You can follow Samantha Amit on LinkedIn.

In 2023, many organisations are struggling to retain employees and create a more inclusive work environment. They are looking for solutions to help their teams and divisions work better together and create a shared sense of purpose.

As organisations grow or acquire new businesses, they often face challenges with employees who are disconnected and working in silos. This can lead to a lack of trust and often increases conflicts and frustration.

One of our clients, the Head of HR at a global company, explained her organisation’s challenges: 

“We have grown and acquired companies. With our growth, our people are disconnected, working mostly in silos. On our company surveys, employees share lack of trust and support. 
 
There are frustrations, conflicts and blaming between teams and divisions and hybrid working is not helping either. We are looking at how we can support these divisions to work together and unite. For us to become one company.” 

Many are developing their hybrid approach, have experienced re-development of their organisational structure, have merged and/or scaled. Teams and departments are working in silos, and there is a disconnect between people and purpose.

How can they create “one” company, increase trust and remove blame?

How can they be ready for the next wave of change?

Conscious Leadership is part of the Solution

Conscious Leadership is not just about having strong leaders, but instead building leadership capacity at all levels of the organisation. By helping leaders to learn how to continuously develop and adjust to the present moment, businesses can create a proactive and sustainable system that serves both the organisation and its employees.

What is Conscious Leadership?

Conscious Leadership offers a solution that transcends traditional leadership approaches by prioritising self-awareness, empathy, and ethical decision-making. It has been shown to positively impact employee engagement, customer satisfaction, and organisational resilience.

For businesses to be sustainable, they need to build their leadership capacity on multiple levels so that the system as a whole is proactive and continually pivots and aligns towards what is needed and best serves the whole, and that which serves the individual or teams. Conscious Leadership holds these 3 perspectives simultaneously: individual, team and organisation.

Successful organisations need to develop leaders who show up daily in ways that inspire and have attitudes, skills and behaviours that lead to company growth as opposed to stagnation. Conscious Leadership brings our attention to how we are showing up moment to moment and the impact we are having on others.

Conscious Leadership is not a state that is reached but instead involves continuous development and adjustment according to what is present in the moment.

Above and Below the Line Thinking

Imagine a line where above the line, you are at your best and most effective self.

Below the line, you are the opposite.

You think and behave below your best and therefore are ineffective as a leader. There may be a myth that Conscious Leadership is about leaders who are always at their best and we would suggest that this is not realistic.

We will all have those moments when we go below the line and act in a way that we realise is not us at our best and that we could have done something differently.

Behavioural science tells us that your behaviours start with your thinking and that your thinking impacts on your feelings and actions. We can develop our thinking to create new habits by building our capacity to be more conscious, to notice our thinking and to ask ourselves, “is this above-the-line or below-the-line thinking or behaviour for me?”

This is how you begin to correct yourself in the moment.  Your first sign of success is to be able to notice your thinking. When you do this in advance of an action, you can be more conscious. You can make a choice to change your thinking from that which does not serve you or others to that which is above the line.

Which do you think will help you to achieve more?

In your daily life, as a conscious leader, you may go below the line and the great gift is your understanding and acknowledgement of this and then wanting to make a better choice in the future.

Conscious Leadership Programme

Introducing our Conscious Leadership Programme, designed to build the leadership capacity of organisations and to create a more inclusive and connected work environment.

In this programme, we will help you shift your mindset and change your attitude to a more collaborative and impactful way of working and leading.

A more generative way of working and leading,  where there is increased respect in the organisation, where employees feel included.  Working on inclusion, in fact, serves people’s needs to belong. Belonging is a base universal need that research has shown that we all have. This change in mindset needs to be developed at all levels – top-down, bottom-up, sideways, and diagonally – throughout the organisation.

In this programme, we offer multiple ways to create this oneness by connecting people to themselves, to others and the organisation at a higher level.

The Benefits of Conscious Leadership

• Increased Employee Engagement – Conscious Leadership prioritises creating a positive work culture with everyone leaders work with and through, resulting in increased employee engagement and job satisfaction. When employees feel valued and supported, they are more likely to be productive, motivated, and committed to the organisation’s success. They feel a sense of belonging and are less likely to leave.
• Relationships matter – as leaders develop their own self awareness of behaviours and attitudes, they become curious about relationships that are not adding value for them or the organisation. They have the tools to explore differences and facilitate healthy challenge and conflict. There is a shift between ‘them and us’ to ‘we’. Diverse views are welcomed and explored creating a safe and trusted space for change and innovation.
• Increased Organisational Resilience – Conscious Leadership prioritises continuous personal and professional development, and this helps people feel more connected and removes the feeling of conflict and frustration. Leaders with the skills and mindset to effectively manage stress and adversity and to be open and curious are more likely to lead their organisations to success in times of uncertainty.

Conscious Leadership offers a solution to today’s challenges. It is a leadership approach that can be applied in any context. It values self-awareness, empathy, and ethical decision-making, creating a culture of continuous personal and professional development, fostering a positive work culture, and a vision that inspires and engages employees.

