Ask yourself - as a leader, are you coming from a place of fear and uncertainty? Do you look for fault and blame in others, cling to an opinion and fixed worldview, and believe in scarcity over abundance?

Or are you open to outside interpretations, curious about the world around you, and committed to learning more about yourself and those around you?

In other words, are you leading below or above the line?

That’s the topic of today’s special #SPKup episode as I explore the concepts contained in The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership, a fantastic read and a book that’s proven to be a true game changer for me.

As you’ll hear in this episode, the entire leadership team at Awesome Office HQ is currently reading (or re-reading) this amazing book, so I thought it was the perfect opportunity to share some of my learnings as I explore its valuable concepts yet again.

We only cover half the points in part one, and will pick up again in part two.

Here’s a quick recap of the points we Cover

Commitment 1 - Radical Responsibility  

• The idea with this first commitment is to locate the “cause and control” inside us, not in external events. This means we stop believing that the world should be a particular way, and instead believe that the world just shows up.
• In the second part of this process, we move from rigid, closed mindedness to curiosity, learning and wonder (something that naturally occurs if the first shift happens.)
• But most of all, radical responsibility is not about being right! Letting go of the need to be right is something all top tier leaders do.

Commitment 2 - Learning through Curiosity

• Conscious leaders are passionately committed to knowing themselves (the basis of curiosity) and allow themselves to wonder.
• Success here depends on approaching people with an unreasonable benefit of the doubt, especially those you manage. Be truly curious in what they say.

Commitment 3 - Feeling All Feelings

• So many leaders stay in their head and don’t access their guts or hearts enough. To be an effective leader, you need to acknowledge all your feelings.
• Emotions are just energy in motion. They’re neither good nor bad - they just are. The key is learning how to deal with your emotions and process them. Every feeling we experience is a way for us to grow and improve in awareness.

Commitment 4 - Speaking Candidly

• According to the book, the team that “sees reality the best wins.”
• So many people are scared to speak candidly, but when they do that they’re robbing themselves and other people from the natural flow of energy, from what really needs to be said.

Commitment 5 - Eliminating Gossip

• Gossip is defined as anything said with harmful intent, that you wouldn’t say in front of the other person. While gossip is a manifestation of our species’ desire for deep social bonds, it no longer serves us, especially in business.
• Here we break down why we gossip, and discuss strategies for reversing and avoiding our tendency to engage in this destructive behavior.

Commitment 6 - Practicing Integrity

• Remember that integrity has nothing to do with being right or wrong, it’s all about being whole. (The root of integrity is integer, after all.)
• We discuss the importance of not blocking the natural flow of energy, and the Four Pillars that help us maintain our integrity.

Commitment 7 - Generating Appreciation

• For this commitment, we talk about what it means to give people the unreasonable benefit of the doubt and why leaders need first and foremost to pay attention.
• Additionally, we dive into the various reasons why people don’t accept appreciation, and what masterful appreciation really looks like.

Again, that’s just part one. We’ll cover Commitments 8-15 in part two next week.

Recommended Reading

• The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership by Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Klemp Special Offer for AO Listeners

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