S1E3: Conscious Leadership in the Age of AI: Psychological Safety, Healing & The Future of Business

So conscious leadership, whole self, whole communication, again, going back to psychological safety, knowing that you can say all that and that you won't get roasted, that it won't get turned back on you. And then being able to point that giant intellect that's needed in that giant conscious intellect that's needed in business to say, "Oh, these are the three things I need to do." And better yet, these are the three things I can do that are within my control. And I can firmly and say with certainty to the board, "Here are all the things outside of our control." But as a business unit, as a team, as a division would have you, we're going to focus on these things. And speaking from that place, they'll know from their core that they're speaking with certainty, they're speaking with with purpose and they're speaking with truth. Welcome to the conscious leadership revolution podcast, where conscious leaders unite to unlock their highest potential. So we can change the way the game is being played. Welcome to the conscious leadership revolution podcast. I'm your host Susan Hobbson, fly in solo today. Tracy Allen is showing up in service to her people today, but she will be back next week. And I have a very special guest, a dear friend of mine, who I have been dying to get on the mic. This man that you're about to meet is nothing but a well of wisdom in the area of conscious leadership. This is my friend Raymond Usere, leader and fractional COO for high performing teams. He works remotely with solo entrepreneurs, leaders and service businesses across the globe. For over 15 years, he's led global professional services and project management organizations, managing multi million dollar budgets and delivering for high profile clients and industries from telecom to luxury retail. His work plans sharp execution with human connection because results matter, but people matter more. I can't wait to dig into that. He's been a martial arts instructor for two decades. He served on nonprofit boards and founded the nonprofit love is my religion. I can't wait for him to talk about that. Whether guiding digital transformation, driving operational excellence or supporting emerging leaders, he focuses on clarity, alignment, impact. And I'm going to add to that list, conscious leadership. Raymond. Oh, excuse me. Thank you so much. Welcome to the show, my friend. Oh, thank you. And thank you for that introduction. Thank you for your partnership. It's great to be here. The only thing that would make this better is if we were like doing this over a cup of coffee and really donuts. So in late the college Mexico to none the left. That's definitely next up on my bucket list. We definitely get like that coffee happen in real life. Raymond has been so generous to be collaborating with me and really donating some of his awesome services on behalf of team elites mission to change the way. This game is being played through conscious leadership. And the world needs leaders consciously at the how more than it's ever needed in my humble opinion. Raymond, tell my audience a little bit more about yourself, sir. And a little bit more about the mission that you're on as a conscious leader in this world right now. Absolutely. But it's, uh, I'll say it's my, it's my calling in life that all people are love in action. And going straight to the business world, that's difficult to say in any boardroom or any client I've ever had. So immediately the coat or the vest, whatever that I put on my mission of love is psychological safety, psychological safety and conscious leadership are linked. They're, uh, they're bosom buddies. They, they walk hand in hand. So being able to provide that space of love slash psychological safety, uh, a passion of mine. And that's, uh, really, that's my, that's my foundation. I love it. And I know it to be true about you. Why don't you tell us what I really am eager to hear about is a little bit of the inspiration behind the mission. So where did that love come from in the first place? Yeah. The, well, okay. I'll tell you so the, the, the mission to love the mission to provide psychological safety. There, it comes from any number of places, leaping ahead, thinking about the legacy. Like, what do I want to leave behind when I, you know, leave this mortal coil? Uh, but I'm not, I, a doctor's visit in Seattle and my doctor and listeners. I'm perfectly healthy today all as well. But my doctor said, oh, this looks like a positive test for colon cancer. Uh, this doesn't look good. And, uh, if you're familiar with all with the Charlie Brown cartoons where the teachers make the, want, want, want, want, want, voice where you really can't, they're saying something, but you can't hear what they're saying. That was my experience or whatever my doctor was saying about this could be a false positive. You, you're perfectly healthy. You don't worry about it. In between the time I had that conversation and the time the test result, the second test results came back and it was proof that I was perfectly healthy. I started to think about what, what do I want to leave behind? What corners of myself are unexplored? How do I explore those corners? How do I bring it all forward? There, there's a, there's an old quote, uh, that I'm going to mangle, uh, but it's something about if, if you don't bring what is inside you out to the world, if you leave it inside you, it will destroy you. Oh, wow. That passion, that energy, yeah. One has to bring it out. So inside that crucible, I decided to start the nonprofit, love