Today I have the pleasure of sharing an interview with Angel Ribo on “Conscious Business Leadership”. Angel is a “ CEO Confidant”, an influencer, international TV host, public speaker, CEO consultant, board member and philanthropist. In the last 21 years, Angel has empowered more than 1,500 CEOs in 33 different countries. He was born near Barcelona, and he has lived in 8 countries and speaks 5 languages. Early in 2017, he launched his international foundation, Wisdom for Kids, and he has helped more than 1000 underprivileged youth in Latin America become entrepreneurs using their local resources. Angel is based in Texas.
What are 1 to 3 mindset changes business leaders need to make in order to truly create a working environment that fosters inspiration, connectedness, and transformational personal growth?
- Genuinely practice gratitude, humility and acceptance
- My organization is full of acres of diamonds of untapped talent (create an inventory of skills in every organization)
- Share financials with the entire organization up to the penny
How do you see the connection between business success and personal transformation for today’s leaders?
- Today, both concepts are frequently viewed as enemies of each other. If you talk about personal transformation at work you better do it on social breaks and over a bottle of beer or a glass of wine. Otherwise, it is detrimental to your work and to the overall morale of the team for being too individualistic. This must and will change.
- Personal Transformation will be a requirement for all employees in order to ensure business success at any organization,
- Personal Transformation will become an ALLY of Business Success.
What experience has inspired you the most in your journey of becoming a conscious business leader?
I had a spiritual awakening back in 2015 that changed my life forever. (The full story can be viewed on my website here.)
What 3 tips would you give any leader for making a meaningful difference in the lives of their direct reports?
Sit and listen to 3 of your direct reports every other week, preferably out of the office. Ask them the following questions:”
1) What part of me would you like to see change?”
2) How can I make sure that your career path in this company and Your Life Purpose are fully aligned?
3) Would you like me or someone in my team to apologize for something that I or we did to you in the past?
What’s the biggest change in the way organizations will need to function in the future related to using its human capital compared to 10 or 15 years ago?
- Better ways to consistently work with the best talent: good talent will be more scarce, more difficult to find, more difficult to retain – if at all
- More & better communication will be required: Employees will take fewer things by their face value
- Personal & Business lives will be more part of the same – more thought and tools will have to be put in place
Purpose and Community are more important to younger generations. How do you see those focus areas to improve business results, retention, and recruitment for your organization?
- Leaders will have to be genuine and authentic: Do as they say that they are going to do, and improve their way to manage expectations with those who follow,
- Loyalty will be created by only leaders who really Walk their Talk,
- Boundaries between different areas in the lives of employees will be more unclear: Organizations will need to have a holistic approach to every employee,
- Organizations will have to offer Personal Transformational pathways and tools to their employees,
- Every individual will decide the length of their workday/week: results will be the king
Given your commitment as a conscious business leader, what’s your approach to developing leaders to encourage greater consciousness?
- Making my employees the #1 daily task on my to do list
- Create more me-time for going inside of myself to find the answers to business challenges
- Involve my family more in my business life
- Create a culture of accountability based on compassion
- Involve further levels of analysis (human, environmental, community, planetary, etc) when assessing the status quo
- Learn and teach how to use personal energy inside the organization
- A business is a conglomerate of different types of energy created to generate returns to all stakeholders: be conscious of who ALL of them are, and take them into consideration in every decision.
What do you see as the key qualities of a conscious business leader?
- Inclusion
- Gratitude
- Humility
- Acceptance
- Collaboration vs competition
- Educating vs Telling
What is the link between a conscious business and being environmentally sustainable?
Environmental sustainability is one of the edges of Business sustainability (the ultimate goal of any business). It has not been considered – enough – as such as we have considered mother nature a Given, a Foundation that will never change.
What a blind-spot!
We have come to understand that Gaia and the entire universe are part of the same – part of US -, and therefore anything that we do impact the environment in one or another.
I can see the environmental footprint being part of any single business conversation moving forward. Comparing alternatives taking that into consideration.
We are just unconsciously biased about the environment and the implications of our business decisions when it relates to that.
What is your biggest challenge as a conscious business leader?
- Staying in the middle instead of taking sides. Building bridges instead of burning them. And being fully conscious while doing it.
What do you think the biggest changes we will see in the workplace twenty years from now due to conscious business leadership’s growth?
- Flexibility
- More online, less face to face
- Employee driven and centric vs. organizational productivity
- Increase in creativity and innovation
How can our readers follow you or your company on social media, and get a copy of your book?
Go to www.AngelRibo.com (diverted to my LI Profile)
Website: www.TheCEOConfidant.com (my brand)
Website: www.WisdomForKids.today (my foundation)