Mindfulness and Leadership

Managers could be more effective in exercising leadership if we had a better grounding in reality. It is hard for us to know really what is going on for ourselves or our people or the world in which we are operating because we are so busy and our attention is so distracted. When we do try to be focused we can still miss the mark because our attention is so distorted by preconceptions and our own identity.

Mindfulness, or the practice of paying attention without pre-judgement, is now being promoted in a range of professional fields from medicine to psychotherapy and even negotiation and mediation. Mindfulness also can contribute so much to the quality of our leadership.

How could managers cultivate greater mindfulness and what might be the benefits?