is my religion. I got really serious about doing some healing. And this is the dots. Yeah, the dots all connect eventually, but I'm going to leap ahead to 2020 when both of my parents died within six months of each other. And it was, it was brutal, but as a, uh, the listeners, uh, I'm a stoic black man. That's the way I roll. If I walk into a meeting, I provide love, but I also provide the business face like I'm providing certainty. Everything's going to get done. No one has to worry. I'm in that role as a vice president of professional services at the time of my parents death. And I have my first ever panic attack. And I have a panic attack while on a client call. Oh, Rayman. I couldn't finish, but I was able to message my teammates and brilliantly talk about teamwork. They brilliantly covered for me while I literally caught my breath. I came back and I finished the call, but I knew that I had to find something that, that I couldn't live my life, panicking in life or in front of my customers. And that honestly, that led me to one of my first, uh, experiences with the agents or psychedelics. It led me to seeking healing in that way. And the healing was like, I don't have the words for it. It's probably heard people say it's ineffable, but 30 years of talk therapy in two hours. It was a, I saw everything I needed to see. But not only saw it, I felt it. And the specter of my parents death was lifted off my shoulders. And I could acknowledge that they had their own life path. And of course they died when they needed to die. They weren't going to stick around and stay on my schedule like what I would want them to depart. That doesn't make sense. Everyone has their own life path. So that healing, uh, led me to, oh, be more present, provide more love, put more life into the nonprofit, and to be more vocal. Certainly it worked and certainly with my customers, again, about love, but having to use the cover of psychological safety to really make sure that my team, you know, my internal team at work and that my customers were touching something beyond the, the ones and zeros beyond the spreadsheets and beyond the widgets that we're going to get produced. So that was the, it was not a direct path, but a path that I'm grateful for. Talk about transmuting pain and turning it into powerful purpose. Hey, I think this is one of the things that I resonated with you so deeply on. And when we first connected, you know, we both have a very progressionist mindset in regards to what leadership development requires here in a modern day world. And so right off the draw, we're talking about love in the context of big business. We're talking about psychedelics and healing in the context of what inspired you to become a conscious leader and get on this mission. Yeah. So I just, I want, that's where I want to go next in terms of just some of your perspective on what conscious leadership means to you and what that development for conscious leaders requires here in 2026. I mean, what we've been talking about on the show Raymond, Tracy and I is just, you know, as heart-centric and pathetic leaders, the intensity that we're feeling in the ethers right now, I mean, I can't remember a time when I felt it to be more intense than I have felt it to be over the last six months and the trenches serving my leaders. So what does conscious leadership mean to you and what does a conscious leader need to be kind of going outside the comfort zone on in regards to their development to meet the demands of that intensity? - A conscious leader needs to be able to bring their whole self and I don't think there's enough of a runway or there aren't enough models to refer back to. - Yep. - One of my loves is American football. The Seattle Seahawks are my team. I would go to a podcast. - Thank you. - Go Seahawks, Super Bowl winners. - I would, honestly, I could talk about them all day long, but in the context of a conscious leader bringing the whole self, what I was about to say is that there isn't a model, there isn't enough runway to say, oh, this is what conscious leadership looks like. I'm just gonna follow these three people and I'm gonna follow these three people in the realm of business. And that's all I need to do is to be a conscious leader. I'll model those behaviors, I'll model that person and then bam, I'll be a conscious leader and the people following me, they'll be conscious leaders as well. There, of course, there are conscious leaders in any number of aspects of life. You can go through history. You can point to my go to Martin Luther King Jr. Oh, conscious leader. It's like easy to go to history to find conscious leaders. But what I think of, I'm struggling. I just looked at the fourth quarter earnings. I'm looking at the Q1 projections. I need to get a conscious leader on the phone to stop me from throwing my cup of coffee or to stop me from doing the subtle things that leaders do when they tune up their LinkedIn network so they can start to prepare an exit strategy for themselves like, okay, I know I'm not gonna leave right away, but I'm gonna leave in like a year 'cause I can see the writing on this wall. This isn't going well. And I think a part of that burn out that, the leaving all that, it's because the conscious leader, the model, it's found in your coaching. It's found in certainly found that way, but in terms of being able to reach inside your organization and say, I'm gonna call up Paula or I'm gonna call up Bill and they're a conscious leader. And I can bring my whole self, which is a part of being a conscious leader. I can talk about my fears, concerns, worries, to this person