Living according to our values is a process of maturation that takes courage. Without that courage, transformational leadership is next to impossible. At times we may live values loosely but for the wrong reasons. We may comply with organisational values out of fear...
What are your organisational values? Can you list them immediately, or do you have to pause and think for a minute? If you’re like most of the leaders I’ve worked with, it takes a while to remember your stated values. And if you can’t remember them off the top of...
Self-awareness does more than improve leader-employee relations. According to research by Korn Ferry, the world’s largest executive search firm, there is a direct correlation between leaders’ self-awareness and company profitability. The company analysed almost 7000...
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...
