I be­lieve that one of the most valu­able out­comes of lead­er­ship is hu­man tran­scen­dence. This oc­curs when an in­di­vid­ual el­e­vates his or her mind to the point where he or she em­bod­ies the best traits of hu­man­i­ty and then goes on to im­pact the world in a pos­i­tive way. The most im­pact­ful lead­ers I know are ac­tive­ly con­tribut­ing to the cre­ation of a bet­ter world, through both their words and their deeds.

In­ter­est­ing­ly, true lead­ers rarely set out with the in­ten­tion of hav­ing a glob­al im­pact. Their first de­lib­er­ate goal is to achieve per­son­al and self-mas­tery, which then ben­e­fits those with­in their im­me­di­ate or­bit. The mo­men­tum that builds from this in­ner work even­tu­al­ly cre­ates far-reach­ing in­flu­ence.

“How am I con­tribut­ing to cre­at­ing a bet­ter world?” be­comes one of the most search­ing ques­tions these lead­ers ask them­selves. Lead­ers who are guid­ed by this defin­ing ques­tion, pre­side over busi­ness en­vi­ron­ments where the pre­vail­ing be­lief is that lead­er­ship should be de­moc­ra­tised. In these en­vi­ron­ments, lead­er­ship is pro­mot­ed as a high­ly de­sir­able char­ac­ter trait, rather than a ti­tle. In these spaces, lead­ers strive to en­sure that every in­di­vid­ual un­der­stands that lead­er­ship is a virtue to which every­one can as­pire.

Imag­ine a busi­ness hav­ing a cul­tur­al en­vi­ron­ment where har­mo­ny over­rides chaos and ten­sions are re­leased with­out de­struc­tive emo­tion­al con­se­quences. In these cul­tures, where the lead­er­ship play­book has been de­moc­ra­tised, lead­er­ship mis­steps be­come rare.

When lead­ers fo­cus on hu­man tran­scen­dence, en­er­gy shifts from be­ing trans­ac­tion­al to be­ing benev­o­lent. Cul­tures be­gin to re­flect fair­ness, lived val­ues and emo­tion­al safe­ty. Work no longer feels like a grim prison sen­tence, en­dured un­der ar­du­ous and in­hu­mane con­di­tions. In­stead, it feels like en­ter­ing a space where cu­rios­i­ty is en­cour­aged, change is care­ful­ly cu­rat­ed and the em­ploy­ee ex­pe­ri­ence tru­ly mat­ters.

Lead­ers who are com­mit­ted to fa­cil­i­tat­ing hu­man tran­scen­dence are flu­ent in si­lence. Their egos sel­dom speak and they view the abil­i­ty to lis­ten deeply as a non-ne­go­tiable oblig­a­tion. Every­one they en­counter feels heard, seen and sup­port­ed. Sure­ly, this is one of the true goals of lead­er­ship.

At this point, some may think that the tran­scen­dent lead­er­ship pic­ture I am paint­ing be­longs to a state of nir­vana or in a zone of im­pos­si­bil­i­ty. My re­sponse is that I have met in­di­vid­u­als who em­body this state of be­ing. Their lead­er­ship tran­scends ti­tles and be­comes a state­ment of in­tent in how they choose to en­gage with the world. These in­di­vid­u­als are not at odds with hu­man­i­ty. They are chan­nels for har­mo­ny through their hu­man­i­ty.

To be clear, these lead­ers are not mar­tyrs. While there is con­stan­cy in how they show up in the world, they op­er­ate in syn­chrony with the prin­ci­ples of high-per­for­mance stan­dards.

At work, they af­ford er­rant em­ploy­ees a fair hear­ing and they wield jus­tice in ac­cor­dance with the in­frac­tion. If an em­ploy­ee must be dis­missed af­ter due process, then so be it. These lead­ers are not bleed­ing hearts who en­able dys­func­tion.

How does an in­di­vid­ual be­come a tran­scen­dent leader? The jour­ney be­gins with in­ward re­flec­tion. Such an in­di­vid­ual must cul­ti­vate in­ner wis­dom to de­fine the high­er val­ues and stan­dards that will guide his or her life. There should be no ev­i­dence of moral con­tra­dic­tions, where, as a leader, the in­di­vid­ual says one thing and does the op­po­site. Trust­wor­thi­ness must be­come a char­ac­ter trait, rather than a mere be­hav­iour­al mark­er.

The next step is to pur­sue a tran­scend­ed life. This tran­si­tion in­cludes a con­scious de­ci­sion to not be ruled by ego, or by unchecked emo­tions. It means, as well, fol­low­ing clear rules for liv­ing that sus­tain both life and soul, while aban­don­ing habits that crush the spir­it.

One such rule is to re­sist be­ing over­whelmed by life, which, if left un­man­aged, can be a soul-crush­ing habit.

Not be­ing over­whelmed by life means that in­evitably, when chal­lenges arise, there is no col­laps­ing. In­stead, there is a pow­er­ful pause for com­po­sure, fol­lowed by the ques­tion, “What is my plan?” Even if no im­me­di­ate plan is ev­i­dent, the self-lead­ing in­di­vid­ual trusts that the uni­verse will pro­vide an an­swer through some­one, or some means.

Lead­er­ship flu­en­cy in a busi­ness land­scape means that many in­di­vid­u­als are liv­ing tran­scen­dent lives, even if they do not hold for­mal ti­tles.

When for­mal lead­ers emerge nat­u­ral­ly, at all lev­els of the busi­ness, they bring a con­scious­ness that cre­ates un­shak­able pro­fes­sion­al poise and a pos­i­tive in­flu­ence that is mag­net­ic. They send, as well, a pow­er­ful sig­nal that prof­it is not the on­ly mea­sure­ment of busi­ness suc­cess.

Shouldn’t all busi­ness­es be striv­ing for this lev­el of lead­er­ship in­ten­tion­al­i­ty?