Transformational Leadership for the Millennial Age: The Definitive Guide

Kevin Abdulrahman

Motivaitonal Keynote Speaker and Public Speacking Coach

Throughout history various leadership models have emerged to suit the prevailing worldview of the time.

In our current age, we as a global civilization are more frequently faced with unprecedented scenarios and unique challenges.

With all of the acceleration and uncertainty, the impulse to apply quick-fix solutions is tempting. Applying outdated leadership models to our current times, however, may not only be ineffective in achieving desired outcomes within organizations and businesses, but also detrimental to individual, societal and even environmental wellbeing.

In this Definitive Guide on Transformational Leadership, we offer ideas on what this new model of leadership may look like by first examining the evolution of leadership theory in the West beginning with the Industrial Revolution.

Our intention is not to provide an exact answer, but rather to help you decide what aspects may be most relevant and effective for you, your organization, and community.

We’ll also present a unique generational context for leadership at his time: the role of Millennials as they assume a greater percentage of the workforce and move into leadership positions.

CHAPTER 1 HOW MILLENNIALS ARE CHANGING LEADERSHIP AND THE WORLD

The circumstances of our time demand leadership to be creative, visionary, transformational and conscious of multiple dimensions of work and life. Before we dive into the history of leadership theory that led us up to now, we need to address a major element: the role of Millennials. In this chapter we’ll review the values and preferences of this generational cohort.

Millennials currently comprise 50 percent of the workforce in the United States, and by 2030 will make up about 75 percent according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Not only is this a massive generation of workers whose values and preferences affect consumer markets and social movements, but they are increasingly moving into management roles. If the U.S. is your context in terms of where you work or do business, consider the following insights carefully because these trends may call you to adapt leadership to suit this generation.

Aside from the influence of Millennials within corporations, 29 percent of entrepreneurs in 2011 were Millennials according to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce report.

Who are the Millennials?

Millennials go by many other generational labels, but in general the group refers to the cohort born in the United States between 1980 and 1999. Socioeconomic developments that occurred during this cohort’s years growing up largely influence their values and behaviors.

According to Janis Bragan Balda and Fernando Mora in their journal article “Adapting Leadership Theory and Practice for the Networked, Millennial Generation,” these individuals received enormous care and attention from their parents, resulting in self-confident, empowered, and optimistic people. They are team and group oriented, grew up with technology, and process information differently than previous generations; in fact, they are literally wired differently in their neural networks.

Millennials are not so much interested in building careers as in having flexibility in their jobs, work-life balance, and developing close relationships. Balda and Mora note that these individuals “expect free-flowing and bidirectional communications at all levels regardless of their position, showing that they are not intimidated by seniority, age, or status.” They are also not so interested in following corporate policies.

Instead, they see the world as less hierarchical and more collaborative, with greater multitasking, and democratic access to information.

Millennials, Knowledge Work, and Relationships

In his Management Challenges for the 21st Century, Peter Drucker defined knowledge work as workers contributing “value through innovation, effective use of information, and personal creativity” rather than being focused on efficient completion of processes to produce a sellable final product.

Many researchers highlight Millennials as a generation in which knowledge is acquired, shared, and created through relationships and networks, and largely situated in the context of information technology.

Since Millennials highly value collaboration, and workplaces will continue to be multigenerational for years to come, Millennials will likely expect and contribute to the development of multigenerational collaborative cultures, especially as they gain greater access to leadership positions.

Millennials are networked, social and adept at technology, as well as socially and culturally aware, which means they utilize social learning, meaning they know where and who rather than what and how in order to keep up with the fast pace of information.

Balda and Mora also note that as Millennials place such strong emphasis on people, relationships, communication, innovation and creativity, it is not helpful to attempt to box them into existing classical models or top-down management hierarchies.

Moreover, Millennials expect constant communication and dialogue with supervisors, and are largely seen as negotiators and questioners.

Millennials on Purpose, Mission and Social Awareness

As we’ve touched on already, Millennials are perhaps much more socially and culturally aware than previous generational cohorts, largely because they are so networked. This awareness of larger social and cultural contexts also contributes to their sense of mission and purpose within the work they choose to do.

While existential concerns such as meaning, purpose and social connection in life are crucial to emotional wellbeing for anyone, Millennials’ sense of the global interconnectedness of individuals, groups and even the natural environment can teach all of us to be more aware of how a decision within an organization can affect not only the organization as a whole, but also the individuals within, as well as outer contexts such as the wider community and environment.

