With more experts extending their expertise to help people make significant and lasting life changes, the coaching industry is one of the fastest-growing sectors in the world. A billion-dollar market that encompasses an extensive range of occupations, coaching will continue progressing in 2023 and beyond. “The coaching industry has grown very rapidly in the last decade. The International Coaching Federation (ICF) has reached 50.000 active members globally. This growth speaks to the increasing need for innovative approaches to leadership, well-being, and social issues,” says Kawtar El Alaoui, Founder & CEO of Conscious Togetherness, Inc.
A conscious leadership consultant, coach, facilitator, mentor, and speaker, Ms. El Alaoui partners with conscious leaders and organizations to create cultures of well-being, belonging, and peace—replacing the old paradigm. Her coaching and consulting firm, Conscious Togetherness, Inc, supports conscious leaders in humanizing business and systems, making business a force for good that takes care of people, profit, and the planet. She shares, “We provide leaders and teams with the foundational skills to work from their strengths, aligned with personal and organizational values, communicate effectively, and transform conflict.” Ms. El Alaoui has created an evolutionary model, yet highly practical in application and adaptable to cultural contexts.
The Journey of Conscious Togetherness
Ms. El Alaoui was confronted early in her career with the reality that leadership and policies can be dehumanizing and toxic. She recounts, “It did not make sense to me that with our incredible human capacity to solve problems, we are recreating dysfunctional dynamics at the personal and collective levels.” Conscious Togetherness was born from Ms. El Alaoui’s journey of exploring the best approaches to change.
After many years of experimenting with methods for change, personal growth, and consciousness, learning from a variety of disciplines and cultural lenses and with global mentors, Ms. El Alaoui found that we can only resolve deeply rooted issues if we address the beliefs that hold us in an unconscious and unproductive paradigm driven only by our linear, left brain. She says, “We need to look below the surface of what we see and believe in finding the answers to the complex issues of our world and creating a more empowering and holistic model of leadership and social change. In short, shifting to a paradigm honouring people, resources, profits, and the planet.”
Ms. El Alaoui also realized the principles that underlie these changes are the same for individuals and groups. “We can only change if we examine the beliefs creating the current outcomes, and we can only thrive and create peace if we recognize that we are connected, and learn to celebrate diversity, hence the name Conscious Togetherness,” explains Ms. El Alaoui. In her book, Unfolding Peace: 9 Leadership principles to Create Cultures of Well-being, Belonging, and Peace, Ms. El Alaoui shares more in-depth about these unconscious beliefs and how we can shift them.
“My leadership model, the Conscious Togetherness Leadership Framework ® takes leaders and groups through the journey of making these paradigm shifts by breaking down the application of nine conscious leadership principles into simple and clear concepts through an experiential learning model,” asserts Ms. El Alaoui. In the Conscious Togetherness Leadership Framework®, she weaves tools for deep inner healing and meaningful service to guide leaders in creating a more equitable, peaceful, and prosperous world. Crafted to bring humanity back to business and systems, this model offers principles and tangible tools for self-awareness, conscious communication and collaboration, conflict transformation, social equity, trauma-informed relating, and personal and organizational purpose.
Creating a Paradigm Shift
Recently, Ms. El Alaoui received a call from a client after nearly a year of working together. She had worked with this client to align his leadership style and business around his values. Also, she worked with him to enable his team to work from their strengths to improve his work-life balance and reach his profit targets. Ms. El Alaoui’s client is now grateful to have his time with his family back. His team is more productive and working well together, and the business is on its way to a record profit this year, with a high satisfaction rates with their clients due to the alignment in their values of service and excellence. “What delights clients is to experience the shifts and growth they want to experience, to witness us modelling our values in action, and know that we care about them as people. So, we ensure our clients know we care about them and their work, and we ensure a high quality of work. Ultimately, the test for the quality of our work is when our clients refer us to their network,” shares Ms. El Alaoui.
Conscious Togetherness offers two streams of services: coaching and consulting. In the consulting stream, the company provides a 9 to 12 months conscious leadership program for the foundational leadership skills needed to support a holistic leadership paradigm and works with its clients to adapt it to their cultural context. Ms. El Alaoui and her team then map the next steps with them and sometimes support the implementation. She says, “Through coaching, I support servant leaders in recognizing and living their purpose. This enables them to step the paradigm of wholeness for themselves and, in turn, become catalysts for transformation in their environments,” Ms. El Alaoui also collaborates with other coaches to support teams through the Conscious Togetherness holistic leadership coaching program.