I work with, they'll be able to translate that into, oh, this is, is this related to that wound you talked about around your first divorce? Is this all tied together because given what this person said, like maybe they're not worried about all the things that you're worried about. So conscious leadership, whole self, full communication, again, going back to psychological safety, knowing that you can say all that and that you won't get roasted, that it won't get turned back on you. And then being able to point that giant intellect that's needed in that giant conscious intellect that's needed in business to say, oh, these are the three things I need to do. And better yet, these are the three things I can do that are within my control. And I can firmly and say with certainty to the board, here are all the things outside of our control, but as a business unit, as a team, as a division, what have you, we're gonna focus on these things. And speaking from that place, they'll know from their core that they're speaking with certainty, they're speaking with purpose and they're speaking with truth. So that's a lot. - Yeah, no, I think this is why I'm asking the question, right, is it pertains to psychological safety, is that if you're not consciously stepping to this home right about now with the intensities that are ever increasing all around us, I mean day by day, it's getting more intense. I feel like over the last couple of weeks even, right? And so we're saying, oh my gosh, we can't even talk about love in the context of big business, right? 'Cause that's this ooey gooey emotion, but that's what we're saying is also a vital aspect of becoming a conscious leader, right? Is understanding the energies that you're actually leading your business in. And so if you don't have these practices in terms of understanding how those fourth quarter projections or earnings or whatever are hitting your nervous system, then you're not going to be able to maintain or sustain psychological safety in your locker rooms, right? Because if you don't have that emotional intelligence, which is a vital aspect of the conscious leadership coaching that I do with my leaders, and I'm doubling down on right about now, I'm doing that strategically because I know if they don't have safety in their nervous systems, they're not going to be able to govern that on behalf of their peoples. - Absolutely, and if they're not able to touch that love psychological safety, call it what you will, if they're not able to touch that core in themselves, then guaranteed they're not providing enough space for their subordinates, for their peers to come to them and say, "Oh, I didn't think you might have my time in software development." Oh, I think this project isn't going well or we're three sprints behind. Like the fear that lives behind the wall of saying, I've failed in a small way. If you're not a conscious leader, if you can't hold that sort of space where people can come to you with their failures, with their problems, then right there, you're impacting the bottom line. And it's all in the background. If you're not a conscious leader, you're not present to it. And maybe I love that you went to emotional intelligence to be on a stand-up meeting or to be in a boardroom or to deliver an executive summary and to be able to read the room, to be able to feel after you've delivered all the information, after you've done all the homework, you've done your diligence, to be able to feel, oh, wait a minute, there's something missing. This CEO, this CEO, they need to hear something else. And also having a space to say in a business UA, however you want to structure it, to be able to say, I don't know what's missing, but please, tell me about your past experiences. I get a sense that there's something else that you want to have delivered. Just being able to open yourself up to, that I don't know, but, and the butt is, but certainly, meet my team and I, we can get it done. So yeah, just a conscious leadership has to hold the doorway open for I don't know, but without flandering, without flandering, because there's, there's I don't know, and then I don't know can absolutely become an exploration. - Oh my gosh, have you ever heard of that? I don't know CEO. I can't remember her name or which company she's from, but that's her classic move for psych safety. She just stands at the front of the meeting and she just says, I don't know, what do you think? I don't know, how about your thoughts on this subject? And that's just her whole way of engaging her people's valuable thoughts, ideas and perspectives, right? But I want to talk about that, like to actually stand at the front of your team meetings right now and admit that you don't know, that's a very vulnerable exercise. It takes a lot of security in the nervous system of that leader at that helm. And that's why I feel like, and this is the connection point I want to speak about, yeah, that's why I think we have to actually be talking about healing in the context of leadership development and training is because, yeah, even just talking about psychedelics and the experience that you just went through, right? For us to be able to do the reconciliation work that you just described you were able to do by accessing that type of outside the box leadership development modality, yeah, obviously that creates a lot more safety and security in your nervous system. That's where healing actually connects to growth, right? And our ability to have max impact on our teams. Yeah, so what are your thoughts? Yeah, in regards to, yeah, go ahead. Yeah, I just had another nugget drop in. It