The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership: A New Paradigm for Sustainable Success
by Jim Dethmer and Diana Chapman, Kaley Klemp
The Problem: Traditional leadership models, focused on extrinsic rewards and win/lose competition, are unsustainable at personal, organizational, and planetary levels. This leads to burnout, disengagement, and a culture of fear and scarcity.
The Solution: Conscious leadership offers a sustainable, self-rejuvenating, and reinforcing paradigm that enhances and enriches everyone involved. It's based on a simple yet profound model:
- Above the Line: Leaders are open, curious, and committed to learning.
- Below the Line: Leaders are closed, defensive, and committed to being right.
The 15 Commitments: This book outlines 15 specific commitments that conscious leaders live by:
- Taking Radical Responsibility: Owning your experience and choosing learning over blame.
- Learning Through Curiosity: Embracing self-awareness and seeing every interaction as a learning opportunity.
- Feeling All Feelings: Fully experiencing emotions as sensations in the body and releasing them through breathing, movement, and vocalization.
- Speaking Candidly: Revealing your truths (thoughts, feelings, sensations) and creating a space for others to do the same.
- Eliminating Gossip: Communicating directly with those you have concerns about and encouraging others to do the same.
- Practicing Integrity: Living with wholeness by managing energy, aligning your actions with your purpose, and keeping your agreements.
- Generating Appreciation: Cultivating a culture of gratitude by both giving and receiving appreciation.
- Excelling in Your Zone of Genius: Identifying and maximizing your unique talents while supporting others to do the same.
- Living a Life of Play and Rest: Honoring your rhythms by prioritizing play, improvisation, laughter, and rest.
- Exploring the Opposite: Questioning your beliefs and exploring the possibility that the opposite could be true.
- Sourcing Approval, Control, and Security: Recognizing that these needs are met from within, not from external sources.
- Having Enough of Everything: Shifting from a scarcity mentality to a belief in abundance.
- Experiencing the World as an Ally: Seeing every person and circumstance as an opportunity for growth and learning.
- Creating Win for All Solutions: Collaborating to find solutions that benefit everyone involved.
- Being the Resolution: Recognizing what is missing in the world and becoming the solution.
The Change Formula: (V x D) + FS > R = C
- V (Vision): Having a compelling picture of a preferable future.
- D (Dissatisfaction): Recognizing the pain and discomfort of the current situation.
- FS (First Steps): Taking practical action towards the vision.
- R (Resistance): Acknowledging and overcoming the natural resistance to change.
- C (Change): Experiencing a shift in your way of being in the world.
Next Steps:
- Implement the 15 commitments in your personal and professional life.
- Join or create a conscious leadership community.
- Work with a conscious leadership coach.
Benefits of Conscious Leadership:
- Improved personal well-being
- Higher employee engagement
- Increased creativity and innovation
- Sustainable success and growth
- A more fulfilling and meaningful life.