The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership

By Jim Dethmer, Diana Chapman, and Kaley Warner Klemp

"The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership" presents a transformative approach to leadership that differentiates between leading "above the line" (consciously) and "below the line" (unconsciously). Drawing from their extensive experience coaching executives and teams, the authors provide practical frameworks for sustainable success in business and life. Rather than focusing solely on traditional leadership outcomes like market share or profitability, this book addresses the sustainability of leadership at three critical levels: personal, organizational, and planetary.

The book's central premise is that at any moment, a leader is either above the line (open, curious, and committed to learning) or below the line (defensive, closed, and committed to being right). This distinction isn't about moral judgment—both states are natural—but about recognizing where you are and developing the capacity to shift your state of consciousness when necessary. By embracing the 15 commitments outlined in the book, leaders can create healthier, more innovative, and ultimately more successful organizations while experiencing greater personal fulfillment.

Above the Line vs. Below the Line Leadership

The core distinction in the book is between "above the line" and "below the line" leadership. This isn't a permanent classification of people but a description of a state anyone can be in at any moment.

Above the Line (Conscious)

Open and curious
Committed to learning
Taking full responsibility
Focused on growth and possibilities
Asks: "What can I learn from this?"
Creative, innovative, collaborative
Sustainable results

Below the Line (Unconscious)

Closed and defensive
Committed to being right
Blaming others or circumstances
Focused on threats and problems
Asks: "Why is this happening to me?"
Reactive, limited, combative
Unsustainable results

The authors emphasize that knowing when you're below the line is more important than being below the line. Everyone falls below the line regularly—it's a natural human response to perceived threats. The crucial skill is self-awareness: recognizing when you've dropped below the line and consciously choosing to shift back above it.

The Four States of Consciousness

Building on Michael Bernard Beckwith's concepts, the authors present four states of consciousness that represent an expanding awareness:

"To Me" (Below the Line): Life happens to me. I am a victim of my circumstances, and external forces are to blame for my situation. This victim consciousness is characterized by blame, defensiveness, and a focus on what's wrong.
"By Me" (Above the Line): I create my circumstances. I recognize my role in shaping my experiences and take responsibility for my outcomes. This state is marked by curiosity, learning, and possibility.
"Through Me": A more expansive state where leaders begin to sense something beyond themselves working through them. This involves letting go of control and surrendering to a higher purpose.
"As Me": The most expansive state, characterized by an experience of oneness and the dissolution of a separate self.

The 15 commitments focus primarily on the shift from "To Me" to "By Me" consciousness, as this is the most practical and immediately impactful change for most leaders.

The 15 Commitments: An Overview

The 15 commitments provide a comprehensive roadmap for conscious leadership. Each commitment has both an "above the line" version (what to do) and a "below the line" version (what to avoid). Here's a summary table of all 15 commitments:

Commitment	Above the Line	Below the Line
1. Taking Radical Responsibility	Taking full responsibility for my circumstances and well-being	Blaming others, playing the victim, trapped in the victim-villain-hero triangle
2. Learning Through Curiosity	Seeing every interaction as an opportunity to learn, embracing curiosity	Defending, proving I'm right, protecting my ego
3. Feeling All Feelings	Experiencing emotions fully and allowing them to move through me	Repressing, avoiding, or recycling emotions
4. Speaking Candidly	Expressing truthfully, openly and with awareness	Withholding information, manipulative communication
5. Eliminating Gossip	Addressing issues directly with the relevant people	Talking negatively about others behind their backs
6. Practicing Integrity	Keeping agreements, acknowledging feelings, speaking truth	Breaking agreements, withholding truth
7. Generating Appreciation	Fully giving and receiving appreciation	Focusing on what's missing, feeling entitled
8. Excelling in Your Zone of Genius	Expressing your unique talents and supporting others to do the same	Staying in zones of incompetence, competence, or excellence
9. Living a Life of Play and Rest	Creating a life of play, improvisation, laughter, and sufficient rest	Struggling, exerting excessive effort, workaholism
10. Exploring the Opposite	Considering that the opposite of your story might be as true or truer	Clinging to your stories as absolute truth
11. Sourcing Approval, Control, and Security	Finding approval, control, and security within yourself	Seeking these core needs from external sources
12. Having Enough of Everything	Operating from a mindset of sufficiency and abundance	Operating from a mindset of scarcity
13. Experiencing the World as an Ally	Seeing everyone and everything as perfectly suited for your growth	Seeing others as obstacles or enemies
14. Creating Win-for-All Solutions	Seeking outcomes that benefit all stakeholders	Focusing on win/lose or compromise outcomes
15. Being the Resolution	Becoming what is needed when you see something missing	Responding with resentment or apathy

Key Commitments in Detail

1. Taking Radical Responsibility

"I commit to taking full responsibility for the circumstances of my life and for my physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well-being."

