A professor of Buddhism once visited a Japanese Zen master. After listening to the professor’s impressive level of intellectual knowledge of Zen, the master served tea. When his visitor’s cup was full, the master kept pouring. Tea spilled out of the cup and over the...
Mindfulness teaches us the principle of “right livelihood,” meaning the commitment to a vocation that is not harmful to humans or nature and which contributes to the wellbeing of all beings on earth. Right livelihood can be difficult to implement in organisational...
The story is told in ancient Buddhist literature of a pampered princess who was walking barefoot in her father’s kingdom when she stepped on a thorn. In pain, she demanded of her father’s advisers that the entire kingdom be carpeted. One adviser made her a pair of...
Of all leadership essentials, taking personal accountability is among the most important. Accepting accountability for ourselves can be confronting on the best of days. If we follow up those moments of self-honesty with harsh self-judgement, it becomes a real...
During my years of leadership consulting I have met far too many leaders who are acting either from a fear-based niceness or with a heartless “professional” aggression. They have not mastered mindful compassion, nor are they enabling others to act in a way that is...