CHAPTER 2 HOW THE HISTORY OF LEADERSHIP THEORY AFFECTS US NOW

Now that we’ve considered the massive influence Millennials have and will continue to have on organizations and expectations of leadership, let’s take a look at some of the previous leadership models that have emerged in the West since the Industrial Revolution. This chapter’s historical overview is crucial because if we are blind to where we came from, we don’t have a clear view of what we need to change to move forward.

Leadership Theory: A Brief History

According to Jonathan Reams in his journal article “What’s Integral about Leadership? A Reflection on Leadership and Integral Theory,” the following theories present a history of leadership developments from the twentieth century until the present.

Trait Theory: This theory emerged in the early 20th century, and is also known as the “Great Man” theory, or a heroic model of leadership. It highlights individuals’ innate, intentional qualities and characteristics. In other words, you were born a great leader. . . or not.

Style Theory: Leadership is understood more in terms of personality style and behavior that could be learned rather than it being an innate quality of the “Great Man.” This theory highlights task and relationship.

Group Dynamics Theory: In the 1930s, sociologists recognized leadership was largely relational and less about the individual. This theory gained prominence in the 1950s.

Situational Leadership Theory: In the late 1960s, Paul Hersey and Ken Blanchard developed this theory based on the ideas that different situations require different types of leadership. The leader assesses the developmental level of followers and matches his or her leadership style to the follower in a particular situation.

Other theories from the last 45 years include:

Contingency Theory: Similar to Situational Theory, Contingency Theory suggests that effective leadership is contingent on a leader’s style being appropriate to a particular setting.

Path-Goal Theory: This theory focuses on the level of motivation of the follower, and sees that appropriate behaviors can be taught.

Psycho-dynamic Theory: This area is where we begin to see the influence of emotional intelligence, such as in the case of Daniel Goleman’s pivotal work.

Transformational Theory: This theory was first introduced by James MacGregor Burns in 1978 to describe political leaders, but is now used in organizational psychology. Transformational leadership inspires or motivates others to achieve higher levels of moral conduct. Individuals are treated as full human beings here, and this theory is based on the deep needs and emotional desires of both followers and leaders.

Servant Leadership: This theory especially takes into account followers’ wellbeing, and putting others above the organization.

Robert Greenleaf’s definition of servant leadership is this: “The servant-leader is servant first. The difference manifests itself in the care taken by the servant; first to make sure that other people’s highest priority needs are being served. The best test, and difficult to administer, is: Do those served grow as persons; do they, while being served, become healthier, wiser, freer, more autonomous, more likely themselves to become servants? And, what is the effect on the least privileged person in society; will they benefit, or at least, not be further deprived? (Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power and Greatness, p. 14)

Millennials and Servant Leadership

So are Millennials more likely to be interested in servant leadership, especially since they value altruism? This cohort is looking for meaning, fulfillment and is largely mission-oriented and cares about the greater good. According to the Pew Research Center this cohort participates more in internships, volunteering, and service learning than previous generations.

Leadership Theory Now

In chapter four of this guide we’ll dive into Integral Theory and Leadership, but as a primer, within an integral view of leadership is the movement from egocentric views to ethnocentric ones, and finally worldcentric ones.

Jonathan Reams notes that many early trait theories had a very egocentric view of leadership. Group dynamics theory expanded to a more ethnocentric view, and finally, a worldcentric view is more evident in Servant Leadership Theory.

Most recently many other authors researching leadership and organizations have ventured into areas such as consciousness, spirituality, and new scientific theories.

CHAPTER 3 CONSCIOUSNESS: THE NEW FRONTIER IN LEADERSHIP

Now that we’ve seen the evolution of leadership theory throughout the last century, let’s take a deeper look into states and developmental stages of consciousness. In this chapter we’ll look at Integral Theory and the influence it has had on leadership models.

Consciousness and Wellbeing

A quick glance at trends of the past decade or so highlights a heightened global interest in mindfulness and meditation, corporate wellness programs that focus on mind-body-spirit wellbeing, and the like. Silicon Valley may even be the heart of microdosing and the altered states economy to achieve greater wellbeing and peak performance.

In fact, it’s safe to say “consciousness” and “mindfulness” have gone mainstream on some level or another. Check out the Global Wellness Summit’s 2020 report on Global Wellness Trends if you’re curious. We’ve even covered the role of mindfulness in communication and leadership in our 2020 guide on Crushing the Fear of Public Speaking.

