What is Karmic Leadership?

Have you ever thought about Karma in terms of how it applied to leadership? When I talk to people about this concept, I often hear things like “That boss is going to get what they have coming, what goes around comes around” versus the idea of self-reflection and thinking about our own journey. So what the heck is Karma? I like to think of it as the relationship between what you think or do, and the consequences of those thoughts or actions. If we use that as our baseline, how do we apply it to our leadership and know if we are a karmically balanced leader? 

Karmic leadership is the art of finding the right amount of balance between giving and receiving. Sounds easy enough on paper, but it happens to be significantly more complicated in practice. 

The idea of this concept came to me when I made the decision that climbing the corporate ladder at the pace that I was clipping along was no longer making me feel complete or fulfilled. I was turning 40 and at the time I was the SVP of 9 divisions of a company. I didn’t want to quit my job, but I also knew that what got me to that point was not going to be sustainable through the remainder of my career. I think it is incredibly common for people to get to the “mid-life crisis” time in their career and wonder, were all the sacrifices worth it? 

At this time in my life, I was the breadwinner of our family, we had a beautiful house, a great kid, great friends, supportive families and a membership to the local golf club. I had everything I had ever wanted in life and made more money than this small-town Minnesota girl ever thought she would, yet I felt unfulfilled. I went on a five-year quest to learn more about myself and to identify examples of people who seemed to have great careers while also feeling profound joy.  

I started the process by asking myself what I wanted to do, how I wanted to feel and who I wanted to become. Once I had mapped out the perfect future me, I went hunting for other people who seemed to emulate this standard. Sadly, I couldn’t find very many people that were living life the way I wanted to live it while maintaining the pace of corporate America. I immediately knew that if anything was going to change, it had to start with me. 

I started down a path of curiosity to try new things and had a strong inner knowing there was a way to incorporate these new personal experiences into my professional world. I slowly started building a toolkit of resources that allowed me to reframe what it means to show up well for myself and to show up well for others. I believe there is a better way to do business and there is a better way to show up in the world for ourselves and the people we lead. 

I encourage you to think about whether or not you feel balanced, aligned or fulfilled in your personal and professional life. If not, I promise there is light at the end of the tunnel. The need for this kind of hope and light in the world is the exact reason I started my new company: Karmic Leader.  

My hope is that together we can learn new things and find joy in our work again. It is with this new lens that you can examine what is working, what needs to change and what needs to be let go of because it is no longer serving you well. 

I invite you to come along on this journey with me. The future you will say thank you for the time well spent and for the profound changes that have taken place inside of you.

Love and light my friends!

Kara