Thursday, March 12, 2020

Conscious Leadership -Chatisa and Steven Bowman and Gary Douglas

I found some powerful concepts and practices here.

Conscious leadership is that which impacts organisational expansiveness - which draws followers who choose to follow. It is a state of 'being' rather than 'doing'. Conscious leadership is empowerment, not force. Everyone can be and are Conscious leaders - its a matter of choice.

Consciousness resides in each of us as an infinite resource of knowing, wisdom and acumen. Consciousness is a way of connecting what is happening at the present with infinite possibilities. It emanates an energy that is healing, nurturing, caring, joy, fun and expansiveness.

Leader vs Manager
The authors differentiate between a leader and a manager. A leader is anyone who sees the big picture, has a vision and strategy, sees change as an opportunity, embraces accountability and transparency, is good at public relations, encourages open communication, shares his vision and information throughout the organisation and sees risk as an opportunity. Managers try to put all these together and execute - plans and budgets, dealing with complexity, doing and achieving plans, contain risks.

Conscious, Unconscious and Anti-Conscious Leaders
The authors list three types of leaders - Conscious Leaders, Unconcious Leaders and Anti-conscious Leaders.

Conscious leaders are about expansion, lightness, infiniteness and are indefinable.  A conscious being is completely expansive, totally aware, one with life, peace and tranquillity and has no capacity to judge. Thereby, a conscious being allows life to come with ease, glory and joy. Contraction, on the other hand, is about solidity, density, limitation. The culture of an organisation that has a conscious leader is characterised by a focus on integrity, creativity, intuition, innovation, freedom, flexibility and generosity. the culture is one which creates conditions for cohesion, community spirit and mutual accountability.

Unconscious leaders are typically appointed to their position and become the Boss. Their staff would not normally follow them. They only command and direct because of their position. They are typically busy being busy, provide constancy, follow rules, maintain status quo and maintain order. They focus on process and immediate efficiency, blame problems on external factors, luck, fate etc. they are risk-averse and their common phrases are but, just, need, try, want and never. The culture created by an unconscious leader is about hierarchy, emphasis on process, lack of creativity.

Anti-conscious leaders actively work against the consciousness. They create conflict and discord, are status and power-hungry, tend to play politics, do not allow flow of information, have fixed points of view. Their mindset causes them to discern others as adversaries and to justify reprisal against them. They alleviate their insecurity through excessive control and territorial behaviour. They create a toxic environment, unhealthy climate. The culture created is autocratic, uncaring, fear-driven with control. There is fear of invalidation, reprisal, lack of information sharing. It is typified by - you are either with me or against me.
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Conscious Leadership Characteristics 
Conscious Leadership is about Knowing, Perceiving, Being and Receiving. It is the source of life, not an effect.

Perceiving  - Conscious leaders perceive everything as an interesting point of view. There's no judgment. We have limitations only because we decided we can't have enough. Be totally expansive, be willing to be or perceive everything.

Knowing - It is not 'thought', not of the head.

Being - Conscious Leaders being it is a point of view of celebration, of gratitude. There's no point of view about themselves. Life is an invitation for them to join, not by force. They live life is 10 second increments.

Receiving - Conscious Leaders receive with no resistance, are open, vulnerable and receive everything. They realise what they cannot receive is their limitation. We must receive everything including judgement. Ask yourself what you are willing or unwilling to receive. Unwillingness to receive is at the bottom of any problem.

Leaders can Create and Uncreate
Leaders create everything that is expansive and contracted. They can transform and recreate their lives. To be fully conscious, leaders need to claim, own, and acknowledge that they have the power to create their lives from choice and beingness.

To expand awareness, follow these practices
  • Choose to expand
  • Live in question
  • Live in 10 second increments
  • Embrace ease, joy and glory
  • Let go of form, structure and significance
  • Have no fixed Point of View
  • Be willing to receive everything without judgment
  • Be in total allowance for everything
  • Trust the flow of the universe
To go beyond limitation, ask yourself 'How does it get better than this?' and 'What else is possible?'. Prompt expansion. Go beyond limitation.

Thoughts, feeling and emotions are energy. Don't give them significance. Don't make them heavy and trap yourself. Choose lightness instead of choosing to be right. (On the other hand, when we discriminate, judge, differentiate, reject, have expectations, separate, we are practising contraction.) Stop making anything significant. It becomes a solidity and it takes power over you. Thoughts, feelings and emotions become greater. Keep them in flow.  When things become heavy ask yourself 'What am I making significant here?' To create lightness, merely make everything an interesting point of view.

The statements leaders have in their mind can have a major bearing on their lives. Live in the question, don't try to figure it all out. Ask yourself what am I not getting about it? What are the infinite possibilities?

Practice 10 second increments and let go of a fixed position, stability, safety, predictability. We are fully present, open and vulnerable.

Life comes with abundance, we resist with our judgment. Use the mantra ' All of life comes with ease, joy and glory.'

When we let go of form, structure and significance, we are fine with uncertainty, without form, structure and significance. Limitation is self-imposed. Look forward to the grand and glorious adventure today.

To allow new possibilities, destroy and uncreate what you have and believe is right. Create new relationships every day.

Magic happens when you stop being vested with the outcome.

Don't go about with a fixed point of view. Identify limiting beliefs with a fixed point of view. To let go of fixed Points of View be willing to be wrong. When you're upset, it means you have a fixed Point of View. 

To have everything you have to be willing to receive everything, you have to be willing to lose everything, and willing to give up everything. Give up your limitations first.

Some examples of being unwilling to receive are

  • Not wanting to deal with crises
  • Resisting having, being  or doing something
  • Fretting about how things ought to be
  • Not wanting to make mistakes


How many judgments you put in place to stop you from being able to receive everything and from doing something?

Perceive and receive everything as an interesting Point of View. There's no freedom in polarity. Only in an interesting point of view. Don't buy into any other Point of View. Don't align, agree, resist or react. When you stay with an interesting point of view, new opportunities and infinite possibilities showup.

To follow the energy, give up control. When you are controlling, you are not present.

Conscious leaders have to set
  • Vision and strategy - which they share freely
  • Accountable - internally and externally
  • Change management - view change as expansion
  • Risk - seen as an opportunity


Conscious Leadership is about facilitating expansion of consciousness and encouraging the spirit of others.

Superb techniques of living in the question, being non-judgmental, having only an interesting point of view. I loved the idea about not making anything significant and heavy - instead go for lightness and expansion. Also that all problems are about an unwillingness to receive something. And to receive everything we must be ready to be anything, be ready to lose and give up everything. And that all upsets are because of a fixed point of view. What adaptability, flexibility it offers. Superb book.

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