reminded me, you know, shortly after one of my, again, set and setting whoever people who are engaging in psychedelics, I hope they know that set and setting safety that it's incredibly important that going to some sort of spa where they're like, oh, yeah, this is something we have in the menu, you should give it a try. Like you're going to have, or derves or something, that that's not the way to go, that you go into it with, with seriousness with your eyes wide open, asking lots of questions, making sure that people you're working with are credentialed. And even that they have a lineage of a sort, like not, oh, I went to a six week bootcamp and now I've got a credential but that they have years of experience and they understand the, the ins and the outs of a multi-dimensional experience. So that was a bit of a, that was a, very important. Thank you. You're welcome. Yeah. But the nugget that dropped in, I was just, we were saying about the, I don't know, CO and the vulnerability. I'm thinking of a meeting that I was leading Where there was something? missing and I didn't know what it was. I just, I didn't know what it was and I didn't know, I didn't even know what question to ask, but I really think because of the integration work post-psychedelic experience, because of the yoga, the meditation, the scaffolding that I let my insights from psychedelic experience sort of hang on and build something, I called the pause in the middle of the meeting and I said, you need to take a five minute break. Like everybody, you know, check your phones, do what you gotta do, but we're taking a five minute break. And I left the room and I walked outside and I just stood outside and stared off in the distance for five minutes. And what I needed, that I didn't have words for, is I needed a nervous system reset. I needed a break because there was something getting this in the meeting. And when I came back, fully refreshed, the thought descended on me, it's like, oh, we haven't talked at all about the second quarter. We're deep into the, it was the third quarter of whatever year it was, but I knew that the project was gonna leap forward into that next year and that we had to talk about what we were going to do to build the foundation to make sure that Q2 was successful based on what we were talking about around the third quarter. It was non-linear, it was not in a notebook, not in anyone's planning, but it's like, oh, it made perfect sense, given the scope of the project we were talking about. So in that way, being a conscious leader, allowing for the break, the unusual, just giving pause to let the room, like as if the room were living organism, like just to let it breathe. So that's the nugget that dropped in that I wanted to make sure we touched on a little bit. - And I think that's an example, a very powerful example. - Thank you of what conscious leadership practices mean or what they can look like, because obviously we're talking about psychedelics, which is a much bigger undertaking for a leader's development. And we're just talking about it as one of the medalities, that leaders can access to be able to work with maybe some of that aspect of their belief systems, let's say that might be beyond their recognition, meaning it's something that maybe they're not able to actually understand in their contextual day to day experience, right? But I think, yeah, just having that five minutes to step outside of the boardroom to practice that self-regulation, to me, that's emotional intelligence in our self-leadership right there. And that's why we're talking about all of these conscious leadership practices, right? Because really in the context of what we're describing, psychological safety, that's what it requires. Whether it's a five minute reset, or you going on a retreat to do some deeper work so that you can get at something that's taking you out of that alignment and making it impossible for you to get out of a sympathetic, you know, overdrive, let's say, because of the intensities that are going on in the world. Yeah, I think that whatever the practice, we're talking about these practices because we want to put this on the leader's roadmap in terms of, yeah, the things that we believe are going to become the table stakes for leaders development from this point forward. I mean, let's talk about it, right? Because psychological safety is what underpins innovation. That's why it's not this fluffy, lovey, soft, hippie kind of thing, you know, when we're talking about this in the context of leadership development and training, it's based on hard neuroscience data and research. And this is absolutely what we know to be the baseline foundation for the highest performing teams on the planet. But sprinkle a little disruption into the mix and all of a sudden it becomes harder and harder for leaders to stay consciously at the helm and thus keep their people engaged in psychologically safe ways. Yeah, right? Yeah. What are your thoughts on that? Oh, just that they, I immediately go to, well, what's the solution? And for the conscious leader, it's having a North Star, having that, having, you can call it your core values, you can call it your mission and vision, but something that lives. So when you, when one is overwhelmed by the next step, first you have to be overwhelmed, you have to be willing to admit that you're overwhelmed by the next step that you don't know how you're gonna make that you're over a year number that you said you were gonna make. You have to be willing to admit that to yourself and hopefully to another in dialogue. That's always great, better to mix it with air with a