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Conscious Business
Summary of
“
Conscious Business
”
by Fred Kofman| June 2007
Jeroen Maes
+31(0)6 498 93 189
jeroen@realize.nl www.realize.nl 
 
The purpose of this summary is to spread some
of the wonderful insights from Fred Kofman‟s book “
Conscious Business”
to a larger audienceand subsequently increase the sales of the book as well as its impact on business practice.Therefore, I urge all readers who like thefollowing material to buy two books, one foryourself and one to give away.
 
 
 www.realize.nl Jeroen Maes2
Greatness is not a function of circumstances.
Greatness … is a matter of conscious choice
.
JIM COLLINS -
“FROM GOOD TO GREAT”
 
In his book 
Good to Great 
, Jim Collins describes his research into what drivesaverage companies to take the quantum leap to become extraordinary. Based upon hisextensive research program, Collins describes the profile of successful leaders (Level5 executive) and their actions. However,
Collins subsequently argues that he doesn‟t
know how to develop these level 5 leaders, as the inner personal development of a
 person remains “a black box”.
 
In 2006, Fred Kofman published a book, which he himself described as his “effort to
unlock the [Jim
Collins‟] black box of leadership. The key that he presents is a set of attitudes, values and practices that he defines as “conscious business”.
This text provides a short summary on the main arguments and tools from thatparticular book, as it provides key insights into the most intangible yet rewardingchallenges of embedding business resilience: personal leadership.
Seven qualities of conscious leadership
The seven qualities of conscious leadership that Fred Kofman describes aredistributed in the following three interdependent categories:
 
Three characters attributes: Unconditional responsibility, essential integrity,and ontological humility.
 
Three interpersonal skills: authentic communication, constructive negotiation,and impeccable coordination.
 
One enabling condition for previous six: Emotional masteryThe following section provides a short elaboration on the above qualities.
Unconditional responsibility
Response-
ability is a person‟s ability to respond to a situation. The unconditional
element re
fers to the fact that even in the face of factors beyond one‟s control, there is
always a degree of choice in determining how to respond, regardless of the specificcontext.
 
 
 www.realize.nl Jeroen Maes3
However, over time, habits and reaction patterns form and people tend to loseconsciousness of their choices and consequently start to act in an automatic fashion.The moment people lose consciousness of their ability to choose, they relinquish theirpersonal autonomy to the stimuli in the environment that trigger their automaticreactions, as if they were powerless victims.However, people are
not robots. They make choices. “
You
don‟t answer a phone
because
it rings. You
choose
to answer the phone
when
it rings,
because
you
want 
to.”
According to Kofman, the more conscious one is of this autonomy, the moreunconditioned the responses will be.The problem is that acknowledging that one has a choice is often uncomfortable, as
giving up the shelter of “choicelessness” and external blame, is to place responsibility
internally, which automatically implies accountability. Just imagine the difference in
 picking up the phone in a meeting while saying “I have to take this call” or “I choose
to take this call.
” “It‟s awkward admitting that the phone call is more important to you
than the conversation
 – 
 
so you mask the thorny truth. It‟s much easier to blame the phone than to take responsibility for the interruption.”
Acting from unconditional response-ability is self-empowering and allows for a wholenew attitude and creativity to tackle problems. Once you see yourself as part of theproblem, self-empowering explanations arise. You have no influence over the rain,but if you explain your wet clothes by the fact that
 you
forgot an umbrella, you start tosee yourself as an actor, with freedom of choice and power. And consequently, nexttime it rains, you
‟ll
probably bring an umbrella.
Essential integrity
In organizational life, success of an action is mainly evaluated in terms of outcomesuccess. Essential integrity adds another evaluation to action, namely the degree towhich your actions are an expression of your values, where high alignment between a
 person‟s values and actions leads to high
levels of integrity. According to Kofman, inthe long term, integrity leads to a higher goal than outcome su
ccess, namely, “success beyond success” or “what wise
men have called a
„
good life
‟”.
 
 Now in practice, organizational goals and personal targets often challenge a person‟sintegrity. “In those moments you face a question of priorities: you place integrity
first
and subordinate success, or you put integrity second and uphold success at all cost.”
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