Leaders are climbing the consciousness mountain

“Consciousness is contagious.”  — Sigmund Freud

Many business leaders are becoming more intentionally conscious, and the result is businesses that do more for their customers and communities while growing and thriving.

A great example of businesses becoming more conscious is John Elkington’s triple bottom line. Elkington is the co-founder of a British consulting firm called SustainAbility, and he first coined the phrase, triple bottom line in 1994. His premise was that companies should prepare three bottom lines. One is the traditional measure of a company’s financial profit — the financial bottom line. The second is the company’s “people account” — a measure of how it treats all the people who interact with the organization. The third is the company’s “planet account” — a measure of how environmental stewardship.

The triple bottom line thus consists of three P’s: profit, people and planet. Triple bottom line companies do business with a higher consciousness.

What is consciousness?

Consciousness refers to being aware of your unique thoughts, memories, emotions, sensations and environment. You can have little, or you can have a considerable amount of consciousness. Your level of consciousness is in constant flux; how conscious you are literally changes every moment. You’re always somewhere on the consciousness continuum.

Low consciousness. Low consciousness involves greater involvement of your emotional and primitive parts of your brain, thoughts mostly concerned with survival of self and/or those closest to you. Your lower conscious thoughts are primarily involved with the four F’s: feeding, fighting, fleeing and fornicating.

High consciousness. High consciousness applies when you transcend your experiences and extend yourself and your understanding to encompass humanity’s highest potential, such as how your thoughts and actions affect those around you. An even higher level of consciousness is how your thoughts and actions affect all life on Earth.

Conscious business. How businesses operate impacts all of our lives. I’m very excited that B Corps, a new type of company that uses the power of business to solve social and environmental problems, are gaining momentum. I’m also thrilled about B Lab Colorado, a new office of B Lab in Boulder that serves and grows the community of Colorado B Corp companies. Here's an interview with Kara Peck, community development lead, B Lab Colorado, recently attended my Secrets of Mindful Power retreat for leaders on how B Lab raises business leaders’ consciousness:

The 10th Fearless Leaders Success Secret

In my book, Fearless Leaders, the 10th success secret is “Fearless Leaders climb the consciousness mountain.” They consciously work on becoming more conscious, which is important because neuropsychological research shows that as people gain in perceived power, they lose empathy — an important ingredient to being conscious and mindful. This is why our team chose to teach people how to increase mindfulness and boost personal power and influence: Mindful Power™!

We need business leaders, to keep strengthening their mindful power. If our leaders become more mindful, there’s great hope for the future of humankind. If not, humanity might go the way of the dinosaur.