The connection to leadership theory is that many experts purport that people often operate from levels of consciousness–or stages of psychological maturity–that are inadequate for the situations they need to address. A quick Google search will demonstrate the prevalence of information on Integral Leadership.

Integral Theory: A Theory of Everything

This integral view of leadership is based on Ken Wilber’s Integral Theory. Wilber describes “‘An integral vision’–or a genuine Theory of Everything– [which] attempts to include matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit as they appear in self, culture, and nature. A vision that attempts to be comprehensive, balanced, inclusive. A vision that therefore embraces science, art, and morals; that equally includes disciplines from physics to spirituality, biology to aesthetics, sociology to contemplative prayer; that show up in integral politics, integral medicine, integral business, integral spirituality,” ( A Theory of Everything p. xii).

A key element of Wilber’s theory is the process of development as a fusion or identification with one level, transcendence from that level, and an integration and inclusion at a higher level.

Leadership as a Field of Awareness

In Leading Consciously, A Pilgrimage Toward Self Mastery, Debashis Chatterjee notes that “leadership is not a science or an art, it is a state of consciousness. . . we can begin to grasp the phenomenon of leadership as the field of awareness rather than a personality trait or mental attribute” (p. 24). This “field of awareness” is what mindfulness is all about.

In their study “A Unified Theory of Leadership: Experiences of Higher States of Consciousness in World-Class Leaders”, Harald Harung, Dennis P. Heaton, and Charles N. Alexander note that peak performance in leaders was linked to higher states of consciousness. “Compared to people in a normal population, a significantly higher percentage of world class performers had frequent experiences as higher states of consciousness.” These states included heightened awareness.

We highlighted the link between altered states of consciousness and peak performance in our go-to guide on Creative Problem Solving for the 21st Century, so be sure to check it out if you want to learn how to access greater inner resources for your own performance, and to enhance creativity among your team members.

Display the emotions you are explaining in your speech while practicing. For instance, if you are speaking about your feelings or shock or frustration in discovering a fact or statistic, express these emotions in your face. Not only will this add a human element to your presentation, but it will also hide your nerves.

CHAPTER 4 INTEGRAL LEADERSHIP: A MODEL FOR TRANSFORMATION

As we noted in the last chapter, integral leadership refers to a specific level of development and capacities present within a leader. In this chapter, we’ll show you one model of integral leadership that describes each level of development or consciousness.

In their article “Integral Leadership: Overcoming the Paradox of Growth,” Michael Putz and Michael E. Raynor emphasize the development of psychological maturity rather than intellectual capability within a leader. These authors note that “an Integral leader is able to objectively assess how one’s own identity tends to be formed within the frame of a true but partial paradigm and is more capable of evolving their sense of self-identity as required in the face of paradoxical change.” Jonathan Reams believes that “this capacity to reframe identity is one way in which integral leadership sets itself apart from other kinds of leadership.”

We could also say that this integral level of leadership is more holistic in that it emphasizes wholeness and integration, just as Ken Wilber mentions in his description of a genuine theory of everything. One who is integral is conscious of wider aspects of society and life.

Just as Wilber’s Integral Theory moves through various stages of development like rungs on a ladder, Integral Leadership Theory also focuses on the development of consciousness through various stages or orders.

According to Robert J. Anderson and William A. Adams of The Leadership Circle and the Full Circle Group, there are five levels of leadership as mentioned in their book Mastering Leadership: An Integrated Framework for Breakthrough Performance and Extraordinary Business Results.

According to the authors, leaders develop through a series of stages that are universal, and perhaps most importantly, “No organization can organize at a higher stage of development than the consciousness of its leadership. . . System design and effectiveness is interdependent with the Stage of Leadership.”

A critical mass of leaders within an organization must develop to a new stage before the entire system can function at that higher order. Below is Anderson and Adams’ model.

Integral Leadership Model

1. Egocentric: This level is identified with our ability to meet our needs, and this is the primary goal of our relationships. Growth in this stage requires defining ourselves so that our primary loyalty is to relationship, whether it be friend, parents, family, organization or community.
  
