Why Move Beyond Conscious Leadership? (Part One)
The last few years have brought waves of attention to the philosophies and blueprints that group themselves under the banner of “Conscious Leadership”. There are mastermind groups, luxury retreats, medicine ceremonies, and a bevy of books all teaching principles of mindfulness, sustainability, and emotional intelligence.
Conscious Leadership can be embodied in many different ways, but it is always rooted in a higher level of self-awareness in the leader. They are conscious of themselves. This ability to honestly self-reflect allows them to lead from creativity and vision alignment, instead of unacknowledged personal trauma and unconscious action.
An immense positive impact has come from this shift away from overtly extractive ways of leading, and this has created more space for ventures for social good. Just in the nick of time. In its highest form, Conscious Leadership invites us to begin to bridge the different sectors of life with more skill and sensitivity, and it has introduced space for deeper reflection on how we do things and why we do them in those ways.
Palazzo della Cancelleria, Photo: Kristin Cerda
The world has entered a new chapter recently.
Globally, we are shifting from a paradigm of protected categories – dependable structures – into a time where much of what has been familiar is turning itself inside-out through collapse, radical reinvention, and simply gestating in the interstice. With this change comes an uncomfortable truth: It is time to start exiting the limitations of dichotomous thinking in favor of integration and transmutation.
An extreme example for the sake of illustration: Let’s look at the Conscious Leadership trend of swinging from masculine leadership into what is often labeled as feminine leadership. Though this is not the axis all forms of Conscious Leadership work with, it is a relatively common one. This oppositional structure of feminine/masculine misses the fact that there is no masculine without the feminine, no feminine without the masculine. (For the sake of focus, let’s set aside the fact that in the West we talk about feminine/masculine as if there is only one globally accepted way of describing these energies/patterns, ignoring that their traits are inverted in some cultures.)
Fully replacing one energy with the other, even just in name, suppresses the gifts of what was left behind. It is misguided to strip away specific planning and consistent structure and call it the liberation of the feminine. This is still feeding unsustainable thinking of the old paradigm. Over and over, conscious leaders are missing the mark by keeping themselves tied to the premise of a dichotomy. Leaders still think they need to choose B over A, when X is the way forward.
Both kinds of energy are needed; the creative fire needs the stable container to grow and shape creation. The stable container needs the creative fire to breathe life into directionality. Both kinds of energy are needed so that we can cook their individual elements together to make something else, to allow skillful transmutation to take over.
At Casa Comadres, we’ve seen many professionals and businesses struggle because they’ve taken to one extreme or the other as dogma, instead of taking the lessons of both and building something that is greater than the sum of those parts, something that moves beyond 20th Century thought structures.
This is a simplified example for the sake of easy imagining, but it has become increasingly common for philosophies of Conscious Leadership to get stuck in limited formulas built in reaction to what has come before, instead of truly innovating by integrating what is needed in the years to come.
Becoming present with what is, right now in the present moment, is an important skill. Conscious Leadership has done a great service by bringing more presence and greater ethics to our work lives and business structures. Conscious Leadership is a stop along the journey; it is not a destination.
It’s time to bring our focus now to more multidimensional ways of leading and guiding on this planet. The dynamic and uncharted waters we are all collectively navigating require not just the highlighting of different elements of the old philosophy. They require a whole new paradigm altogether.
At Casa Comadres, what lives beyond Conscious Leadership is called Expansive Leadership. It’s embodied, authentic, and most importantly it is multidimensionally powered. It does not seek to control the river; it learns to expertly ride it.
Up ahead, for at least the next two decades, are some wicked rapids on Planet Earth. We are just at the beginning of a radical shift in all sectors of life. Are you ready to suit up? Are you ready to grow beyond the familiar, to reach gorgeous places you never imagined possible?
Because at Casa Comadres, that's where we are going.
What are your experiences with Conscious Leadership? Where are you feeling ready to grow into the next level of your role as a leader?
We'd love to hear what calls to you, what intrigues you, or even what angers you about these ideas.
