Subtle Leadership: How Individual and Collective Consciousness Intertwine to Create Change

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Sexton, T orcid iconORCID: 0009-0001-6160-7581 and Walton, J (2025) Subtle Leadership: How Individual and Collective Consciousness Intertwine to Create Change. Action Research. ISSN 1476-7503

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Abstract

As society tackles the root causes of the meta-crisis, the development of our internal dimensions presents deep leverage points for outer change. While the concept of consciousness remains contested and lacks a universally accepted definition, it may be broadly understood to encompass the full spectrum of inner human dimensions. To address the complex challenges of global sustainability, society will need a myriad of leaders with the advanced meaning-making capacities that can be gained through consciousness development. This paper presents a study that explored the relationship between consciousness development and leadership performance, from the perspective of changemakers, to inform the design of developmental techniques that can be available to all. It utilised a form of action research called co-operative inquiry to explore changemakers’ experiences. The paper outlines the key findings and explores one in greater depth, being the effectiveness of subtle leadership for creating the change needed to engage with the complexity of the meta-crisis.

Item Type: Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor > HD28 Management. Industrial Management
Divisions: Psychology (from Sep 2019)
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Date of acceptance: 3 November 2025
Date of first compliant Open Access: 17 November 2025
Date Deposited: 17 Nov 2025 14:54
Last Modified: 17 Nov 2025 15:15
DOI or ID number: 10.1177/14767503251397885
URI: https://researchonline.ljmu.ac.uk/id/eprint/27580
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