a conscious business forms when you put relationships first
What is Conscious Business?
"While making money is essential for the vitality and sustainability of a business, it is not the only or even the most important reason a business exists. Conscious businesses focus on their purpose beyond profit.
We all need meaning and purpose in our lives. It is one of the things that separates us from other animals. Purpose activates us and motivates us. It moves us to get up in the morning, sustains us when times get tough, and serves as a guiding star when we stray off course. Conscious Businesses provide us with this sense of meaning and purpose.
By focusing on its deeper purpose, a conscious business inspires, engages and energizes its stakeholders. Employees, customers and others trust and even love companies that have an inspiring purpose." - Conscious Capitalism, Inc trustee Ed Freeman.
"To be conscious is to be awake, mindful. To live consciously means to be open to perceiving the world around and within us, to understand our circumstances, and to decide how to respond to them in ways that honour our needs, values and goals. To be unconscious is to be asleep, mindless. To live unconsciously means to be driven by instincts and habitual patterns.
Conscious employees take responsibility for their lives. They don't compromise human values for material success. They speak their truth and listen to others' truths with honesty and respect. They look for creative solutions to disagreements and honour their commitments impeccably. They are in touch with their emotions and express them productively.
Conscious employees require conscious managers if they are to fully commit their energy to organizational goals. Unless they feel acknowledged, supported and challenged by their managers conscious employees will withdraw. Nothing is more vital for exceptional performance than conscious management.
No matter what type of business, the only way to generate a competitive advantage and long-term profitability is to attract, develop and retain talented employees. Talented employees need great managers. The talented employee may join a company because of its charismatic leaders, its generous benefits and world class training programs, but how long an employee stays and how productive she is while she is there is determined by her relationship with her immediate supervisor.
- Fred Koffman, Conscious Business
