Prologue
A CRISIS OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND LEADERSHIP
Do we really need another book on leadership? Bookshelves the world over are groaning under the weight of a never-ending flow of leadership books. But the stark reality remains: the way we lead isn’t working nearly as well as we need it to. Our current one-sided notion of a leader’s power is a root cause of a host of contemporary problems, including social breakdown, environmental degradation, epidemics of stress and depression, and corruption in business and government. Men and women alike have been conditioned to value leadership qualities traditionally considered masculine: hierarchical, individualistic, and militaristic. The consequences have been dire for too long, and we can ill afford to continue to suffer them much longer. The origin of the problem is crystal clear: societies around the world have consistently and egregiously devalued qualities and perspectives traditionally deemed feminine. For all of recorded time, the wisdom and unique perspectives of over half of humanity have been largely excluded from influencing how we live and work. How can this not lead to severe dysfunction?
Seeking to reclaim feminine power and restore the long-lost balance of masculine and feminine energies for men and women alike, this book charts a new path based on timeless wisdom. Reaching into ancient spiritual and mythical teachings, we revive a feminine archetype of leadership: regenerative, cooperative, creative, and empathetic. In the Indian yogic tradition, these qualities are associated with Shakti: the source of creation, sustenance, and transformation that powers the cycle of life. We all need the primordial power and energy that is Shakti—creative, tireless, and restorative.
Leaders who understand and practice Shakti Leadership operate from a consciousness of life-giving caring, creativity, and sustainability to achieve self-mastery internally and be of selfless service to the world. When leaders of both sexes learn to embrace this mindset, we can restore sanity, elevate humanity, and heal the planet by evolving joyously and consciously together.
SO MUCH HAS CHANGED
We’re living at a critical time. Humanity appears poised on the precipice of a great shift in our evolution. After millennia of incremental growth as a species, we appear to have reached a mutation point where our development could take a quantum leap to a whole new level in a remarkably short amount of time.
The human journey of growth and evolution certainly did not stop when we got up on our two legs, as evolutionary charts depict. In fact, we are changing and evolving at a faster rate than ever before—by orders of magnitude.
One of the factors driving these rates is the rapid aging of many societies. Driven by a combination of sharply declining birth rates and steadily increasing life expectancy, the median age has been rising in most countries around the world. In 1989, the United States reached a demographic tipping point: it was the first year that there were more adults over the age of 40 than below it. The age of 40 is a significant threshold in human life; it marks the passage into midlife and is often accompanied by a crisis of meaning and purpose. Many people come to the realization around this time in their life that the values and priorities that drove them in the past no longer feel personally relevant. They are consumed with questions such as, “What is the purpose of my life? What kind of legacy will I leave behind?” Many people come to the realization that life cannot be just about their own material success; there has to be more to it.
The year 1989 was also when we crossed another threshold: there were more women holding college degrees in the United States than men. Women now comprise nearly 60 percent of college enrollees and, on average, get higher grades than men. It is simply a matter of time before women dominate virtually every white-collar profession. This numerical rise of women will inevitably bring about a shift toward more feminine values in the workplace and in society at large. It will mark a fundamental shift in the world, as nothing like this has ever remotely existed before.
A little-known fact is that we human beings are rapidly becoming more analytically intelligent, as measured by IQ tests. Intelligence researcher James Flynn looked at IQ testing data going back for about 80 years. The data gets normalized to 100 every 10 years, so that the average IQ in society is always 100. Flynn looked at the raw data and found a startling pattern: humans are collectively becoming more intelligent at the rate of 3 to 4 percent every decade. Compounded over eight decades, this suggests that the average person today would have had an IQ of 131 and been in the top 2 percent of intelligence in the year 1935! This pace of change is unprecedented; we are simply not supposed to evolve at such a rapid rate. But we are.1
We are also on a journey of rising consciousness. The entire human journey on this planet can be seen as one of gradually waking up—both to the world around us and to our own extraordinary potential as human beings. As more of humanity has moved beyond a survival mode, we have been able to take off our blinders and see the bigger picture. Instead of just being focused on our short-term survival, we are now able to see how our actions have consequences beyond our immediate surroundings, and how we in turn are impacted by the actions of others. Once we become aware of the consequences of our actions, we also have a finer sense of what is right and what is wrong. Things that were acceptable in the past are no longer acceptable. The pace of change has been mind-boggling. Consider the following:
• 150 years ago, slavery was legal and commonplace in many countries. The United States fought a brutal civil war to end this degrading and inhuman practice, and many other countries also outlawed slavery around that time. But if you go back in human history, you find that slavery was an integral part of every major civilization. Most people, including many slaves, saw nothing wrong with it. Today, it is hard to imagine living in such a world.
