When I walked away from a 6-figure contract earlier this year (completely separate from my scenario above), I walked away from a superficially diverse c-suite filled with mostly (white) women and a few men. And, as excited as I was to join what was sold to me as a “sisterhood”, it was a horribly toxic, inauthentic nightmare of a company - that literally made me and my family sick.

I don’t care about how many black people, brown people, trans people….heck… blue people, black women, any kind of women (...or men) you have in your company, in your c-suite or on your board.

At the end of the day, people can all be …. people…good or bad. And, superficially diverse companies cannot address toxicity because they share a common consciousness which is rotten at its core and goes far beyond ethnic, cultural or gender identity.

The tired conversations about race and gender don’t get us to the heart of the matter: consciousness … and energy (which, if we are all tbh, has been off for quite awhile in the corporate world and these issues existed long before the pandemic).

“Consciousness is the one and only reality, not figuratively but actually.” Neville Goddard

And given that cognitive scientists say 95% of who we are is a set of unconscious actions and reactions - isn’t our consciousness, even from a corporate perspective -  something we should be paying more attention to? What do the actions and results of these organizations reveal about their collective consciousness? Something to think about.

If there is anything you want to change or be different, you will first have to be different.
- Tihanna Louise

I want to drill down on the idea of scarcity v. abundance/win-lose v. win-win/inauthenticity v. authenticity a bit more. I’m talking about layers here: peeling back the symptoms and getting to the core.

The core of scarcity-win-lose-inauthenticity is fear.

And the opposite core is faith.

These cores are consciousness. They aren’t based on identity. You can have an executive suite filled with superficially diverse individuals, checking all the right boxes of gender and race, yet still have an extremely toxic workplace culture.

Gender and race are two factors that have been used, historically, to separate people. But here’s the truth: there is no separation. We are all connected - if nothing else, through our levels of consciousness. It is only fear that seeks to separate: fear that we’re not good enough as we are, fear that someone else will take “our” spot, fear that someone else’s success will mean our failure. 

This is all symptomatic of a toxic conditioned consciousness. And that conditioning takes deep root in our bodies and minds. So much so, that even the thought of going to work or having a difficult conversation can make you sick. 

Yet, elevating consciousness and shifting energy is still not the dominant focus because…

Corporations (which are just groups of human beings) are programmed to think/believe the issues are:

• Their processes

• Their systems

• Their organizational structure

• “Who” is visible

When, in reality, their issues are:

• Win-lose / conditioned mindsets

• Scarcity lenses

• Fear

• Stress culture 

• Lack of openness, trust and vulnerability

The conversations around toxic workplaces are symptoms-driven. We’re focused on turnover, cronyism, fear of retribution, gossip, lack of racial/gender diversity troubling behaviors/body language, lack of trust, lack of confidence, poor communication, disengaged employees and team members, and workplace tension, when we should be focused on authenticity and energy aka consciousness.

In the same way, conversations about diversity are only surface-level. If you have a group of POCs adopting toxic behavior, what difference does their skin color make? Same with gender.

Without the tools necessary to elevate individual consciousness, we cannot expect to see an organizational transformation from toxic to healthy. You can fill your c-suite with POCs and women and you can take all of the diversity training in the world (many of which are led by individuals and organizations who are toxic btw!) but until you confront the underlying dis-ease of fear, there can be no effective resolution of what is causing the toxic workplace culture in the first place.

So, why did I walk away from a 6-figure contract if I know how to thrive even inside a toxic workplace?  If I understand that we all create our own happiness and consciousness? If I know that our own ability to succeed has nothing to do with anyone else or anything external?

Well, there are a few reasons.

Primarily,  I chose to stop exerting the energy it was taking to “make it work” for me. From a meta-cognition perspective, I knew pulling out and taking my attention away from this organization would immediately give me back the energy that I allowed to drain from me. And, at the end of the day, I terminated the relationship because I wasn’t on board with what they were creating - period. Our values did not align. For me to create something different - even with them - I knew I needed all my creative energy. And ultimately, the “6” figures (or any figure for that matter), which could easily fund my staff and allow me to make more hires, wasn’t worth the cost of my personal integrity. Sure,  I thrived working with the organization because I strategically shielded myself (and energy) from their politics (I got really good at doing two hour meditations before I’d even take their calls 😉), but I still couldn’t help but observe their poor, abusive treatment of their employees.  One thing I’ve learned is this: the quickest way to heal is to turn off the stress response and in this instant I did one one better - I removed myself from the environment that stress response was showing up in because growth and repair can only happen when we are in balance. 

So, I walked away and chose balance. I gave myself some space and time and renegotiated the relationship so that if I do choose to work with them ever again, it is less intimate and structured in a way that when they are ready, I can give them the help they really need: changing their collective consciousness so that what they say and do really does align and their whole team has an opportunity to thrive. 

Here’s the paradox for you: thrive where you are if you so choose. Develop the skills to elevate your own consciousness to the point where you can stay or go… but don’t stand idly by and wait for a corporation to “get it.”  No matter what you do, however you choose to do it, be sure you’re doing it from a place of faith (aka confidence) and authenticity, not fear. 

Ready to elevate your level of leadership and the consciousness you bring to it? 

Schedule a discovery call and let’s talk about Energy Leadership and how you can literally create a new mind…and a new life.