Running head: CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP
Conscious Leadership: The Evolution of Servant & Transformational Leadership
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CONSCIOUS LEADERSHIP
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Conscious Leadership: The Evolution of Servant & Transformational Leadership
Organizational psychologist Karlyn Barysenko (2019) explains that human beings are
evolutionarily hard wired to innately judge and evaluate. Whenever a situation or decision is
presented our minds begins to process and analyze in an effort to judge. This remains true when
considering leaders, leadership and the results thereof, which has led to an entire field of study
regarding the concept of leadership. This raises the natural question of what leadership theory is
best? While the most obvious answer to any question of ‘what [insert concept] is best?’ would
be ‘the one that works,’ this does not completely answer the question. The purpose of this paper
is to completely answer, and illustrate the reasoning behind, why Conscious Leadership is the
best leadership theory today and for the future.
Discussion
The analysis of leadership theory, style and discussion has been ongoing since the days of
Socrates and Aristotle to today and, although these theories span a dramatic range of both time
and philosophical ideology, the writer feels that there is only one concept that stands
transcendent across both—ethical service-based leadership. Northouse (2019) posits a paradox in
servant-based leadership between the simultaneous actions of leadership and service. Three
millennia ago, we see this in Biblical scripture Noah, Abraham, David, Jesus, Luke and Paul all
embody this paradox perfectly. Despite personification of extremely different styles and concepts
they all model service (Lewis, 2019). What is now defined as Servant Leadership stood as the
leadership theory that best met the needs of both follower and management of the issues of the
past, has been forced to evolve. To remain effectual, given the fundamental changes that have
occurred within the business environment over the past four decades, has required the application
of consciousness or the ‘common good’ as seen in ancient Indian wisdom and Aristotelian-
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Thomistic leadership theories (Frémeaux & Michelson, 2017; Pontifical Commission of Justice
and Peace, 2004, para 164).
Basis of Conscious Leadership
History has taught us that “this is the way we do it,” is a philosophy set in a tradition of
failure. Jacob Getzels stated that “the findings of academic research on leadership have been thin
and... often contradictory [because] we neglect the social context of leadership and the effect of
changing patterns of values on alternative patterns of leadership behavior” (Getzels, 1973, p. 20).
The corporate scandals at the turn of the millennia drove a cultural “flight to meaning” (Pink,
2002). This reflected a movement away from the materialistic, career focused, affluent, keeping
up with the Jones’ attitude of the 1990’s to a search for meaning in life. This fundamental change
has forced a new approach to business reflecting this consciousness of meaning that has occurred
among employees, customers and interconnected stakeholders (Sisodia, 2009). This is seen in an
inclusive and holistic mindset that transcends the individualism that characterizes popular
American culture (Hofstede, Hofstede, & Minkov, 2010).
Moral or Spiritual
Conscious Leadership acknowledges and depends on the role of a moral or spiritual
aspect or dimension within the organization. However, it does not state nor imply any explicit
connection with a particular faith and deliberately remains vague enough to cover most types of
personal convictions (Frémeaux & Michelson, 2017). It is based not on dogma but a spirituality
of immanence (Sisodia, 2011). Conscious Capitalism is based on spirituality-evolved, servicecentric leaders that create a conscious culture (Frémeaux & Michelson, 2017).
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Leadership Theory
The terms Conscious Capitalism (CC) and Conscious Leadership (CL) were coined,
popularized and championed by founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market John Mackey.
Given the recent multi-billion-dollar acquisition of Whole Foods Market by Amazon, CC has
piqued the interest of business leaders and scholars alike. Despite this recent interest, strong
acclaim, and popular business literature from the practitioners thereof (e.g., Arburdene, 2005;
Strong, 2009), CC has received a marginal scholarly research focus (Fyke & Buzzanel, 2013).
Conscious Leadership can be classified within a larger philosophical category of theories
Burns (1978) defined originally as transformational leadership. This initial categorization has
grown to include a still-expanding list of nontransactional styles of leadership, with the most
prevalent being Transformational, Servant, and Authentic Leadership. Although each of these
styles is distinct, they all have shared characteristics, including relational characteristics; ethical,
value-laden actions and beliefs; and service to others first (as cited in Wallace, 2012, p. 2).
Effectiveness of Conscious Leadership
Business organizations that are led by Conscious Leaders who adopt and practice
Conscious Capitalism create true long-term wealth for the stakeholders (customers, employees,
suppliers, investors, the environment) and society at large (Mackey, 2011, p. 84) driving deeper
satisfaction among these same stakeholders. As a result, CL as an evolved theory of leadership ‘is
largely devoid of the trade-offs’ that tend to be considered part of business as usual regardless of
leadership theory (Sisodia, 2009, p. 188).
Cultural Effectiveness
Conscious Leadership creates a culture based on trust, authenticity, care, transparency,
integrity, learning, and empowerment which combine to create an unmistakable environment that
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creates goodwill with all stakeholders (Sisodia, 2011). “The various stakeholders of an
organization look to leadership to ‘walk the talk’…It is especially important that leadership
embody the higher purpose of the organization, rather than seeking to maximize their own
personal power or compensation” (Mackey, 2011). By understanding and incorporating the
interconnectedness of stakeholders CL organically incorporates the cultural framework in which
the organization operates (Wren & Bedeian, 2009). This organic incorporation aligns the needs
and goals of employee, employer and stakeholder creating a trusting, caring, and transparent
culture. This works to create satisfied stakeholders across the organization who work as stronger
advocates for the business. This satisfaction and advocacy create a self-fulfilling, and selfperpetuating, cycle (Simpson, Fischer & Rohde, 2013).
Financial Effectiveness
Sisodia, Sheth and Wolfe (2014) examined over forty public and private firms that were
considered to be ‘Conscious Companies’ according to their humanistic profiles based on the
tenets of CC. Conscious Companies performed overwhelmingly better than the S&P 500
companies by most measures of financial performance. The publicly traded companies’
investment performance based on stock price was over 1,600% compared to a gain of the S&P
500 of 157% over the same 15-year period (p. 23). Simpson, Fischer & Rohde (2013) researched
these same firms further finding that annual growth rates illustrate a similar advantage with the
Conscious Companies averaging over 5% growth versus slightly negative growth (-0.6%) in the
S&P 500 (p. 23).
Conclusion
I originally started researching this topic with the supposition that Servant Leadership
stood as the best leadership theory. The position presented here posits, not that Servant
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Leadership has developed failures, but that Conscious Leadership evolves the concept to negate
and minimize the trade-offs and criticisms of Servant Leadership (Northouse, 2019). By
evolving the serving of the follower to that of stakeholders at the personal, group,
organizational, and societal level—the justification for Conscious Leadership being not
only the best but also the only theory, that meets the needs of stakeholders and addresses
the issues of the day. Conscious Leadership evolves the best aspects servant and
transformational leadership.
To close, Conscious Leadership recognizes not only that society is an important
stakeholder, but that the entire organization must be socially responsible to all stakeholders. A
conscious approach to leadership is based on the adoption of a higher purpose that
transcends profits... an approach oriented toward the stakeholder rather than shareholder
in an effort to create true long-term wealth for those stakeholders (customers, employees,
suppliers, investors, the environment) and society at large (Mackey, 2011, p. 84). This is best
summarized in the foreword to Firms of Endearment where Sisodia, Sheath & Wolfe (2014) state
that the effectiveness of Conscious Leadership “testifies to something that most of us have
known for a long time but generally have not felt comfortable talking about it in our
organizations: Praiseworthy leaders achieve greatness by inspiring love in others for their vision
(p. xii).”
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