A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of hosting Kate Billing, the leadership expert and founder of Blacksmith, as we unpacked the human-centered approach to leadership. This was a rich conversation full of practical insights around challenges and benefits of doing deep work in organisations.
Below is the extract of Kate explaining her domains of conscious leadership model.
Domains of Conscious Leadership
What we often see in large organizations is the tendency to start with the purpose - this can sometimes lead to what I would call the “purpose washing”; they get a brand agency involved and come up with a slogan that takes advantage of the zeitgeist of people wanting things that are cleaner, greener more socially minded and yet they are not doing the work at a human level as leaders or as an organization.
Leadership always starts with self.
Self- leadership is about becoming more aware of who I am, who I could become and the things that matter to me in terms of my leadership identity, my values, and my way in the world. This type of leadership development is often left aside until much later in people's career when they have to get to the senior position or not until something goes wrong, when this is the stuff that we're now seeing children being taught in many schools. Self-leadership should be the starting point for any leadership development conversation; understanding who am I and how do I best lead myself in any set of circumstances so that I can perform, contribute and be fulfilled.
The work team isn't just the direct reports - I think this is another way that leadership is changing, especially in the current context of adaptable organizations and “work-from-anywhere” type environments. Work team's anyone you work with to create value - that could be a direct report, could be a manager could be team colleagues, could be people in other teams across the organization, could be people outside the organization who you partner with. This is an inclusive approach that enables you to become a more conscious and deliberate leader.
The home team is really important because it supports from the sidelines what we're working together to create at work. It’s also about looking for leadership opportunities in your home and managing often complex environments, particularly if you're in an extended or blended family, or if you have aging parents, or if you've got friends who are going through challenges.
Community is anywhere else that we are engaged with people toward a common purpose - that could be a sports team, something to do with church or something to do with school or your neighbourhood, and again this is your opportunity to lead.
For those who still struggle with the word conscious, it is important to find a language that doesn’t alienate people but rather brings them along on the journey. Kate prefers the term Human-Centered Leadership because this also includes consciousness and it’s a currency that is understood and valued by most organizations.