance from your intuition on how to shift from the state of fear to the state of love.
I encourage you to make this simple exercise a habit. Throughout your day, check in to your feelings. You will develop awareness of the state of your feelings and have the opportunity to shift them on the spot, allowing you to better align to your desired outcomes. You will also begin to live in the present moment, which is always the starting point for creation. Your consciousness will expand as you begin to manage your energy through your feelings.
Experience Expansion
In my bestselling book, Awakening Through Anxiety: A Journey to Finding One’s True Self, I share the Release Technique. The Release Technique is a simple yet powerful tool for releasing non-loving energies from within your body and mind. I encourage you to check it out.
I am dedicated to helping conscious leaders quickly increase their impact while loving what they do. As a certified life energy coach, I help you to define, align to, and embody your vision, creating bigger results in all aspects of your life. If you are ready to take your execution to a whole new level, please accept my gift of a complimentary Leadership Breakthrough session.
Amy Blakeslee is a Conscious Leadership Coach and Founder of Calm Ocean Coaching. She is the bestselling author of Awakening Through Anxiety: A Journey to Finding One’s True Self. Prior to starting Calm Ocean, Amy had a successful, 25+ year career in Technology and held executive roles at The Walt Disney Company and Universal Music Group among others.
Visit Calm Ocean Coaching at: www.calmoceancoaching.com
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