The Real Business Freedom
I have talked of Beingful leadership mainly in the context of the journey of the lower bird toward the higher bird that is Being. The four stages of Beingful leadership describe the lower bird’s journey to be near to and realize the higher bird in the tree of business life. This is a journey that could take a lifetime to pursue because of the great challenge of transcending the hold of the lower, material self in us, but the rewards along the journey make it worthwhile. Not the least of these rewards is a business that recognises a higher purpose; is less obsessed with short term, material profits; and begins to nurture its connections to humanity and nature.
By our seeking to realize the higher bird of business leadership, the storms raging around us of climate change and loss of ecosystems and biodiversity, of a loss of public trust in the integrity of business, of workplace alienation, of growing inequalities in society, and many others begin to quiet down gradually.
A business that is reconnecting to the world improves the well-being of every stakeholder. But Beingful leadership applies not just to businesses and business leaders but also to other areas of our lives. It applies to individuals as well as groups and to how we respond to crises, natural and manmade. Moreover, each stage need not go well nor transcend the particular challenge, as the lower bird in us struggles to make the journey to the higher bird through the slips and falls of uncertain branches. Though the climb is difficult and continuous, the will to advance grows with each new glimpse of sky.
Although biology ensures that leaders cannot be fully disembodied from their material self, the higher bird of Being becomes the guiding light for engaging with the world. When business leaders recognise, experience, anchor in, and lead by example with this higher bird as the guiding light, they achieve freedom from the constraints of the lower bird, as well as the freedom to pursue the greater opportunities of the higher bird. This freedom from and freedom to is the true promise of Beingful leadership.
I’ve used ancient and modern stories to describe the great quest of the lower bird within every one of us to realize the higher bird that is our inner presence. This higher bird is the shining, golden-hued truth of the Upanishads - the end goal of our aspirations, the universal self that is Being itself. Ultimately, it is immaterial whether we call it Ātman, Being, or something else because names are meagre means through which we label a deeper truth.
When leaders seek this Being through humanity and nature, or directly, they embark on a courageous journey to make business and capitalism truly real. It is an ancient quest that transformed Axial Age societies and can now transform business by reconnecting it to the world. There is no leadership journey of greater existential importance that this, to realize the higher bird in the tree of business life and make business whole and free.
The one who pursues this quest, even if imperfectly, can truly be called a Beingful leader, a seeker of Being itself!!