Gina Hayden's thoughts

Just when you thought you’d measured yourself lengthways and breadthways, and inside out, along comes a new dimension to the search for self – the Consciousness Quotient.

But, rather than simply another set of measurements on your self-awareness ruler, the Consciousness Quotient (or CQ) can be seen instead as the context in which all measurements of self exist.  This is because consciousness is the context in which we all operate and so any measurements of our IQ, EQ, SQ (spiritual quotient) or RQ (relationship quotient) will naturally sit inside this context.

The Consciousness Quotient is new – very new.  It was devised and coined as recently as June 2009 by Professor Ovidiu Brazdau at a conference in Hong Kong.  ‘Ov’, as he is now affectionately known amongst my colleagues and me, has devised a psychometric measurement of consciousness that measures your levels of consciousness on six dimensions: physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, social/relationship and self-conscious/self-awareness.

Ov puts your overall level of consciousness at its resting level half an hour to an hour after waking up, without stimulants such as coffee or television.  He defines consciousness as the amount of access we have simultaneously to information from multiple sources – from, in fact, the vast field of possibility that is consciousness.  A higher CQ = greater access of information; a lower CQ = less information.

So why is this relevant to the business world?  Well, it seems to have been taken up in a business context by at least a couple of South African businesspeople, who linked it to a leader’s ability to use instinct and intuitive behaviour to make quick decisions, often with imperfect information sets.  They also spoke of leaders with a higher CQ being “more creative”, “more productive”, “more accurate” and “more appropriate”.

We felt, however, that this definition of the usefulness of CQ in leaders was a little misguided and we wrote an article about it here.  In our view, yes, a high CQ in leaders would lead to greater access to information and streamlined, accurate decision-making, but this is only one element.  To be conscious also means ‘to be awake’ and conscious leaders would have high levels of self-awareness.

They would be in the process of mastering their Identity – that part of us which is identified with anything we see as ‘ours’ and which often runs the show, as in ‘my job’, ‘my wife’, ‘my money’, ‘my religion’, ‘my views’, leading us to think and act as if we’re separate from others – and conscious leaders would be acting from conscious choice rather than unconscious reaction triggered by needs for survival and defense.

They would be continuously expanding themselves through choice and creative action into the field of possibility that is consciousness.  The advantages of this for leading an organisation are significant, and it is a unchartered realm still to be explored and further defined.

Watch this space…