Since Ms. El Alaoui works from a paradigm of wholeness, she focuses on listening to what the clients are saying. In her client meetings, she supports their process to uncover deeper issues and find the best solutions for their environment and context. This approach promotes self-leadership and responsibility while generating the most adapted solutions for any client. “Psychological safety is a pillar for both human connection and creativity. Without it, we cannot tap into the resourcefulness and implement generative solutions,” pinpoints Ms. El Alaoui. Conscious Togetherness provides a trauma-informed leadership model that supports leaders and their teams balance care and accountability. Ms. El Alaoui adds, “Our model enables self-leadership and self-responsibility. This enables clients to create internal safety and spaces of authentic relating where both people and results matter.”
The Making of a Conscious Leader
Ms. El Alaoui has lived and worked in different cultures: Morocco, Egypt, Canada, South Korea and India. “These experiences have taught me the vastness of our human experience, the potential of finding connection across differences, and the need to learn to thrive together through our differences,” says Ms. El Alaoui. Having studied economics in high school, in Morocco, and graduated from law school in Canada, Ms. El Alaoui asserts that she loved learning legal principles and reading supreme court decisions with intricate rationale. She believes law has helped her to hone her skills of seeing complex problems in simple and neutral ways.
“Coaching has taught me to unleash human potential and that dedication and commitment are not enough when dealing with complex issues. We need the willingness and tools to expand our understanding of the world within us and around us. My biggest breakthrough in leadership is learning that we are the leaders we have been waiting for and that leadership is not position based,” asserts Ms. El Alaoui. Her legal background, mediation training, and leadership profile give her access to a systemic view that holds the interests of diverse stakeholders with equal care.
“The old leadership paradigm from power and control has not proven to work because it operates from lack, separation, and power over rather than with. The hardest part as a conscious leadership coach and consultant is to see the solutions available, yet still undervalued,” states Ms. El Alaoui. The ideas of hierarchical leadership and the goal of business to only generate profit, according to Ms. El Alaoui, are putting a considerable strain on people and the environment. She believes that left-brain leadership is costing societies staggering amounts to deal with health care costs, mental health crises, environmental damage, and polarization.
Purpose-driven organizations operate from a holistic model that cares for all stakeholders and the environment. This paradigm has been shown to generate more profit, well-being, and social cohesion. “The transition is the most difficult part because shifting paradigms requires time and effort to adjust. It’s important to work with leaders closely during this phase to ensure they have the support needed for a successful transition,” explains Ms. El Alaoui.
The Path Ahead
Ms. El Alaoui’s leadership is not limited to Conscious Togetherness. She is a Faculty & Mentor with Leadership That Works India, a Trained True Purpose ®Coach, a Co-host of the Gathering of Change Agents with the True Purpose® Institute in the USA and a Senior Facilitator with the Business Plan for Peace in the UK. She was awarded the 2020 Woman of the Year Award in the Education Category by the Global Institute of Evolving Women and featured in Brainz Magazine as 1 of 7 Women Entrepreneurs Changing the World for International Women’s Day 2021. Recently, Ms. El Alaoui has been selected for the finalist’s list for the Leader of the Year Award as part of the Women Changing the World Awards 2023, a global platform which acknowledges, elevates and embraces Women Change Makers and the feminine way of living and working, encouraging qualities such as collaboration over competition, innovation over conformity.
As a young firm that has experienced steady growth, Conscious Togetherness now focuses on creating a solid foundation. Ms. El Alaoui plans to continue to grow at a pace that allows her team to live meaningful and generative lifestyles rather than only aim for profit. For her, that is the new paradigm in action. “We bring a much-needed skillset to leaders everywhere. Due to our leadership model’s cross-cultural and trauma-informed nature, the global market holds much promise. However, we recognize that growth is not linear, and we are mindful of ensuring our growth takes place in a sustainable and true way,” concludes Ms. El Alaoui.
For More Info: https://www.conscioustogetherness.com/