• 100 years ago, hardly any women on this planet had the right to vote. In 1893, New Zealand became the first country in which all women could vote in parliamentary elections. Women attained the right to vote in the United States in 1920. In Switzerland, women did not gain the right to vote until 1971; in 2010, Switzerland swore in its first female majority government.
• 75 years ago we still had colonialism, which can be seen as another form of slavery. India was still a British colony.
• 50 years ago, there was still legally sanctioned racial segregation in many parts of the United States.
• 30 years ago, child labor, animal abuse, and environmental degradation were still common and legal in many places.
• 22 years ago, there was still apartheid in South Africa.
• Until 2004, same-sex marriage was not allowed anywhere in the United States; as of this writing, it is legal nationwide, as well as in almost 20 other countries.
Clearly, a lot has changed in a very short amount of time. As Abraham Lincoln said, “The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. As our case is new we must think anew and act anew.” We are by no means done making radical changes—there is a lot more still to come. Just as the nineteenth century was about the end of slavery and the twentieth was about the end of totalitarianism, the greatest story of the twenty-first century will undoubtedly be about the end of relegating women and feminine values to second-class status.
REACHING THE BOILING POINT
When you heat water and the temperature rises, there comes a moment when the temperature can’t go beyond 100 degrees centigrade, and any additional heat you put in becomes latent heat. The water gathers energy to break through the structure of its liquidity and becomes steam. There’s a quantum change from what it was to what it is now. It takes time to reach that point, but when it comes, change happens quickly.
Humanity appears to be at that point today; we’re on the cusp. Many people in diverse fields are sensing that we are at a singular moment of discontinuity. Things are poised to change in fundamental ways; we’re either going to boil over and evolve or we’re going to crash and self-destruct.
The “fire-under-our-@$$” is Shakti, the power of Nature’s evolution itself.
The Mother was the spiritual collaborator of Sri Aurobindo, the famed twentieth-century Indian mystic. She said, “The only hope for the future is in a change of man’s consciousness and the change is bound to come. But it is left to men to decide if they will collaborate for this change or if it will have to be enforced upon them by the power of crashing circumstances. So, wake up and collaborate!”2
We are at a very important time of great change, a latent state of tremendous tension. This is being seen in our personal as well as work lives, and in what’s happening with the environment, and within our social structures. We think the chaos is only in our lives, but it’s everywhere, so don’t take it personally! To quote from Martin Luther King Jr.’s famous “I Have a Dream” speech, there is “a fierce urgency of now.”3 Our crisis is a crisis of consciousness. As the expression goes, a problem cannot be solved at the level of consciousness at which it was created. We have to mobilize the forces that will evolve us to a new level.
Our crisis of consciousness is also a crisis of leadership, because ultimately it is leaders who must solve problems. They must take the initiative instead of being victims of the situation. Leaders of the old consciousness caused the problems we face today; leaders with new consciousness are needed to solve them. Most current business and leadership models are clearly inadequate; the evidence of dysfunction is everywhere. In the workplace, employee engagement levels are shockingly low around the world. In the United States, on average, only three out of ten employees are engaged in their work, five are indifferent, and two are actively hostile.4 Appallingly, these are some of the highest numbers globally; worldwide, Gallup estimates that employee engagement is only 13 percent. Seven out of eight employees feel that they work for companies that do not care about them as human beings. Such unhappy employees cannot help but go home and infect their spouses and children with that unhappiness and frustration. Health care costs are soaring largely because of an epidemic of chronic illness. Most chronic illness is caused by stress, and most stress is caused by work—it’s a vicious cycle.
It doesn’t have to be this way. Work does not have to deplete us; in fact, it can be one of the most meaningful things in our lives. But to get there, we have to recognize that our workplaces have largely been devoid of a crucial part of what it means to be human: the feminine aspect.
SHAKTI: THE POWER BASE FOR CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM
Recent years have brought a dawning realization that we need to rethink the foundational bases of capitalism, starting with the idea that it is solely rooted in the pursuit of narrowly construed and material self-interest. Human beings have multiple primal drives, including the need to survive and the need to care. Love and work define what it means to be human. The emerging Conscious Capitalism philosophy is about blending the two. It starts with asking the question “What is the purpose of business?” The answer: it is not to maximize profits but rather to uplift humanity, by meeting real needs, providing meaningful work, spreading prosperity, and enabling more of us to lead more fulfilling and more fully human lives. The second pillar is stakeholder integration. Companies should consciously create multifaceted value for customers, employees, communities, suppliers, investors, the environment, and beyond. The well-being of each stakeholder should be seen as an end in itself, not as a means to the end of making more money for shareholders.
The next pillar of Conscious Capitalism is that companies should create nurturing and life-enhancing cultures imbued with values such as trust, accountability, caring for, and transparency. Most businesses are characterized by high levels of fear and stress; conscious businesses are built on love and care.
