Although external problems can negatively impact the performance of an organization, what’s even more vital to the success of all businesses & teams is having leaders who transform their unconscious conditioning & intentionally elevate their mindset. A conscious leader sees how their thinking is shaped by unconscious forces & the influence this has on their feelings, actions, & results. They are willing to explore the hidden biases we all carry from a lifetime of experience & exposure to cultural attitudes about age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, sexuality, disability status, & nationality.  They identify the impact these biases have on their mindset, performance, & relationships.  Then, they learn how to transform them.

No matter who you are, woven into the fabric of your mind is the conditioning that is the foundation of your identity. Each & every day, the brain collects data from your senses & does its best to “make sense” of that information. The brain is a meaning-making machine.  It creates stories that appear factual but may not be. More than 90% of your thoughts are subconscious. That means that, without even realizing it, leaders are making instant judgments or decisions about colleagues, employees & situations based on biases they may not even know exist. Their brain confidently fills in the gaps in knowledge by making assumptions, which may be very inaccurate. These assumptions affect their feelings & actions. Becoming consciously aware of what you believe is possible for your own growth and expansion, as well as the stereotypes & biases that influence how you see yourself & others you lead & work with, is critical.

When leaders go through life unconsciously, they are at the mercy of their default programming & conditioning. They may be a highly driven leader but experience burnout, a loss of passion for the work they are doing or the life they are living, or maybe they feel like they are treading water, stuck in a rut, or not growing.

The truth is that working to exhaustion, feeling isolated, & constant stress is not the answer. The key to creating real & lasting growth in productivity, performance, & progress is unlearning the thoughts, beliefs, & biases that are in your blind spots, & consciously & with intention creating a new way of being.