Awakening The Leader Within

By Ken Jacobsen, President
CourageWorks

Wanted: Conscious Leaders
Blurred in our chaotic lifestyles and overlooked by the mainstream media is the profound realization that we are crossing the threshold of a major new cycle in human history. It’s been called the “New Age” for the better part of two decades, but right now it is unfolding at an accelerated pace
and could soon reach a long-awaited tipping point.

This emerging era will be one of greater balance, deeper connectivity, and bravo! - a re-engagement with Mother Earth. As the 21st century unfolds, we will witness the transition of humankind from an extended period of heightened materialism to a more holistic one anchored in reawakened relationships with our deeper selves and with all living things.

A daunting question, though: who will actually lead us into this epochal new era? Our culture has become so steeped in tabloid worship, skin-deep virtues and self-serving leaders that we’re left with a dearth of true mentors who can guide such an enlightened transition. Even the best people in leadership positions today were raised in a paradigm that focuses more on competition, personality, and wealth creation than on the human spirit, authenticity, and being in service to the world.

Without a host of guiding elders or a standing model to show us the way, where will we find the leaders who can shepherd us from the scientific-material age into the more holistic future that is waiting to emerge.

The Cultural Creatives
There is plenty of good news, most notably the widespread impact of the shift in values taking hold in our culture. Millions of people are reevaluating our ingrained separateness thinking and our fixation on wealth and privilege. They have become disillusioned by the social inheritance of the material age: global warming, economic divisiveness, corporate scandals, political strife, and the cold demands of relentless capitalism – all at the expense of the planet and the human soul. In its wake, conscious new ways of thinking are being ushered in, and a more holistic lifestyle is emerging around us.

Before you make the quick and valid disclaimer that despite this sanguine outlook, the power of our society is still in the hands of an old story stronghold, let’s take a larger view. Millions of people now engage holistic lifestyles, adopting practices previously considered the province of a few seekers and the avant-garde. It is now our life partners, neighbors and colleagues - indeed it is us - who are learning yoga, practicing meditation, attending spiritual retreats, joining drumming circles, and going on vision quests. The sheer number of people who are so engaged is beginning to change the vibration of the planet.

And taking a look at the business world, we see many signs of a conscious renewal. More companies are following the lead of Patagonia and Whole Foods, The Body Shop and Working Assets, among many others, who now adhere to the triple bottom line: People, Profits and Planet. Starbucks and Chiquita Brands are just two examples of companies whose practices go beyond slogans and into action about the importance of saving the earth and its communities, and the formation of initiatives exploring market-driven sustainability.

Forty years ago, 5% of American adults were engaged in holistic modalities and conscious consumerism. Now, according to Sherry Ruth Anderson and Paul Ray in their 2002 book The Cultural Creatives, 26% are engaged. Their activities range from eating organically to consumer purchasing decisions based on manufacturers’ social values; from owning less fossil-draining “stuff” to creating socially responsible investment portfolios.

Growing from 5% to 26% in such a short period of time is an amazing transformation in the context of human evolution. It speaks volumes about the historical pace with which spirituality is moving into the mainstream, progressively engulfing the linear thinking and material mindset of the past century. As the numbers continue to grow, this expanded way of being will become the norm and conscious leadership in key positions will surely follow.

The Big Four
However, before we settle back and savor the transition, there’s one little thing to ponder: we’re barely leading consciously as yet, at least not in the key positions of Business, Government, Education and Religious Institutions. There are encouraging examples to the contrary, and they will surely expand, but by and large the vast potential of the shift we’re discussing is unexpressed because of this void, and will remain so for as long as the old story leaders are at the helm of society’s great bastions……and we allow that to be the case.

This is not a rallying cry to rebel against anyone, or to employ an old story uprising. The squaring off of political ideologies, or the pitting of hawks against doves, or getting out and protesting in the streets – all of which have their rightful place in time – are not the stuff of conscious leaders. Rather, this is about a true awakening.

Listen to Anderson and Ray: “Because Cultural Creatives are not yet aware of themselves as a collective body, they do not recognize how powerful their voices could be.” Do you resonate with that? Millions of us are making these shifts in seemingly disparate corners of the world. And all the while the mainstream press stays fixated on the incumbent leaders and their dubious activities, reinforcing the popular idea that the rule is outside us; that what is intrinsically right is irrelevant within the established system; and that our souls’ true desires are futile. The odd result of these convoluted phenomena is that we are not fully present to what’s actually transpiring in our midst, nor of the power that we innately possess to influence even more authentic ways of being. Indeed, the longer we sit passively, the more our modern lives are out of touch with the incoming cosmic shift. Our souls are not synchronized with the evolution of the universe, and deep down we know it.

A Conscious Dilemma
Here’s what I’ve been pondering. The shift in consciousness that we’re calling attention to is already transpiring, and remarkably fast. And who are its leaders? Well, it is apparently occurring by its own design, without a strategic plan. There is no steering committee mapping it out. No decorated commander marching us across the great divide. No guru. According to the universe, it is simply time.

So with that in mind, do we simply “trust the universe” and allow it all to unfold? Or is it up to us to see the change through?

Thinking further, while the shift evidently has a life of its own, the question is, will the transition be completed in time, i.e. before war, genocide, disease, famine, nuclear proliferation, and the pillaging of the earth do us all in? Or conversely, is the shift here to awaken us? To let us know that it is time to raise our awareness and move into deliberate action?

Which is it, do you think? Have faith in God and the cosmos, who seem to be delivering us an emerging new age, and celebrate the arrival of its saving grace? Or move into deliberate action before it’s too late?

In the first case, we simply wait and see. Not much more to it than that. But let’s say we choose the second, which I might suggest is a universal call to conscious leadership. When does that actually begin? And who is it we are we waiting for to step into the void? It takes but one sentence to agree that by and large, the leaders we generally have in place are not the ones. More specifically, that the thinking we accept as a society and relinquish to those who seek and hold power is not the larger answer.

Let’s be more provoking, then: when will we realize that we are the leaders the world is waiting for?

The beginning of the 21st century presents an epochal opportunity to harness a growing, collective energy and crystallize the sub-cultural shift that is well underway. You and I are the leaders who haven’t stepped up yet. In spite of our souls’ purpose, let’s be real: our egos are complicitous. We are the resigned masses who stand idly by, clutching the fictive belief that someone else holds the power. In the old sense, that is true. But hello: we are straddling ages, and the old sense is on its way out. We are literally alive during an epochal shift in time. The so-called Fifth Age is arriving; one whose rare offering is the opportunity to rebalance the earth’s energies. And that’s up to us. The profound question then is, do we embrace the opportunity, step into our power and guide this cosmic moment to its sacred earthly conclusion, where the problems are, or do we passively allow the universe to follow its own path? Put another way, is “allowance” enlightenment? Or is deliberate, conscious action enlightenment?

While we deliberate that, here’s another one: when God gave us the ego and the intellect along with the spirit and the soul, was it to figure things like this out and do something from all four energies? Or was it to separate our higher and lower selves, and ultimately seek him only in his highest form, trusting that everything is perfect?

A planet is at stake. Which choice do you think God’s has in mind for us? And what is our next move?

Ken Jacobsen is President of CourageWorks, Inc., a leadership consulting firm focusing on conscious leadership, people energies, and cultural transformation. He can be contacted at ken@courageworks.biz, or by phone at 770-851-3425.