Interplanetary romances. Space travel. Building new societies nestled within the expanse of the universe. 

That may sound like something straight out of a Star Wars movie, but it may become reality sooner than you think!

One of the key players making this vision a reality is also one of my long-time clients. 

A quality that has made Relativity Space CEO and Co-founder, Tim Ellis, one of the most important leaders in this field is his dedication to conscious leadership. 

Whether you run a small business or a multi-billion dollar enterprise, conscious leadership concepts are applicable and aid your success and growth. 

Startups aren’t always glamorous. Sometimes leading a start-up means setting up a tent in the office and crashing in a sleeping bag for a month. 

Leadership is about being the example by living the example. 

Tim Ellis spent those few weeks working and living in the office to prove to himself that he was committed and going to do what he needed to do to make his company successful. 

Conscious leaders are made, not born. 

Conscious leadership takes self-awareness, dedication, willingness, and a love of transformative change. 

Why Conscious Leaders Choose Coaching

Frameworks like Fact vs. Story

One of the biggest conscious leadership breakthroughs I’ve seen in Tim and so many of my other clients is the distinction between fact and story

You can clean up energy leakage and streamline communication, especially on fast-moving and quickly growing teams by understanding and wielding the power of the fact vs. story framework.  

Whether you’re giving feedback or simply going through the day, you can avoid drama by speaking unarguably in the language of facts. 

The facts everyone should agree on. The stories are how everyone is interpreting the facts. You may all have the same series of facts, but you have different stories about them. A lot of emotion comes from conflicting stories. When you stick to the facts and speak in a language that is centered around objective facts, you are able to communicate in a more effective and drama-free way. 

Once you learn conscious leadership frameworks like Fact vs. Story, you start to see it everywhere and live consciously with ease. 

Navigate co-founder and partner relationships

Startups can be a rollercoaster. Cofounder relationships can make the rollercoaster even bumpier or start to smooth them out. Coaching helped Tim and his Relativity Space co-founder navigate their cofounder relationship. 

Investing in coaching really helped them become more self-aware about their relationship, and ultimately figure out ways to scale together and actually invest in, not just themselves, individually, but how they were actually showing up as a team. 

Certain things became obvious through coaching as they learned more about themselves and how they individually impacted their dynamic. They learned how to play into their individual Zones of Genius and develop strategies as a team. 

Imposter Syndrome and Upper Limiting

No matter where you are in your journey, Imposter Syndrome flares up from time to time. 

When you’re suffering from Imposter Syndrome you may feel in a constant state of threat – the threat of being unmasked as a fraud, the threat of someone else “taking” your position, threatened by the success of others, or seeking validation in harmful ways. 

Imposter Syndrome is one of the most commonly experienced ways to suffer that I have ever come across in all of my coaching work. 

This mindset doesn’t just occur in those who are new to their fields.

I’ve worked with CEOs in their 60s who feel like they are an imposter, even if it is their fifth time being a CEO, and they’ve been a huge success every single time along the way. Their Imposter Syndrome is the same as someone starting out in a new field for the first time. 

Imposter Syndrome is not something you “earn” or achieve your way out of. It is a mindset you combat with intentional inner work. 

Scaling a business and having rocket growth in your company (some pun intended…) with intense success can be jarring and confusing when you’re not used to that state of being. It can cause doubt and imposter syndrome. 

Imposter Syndrome often goes hand in hand with Upper Limiting. Upper limiting is when things are so good that you unconsciously do things to sabotage that feeling. For Tim, he’d launch a rocket but feel negatively on the same day that something amazing was accomplished. 

Learning about imposter syndrome and upper limiting gives founders and leaders a name for common experiences. 

That awareness is not about controlling your psychology, but about understanding the mental frameworks that often come with the experience of being a founder. 

At its core, conscious leadership is about self-awareness. Coaching is a useful avenue for boosting your self-awareness and gaining tools and frameworks that help you lead and live in a more conscious and empowered way.

This article is related to an interview with Tim Ellis – Listen here.