The role of consciousness development in coaching for sustainability leadership

Leaders have long relied on coaching to help them solve problems and improve their organisation’s performance. This coaching is not provided in a moral vacuum and the work of coaching psychologists to help increase the performance of leaders and their organisations may sometimes contribute to the interconnected eco-social crises society is now facing. As the collective decisions of leaders contribute significantly to change in society, they are increasingly being called upon to help lift society onto a sustainable path. However, it is increasingly recognised that rational/scientific attempts to deal with large-scale environmental problems are unlikely to deliver the required change. Whereas our inner dimensions (values, beliefs, worldviews/paradigms and associated internal capacities) present deep leverage points for outer change. While consciousness has no agreed definition, it can be considered to encompass all our inner dimensions. This study utilised a form of action research called co-operative inquiry to explore how two groups of seven leaders experience the development of their consciousness impacting their leadership performance as they seek to create a more sustainable society. It found that leaders experience their consciousness as giving them the ability to be aware of societal problems and to respond. The findings suggest that when leaders enter a flow state of consciousness, they experience a transcendence of their ego, which increases their ability to be aware and respond. The research literature suggests the experience of higher states of consciousness, associated with transcendence, creates conditions for flow for leaders. Following this finding, it is argued that coaching psychologists would benefit from becoming skilled in techniques for supporting leaders to use higher states of consciousness as part of their leadership development, so they gain the greater capability needed to address the sustainability issues that society is now facing.