  This is an egocentric mind, and when it doesn’t develop, is autocratic, dictatorial and oppressive.
2. Reactive: At this level, we can hold our own needs as well as the needs or feelings or others simultaneously. Leaders at this level of mind care deeply about their employees and manage sort of as benevolent parents. Employees can have input, but ultimately decisions and creative expression are the domain of the top leaders. An organization at this level is an efficient hierarchy.
3. Creative: According to Anderson and Adams, this kind of culture is flatter, leaner, more agile, and requires higher ownership and creative involvement than lower levels. The leadership needs to be functioning at the level of Creative Mind in order for this to work in the organization.
  
  This is the level of visionary leaders, where we leave behind assumptions that once ran our lives and we step into authenticity and personal purpose.
  
  A person at this level might ask, “How can I make my life and my leadership a creative expression of what matters most?” The focus within such an organization is on high performance, teamwork and self-development. The leader enrolls others in the vision, and enables others to fulfill personal purposes collectively.
4. Integral: This level involves systemic welfare, including Systems Thinking and Design, so that it can function within complexity. Integral leaders not only have a vision for their organization, but can also hold in mind the welfare and sustainability of the larger system in which the organization is embedded. The leader serves the whole–Servant Leadership.
5. Unitive: Anderson and Adams consider this level to be the highest stage of awareness of who we are. Typically, individuals at this level engage in spiritual practices such as meditation, which is how they developed to this level in the first place. This level recognizes the oneness of all. It does not, however, imply disengagement from the world. Leaders here work as global visionaries.

CHAPTER 5 THE EMERGING PARADIGM OF WORK AND TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE

Could we say, then, that Integral Leadership is the newest iteration of Transformational Leadership? Or that leading from an Integral level of consciousness is what is required of us now in order to meet the needs of our current world? In this chapter we’ll look at transformational change and the importance of dialogue.

According to the model above from Adams and Anderson, it seems that the level of Creative Leadership largely echoes the values of Millennials in the workplace. This level highlights creativity, agility, greater personal ownership, and an overall organizational structure that is flatter rather than hierarchical. Creative leadership also emphasizes the collective fulfilling of purposes for individuals and others within the organization. This sounds a lot like classical Transformational Leadership with a flatter leadership approach.

The Emerging Paradigm of Work

In an interview on creativity in business, Paul Scheele, PhD, founding partner of Learning Strategies Corporation, and a pioneer in Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Accelerative Learning, notes that “the new paradigm of work is a focus on a quadruple bottom-line. We are creating economies that practice conscious capitalism and organizations that strive to create enterprise that is socially just, environmentally and economically sustainable, and spiritually fulfilling.”

More than any other time in history, people are seeking meaning and purpose in their work, and are concerned with real human progress rather than a bottom line that only stresses quarterly earnings. Scheele, a member of the Transformational Leadership Council, describes creative leadership as guiding a social system to look at its own blind spots.

Scheele notes that “Creative Leadership models how to surrender what doesn’t work and gives birth to the next evolutionary step for ourselves as individuals, and the system within which we interact.” This approach clearly requires some humility.

See our guide on Creative Problem Solving for the 21st Century for more on Scheele’s approach as well as specific techniques for developing greater creativity and innovation in addressing both personal and professional challenges.

Transformational Change and the Importance of Dialogue

Scheele’s perspective on evolutionary change within an organization echoes the work of Peter Senge and C. Otto Scharmer, senior lecturers at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology. Senge is also the founding chairperson at The Society for Organizational Learning (SoL).

In both of their books Presence: Human Purpose and the Field of the Future and Theory U: Leading from the Future as it Emerges, the authors note that society needs changes that are both personal and systemic, and they explore dimensions of transformational change that are largely unexplored in management and leadership research.

According to the authors, humanity cannot solve complex problems by applying historical solutions. Scheele, Senge and Scharmer all highlight that present behaviors arise from blind spots, and that people must learn to look into what they cannot yet see and learn from the future as it becomes the present. A crucial component in understanding these blind spots and how to navigate them is facilitating dialogue.

According to W.N. Isaacs in the article “Taking Flight: Dialogue, Collective Thinking, and Organizational Learning” in the journal Organizational Dynamics, we hold onto mental models for many reasons, or habits of mind, such as objectification, independence, literalness, rigidity and violence.

It is important to point out that dialogue is different than discussion. Discussion can emerge as feelings of coercion and manipulation, in the case of authoritarian leaders. The word discussion shares the Latin root quatere, which means to shake or break apart with percussion. Dialogue, on the other hand, allows insights to emerge which can lead to coordinated new action.

