Why would we embark on leadership development in the midst of so much uncertainty and busyness?
- A nonprofit leader might think, Why invest in leadership when we don’t yet know how we’ll replace federal funding?
- A corporate CEO might say, Our strategy is in flux and our margins are tightening.
- An entrepreneur might wonder, Who has time for this while I’m raising capital?
- A VC or PE partner might ask, How will “inner work” and teamwork actually scale these companies?
And Bob Anderson would say: Start where you have real leverage. Leaders bring the weather—and in any circumstance, you are your primary asset. Upgrade the frequency you lead from, and everything else has a chance to work.
Season 2 of Conscious InSights opens with Bob Anderson, founder of The Leadership Circle. Bob birthed the Profile in 2001 after nearly twenty years integrating leadership research, adult development, psychology, spirituality, and systems work with senior teams.
The Leadership Moment We’re In
“A leader looks out at a world breaking apart—systems coming undone.” —Bob Anderson
Markets, institutions, supply chains, social trust—the old architecture is at its limit. In this post-VUCA reality, nobody actually knows the future shape of strategy, structure, or growth. That’s precisely why leadership development belongs now: it upgrades the human operating system that carries every plan. Leaders bring the weather; you are your primary asset. Shift the frequency you lead from, and the room changes—so strategy, culture can activate.
This is the doorway into the work we explore in the episode—and the map the Leadership Circle provides: Reactive → Creative → Unity-informed Integral, so we can author the futures our organizations and communities need.
The Map: From Reactive to Creative (and Why It’s the Minimum Spec)
Most leaders operate from what Anderson calls a “reactive” level—driven by internal voices from their past, trying to meet others’ expectations, managing their identity through pleasing, perfection, or results at any cost. These patterns served them well early in their careers but become limitations as complexity increases.
The Leadership Circle Profile (LCP) makes visible how we show up:
- Reactive (bottom of the profile): leadership organized by old voices and survival strategies—approval, control, perfection. They helped once; they cap possibility now.
- Creative (top of the profile): self-authored leadership—What do I want to be about? What outcomes matter most? When personal purpose aligns with organizational purpose, energy surges, candor rises, and activation holds.
Reactive leadership was built for known problems and short, linear chains of command. Today’s work is cross-functional, fast-moving, and full of unknowns. Creative leadership is the base operating system that lets strategy land.
Bob’s research backs this up: the most effective leaders are described first in people terms—presence, authenticity, vision, relational capacity—and their results track with those signatures. Strategy rides on relationship. Creative is not a nice-to-have; it’s the minimum spec. Unity-informed Integral is the next edge.
Proof in Practice: The Mirror & The Mission
2008 — The Mirror. In the financial crisis, a senior executive looked at his Leadership Circle Profile and said, “At the moment my organization most needed me to be creative, I was reactive.” They could track business performance to their 360 results. Arrogance and reactivity were in the system; the team matched that frequency and spiraled down. The turn began when they saw the pattern and chose the Reactive → Creative journey—starting with presence. That’s the mirror for today: see the reactivity, shift the frequency, and results follow.
Roche – The Mission. Roche’s aspiration was bigger than “agile.” Their vision: get safe, life-saving medicines to patients faster. Purpose at that scale demanded Creative leadership as baseline. They knew a reactive mindset wouldn’t deliver, so the ELT owned the work. They named what they were here to create, raised the quality of conversation, and authored the future instead of being pushed by old patterns. When the vision is larger than any one leader, what matters becomes bigger than fear.
Beyond Creative: The Integral Opportunity
But even creative leadership is not enough for today’s challenges. Anderson is stewarding what he calls “Unity-Informed Integral Leadership”—a level that requires:
- Being Authored by Something Larger. Moving from self-authoring to being “authored by a future that wants to come through me or through our organization.” This isn’t mysticism—it’s practical access to breakthrough innovation and strategy.
- Embracing the Shadow. Facing not just our authentic selves but also our opposite—the capacity for harm that exists within us all. As Anderson puts it: “We’ve met the enemy and they are us.” This shadow work prevents leaders from making enemies of others without recognizing those same qualities in themselves.
- Dialogue Over Debate. Instead of championing positions, integral leaders engage in deep dialogue where “a larger intelligence informs us.” They learn to “sit in the unknown together” until breakthrough solutions emerge.
- Intuition as Leadership Skill. Anderson points to research showing that major breakthroughs—from stroke epidemiology to the microchip—come through intuitive downloads, not logical analysis. “The intellect has little to do on the road to discovery,” as Einstein noted.
The Frequency of Leadership
Perhaps most provocatively, Anderson suggests that “reality is a frequency field” and “the future we want is at a different frequency than the current reality we’re living out.” Leaders must learn to shift timelines by operating at the frequency of the future they’re creating, not the problems they’re solving.
The Path Forward
This isn’t theoretical work. Organizations worldwide are discovering they cannot achieve their strategic transformations without developing their leaders’ consciousness. The work requires:
- Seeing your reactivity clearly through assessment and feedback
- Learning out loud as a leadership team
- Taking on the difficult conversations that create breakthrough strategy
- Aligning individual and organizational purpose around outcomes that matter most
- Building capacity for dialogue that accesses collective intelligence
Why Now Matters
The convergence of global challenges and the emergence of new consciousness tools isn’t coincidental. Leaders who embrace this deeper development work aren’t just surviving uncertainty—they’re authoring the future.
As Anderson reflects at 70: “What built the company was the depth and presence with which we showed up as facilitators… There was a frequency that we were hitting that spoke to people at a level they didn’t even have consciously.”
The question isn’t whether we have time for this work. The question is whether we can afford not to do it. Leaders bring the weather. If you’re reacting to a storm, this is the moment to shift it.
Watch or Listen on YouTube, Spotify, or Apple Podcasts
- YouTube: https://youtu.be/FTb9NXH6-rY
- Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/conscious-insights/id1778898575
- Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/6WutDq9MP1eufJgT007JWr