This first commitment forms the foundation of conscious leadership. Taking radical responsibility means recognizing that you are the creator of your circumstances, not a victim of them. It's about locating the cause and control of your life inside yourself rather than in external events.

Below the line, leaders engage in the blame game. When things go wrong, their first response is to find fault with something or someone else. This blame is triggered by fear and fueled by the perception that there's a "right" way for things to be, which creates a toxic victim-villain-hero triangle:

Villains assign blame to others
Victims feel unfairly treated
Heroes step in to save the day, often taking on too much responsibility

Above the line, leaders take 100% responsibility (no more, no less) for their circumstances. Instead of asking "Who's to blame?", they ask "What can I learn from this?" and "How am I creating or perpetuating this situation?" They shift from rigidity and self-righteousness to curiosity and learning.

Important note: Self-blame is not the same as taking responsibility. Blaming yourself is just as toxic as blaming others and equally below the line.

2. Learning Through Curiosity

"I commit to growing in self-awareness. I commit to regarding every interaction as an opportunity to learn."

Research shows that self-awareness and learning agility are among the strongest predictors of long-term leadership success. This commitment is about choosing curiosity over defensiveness, especially when challenged.

Below the line, leaders are committed to being right. Their ego seeks validation and protection, which comes at the expense of learning. This attachment to rightness leads to defensive reactions when challenged.

Above the line, leaders choose curiosity and learning. They understand that it's normal to "drift" into defensiveness, but they've developed the capacity to:

Notice when they're becoming defensive
Pause and breathe
Shift back to openness and curiosity

A simple practice to facilitate this shift is taking four conscious breaths, with a four-second inhale and exhale. This literally changes your blood chemistry and can help break the pattern of reactivity.

3. Feeling All Feelings

"I commit to feeling my feelings all the way through to completion. They come, and I locate them in my body, then move, breathe, and vocalize them so they release all the way through."

Great leaders access all three centers of intelligence: the head (thinking), heart (feeling), and gut (instinct). In many organizations, emotions are viewed as a distraction or weakness, but conscious leaders understand that feelings contain valuable information and energy.

Below the line, leaders repress, deny, or recycle emotions, creating physical, psychological, and relationship problems. Unprocessed emotions can harden into moods that persist for years: anger becomes bitterness, fear becomes anxiety, sadness becomes apathy.

Above the line, leaders fully experience their emotions and allow them to release naturally. The five primary emotions are anger, fear, sadness, joy, and sexual feelings. Each has a unique energy pattern and set of sensations in the body.

To release an emotion:

Locate the physical sensation in your body
Name the emotion
Express it through breathing, movement, and vocalization
Allow it to complete its natural cycle (typically less than 90 seconds)

4. Speaking Candidly

"I commit to saying what is true for me. I commit to being a person to whom others can express themselves with candor."

Jack Welch famously said, "The team that sees reality the best wins." Candor is essential for teams to accurately perceive reality and make sound decisions. It's also an antidote to boredom and relational disconnection in organizations.

Below the line, leaders engage in withholding—refraining from revealing information, thoughts, feelings, or desires. Withholding depletes energy and creates distance in relationships.

Above the line, leaders practice candor, which has three components:

Truth: Revealing what is accurate and factual
Openness: Sharing thoughts, feelings, and desires
Awareness: Speaking with presence and consciousness

The authors recommend using "unarguable" statements when speaking candidly:

"I observe..." (factual observations without interpretation)
"I feel..." (emotion words like angry, sad, afraid)
"I want..." (clear expression of desires)

Candor also requires conscious listening—hearing not just the content of what others say, but also their emotions and underlying desires.

5. Eliminating Gossip

"I commit to ending gossip, talking directly to people with whom I have a concern, and encouraging others to talk directly to people with whom they have an issue or concern."

