The Art of Conscious Leadership is a course for business leaders that Clare Mann, and I conduct in London twice a year, to which people come from all over the world.
This morning I wrote a list of some of what we cover on the course. Then I realized that although the substance and the language was different, the essence of what I wrote was much the same as something I might write to describe a personal development training, or even a meditation retreat.
Some of my outline was specific, and included elements that would only appear in a course designed for business or organizational leaders; for example – business needs analysis, comprehensive systems for performance analysis, effective assessment in the hiring process etc.
But it also included the following:
- Secret ingredient #1: developing your intuition. You already see (or would like to see) yourself as a leader. Perhaps you are already in a position of leadership. If so, it is because you have a naturally intuitive capability. Now learn concrete new ways to develop your intuitive capability.
- Secret ingredient #2: Rapport and communication: the Principle of ‘Liking”. People follow you because they know that you understand, appreciate, and like them. This is not something you can fake. However, you can effect changes within yourself that will echo the internal patterns of some of the greatest and most charismatic leaders, so that people will trust you.
- Secret ingredient #3: What are the things that help you focus best?. This is different for everybody. Knowing what helps you focus best and what supports your best performance, and then by systematically reinforcing that focus, you can enhance everything you do.
- Communication is more about listening, and knowing what to listen for, than it is about getting your point across. Everyone has heard that listen is important, many people have not yet learned how specifically to do so.
- Leadership (as described by Nelson Mandela) is often best done from behind, so that people feel they are leading themselves, as they must, to become leaders in their own right.
I often hear people say that personal development and business development are the same. I wish this was always true. I think only the very best training is fully comprehensive. When it is, there’s another ingredient you can add. There is business, personal, and organizational development. Then the next element that seems to insert itself is something you might call ’spirit’. Of course, spirit is a loaded word, and means different things to different people. You could call it ‘inspiration’, but it’s more than that.
I leave it to you to call it what you like. Suffice to say, that the best training, whatever its ostensible purpose, leads you to greater happiness, greater effectiveness, and greater congruence with your own deepest values – greater ’spirit’. Call it Jung’s Transcendent Function, call it congruence between conscious and unconscious, or call it spirit–we all recognize it when we are living and working effortlessly towards full capacity.
In this context we believe the Art of Conscious Leadership to be one of the very best and most comprehensive trainings of its kind available anywhere.
I’ve been asking people,“Have you heard of the term ‘Cultural Creative’?” Most people I ask say that they have not.