Perhaps the most fundamental pillar of Conscious Capitalism is about reimagining leadership. Conscious leaders are fundamentally selfless. They care about people and the purpose of the enterprise ahead of their own ego or personal enrichment. They seek power with rather than power over people.
The stated purpose of Conscious Capitalism is to “elevate humanity” through the practice of business as a force for good. Its narrative is centered on the need to cultivate a new consciousness of how to lead and conduct business. For that, we are going to need a new base of power. “Business as usual” runs on ego-based power; Conscious Capitalism runs on Shakti-based power. Shakti is power that comes from an infinite source within you that you can tap into at all times. This power is linked to everything, including money, which is what business has traditionally focused on.
Why do we consider Shakti an infinite source? Unlike the ego, which can be broken down, no one can take Shakti-based power away from you. You may feel that your power derives from your position. If you are the CEO today, you are vested with privilege and power, but if you are not CEO tomorrow, who would you be? Would people still respect you, look up to you, follow you? Can you hold your sense of self, and can you help bring about meaningful outcomes from that true source rather than from the position vested in you?
This whole game is about power; everyone wants and needs power. Without power, everything remains stagnant. Nothing can become manifest, become actualized. Shakti is the transformative power that manifests ideas into reality.
You may ask, why Shakti? Why not, for example, the Tao, which works with the core principle of qi (pronounced chi), not just as a philosophy but also its power? The compelling difference in the yogic tradition is that Shakti is not an impersonal, inanimate force; it is intelligent and conscious. You can enter into relationship with it. Once you do, it serves you, moves you, and fuels you.
Critically, Shakti also brings in the feminine dimension, which is lacking in the world and has been for a long time—if not for all time. Shakti is understood as creative and generative, and is therefore represented as feminine. Men as well as women can tap into it. In the yogic tradition, the human journey is one that seeks to end the duality between masculine and feminine, or Shiva and Shakti. It’s not about “separate but equal,” but about evolving into an integrated and synergistic combination of both.
How does Shakti fuel us? Consider the north and south poles of a horseshoe magnet. There is potential in the space between the poles, but you can only tap into that energy when you insert a wire in that space. We exist in this duality and polarity between male and female. We may prefer our traditionally masculine or traditionally feminine leadership styles, but that means we’re basically split beings, operating from half of our selves. As a result, we barely operate, because energy only flows when both polarities are leveraged.
Shakti, the power that is latent in your being, gets unlocked when you become whole, flexible, and aligned with your unique purpose. Shakti is an evolutionary force, moving you toward fulfillment. The more you put yourself in accord with your purpose as a being and as a leader, the more energy starts rising up in you to move you forward. There is a beautiful reinforcing pattern there: the more you are on purpose, the more power you get to meet your purpose. It is similar to the idea of being “in flow.”5
Becoming a conscious leader requires a transformational journey. You do not become a conscious leader just by getting behavioral skill training in “what leaders do.” Deeper, foundational shifts are required to connect you to new and true bases of consciousness and power. The person you are is the leader you are; therefore, you have to make the journey inward to transform yourself. The “hero’s journey,” Joseph Campbell’s masterwork, maps perfectly onto modern leadership and business. You need to push beyond your known zone. It takes hard work and you will face many obstacles along the way. It is also a dangerous journey in which you’re going to have to “die” in some ways.
Human beings and the universe are evolving in a certain direction; there is a distinct trajectory that can be discerned. There is an evident purpose to this process; it is not all based on random mutations. If we can flow into that trajectory and be part of it, rather than be at cross-purposes with it, we can have access to extraordinary power. We become agents of what needs to be. If not, these infinitely powerful forces quickly cancel out our feeble efforts. How do you connect with a place that fuels you continuously? How do you become a whole person in order to be a whole leader? How do you become a flexible person in order to be a flexible leader? These are the questions this book will answer.
REINVENTING LEADERSHIP
Leadership is a perennial subject of analysis and discussion. While much has been achieved in transforming concepts of leadership into powerful tools for business and other societal institutions, there continues to be a need for leadership to evolve in more holistic ways. In particular, there is a need for a leadership paradigm that taps into the best aspects of the higher masculine and feminine natures that lie dormant in men and women alike.
However, women and men who are sensing and awakening to this need don’t always know where to find guidance and support. That is the gap we seek to address.
The prevailing leadership paradigm, born of the patriarchy and rooted in militaristic thinking, drastically overemphasizes certain masculine values. It is primarily an outside-in, competency-based approach. It is still predominantly based on hierarchy, command-and-control, and using “carrots and sticks” to induce desired behaviors. This book aims to restore balance and wholeness in leaders by awakening them to powerful, innately feminine leadership capacities that lie dormant within them. We do so through an inside-out, consciousness-based approach that sources directly from Shakti, the primordial power and intelligence that creates, sustains, and evolves our world. Since it is the original, creative source, which bears Life, it is considered feminine. It complements the principle of awareness or consciousness, which is considered masculine (see sidebar).