trusted confidant. Our colleagues. But again, our coach, they go perfect a coach and then being able to maybe even extend that to a peer group in the, I mean the locker room that you speak of. So being able to do that, is crucial in 2026 and beyond. Because I honestly, this is what I'm trying to figure out, Raymond, in all the conversations I'm having with my leaders, we know what most of them are stressing about. It's this arrival of AI and just the, (imitates sound) saying acceleration that we're seeing. I actually read an article this morning saying that, this expert was predicting that 99% of jobs were gonna be replaced by 2027 or 2028. And I'm just like, what does that even mean? Like, I don't even know how we prepare as humanity for something that's gonna be that cataclysmic in terms of the level of disruption. So let's just say that guy was being a little dramatic, even if it's high on that rate, in that short amount of time, it's going to be hella disruptive, right? - Yeah. - So what is your advice to any conscious leader that's listening out there that's trying to prepare for that level of disruption right now? - It's simply said, the brief, the first one, just breathe. And the second is to ask more questions. I mean, the marketplace is filled with people who say they are AI experts. And I find it given the large language models have been around for a long time. But frankly, for someone to pop into your office or on your LinkedIn or into your boardroom and say, I'm an AI expert, you have to ask more questions. Like, oh really? How so? What's your background? Did you work at OpenAI? Did you help develop the current iteration of the Grinchatch EPT 5.2? Like, I actually asked the hard questions. And I know as a leader, we like to go to our network to get our information, but even asking our network, when they're getting their information, just asking the second question, how do you know that that's valid? What's your source? That as a child writing book reports was drilled into us that you had to get three sources. And this is getting in the way back machine, going to the card catalog and saying, okay, it's got to be a book. Then there has to be different book or some other magazine. There has to be three different sources. So I say that to our conscious leaders, the breathing and the face of all things AI, asking the first, second and third questions, and taking a pause to see what, let me go back to it. When I say ask the second and third questions, but they're saying this is the effect that AI can have. We're gonna bring into the business, it's gonna reduce our expenses by 30%. We're gonna lay off hundreds of people, but the business is gonna grow exponentially year over year. Like that's a vague but great pitch, but being able to ask the second question, well, what if we only use AI in a limited way? What if we don't lay off hundreds of people? What if we use AI to make the business more efficient, but we also start to reach out to see how can we grow our lack of a better expression, our human capital? Because I think the thing that leaders may be missing and making their choice about what to do with AI is asking the next question, what's gonna happen to, what's gonna happen to all the people? - Uh-huh. - Like those people need to feed their families, those people need to earn incomes, they need to do all the things that people need to do. They're just like that leader who's making the decision. So is it that AI is gonna cause a, oh, it's a 10% increase, but in doing analysis, in doing the old-fashioned work, what if your old-fashioned efforts augment to a AI are a 7% increase? Okay, well, now we're talking about the difference of the 10% increase versus a 7% increase, less disruption versus minor disruption, and also being able to stand back and get a fuller picture of, not as what does 2027 look like, but starting to dream about, and it is a dream, 'cause no one can say, "Oh, here's a forecast for 2027 and 2028," but letting oneself start to dream about, "Oh, I retain these people. I've implemented AI in a conscious, a thoughtful manner, what does that look like?" Being able to look from there, as opposed to, just saying, in short and breath, in panicky style, oh, I've got to jump on the A.I. bandwagon before X happens and no one can tell you exactly what that X really is. Hence the level of uncertainty, hence the level of stress being triggered by our MIGDELAS. Right. As I said, it is. It's just there's no expert out there that can predict any of this with any ounce of certainty. It's all just projections and everybody's got their own algorithm for that in terms of how they're projecting it. But I think where I'm going in the trenches when I'm coaching my leaders on their stress is like I'm really just trying to make sure that we stay grounded in their standards and their principles and their ethics and their values, right? Because when you're talking about creating guardrails around A.I., that's what a conscious leader needs to do. This is an unregulated space. What are the morals and ethics associated with this space as it pertains to how it's going to impact us human beings? There are no. Yeah. Exactly. And that's, and to your point, that's why the conscious leader has to have a north star. They have to have those values, those standards, those ideals drive them instead of letting this thing, which is AI, somehow drive. It's, I mean, it's artificial intelligence, but it's not intelligent. It's not human intelligence. It's not self-aware. It's not self-aware. Or as a topic. Definitely not. It can, which is, I mean, scary, it can pretend to be