“It is our choices, Harry, that show us what we truly are, far more than our abilities” – and thus Professor Dumbledore gave Harry his first Transpersonal Leadership advice.
Indeed, our choices shape us and the world we live in, but how do we reach decisions? What do we consider and what should we consider in order to make the right choices? And how should we lead in order to render the right decision-making possible?
These are some of the questions tackled in our webinar on Transpersonal Leadership. John Knights, our invited speaker, an international thought leader, and coach explained: “Transpersonal Leaders operate beyond their ego, continuing personal development and learning. They are radical, ethical and authentic while emotionally intelligent and caring. They create performance-enhancing and sustainable cultures.” John asserted that Transpersonal Leaders think of benefits their decisions have on stakeholders, not on their own ego and defined ego as “a part of our self that is based on our self-image and only interested in our own personal benefit.”
Having an ego is not a bad thing, it does not make us malevolent, but we should learn to manage it and understand what drives it. Is it power, prestige, recognition or reward? For the participants of the webinar, power was of no interest, while 87% considered that recognition was the key force behind their ego. The LEAPers also thought that the biggest challenge in their work would be climate change while identifying community and planet as the most important stakeholders in a commercial business. John was taken aback when he learned about the responses – it was so different from what leaders in big corporations pointed out. There we come, the generation of sustainable leaders!
But as John pointed out everyone has 2 or 3 behaviors they need to change in order to become better leaders of tomorrow. Leaders need to be empathetic and understand other’s emotions and strive to create a climate that establishes a performance-enhancing culture. However, it’s not enough, in order to become a truly Transpersonal Leader, people need to get in touch with their values and identify their purpose.
To the LEAPers, the webinar gave an insight into how one can become a radical, ethical and authentic leader. It also challenged our speaker by demonstrating how young people think about the business world and how important environmental and social considerations are for them.
About the speaker
John Knight is a Co-founder and Chairman of LeaderShape. He is an international thought leader in the development of leaders and an experienced coach, mentor and facilitator of individuals (especially Chairs, CEOs and senior managers), teams and peer groups. John is a co-author of Leading Beyond the Ego: How to Become a Transpersonal Leader. White papers in the Transpersonal Leadership series are available here.