The latter kind of communication is especially valued by Millennials who seek democratic access to information, no matter the roles or titles of the individuals involved.

CHAPTER 6 HOW TO LEAD IN AN AGE OF ANXIETY

Now that we’ve reviewed Integral Leadership and Transformational Change–which highlight what is demanded of us at this time in history–there is another wide-scale issue that needs to be addressed by leaders: fear and anxiety. In this chapter we’ll further examine the role of emotional maturity and self-regulation in being an effective leader.

Anxiety and Wellbeing

As the Global Wellness Institute recently pointed out in a blog post, mental wellness is the big elephant in the corporate boardroom. According to the author, “in 2017–2018 in the UK, stress, depression and anxiety accounted for more than half (57 percent) of total working days lost due to ill health.”

Anxiety is at the heart of the wider global wellness movement. While physical wellbeing is still a major concern of most people, the idea of “wellness” now encompasses mental, emotional and spiritual health as humanity faces greater crises in these areas.

Aside from sometimes toxic work environments, the fast pace of the world, the rise of technology and artificial intelligence, and constant uncertainty has spun the world into an age of anxiety.

What’s needed to counter this anxiety? Stability, security and assurance that all will be well. So how can a leader express this to his or her followers?

Whereas in the past we’ve observed leadership styles arise within areas of psychology, social theory, and management fields, the rise of interest in neuroscience, consciousness and biology can give us another perspective on what kind of leadership is necessary in today’s age.

Coherence in Self Leadership

In our Ultimate Biohacking Guide to Increase Your Motivation, we briefly spoke of a state of Coherence, which is widely researched by the HeartMath Institute.

According to the HeartMath Institute, Coherence is specifically marked by synchronization, harmony and efficiency, greater emotional stability and improved mental performance.

This state of coherence is evident in a smooth wavelike heart rate variability (HRV) pattern. In HRV coherence, the two branches of your autonomic nervous system synchronize, with a shift toward parasympathetic activity without a lowering of heart rate.

Higher variability correlates with greater resilience, flexibility and overall mindbody system coherence that allows an individual to perform at peak levels. Lower HRV correlates with the opposite: more rigidity, stress and incoherence that equates to an individual performing below his or her potential.

Social Coherence

Aside from the personal benefits one can reap from greater internal coherence, wider effects can be observed among groups and even on a global scale.

According to the HeartMath Institute, groups and organizations benefit from individuals with a high level of personal coherence:

“Social and group coherence refers to the alignment and harmonious order in a network of relationships among individuals who share common interests and objectives, rather than the systems within the body. Social coherence is therefore reflected as a stable, harmonious alignment of relationships that allows for the efficient flow and utilization of energy and communication required for optimal collective cohesion and action.”

The researchers further explain that “when individuals are not well self-regulated or are acting in their own interests without regard to others, it generates social incoherence. Stressful or discordant conditions in a given group act to increase emotional stress among its members and can lead to social pathologies such as violence, abuse, inefficacy, increased errors, etc.”

You can view various HeartMath studies on social coherence research in various organizations such as hospitals, law enforcement, prisons and more in chapter ten of the e-book Science of the Heart: Exploring the Role of the Heart in Human Performance.

It may be a simple idea, but by keeping yourself calm, centered and in a coherent internal state, you are literally affecting others’ energy systems around you.

CHAPTER 7 HOW YOUR INTUITION CAN MAKE YOU A GREAT LEADER

In addition to the fascinating health and relational benefits of coherence is the link between coherence and intuition. Cultivating and using intuition is a critical skill in creating transformational change. In this chapter we’ll break down the different types of intuition and how it can serve you in becoming a better leader.

HeartMath researchers note that “intuition may play an important role in social cognition, decision-making and creativity.” Since humans typically default to familiar patterns of thoughts, feelings and actions in decision-making processes and their view of others, intuition can help us access new and creative solutions. This means that if we can learn to intentionally align with and access our intuitive intelligence, we can access moment-to-moment guidance, wisdom and intelligence from the heart.

Research on Types of Intuition

In chapter seven of the ebook Science of the Heart: Exploring the Role of the Heart in Human Performance, HeartMath researchers explore the different types of intuition: implicit knowledge, energetic sensitivity, and nonlocal intuition.

