As a leader, do you find yourself trying to get out of your head and into your heart? Jeff Deckman is a coach with a primary focus on Conscious Leadership. Jeff shares his career journey as what he describes as jumping off a cliff and building wings on the way down. With a passion for leadership, he began to examine the types of leadership and the fundamental shifts taking place in the workplace today. 

Leadership styles are making way for more conscious modalities like empathy, compassion, and collaboration. This is why Jeff developed an 8-Step Program, The Bigger Know Principles of Conscious Leadership, a program that focuses on using the knowledge of both a leader and their team to get to a “Bigger Know”.  Jeff’s book, Developing the Conscious Leadership Mindset for the 21st Century, is a 52 lesson workbook for leaders. This book and Jeff’s work hinges on the concept of Leading with AIR.

Leading with AIR, is Jeff’s acronym for leading with Authenticity, Integrity, and Respect. He shares about what each of these three buzz words really mean and how when practiced correctly, they are not only beneficial to the leader and the team but transferable to the entire organization. One of the first and biggest steps in leadership is an inward one. When we lead and interact, we exude energy and in turn give off a frequency that affects everyone in an organization. 

One thing we discuss often on the show is the greatness of finding your personal leadership style. Jeff sheds light on how this can often be affected and changed by the industry you’re in. A leader in the construction industry is going to operate very differently than if they were working for a nonprofit organization, or a political organization. We are influenced by our environment and our team and equally can also influence our own environment and team. 

We all know there are differing scopes of challenges throughout leadership roles, Jeff identifies the big three he sees as ego, fear, and lack of communication. Communication is a major one we come back to time and time again. Jeff urges leaders to turn input into conversation and get the team involved in the design of change. Communication is bi-lateral, it is not only talking and telling but listening too. To ensure effective communication, Jeff himself practices WAIT, Why Am I Talking? He asks himself this question before he speaks to ensure his communication has a place and is not taking away from listening to what someone else has to say.

Jeff, in our rapid fire questions, really shares some great insight and relatable stories. Some really important advice he shares includes allowing life to be your teacher. As you lead, remember you’re not going to get it spot on every time, and that’s okay. Learn and grow from every experience. Before we close the episode, Jeff said something really great that I love and think is important for all leaders to keep in mind: Leaders at peace, breed peaceful people!

If you want to learn more about Jeff, you can find him at his website or on YouTube and you can check out his book, Developing the Conscious Leadership Mindset for the 21st Century: Insight for Leading Change, Improving Employee Engagement, and Achieving Extraordinary Results, available on Amazon.