Leadership

Our research at the Barrett Values Centre® over the past 20 years has shown that the most successful leaders operate from full spectrum consciousness.[1] They always stay calm because they can handle any situation that arises. They propose solutions that care for the needs of all stakeholders and they have signed up to support the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.

Full spectrum leaders have the courage to face their fears, challenge the status quo, persevere when things get tough, risk everything for the cause they believe in, and do all these things without any regard for personal gain. They want to create a better future for everyone. Their goal is ‘to make everyone fully powerful’[2] so the organization can become self-organizing. ‘The traditional roles of the CEO fall away – there are, for example, no targets, no budgets to approve, no executive team to chair, no promotions to decide on. ... A critical role therefore of the founder/CEO is to “hold the space” for Teal structures and practices.’[3]

To become a full spectrum leader, you must first learn to lead yourself: if you can’t lead yourself, you can’t lead a team. You must then learn how to lead a team: if you can’t lead a team, you can’t lead an organization. You must then learn how to lead an organization. Full spectrum leaders have a personal touch. They stay in contact with their colleagues. They manage by values; they measure their culture; and they focus on their own psychological development as well as the psychological development of their people.[4]

At the core of the transition of business in Humanity Awareness will be a shift in focus from short-term financial results to long-term societal goals. Increasingly, businesses will be organized around cooperative principles.

This quote from Daniel Goleman sums up the type of leadership we will find in Humanity Awareness.

‘Great leaders do not settle for systems as they are, but see what they could become, and so work to transform them for the better, to benefit the widest circle. Then there are those rare souls who shift beyond mere competence to wisdom, and so operate on behalf of society itself rather than a specific political group or business. They are free to think far, far ahead. Their aperture encompasses the welfare of humanity at large, not a single group; they see people as We, not as Us and Them. And they leave a legacy for future generations – these are the leaders we remember a century or more later.’[5]

I now want to focus on two sectors that play an important role in supporting social cohesion – justice and the arts – and the sector that is the fundamental key to our future survival – the environment.

[1] https://www.valuescentre.com/tools-assessments/#leadertools
[2] Frederic Laloux, Reinventing Organisations (Nelson Parker: London), 2014.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Richard Barrett, The New Leadership Paradigm (Bath: Fulfilling Books), 2010.
[5] Daniel Goleman, Focus: The Inner Driver of Excellence (New York: HarperCollins), 2013.

Book: The New Leadership Paradigm