The Hidden Risk of Expert Leadership

The Hidden Risk of Expert Leadership

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...
How Mindfulness Builds Response-Ability in Leaders

How Mindfulness Builds Response-Ability in Leaders

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...
Why Leaders Must Be Kind to Themselves

Why Leaders Must Be Kind to Themselves

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...
Boost Employee Engagement with Clear Agreements

Boost Employee Engagement with Clear Agreements

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...