Gossip is a key indicator of an unhealthy organization and one of the fastest ways to undermine trust, motivation, and creativity. The authors define gossip as "a statement about another made by someone with negative intent or a statement the speaker would be unwilling to share in exactly the same way if that person were in the room."

Below the line, leaders gossip to validate their self-righteousness, gain control, avoid direct conflict, feel included, or make themselves right by making others wrong. Agreeing to listen to gossip is considered the same as speaking it.

Above the line, leaders speak directly to people with whom they have issues and encourage others to do the same. If you realize you've engaged in gossip, the authors recommend "cleaning it up" by revealing your participation to everyone involved.

To determine if something is gossip, ask these questions:

Is there any negative intent behind my comments?
Would I be willing to speak directly to the person in exactly the same way?

If the answer to the first is "yes" or the second is "no," it's gossip.

Practical Tools for Conscious Leadership

The Four-Step Shift Process

When you notice yourself below the line, use this process to shift back above it:

Notice: Become aware that you're below the line (defensive, blaming, committed to being right)
Accept: Allow yourself to be where you are without judgment
Breathe: Take four conscious breaths (four seconds in, four seconds out)
Shift: Make a conscious choice to move from closed to open, from defensive to curious

The Zone of Genius Framework

Commitment #8 introduces four zones of operation:

Zone of Incompetence: Activities you're not good at and don't enjoy
Zone of Competence: Activities you're adequate at but others can do better
Zone of Excellence: Activities you do extremely well and reliably
Zone of Genius: Activities that utilize your unique talents and fulfill your purpose

Conscious leaders aim to maximize time in their Zone of Genius while helping others do the same.

The Issue-Clearing Model

To address conflicts directly instead of gossiping:

State the facts: "Here's what happened..." (observable reality)
Share your story: "Here's what I made up about it..." (your interpretation)
Express feelings: "I feel..." (emotion words, not thoughts)
Make a request: "Would you be willing to..." (specific action)

The Change Formula

For sustainable change to occur, three elements must overcome resistance:

(V × D) + FS > R = C

V = Vision: A compelling picture of a better future
D = Dissatisfaction: Honest acknowledgment of what's not working
FS = First Steps: Clear actions to start the change
R = Resistance: Fear of the unknown or attachment to the status quo
C = Change: The transformation you're seeking

When vision and dissatisfaction are multiplied, and clear first steps are added, the combination can overcome resistance and create lasting change.

Key Insights for Leaders

Context vs. Content

The authors emphasize that the context of communication (the state of consciousness from which you're speaking) matters more than the content (the words you're saying). You can discuss the same topic from above the line (open, curious, learning-focused) or below the line (closed, defensive, right-focused). Many issues resolve themselves naturally when the context shifts from below to above the line.

The Wanting Mind

The authors identify three core human wants: approval, control, and security. When we believe these are lacking and must be obtained from external sources, we operate below the line. Conscious leaders learn to source these needs from within, recognizing that the "wanting" of what we think is missing causes more suffering than any actual lack.

Abundance vs. Scarcity

Commitment #12 addresses the three toxic myths of scarcity:

There is never enough
More is better
That's just the way it is (we can never change it)

Conscious leaders shift from scarcity thinking to an experience of sufficiency—believing and experiencing that they have enough of everything including time, money, love, energy, and resources.

Win-for-All Thinking

Rather than approaching problems with win/lose thinking (competition) or compromise (lose/lose), conscious leaders create win-for-all solutions that benefit all stakeholders. This requires moving beyond either/or thinking to creative both/and approaches.

Conclusion

"The 15 Commitments of Conscious Leadership" offers a comprehensive framework for transforming leadership at both the individual and organizational levels. By learning to recognize when they're below the line and developing the capacity to shift above it, leaders can create more innovation, collaboration, and sustainable success while experiencing greater personal fulfillment.

The authors emphasize that this isn't about perfection—everyone moves above and below the line. The key is developing awareness of where you are at any moment and building the skills to shift when necessary. As individuals and organizations embrace these commitments, they can create cultures where both people and businesses thrive.

The book acknowledges that significant shifts in consciousness require the courage to face uncertainty and let go of control. By embracing the four states of consciousness—"To Me," "By Me," "Through Me," and "As Me"—leaders can evolve from victim consciousness to creator consciousness and beyond, opening new possibilities for themselves and their organizations.