Seizing the Executive Imperative To Expand Consciousness

By Dawna Jones

Are company decision makers setting executives up to fail?
Or is something else going on?

Fifty to seventy-five percent of newly hired executives fail in the first eighteen months. Apart from predictable reasons such as inadequate formal development, absence of coaching during the adjustment combined with insufficient understanding of the role, executives, experienced or not, are no longer standing on anything resembling familiar territory. The entire context is changing fast. So fast that you cannot assume anything from the past, apart from your ingenuity, applies. Increasing complexity makes mockery of past practices or best practices particularly when dealing with surprises such as tech innovations obliterating business models overnight. It’s the fork in the road separating old paradigm leadership consciousness with the choice to dive deeper into expanding consciousness and leadership built for complexity.

An Overview of the Consciousness Levels – Leadership Mindset

Richard Barrett defines consciousness as ‘awareness with a purpose’. From my personal experience awareness is the driver of decisions and all actions, whether you are aware of it or not. When you are not aware, it is hard to achieve personal and professional fulfillment. Instead, you wind up doing the same things over and over again until a new and scary experience interrupts all assumptions about how the world works. Marital meltdowns or loss of financial security are two of the many ways offering a chance to rethink and refresh perception of your world.

Bill Torbert’s model, ably described by MetaIntegral Associates, complements earlier work done by Richard Barrett mapping consciousness developmentally (and fairly predictable organizationally). Vlatka Hlupic’s recent research on leaders mindset builds on a similar foundation, not surprisingly since being human is the common thread. The conclusions in Torbert’s work point to U.S. adults and refer to what people actually do when confronted with issues of power and timing, which are equally relevant in personal and professional working relationships.

Roughly speaking the levels break down into what decisions are focused on. (See HBR for the full article or MetaIntegral.)

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About the Author:  Dawna Jones sees the underlying forces impacting what you see on the surface. She works with leaders and decision-makers to update skills and expand access to their wider intelligence. Working with individuals, teams, companies or at a global level gives Dawna insights into scaling mindset, innovation and transformation through leadership and decision-making. Contact Dawna on her website or follow her on Twitter.