Since I started my business and became an entrepreneur, I was keen to increase my knowledge about leadership skills and how to manage the organization effectively. I read many books, few were having a few good pointers and a few books not even worth reading, but a few months back one of my friends suggested to read “15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership”, that helped him to experience leadership in a whole new light.
When I started reading the book, it captivated me right from the Preface. The book is systematically written for someone who wants to enhance their leadership skill and organization, no matter it’s big or small. All the 15 commitments are perfectly described and even a newbie entrepreneur will easily understand the concept and can follow these concepts in reality.
Jim, Diana and Kaley share practical tips which help you to become a conscious leader. According to them, there are 15 commitments or strategies one can follow to become more conscious, responsible and become a better leader. The concept of above and below line helps to understand the concept of how to be more open, curious and ready to learn instead of being closed and ranthoneous.
Once someone starts reading the book and applies the tips in their daily life, they start realizing how important it is to keep learning and growing instead of being stubborn and always being right.
The book starts by differentiating two kinds of leaders, one which is conscious about their actions and another one is the unconscious leader. Writers explained and advised in well-organized thoughts and principles. Just with the concept of the above line and below the line, I was easily able to access my position and resulted in building better relationships with my clients and gained a clear vision towards my goals.
“You are essentially who you create yourself to be and all that occurs in your life is the result of your own making.” -Stephen Richards
The highlights of this book is their focus on introspection and the importance of self-awareness and honest feedback. Commitment here is a clear and precise practice, not a homily, that leads to empowerment and presence. Consciousness here leads to bottom-line results, and unconscious behaviours and strategies are presented with contrasting alternatives that are radical in that they go to the root of the issue and dissolve it in favour of much better ideas. The insightful techniques help you to make your employees teach the right path to success and encourage them to give their best performance. The practical techniques also provide suggestions about how one can easily tackle the problems at the workplace. The book helps the leaders to step out of low key self-consciousness to unconstrained power to manage themselves as well as the team.
Leadership is not just about power or position, to be a successful leader you need to take care of professional relationships, maintain balance within the organization. 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership shares you the idea of conscious leadership which will revolutionize all aspects of your personal as well as personal life. 15 commitments described in the book are Responsibility, Curiosity, Feelings, Candor, Gossip, Integrity, Appreciation, Genius, Play, Opposite of My Story, Approval, Enough, Allies, Win for All and Being the Resolution. These are a few simple yet effective commitments of conscious leadership which many of us skip or don’t know how to apply in our profession. This book helped me to make a clear road map of how to pursue my leadership in the right direction.
We all want to be a conscious leader and for that, we need to keep an open mind and work on 15 commitments given in the book. A few of my favourites are taking radical responsibility, mastering your emotional intelligence, speaking candidly, practising integrity and generating appreciation. Of course, all 15 commitments are life-changers, but even when I started as baby steps and initiated applying the above strategies, it helped me to become a conscious leader and take full responsibilities of my actions, be a better listener and provide honest feedback to my employees. I was always a person who preferred to keep a strong bond with my team, but after reading this book I got to know how to strengthen the employer-employee relationship and develop trust with each other.
The Drama Triangle
Would you share the “victim-villain-hero” triangle? When we’re below the line, we’re in drama. All drama is driven by three roles: the victim, villain and hero.
VICTIM
When I’m a victim, I’m living as though I’m “the effect of” people, circumstances and conditions. I locate the cause of my experience as something or someone outside of me. I’m upset because a supplier didn’t deliver or the markets are down or there is bad traffic. It could also be that I’m happy, but the cause of my happiness is the circumstances outside of me. Victims never take full responsibility for their lives.
VILLAIN
Villains blame. They blame others, the collective and themselves. They move through life finding fault. Villains believe something is wrong and their goal is to figure out who caused it.
HERO
Heroes seek temporary relief. The keyword is temporary. They don’t want to bring ultimate resolution to an issue because if they did, they would be out of a job. Heroes over-function and often take more responsibility than is theirs. They do this at the expense of others, the team and themselves.
Every time there is drama in an organization, or in our homes, the drama triangle is at play. We teach leaders to see this and to actually learn to consciously play on the drama triangle. The goal is not to try to get rid of the drama triangle but to move through the triangle into conscious leadership.
“Conscious leaders are more interested in learning than proving they are right.”
No matter if you just started a business or an experienced entrepreneur, I would suggest you grab the book “15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership”. It will surely help you to get better emotionally and thus it will become easy to solve life hurdles instead of being one. This book will surely enrich all aspects of your life.