If you’re interested in learning more about Conscious Leadership and how it can help you overcome challenges and scale your organisation, join us for our interactive session, 09:30-11:00am on Thursday February 16th.

During the session, you’ll learn about the benefits of Conscious Leadership, hear real-world examples of Conscious Leadership in action, and have the opportunity to ask questions and engage with other HR professionals. Register now to attend.

You can follow Samantha Amit on LinkedIn.

“How are you doing?”

You’ve probably asked or been asked that question multiple times just this week.

In casual conversation, it can be anything from a serious inquiry to a throwaway greeting. However, in hybrid or work-from-anywhere (WFA) teams, this simple question can become much more meaningful.

Asking how a colleague is feeling (and actually stopping to listen to the answer) is key to fostering camaraderie, building trust and psychological safety in your team, and connection across continents and Zoom screens.

In South Africa, I learnt a beautiful way of greeting each other from my Zulu friends who say: “Sawa bona”, which means: “I see you”.

We can reply “Sikhona” which means: “I am here”.

We know today that connection is key for building strong relationships, for increasing engagement and collaboration.

Challenges in the workplace are complex, and conflict and tension can easily arise when team members are not aligned; from the distance, miscommunication, or simply from the fact that we are human.

The stronger the connection, the easier it is to untangle problems, agree to disagree and to be more understanding. The stronger the connection the better we work together when things run smoothly and hit the bumps the in the road.

The story of Jonathan and how his experience brought more significant connections and collaborations with his Team

Jonathan leads cross teams that are dispersed across multiple countries. He is one of my coaching clients.

Below is his story of how he has created significant connection in and amongst the team members.

Jonathan is a resonant leader. He invests not only in his attitude and intention but in his actions – “seeing”, understanding, and facilitating connection across the team.

Jonathan genuinely cares and believes in investing in relationships.

As I coach Jonathan, we start with him understanding how he is. We use a practice called an Energy Check.

Samantha: Hey Jonathan, how are you? What is your energy level like today from 1-10, where 1 is low, and 10 is high?

Jonathan: “I’m at about an 8 today. Lots of plates spinning in work, and a little overwhelmed, but making progress on all fronts, so all good.”

Why use the Energy Check?

I use this energy check in multiple ways with clients. It’s a way for them to become conscious of how they are feeling physically, mentally and emotionally. Awareness is key to managing oneself well. Our energy often dictates how we are in our day. When our energy is down, then what is needed?

I encourage leaders to use this energy check with their teams.

Here is an example from Jonathan :

Jonathan:
“One area that Samantha really helped me with is building a personal connection with my teams. I have teams in remote locations, and with Covid I hadn’t had the opportunity to visit them. We had lots of new people join, and it was difficult to build relationships with them through Zoom etc.

Samantha suggested starting an Energy Check on Fridays, basically asking people to score their energy levels from 1 to 10, and if they felt comfortable, to add some words of explanation as to why they felt this way.

Initially I was a little hesitant, as to make it work it meant opening up beyond a work level and being somewhat vulnerable in front of my team. But that’s kind of the whole point of it, showing that we are all human and all part of a work family.

So I tried it a couple of months ago.

I posted some thoughts on why we were going to try this, and I go first every Friday, posting on Slack my energy level along with a few words.

Then others started doing the same. It’s been a great success. People share personal things that are going on in their lives, and the thread often ends with people asking more about people’s children, pets, hobbies or consoling people when times are hard. We all know what each other’s pets look like now 🙂 and we’ve built a much better bond in the team.”

Samantha: Tell me what happened when people didn’t answer…. did you just keep at it??

Jonathan:
“I keep at it. Sometimes 2-3 people respond, sometimes half the team. It varies week to week, but I keep doing it anyway and most times there’s a bit of chat about people’s lives outside work.

Other times it can be quiet and there’s few messages. But I keep doing it anyway ”

And a few months later … it’s a regular thing with the team now. It’s become a way of how they share and connect.

For Jonathan this practice has become a game-changer in building stronger relationships within and across the team.

How using Energy Checks can help you develop your leadership skills

Asking how someone is feeling and actually wanting to know the answer can help foster camaraderie, build psychological safety in your team, and increase empathy.

Check-in activities are a way to boost collaboration while cementing the bond between coworkers. They encourage people to share a bit more about themselves at a level they are comfortable with and this deepens honesty, transparency, and trust in your workplace culture.

This energy check is a key practice from our new online Conscious Leadership programme.

In the programme, participants learn new ways of leading to build awareness of self and of others. These innovative practices lead to incremental positive changes in the way teams work together. These incremental positives are sustainable and therefore combine to lead to transformational results.

Energy Checks help:

– Team Focus and Alignment

– Create psychological safety

– Generate positive energy

Contact us at info@co-creation.group or call +44 7876 024555 to learn more about our Conscious Leadership programme and how we can help you increase your leaders’ resourcefulness in the face of ongoing change.