Coaching Leaders to Success in Our Emerging New World

Posted by Danielle Grant MA, FHEA, FRSA, PCC | April 1, 2020 | Comments (0)

The Leaders We Need Now

We live in daunting times. Leaders at every level are confronted with an array of significant challenges. The extended upheaval of our “business as usual,” due to Covid-19, reduces the profile of other threats. They have not disappeared. Geopolitical tensions, growing concerns about climate change, how we collaborate to recover from the current global shockwaves, are all likely to continue to complicate life for all of us. These factors further add to an atmosphere of consternation. This demands that we adapt and embrace more digital disruption, as well as a radical changing of job roles, and the consequent demand for new leadership styles necessary to align and motivate the millennial workforce, who will be in the vanguard of our recovery efforts.

What we need now are leaders who can make wise decisions despite the turmoil. We need leaders who can rise above the confusion, transcend their own and others’ insecurities and ego needs, and make performance- enhancing and sustainable choices. These are choices that derive from taking a bigger picture, multiple perspective view. They favor the long over the short term, and they consider multiple stakeholders. These are choices that are not fear based or ego driven. They are principled choices; choices that reflect openness, humility, and caring along with wise judgment. We call them “transpersonal leaders.”

Transpersonal Leadership

The hallmark of the transpersonal leader lies in the balanced integration of rational, emotional and spiritual intelligence. This integration informs transpersonal leaders’ choices and decisions. Consequently, transpersonal leaders make decisions that are grounded in deep self-awareness and strong emotional intelligence, where they access their higher selves—referred to as the transpersonal domain. Here the self-defensive ego is transcended so that reactions and decisions are lifted clear from the muddy waters of self-preservation.

Judgement and Decision-Making

The transpersonal leader integrates many decision-making processes. Some of these are conscious and some less so. Some are rational and some not. However, consciously working at integrating these processes, leads to more thoughtful and insightful decisions. For example, self- awareness means being attentive to the underlying emotions that are the first and most compelling impulses behind all decisions. Mindfulness measures and mediates their effects. Critical thinking ensures that assumptions and biases never escape scrutiny. Instinct, which is biological and innate, is deemed important. Insight (that is triggered through external stimulus) and Intuition (based on past experience) are enabled and cultivated. These and ethical principles are invoked to provide the “true north” of our internal compass to guide us.

To learn about these processes, how to integrate them to optimum effect and also remove bias and prejudice, requires training in the transpersonal approach.

Training to be a Transpersonal Leader

The transpersonal leadership journey is mapped out in the book Leading Beyond the Ego: How to become a Transpersonal Leader, authored by John Knights, Danielle Grant and Greg Young. Along with the book, coaches can discover their own journey to greater self-awareness in a transpersonal training course on how to be a Transpersonal Coach. This is the foundation of creating added value in your coaching practice and developing the transpersonal leaders that are so needed in this time of constant change.

Both the book, and the training course, chart the way to becoming a more transpersonal decision-maker. Step by step, you are supported and accompanied on the transpersonal leadership coaching journey. On this journey, you are presented with thought-provoking ideas and given the opportunity to test them out in practice.

Many leaders, no doubt, wish to be transpersonal leaders. They simply need a guide and a coach. This is where you come in.

Coaching Leaders to be Transpersonal

While many leaders benefit from coaching, what they truly need now is transpersonal coaching. They need to know how to become Radical Ethical Authentic Leaders© (REAL^©) Radical authentic leaders have developed inner capacities for self-determination and self-accountability. They can wrestle with the tensions of multiple stakeholders and take the moral high road during times of anxiety and stress. This enables them to create sustainable organizations that thrive over the long term, demonstrating high engagement, productivity and an ethical approach to achieving their mission.

You can become a coach par excellence by undertaking the transpersonal leadership journey yourself. In that way, through personal experience and reflection, you can effectively coach others to become the transpersonal leaders we need.

The transpersonal coaching you will receive is a different kind of experience. It is a transformational experience. As a result of your own transformation, you will be able to help others effect their own transformation. You will bring a new vocabulary to the leadership role along with new, insightful worldviews.

Transpersonal leadership is a growing movement. Its interest lies in supporting a sustainable world through sustainable communities and sustainable corporations. Through this remarkable Transpersonal Leadership Coach© training, you can help shape the world of the future. Otherwise, there may not be one!

Thanks to Annabel Beerel and John Knights for their contributions to this article.

Danielle Grant MA, FHEA, FRSA, PCC

Danielle Grant MA, FHEA, FRSA, PCC, embraces reinvention. She held director-level positions in UK & European blue-chip businesses, including Disney. She was CEO of a UK plc division; she later moved into executive search, filling director/VP roles. The holder of a PCC and Advanced Diploma in Executive Coaching, her work fulfills her passion for growing “beyond-the-ego” leaders and Transpersonal Coaches. Danielle is a director of LeaderShape Global, a thought leader in transpersonal leadership development, which offers a Transpersonal Leadership Coaching Training Program, which will enable you to effectively coach others, using our proven Accelerated Learning in a Virtual Environment (ALIVE©), methods, to become the transpersonal leaders we need. She is an expert in developing neuroscientifically based leadership programs, using advanced blended methodologies, built on her MA research. An accredited university lecturer, she has led master's programs in leadership and coaching. Danielle is co-author of Leading Beyond the Ego: How to Become a Transpersonal Leader (Routledge, 2018) and a contributing author of Leadership Assessment for Talent Development. Danielle creates brain-friendly leadership learning for clients and coaches globally.

The views and opinions expressed in guest posts featured on this blog are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the International Coach Federation (ICF). The publication of a guest post on the ICF Blog does not equate to an ICF endorsement or guarantee of the products or services provided by the author.

Additionally, for the purpose of full disclosure and as a disclaimer of liability, this content was possibly generated using the assistance of an AI program. Its contents, either in whole or in part, have been reviewed and revised by a human. Nevertheless, the reader/user is responsible for verifying the information presented and should not rely upon this article or post as providing any specific professional advice or counsel. Its contents are provided “as is,” and ICF makes no representations or warranties as to its accuracy or completeness and to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law specifically disclaims any and all liability for any damages or injuries resulting from use of or reliance thereupon.