empathic, but it's definitely not empathic. And what I think of it in the business world, it's not someone you can, you can't call AI in your office and say, talk me through why you made this decision and what you think the impacts will be to have that engagement. You can certainly put a bunch of information into it, get a bunch of information out. And you can even ask it to review itself again so that you have that sort pretend feedback, but honestly, the human engagement where they can think about all the things that a computer or a large warehouse of computers isn't thinking about and won't think about. It's just the the context that a human, the context, the conscious leader brings to the use of AI is going to be the thing that shapes our future. I agree. They meant to that. That's I think where I want to land this plane with you, sir, as we're talking about the North Star. And this is why you and I are such good friends because this is how I think about it too, right? I think about it from the perspective of our legacy, right? Like, in terms of the impact that we are on these missions to have as it pertains to our values, but also as it pertains to humanities values and the world's values, right? That's why I take my leaders all the way up into the right aspirationally as far as the rocking chair to get to think about how they want to feel before that shot clock runs out, which is always going to be a reflection of how you made it count, right? In terms of the time that you had in this meat suit. That's right. That's right. I want to ask you, sir, I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you while I have you on the show. What do you want your legacy to be as a conscious leader? That people have, that they have an experience of clarity. So I'm a consultant. I'm not a, I'm not a business coach. I really focus on outcomes and results based on the structures that we establish based on goals and timelines. So I think about people just having that sense of clarity, if they're in that rocking chair, they're on their deathbed, or maybe it's just a milestone before that. They're at their retirement and they're looking back saying, what did I produce? Being able to see with clarity that they took their mission and vision and they could see where it has lived and where it will live in whatever enterprise that they were working in. And hopefully they've done all that work, they've done all that work in a conscious way. And because it's likely been their life's passion and work, they can see with clarity where love has taken root. And whether that's a junior that they help become a senior and that person is working with passion and purpose and that person is fulfilled in their job and in their family life, that's the sort of clarity that I wish for the individuals that I work with to have. I love it and I know it to be true about you and the impact that you certainly have it because what you just described is how you've helped me feel as a leader of my business and the work that we've been doing on the sidelines. The last place I'll leave this today is to ask you if you could leave our audience with any final words of wisdom or inspiration as it pertains to this conversation today, Raymond, anything that you'd like to leave them with. -Lad shorts of wisdom, just breathe. It's going to be okay. You can absolutely trust yourself. You can absolutely trust that feeling inside of you that tells you what the next right step is. And if you need help, you've got friends, family, and you've got coaches so don't hesitate to reach out. We're all in this together. -In it to win it together, that is definitely the spirit in this locker room today, Raymond, thank you so much for coming in and sharing your wisdom with our people when they need this type of inspiration more than ever. I do believe for all our friends listening, I know you're going to want to reach out and contact Raymond on the sidelines. You can head on over to his website, Raymondasterate.com and then anywhere else that they might find you on LinkedIn perhaps or. - Certainly on LinkedIn, going to my website is the best, but on LinkedIn, publishing articles on medium and on substack. There aren't too many Raymond Usrees out there, so you will find me. -Amazing. And if there's any confusion just go on over to his website, you can find his email there and send him a note. I know he loves having conscious conversations as much as I do with leaders right about right about now. For all other inquiries in and around our mission to change the way this game's being played or to explore some of this conscious leadership coaching yourself. Head on over to our website, EliteHighPerformance.com. You can find out everything that you need to in regards to all the amazing opportunities to develop in this conscious way. Please send us your feedback. Leave us a note. Let us know how you're liking this new iteration here at the podcast. I am definitely high flying in this new Firehorse Energy. This is why we call in at the conscious leadership a revolution because a boy, oh boy, was our Tracey and I's intuition correct when we were feeling the intensity coming. We are in the intensity now, so let's go folks. Leave us a comment. Let us know how you're resonating with these new concepts and topics around conscious leadership. Either leave us a note below or you can even send me an email, season at EliteHyperformance.com. You know how much I love hearing from my conscious leaders. That's it and that's all for this week. Raymond, thank you so much for coming in. Thank you everybody for tuning in and we will see you all next week.