Chapter 15

Nine Ways Forward

As you have seen in the preceding chapters, each day presents countless opportunities to be a leader. These don't depend on your position in an organization, your social or economic status, or your age. Remember, leadership isn't a role, it's an activity–a leader is anyone who is in a position to influence another human being. Imagine how many times a day you are in that position, personally and professionally. What you do with those opportunities is in your hands. Mindfulness can help you make the most of them.

Mindfulness is a skill. Like all skills, it's learnable. It takes motivation, good techniques, and practice, practice, practice. As any athlete or musician knows, practice and perseverance are what distinguishes good performers from great performers. And the same applies to developing mindfulness. In fact, the more you practice, the more it will become part of who you are. You will be able to call upon every aspect of the skill at will. And increasingly you will notice that you will not even need to call upon it; it will arise naturally when circumstances require it.

Whatever you are called upon to do or whatever opportunity presents itself, you have the opportunity to be a mindful leader. It may be that you are in a formal leadership position. However, no matter where you are in an organization, whether you are the most senior or junior person there, the same nine ways of being a mindful leader apply. In fact, companies that populate themselves with mindful leaders throughout the organization maximize their potential, create value, and have the greatest impact in the marketplace.

But before you can effectively lead another person, you need to develop self-leadership. Mindfulness training provides you with what it takes to know yourself at a very deep level. You need to know who and what you are and your purpose in life. What are you here to do? What brings you passion? What are your gifts? Without knowing your purpose and vision for your life it's difficult to lead effectively. You also need to know your negative patterns or hindrances. Hindrances hold you back from being the best you can be and from experiencing fulfillment in life. Mindfulness allows you to become aware of these hindrances and to dissolve them. Because mindful leaders are clear about their own purpose, they know the importance of defining, articulating, and communicating their organization's vision and strategy. And by doing so they are more easily able to capture the imagination and enthusiasm of their teams and the entire organization.

Their self-awareness also means mindful leaders will behave in exactly the same way whether in the boardroom, with family, on the golf course, or at the supermarket, and whether someone is watching or not. The reason is simple. No matter where they are, they are aware of the potential impact they might have and they will not waste an opportunity to serve. They intuitively know that there is no difference among us, that we are all interconnected, and that by serving others they benefit themselves.

They are well aware that the way in which they relate to their teams and employees impacts everything, from how their customers are served to innovations in product development and service delivery to their branding and market perception. All stakeholders are positively impacted. They also know that their sphere of influence goes far beyond the organization. Everyone who comes in contact with a mindful leader is impacted positively. In turn, the way those people relate to their families when they go home at night is qualitatively different. But it doesn't stop there.

Mindfulness is contagious. A mindful leader will encourage mindfulness in others. In fact, when teams are trained together, it accelerates the development of a mindful culture. Mindful people attract other mindful people to their sphere of influence. A greater proportion of clients and stakeholders are more likely to be mindful themselves or to be attracted to that way of operating. And this way of being extends to the communities the organization serves.

Mindful leaders view leadership as a responsibility and a privilege. They're at ease in their own skin and do what they have a passion for. They can't help but to enjoy their days, have fun, and experience joy. When entire teams and organizations experience their organizational lives in this way, vibrancy and creativity flow among the members of the organization, and this impacts all stakeholders and the communities in which these organizations operate.

Extensive research shows that mindfulness training positively impacts the health of those who practice it. Not only does it make them healthier, it makes them more effective and efficient, better able to make decisions, more creative, happier, and less likely to be absent from work. Health and disability costs are among the highest expenses for any organization, and organizations that have introduced meditation programs have reaped benefits to their bottom line.¹

Mindful leaders know that the combination of being present, aware, calm, focused, clear, equanimous, positive, compassionate, and impeccable makes them better leaders, and they continuously strive to further develop these skills. Indeed, these nine ways make up your true nature, which may have been obscured by negative patterns and busyness. Busyness drives away the stillness from which all inspiration arises. Mindfulness enables you to access that stillness once again. Becoming a mindful leader is clearly a high standard. But as challenging as it may seem, it is completely learnable and achievable by everyone who aspires to it. It eventually becomes your way of being; your life is positively transformed over time, and so is everyone around you. In fact, as you move through the world as a mindful leader, you will touch the lives of many, some in big ways, some in small ways. And there will be countless people whose lives you will positively touch without even knowing it. This is what it is to live life with purpose and to be of service. By expanding the number of mindful leaders and creating a more mindful society, we can transform our lives, our organizations, and the world.