Implicit Knowledge

Implicit knowledge, or implicit learning, refers to “knowledge we’ve acquired in the past and either forgot or did not realize we had learned. Drawing on the neuroscience conception of the human brain as a highly efficient and effective patternmatching device, a number of pattern-recognition models have been developed to show how this fast type of intuitive decision-making and action can be understood purely in terms of neural processes. In this regard, the brain matches the patterns of new problems or challenges with implicit memories based on prior experience.”

Energetic Sensitivity

Energetic sensitivity refers to “the ability of the nervous system to detect and respond to environmental signals such as electromagnetic fields. . . It is well established that in both humans and animals, nervous-system activity is affected by geomagnetic activity.”

This kind of sensitivity, for example, may refer to the capacity to feel or sense that an earthquake is about to occur before it happens. Another example of energetic sensitivity is the sense of being stared at. According to the researchers, several scientific studies have verified this type of sensitivity.

Nonlocal Intuition

Nonlocal intuition refers to “the knowledge or sense of something that cannot be explained by past or forgotten knowledge or by sensing environmental signals. It has been suggested that the capacity to receive and process information about nonlocal events appears to be a property of all physical and biological organization and this likely is because of an inherent interconnectedness of everything in the universe. Examples of nonlocal intuition include when a parent senses something is happening to his or her child who is many miles away, or the repeated, successful sensing experienced by entrepreneurs about factors related to making effective business decisions.”

Nonlocal Intuition in Repeat Entrepreneurs

According to one of the experiments mentioned in the chapter on intuition, coherence and the role of the heart, a group of 30 repeat entrepreneurs in the science and technology parks of the city of Tehran duplicated and extended HeartMath’s first study of intuition.

In this study, repeat entrepreneurs were selected as they were most likely to have demonstrated that their success is not the result of luck alone and they have beaten the odds against success. The stimulus in the study was a computer-administered random sequence of calm and emotional pictures, and actually included two separate experiments.

The first group consisted of single participants, and the second group consisted of co-participant pairs, which investigated the “amplification” of intuition effects by social connection. In the experiment for single participants, the participant watched the pictures on a monitor alone, while in the experiment for co-participant pairs, each pair watched the same pictures simultaneously on two monitors while sitting facing each other.

According to the HeartMath Institute:

Each experiment was conducted over 45 trials while heart-rate rhythm activity was recorded continuously. In both experiments, the results showed significant pre-stimulus results, meaning for the period before the computer had randomly selected the picture stimulus. Moreover, while significant separation between the emotional and calm HRV curves was observed in the single-participant experiment, an even larger separation was apparent for the experiment with co-participant pairs, and the difference between the two groups also was significant.

Overall, the results of the single-participant experiment confirm our and others’ previous finding that electrophysiological measures, especially changes in heart rhythm, can demonstrate intuitive foreknowledge. This result is notable because, having come from experiments in Iran, it constituted cross-cultural corroboration in a non-Western context. In addition, the results for co-participant pairs offer new evidence on the amplification of the nonlocal intuition signal.

For additional studies on intuition, definitely view this chapter on intuition research.

As you can observe from this research on personal and social coherence, and the role of the human heart in intuition, leadership today requires self-awareness and self-regulation. The HeartMath Institute’s many research studies demonstrate that we are interconnected on a very real, physiological level. This knowledge comes with massive responsibility. Everything you are thinking, feeling and projecting onto others can affect their personal level of coherence, or lack thereof.

Moreover, the use of one’s own intuition can allow for much-needed creative solutions to arise.

As David Straus, CEO of Reason Ventures, writes in August 2018 in Inc. Magazine, “The (aha moment) emanates from the heart and is fueled by its intuition. True visionary leadership develops inside the heart, not the brain. And it is there for each of us to grasp. . . we simply need the awareness of how to access it.”

If you’ll recall chapter one on Millennial Leadership trends, you’ll note that Millennials place an emphasis on people, relationships, communication, innovation and creativity. These values are clearly resonant with the HeartMath Institute’s findings on personal and social coherence, and intuition. This level of awareness is also congruent with models of Integral Leadership.

CONCLUSION

So that’s our overview of leadership trends as they have led us up to the paradigm of Transformational Leadership in a Millennial Age. We’ve covered consciousness and self-identity, emotional regulation, intuition and more.

Now we want to turn it over to you:

What do you expect to see emerging in leadership over the next decades? Or what do you hope to see?

What is your experience with Millennials in the workplace, especially as they step into more and more leadership positions?

If you are a Millennial, what does effective leadership look like to you?

Let us know by leaving a comment below.