Conscious Leadership = Happiness
I’ve been following Emma Seppälä,Science Director of the Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Education at Stanford University, for about a year on social media. I really like her approach to the combination of wellness and effectiveness. I’ve pre-ordered her book, The Happiness Track – check it out!
Dr. Seppälä wrote a recent article on what I’ll call conscious leadership. She claims that three factors, according to research, are critical for “extraordinary” leadership:
- Inspiration: embodying a sense of purpose and meaning
- Kindness: being thoughtful and sincere to others
- Self-care: systematically prioritizing wellness despite being busy
In my own experience with clients and myself, these traits are indeed crucial. Recently Alchemus Prime facilitated several career manifestation and organizational effectiveness retreats, and clients have thanked us for our focus on the alignment between personal and professional goals using our science-based model and our win-win framework.
In our approach, we include a focus on “the true self,” which involves scrutinizing and clarifying a person’s or organization’s vision, mission, and goals. As the true self emerges, a deep sense of purpose is found, allowing our clients to orient themselves mentally and behaviorally in their chosen sustainability direction, be it addressing climate change, water, or energy issues.
We also foster a culture of being that true self at work, and creating non-hierarchical bonding between staff and management that facilitates smoother operations as protocols and targets begin to carry deeper resonance, grounded in the personal connections and alignment between team members.
Lastly, we help clients prioritize self-care, providing tools and ongoing coaching to help achieve wellness goals, create more free time, and balance personal, social, financial, career, professional, and community or “giving back” priorities.
As we continue on the journey of becoming conscious leaders, research shows it is really important to prioritize a sense of purpose, kindness to others, and self-care.