Transformative Leadership: Rejecting the Tangible

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There is often a divide between the professional and intangible, especially within leadership. Tangible measures, frameworks and technical competencies and the addition of more is where most leadership development teeters, but it may be the case that in order to effectively lead, we need to sway away from the measurable and move towards that which cannot be quantified; their inner selves. Science and organisational research pokes at the idea of meditation, and even psychedelic experiences, being the catalyst for transforming how leaders think, feel, relate and decide.

What if the most transformative leadership development isn’t another course, or retreat, or personality test but instead learning to relearn how people experience. In a representative survey of US and UK managers, researchers have assessed the effectiveness of leaders practicing mindfulness against those who do not, also wondering if the use of psychedelics have a similar effect. While this research is not intending to encourage the use of substances to enhance leadership abilities; it is challenging the frameworks of leadership training as it stands – that it must be orderly, conventional and constrained by comfort.

We see that leaders who do engage in mindfulness meditation report more benefits in their leadership effectiveness; better focus, emotional regulation and empathy. Those who had experience of intense psychedelic states reported similar changes; self-understanding improved, as did compassion and relational connectedness. Both altered states (one acceptable and the other culturally controversial) have associations with positive leadership outcomes, and while the effects are different, they are also complimentary.

Four pillars emerged from this research, and these four themes are often categorised by organisations as important values (even if followed by no action):

1)       Wellbeing and Health

Mindfulness meditation improved calmness, sleep and reduced stress; self-care becomes a strategic advantage.

Psychedelic experience aided confrontation of personal pain, to heal and invigorate wellbeing, resulting in reflection of how to lead others

2)       Presence and Awareness

Meditation sharpened attention, reducing reactivity

Psychedelics led to profound insight into one’s own patterns, motivations and reactions

Both routes expanded awareness with application to decision-making and emotional regulation

3)       Productivity and Performance

Neither route claimed to be a shortcut to productivity, but meditation increased focus and ability to prioritise and psychedelics encouraged creativity, out-of-the-box thinking and reframe of priority.

4)       Interpersonal Attitudes and Behaviours

The most intriguing result; meditation cultivated patience and compassion, whereas psychedelics nudged leaders away from hierarchy and into more connected relationships, shifting from ‘manager’ to ‘part of a mutual collective’

The narratives produced by this research offer food for thought; practices that are not usually considered (or sometimes not acceptable) reap great results, so what else can achieve this? And WHY do these methods work? What other methods can be used to produce transformational insight, a seemingly uniquely beneficial state of change, the reshaping of the self.

Most leadership development goes like this:

Learn better skills → Apply those skills → Get better results

But the nature of the person doing the leading may be the biggest component.

If leadership is fundamentally relational, to each other, to oneself and to the system, why is the leader’s inner landscape not addressed? Not through jargon or frameworks or models of behavioural change, but through their own state of consciousness?

This research does not claim causality or prescribe dosage schedules, it suggests something more subtle; our personas, our outer behaviour of leadership might be deeply intertwined with inner experience. The mask is connected to the person behind it. Leadership is not what someone does, it’s an extension of who they are. Not everyone will benefit from the same methods, meditation will work for some but not for others, and for those it benefits, only some may explore altering states of mind. It is not about adopting a new practice but understanding that leadership is equally as much an inner discipline as it is an outer practice, a great leader can widen their gaze.

From a depth psychology perspective, it is that which remains unconscious that drives behaviour. Leaders don’t fail because they lack a strategy, they fail due to their own unexamined fears, projects and shadow material that silently shapes their decisions, relationships and use of power. Any practice that alters consciousness, be that contemplative stillness or profound experiences that disrupt the ego, there is one thing that they have in common; the loosened grip of the habitual self and the encouragement of buried material entering awareness. The shift from the inner world translates into leadership qualities, not as a technique but to alter how we approach complexity, authority and responsibility. When leaders can see the result of their unconscious in their leadership, the projections or defensiveness, authority becomes less performative and more relational. Decision making comes from discernment instead of fear management, and leadership, at its best, moves from unconscious repetition to conscious responsibility.

For the research paper, published in Frontiers in Psychology, 2023, find the link here:

Altered states of leadership: mindfulness meditation, psychedelic use, and leadership development - PMC

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