A Quick Primer on Shakti
In the yogic tradition, Shakti is the female principle of divine energy. It is understood as power—even as absolute power. Shakti enables the awakening of consciousness. It is seen as a feminine energy because it is responsible for creation, just as mothers are responsible for giving birth. Shakti manifests as energy, power, movement, change, and nature. It is the maternal principle, symbolizing nourishment, warmth, and security. The world knows no greater love than the love of a mother, who offers her body to carry and nourish the child and sacrifices herself to raise the child. The paternal principle is Shiva, symbolizing pure consciousness. Shiva is seen as the “unchanging, unlimited, and unswayable observer.”6
Yogic philosophy refers to three forms of Shakti impacting the body, mind, and spirit:
• Prana Shakti is the life force of the physical body, which governs our actions, organs, and functions.
• Chitta Shakti is governance of our mental functions, such as intelligence, thinking, emotions, memory, desires, decision-making, planning, and so on.
• Atma Shakti is the “causal and creative power of consciousness.”7
At the advent of creation, our beings became split into this Shiva-Shakti duality. Each of us carries Shiva and Shakti within us as the masculine and feminine principles. We carry within us a powerful force that is striving to reunite with our complementary parts. The dissolving of this duality is the aim of yoga, a word that translates to “coming together.”
It is only when Shiva and Shakti come together that there can be any meaningful action, movement, and creation. Energy that is not informed by consciousness is disordered and chaotic. Consciousness without energy is dormant and cannot cause anything to happen.
This idea is not limited to the yogic tradition. The Gnostic mystic Simon the Magus is believed to have said, “The universal eons consist of two branches, without beginning or end, which spring from one root . . . the invisible power and the unknowable silence. One of these branches is manifested from above and is the universal consciousness ordering all things and is designated male. The other branch is female and is the producer of all things.”8
Most leadership books focus on what leaders do, and some on how they do it. As Joseph Jaworski, author of the landmark books Synchronicity: The Inner Path of Leadership and Source: The Inner Path of Knowledge Creation, puts it, the key question is “from where?” From where do great leaders draw the power and wisdom to lead as well as they do? That source is Shakti. It is the source of authentic, effective, life-affirming leadership that combines the mature masculine with the mature feminine into a life-enhancing whole. Shakti Leadership is about a new way for men and women to lead and live. By coming into our full presence and aligning with the natural forces of evolution, we can tap into limitless power in pursuit of noble goals.
We believe that all leaders today—men and women—need to become whole by integrating their masculine and feminine natures. All leaders need to come into their true power and unleash their creativity and inclusive-growth abilities to help resolve the multiple crises we face on many fronts: economic, social, cultural, political, and environmental.
Many women continue to approach leadership as “men in women’s clothing,” with predictably unhappy results for themselves and for the organizations they lead. Most men, equally tragically, remain disconnected from a vital aspect of their humanness—their innate feminine qualities.
A new consciousness of the feminine is urgently needed. Most men and women, socialized by the patriarchy, have overdeveloped their masculine selves and focused on achieving tasks. The time has now come for both men and women to awaken to the nurturing, relational, and inclusive feminine within.
This book is about leadership as it should be for everybody. It is about thinking about power in a different way. Power is the source of corruption and exploitation when it is purely ego-based, when it is not in harmony with where evolution is taking us. When we become aligned with evolutionary forces, we do not need to grasp for power and use it as an instrument of manipulation, oppression, and suppression, serving our own ego and nothing else. Shakti Leadership is based on authentic, true power. It leads to personal fulfillment and a positive impact on the lives of others.
More than focusing on leading others, this book is first about leading yourself as a conscious capitalist or aspiring change agent. It is a comprehensive primer on how to “be the change” you want to see in your business. It is a step-by-step guide to how you can live a fuller, less conflicted, less fragmented, and more harmonious life. The book tells you what to expect on the journey you are going to have to undertake to get there.
It is also about recognizing the larger context in which you make this heroic journey. We live in a time of uncovering the magnificent commonalities and equally priceless complementarities between men and women. It is not about “the end of men and the rise of women,” the misleading title of Hanna Rosin’s important book. Rather, it is about an extraordinary union that has been many millennia in the making, toward which evolution has been pointing. It is not about a dissolution of gender identities but instead a celebration of the glorious symphony of harmonies that results when complementary forces finally start to act in concert and thus fulfill their infinite potential. It is about humanity progressing to the next stage of our evolution, one in which men and women alike operate from a place of authentic power—power exercised with each other rather than over each other. It is time to end the battle of the sexes and recognize that we are far more than our individual genders. It is time to become fully human.