The old world is dying. But do we, as leaders, have the courage, curiosity and the moral imagination to create a new one?   

Following the daily news cycle can quickly leave anyone disheartened. Flying in the face of compelling science on climate change and the inconvenient truths of the collateral damage of today’s economic system on people and planet, today’s business leadership appear tone-deaf. DEI and ESG have gone from being three-letter acronyms to four-letter words. Nature positive? Forget it.    

Like many people who see themselves on the more progressive side of business, I lament their demise. My instincts are to fight back – campaign – resist at all costs. I applaud the great work of the Employee Climate Action Network in this regard – employee activists who are holding their leadership to account. But what about the leaders? Are they following suit?   

We Need a New Kind of Leader 
 
We’re no longer painting by numbers when it comes to blindly implementing management theory. We now need a very different kind of leader, capable of envisaging and manifesting a new business ecosystem as opposed to sustaining the old.   

We don’t need more “excellent sheep” as William Deresiewicz might describe them in his critique of the elite US education system which taught students how to excel within the system, but not the critical thinking required to challenge it. That costly MBA may soon become analogous to a degree in Latin – an impressive qualification, but almost irrelevant in today’s rapidly evolving business landscape. “We have created a fantasy world in business education that has little to do with the real challenges managers face,” as Stanford Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer put it. 

The Crucible Moment for Business Leadership 
 
One could argue that we’ve been here before. Yes, we’ve always needed new kinds of leaders to emerge to help organisations and society navigate difficult times. More than just talent and charisma, we’ve needed leaders who, when called to do the right thing, are prepared to sacrifice personal gain for the greater good.  
 
Bob Thomas defines these moments as crucible events in his book, The Crucibles of Leadership. He characterises these as a “transformative experience through which an individual comes to a new or an altered sense of identity … These crucible experiences are mostly unplanned, but serve as the catalyst to shape and transform the distinctive leadership abilities of the individual.” Thomas argues that such ‘crucible’ events cast and forge character, in the same way that alchemists would use crucibles to transform base metals into gold.  

The poly-crises we currently face present a perfect crucible moment for transformative change. The leadership attributes required will be more intrinsic than extrinsic.  It’s easy to create incentives around revenue growth, share price – even recruitment and retention of talent.  Good performance on these metrics rewards with bonuses and career progression.  Courage, compassion, morality and empathy defy traditional KPIs and are far harder to measure and reward – yet so badly needed.  Important as they are, I’d argue that on their own they are not enough.  

What Is Conscious Leadership? 

We now need to move from alchemy on the outside, to something more akin to inner alchemy – not just courageous, but conscious leadership. Inner leadership that is driven less by the linear intelligence of the mind and more by the sentient intelligence of the heart.  Passion, melded with compassion for oneself and for others. We need leaders who move from measuring and reacting to market forces to sensing and creating new pathways. Otto Scharmer might call this approach “leading from the emerging future”. 

How to Lead More Consciously: 6 Practices 
 
If I were to offer advice to those who aspire to more conscious leadership, here are five simple ideas:  

• Be the Change:  To “be the change” you must first learn to be.  You employ human beings – not human doings.  Paradoxically, leading by example may well mean periods of doing very little.  
• Create Space: Conscious leaders will create what the Japanese call Ma – space for infinite possibilities to emerge. Swap the busyness of today’s 9 to 5 (or is it 5 to 9?) office environment to create space for reflection and meaning making.  
• Value Values: Reward and seek to retain employees who demonstrate the right values, morals and behaviours as much as delivering the right results.  
• Encourage Moral Imagination: Empower the change and tap into the innate human ingenuity of your employees, to “create new possibilities and new action”.  
• Learn to Listen:  Last but not least, listening is perhaps the most overlooked skill of leaders who all too often “hear without understanding, impatiently waiting for our turn to speak” as Emily Kasriel describes it in her new book, Deep Listening. 
• Unboss the Company:  Leadership is not about heirarchy. Create a broad vision, get out of the way then challenge and engage our entrepreneurial talent to create it.  It’s what Vaz Narasiman, CEO of Novartis describes as “unbossing the company”.