More on Enlightened Power

Defining Enlightened Power

• Enlightened Power is a force of change to redefine power beyond control or dominance. Enlightened Power is leadership that is conscious of its impact—positive and negative.
• It is the transformative evolution by which leaders in organizations of all sizes and missions use more conscious leadership values to accomplish greater things as an enterprise and within their larger society.
• Successful organizations will be those which practice enlightened power daily, allowing for more purposeful and productive results.
• Enlightened Power is not a book that implies women are “more enlightened” but a book about leadership that happens to be a majority of women’s voices.
• Our premise is that because of marginalization and inequity issues of past, women have a different relationship to power and have sought alternative methods from traditional control and dominance to inclusiveness and partnership models.
• Enlightened Power heralds the benefit of personifying the organization as an assembly of human beings and giving them more than the mission at hand to rally around.
• What was an undefined phenomenon has finally been defined as a deliberate and successful style of leadership that produces extraordinary results.
• In organizations of all shapes, sizes, missions, women in particular have introduced reflective leadership not by espousing it as a theory, but by presenting its practice in a multitude of approaches in the way they help bring new thinking to the table and new actions to lead others.

Enlightened Power “In The News”

Enlightened Power arrives amid public introspection about living a value-driven life in work and at home and how providing reflective leadership is dramatically altering society and corporate culture for the better.

One example is the degree to which Fortune 100 companies have elevated high-profile altruistic programs as part of their brands. From scholarships to global foundations to community fundraising, a more reflective leadership style has given these companies the vision to understand how having a deeper perspective/purpose can alter the bottom line, e.g., Avon and Breast Cancer Research, Microsoft and the Gates Foundation/World AIDS, Public Broadcasting System and childhood literacy.

Enlightened Power is in the news all the time—at long last it has been assigned a term that works.

An example is the learning going on at the highest levels at Harvard University which has brought a spotlight of public accountability to the process of a high-profile leader migrating into a more reflective leadership style. Most people do not have to do this in the sight of the national press.

The Book: The First-of-its-Kind, All-Encompasing Conversation Starter

• Enlightened Power comes in so many different forms that this book, a first-of-its kind to identify this as a thread of consciousness and transformation across corporate, non-profit and academic America, had to harness the stories and voices of a collection of first-hand experts, not just one.
• These authors come at this topic from many different personal and professional vantage points and in its topic by chapter format, the book has something for everyone, is structured to be a reference guide, and can be read in any sequence by the reader.
• The combined 40 voices of the Enlightened Power authors resonate in a common chorus: reflective leadership is supplanting hierarchical, dictatorial and empirical management, and yielded favorable results in all aspects of the organization’s impact and vitality.
• This book teaches us about “conscious leadership” with value to third power—1) inner work of leadership 2) application to pragmatic results 3) link to positive social change.
• Conscious leadership, up until this book, had never been wholly discussed as a connecting management theory from a practical and theoretical standpoint.
• Now that this movement has a name and a means to organize this discussion, it is revealing ways in which Corporate America has consciously shifted its internal and external business practices.
• The Enlightened Power authors have made an appreciable and sustained difference in their universes through the style of their leadership.

Enlightened Power, Inc.: The Quiet Realignment of Corporate America

• Companies that are quietly but deliberately altering their "personalities" in order to gain sustainable customer relationships.
• These are calculated, deliberate actions and not accidental, e.g., Martha Stewart OMNIMEDIA. Now does every deposed CEO have to go to a federal penitentiary to become reflective and introspective? Hopefully, no. Yet this is exactly what the stockholder community is watching more in the case of Ms. Stewart—a more reflective leader who is more aware of her impact and channels it productively. It’s a story that has played out years before in the redemption of convicted junk bond king turned respected cancer research foundation chief, Michael Milken. He proves that enlightened power is a force for positive change.
• This happens every day. In a merger/acquisition society, companies have to be positioned not as David v. Goliath but as a sum combination that will be better for the CUSTOMER than the separate, pre-merger parts. How that is offered for public consumption demonstrates conscious leadership.
• The degree to which corporate titans have established philanthropic foundations as cornerstones of their brands and management practices (Packard, Hewlett, Gates, etc.) demonstrates how people in seats of influence are helping otherwise singular focuses, capitalistic corporations to become more enlightened about their impact on a broader public community/society.
• Oprah Winfrey’s media empire is anchored in the premise of enlightened power—and the results speak for themselves when she repeatedly earns a top ranking among the richest Americans. Another media mogul, former Time Warner titan turned visionary bison “restauranteur” Ted Turner has evolved from tyrant to energized and enlightened.
• We're talking about many publicly traded companies which wouldn't risk alienation to meaningless "heart." They don't and that's the point—enlightened power is about growth and enhancing the cornerstone mission of the organization that adopts more thoughtful, open dialog about its management practices, priorities and actions. Enlightenment is not a “soft” skill but a purposeful realignment of talent and creativity that brings results.
• Other examples of enlightened power’s impact on cultivating loyal customers are:
• Fair trade" practices are being adopted by companies in services and goods businesses (Eileen Fisher, Starbucks, etc.).
• Diversity has evolved from a standard of numbers to an inclusive culture which enables organizations to better relate to their customer audiences, in a way that engages them, captures their imagination, and cultivates their loyalty (and dollars).