Innovating Leadership:
Co-Creating Our Future

Episode Content:

Leading With Care and Purpose

This podcast, Leading With Care and Purpose features Sudhanshu Palsule, an award-winning educator, leadership philosopher, CEO advisor, author, and speaker. He is regarded as one of the leading thinkers in the fields of Transformative Leadership and Leading in Complexity. Raj Sisodia is a FEMSA Distinguished University Professor of Conscious Enterprise, Chairman of the Conscious Enterprise Center at Tecnologico de Monterrey in Mexico, and Co-Founder and Chairman Emeritus of Conscious Capitalism Inc. This interview is part of the International Leadership Association Series featuring guests from the International Leadership Association 2022 Global Conference held in Washington, D.C., in October 2022.

The companion article is written by Maureen Metcalf, founder and CEO of the Innovative Leadership Institute. 

We are living in a transformative time, where people are increasingly aware of the need to shift away from a profit-driven model to one based on purpose and caring. Sudhanshu Palsule is an expert in Transformative Leadership and Raj Sisodia is a leading voice in growing movement of Conscious Capitalism, which seeks to create a new story for business. But what does this new story look like? We can bridge the gap between the current system and the new paradigm by following these steps to achieve conscious awakening:

1. Recognize the four pillars of conscious capitalism: a higher purpose, a stakeholder mindset, conscious leadership, and a caring and trusting culture.

All four pillars are key to creating a more meaningful, purpose-driven business, but higher purpose is at the very core of conscious capitalism. It reflects the values and beliefs of your business and provides a clear and compelling reason for why the business exists. It becomes the north star for you and your team.

A stakeholder mindset looks beyond just shareholders to the well-being of all stakeholders, including employees, customers, suppliers, and the community. You view everyone your business affects – and who, in turn, affect your company.

Conscious leadership is about leading with empathy, care, and awareness. That care extends to yourself; the healthier and more whole you are, the better you can lead!

Finally, a culture of caring and trust creates a safe and productive environment for employees, customers, and other stakeholders. It’s an inevitable byproduct when you’re practicing conscious leadership.

Raj Sisodia’s research shows that, working together, these four pillars help business thrive and create real value for stakeholders.

2. Understanding the human need for purpose.

A sense of purpose is a fundamental need for people across cultures. Indeed, it’s been shown as a vital element in talent acquisition and retention: high-performing employees and leaders require a sense of working for something bigger than themselves to feel fully engaged (and productive) at work.

On the Innovating Leadership podcast, Raj Sisodia and Sudhanshu Palsule discussed the importance of businesses setting a purpose beyond simply making money. Even Adam Smith, the formal founder of capitalism itself, firmly believed businesses have a higher purpose, a social responsibility to their employees and communities.

Raj and Sudhanshu also explored how understanding the need to care is a fundamental part of leadership. It allows a leader to look beyond simply maximizing profits and consider the human cost of doing business.

3. Help our culture grow a higher mindset to bring mainstream leadership out of its archaic Industrial Era practices and into a 21^st Century model.

To reach this more relevant mindset, we must awaken to our individual purpose and potential, and recognize our connection and dependence on our coworkers, our communities, and the rest of the world. No person, no company, is fully local: we’ve been tied to a global economy from the very outset of civilization 5,000+ years ago.

Strive to create your new narrative to match the new, post-Industrial, and post-COVID world around you. Along with purpose, focus on creating value rather than simple profit.

It will be a difficult journey: even now, we see the old system fighting it, trying to make everyone stay with the old, outmoded but comfortably familiar mindsets. But the rewards are unparalleled: you’ll help create a more inclusive, conscious, purposeful, and higher-valued business world.

No matter what level of business you are in, you can make a difference. Believe in yourself, trust in your vision and values, and always remember that you can achieve great things.