Blog

By Jay Forte, guest contributor

You have likely heard, “people quit people before they quit companies.” Employees want to work for managers and leaders who respect, value, and support them, not for those who bully and bark at them. So, if this is true, why are so many of today’s leaders and managers bullying and barking?

One word: stress. 

Our bodies and minds were built to handle short-term bouts of stress. In those moments, our reactive, or limbic, brain rushes in, helping us to identify an…

Jim Dethmer at the 2018 Mindful Leader Summit

As individual leaders and their teams become more mindful, communication and conflict are still issues in relationships and organizations. Discover a mindful approach to communication and conflict, including a very practical tool called The Clearing Model that hundreds of teams are using to practice conscious communication and conflict resolution.

This Free Summit Talk has expired.

By John J. Murphy, guest contributor

In 2013 I wrote a book titled, Zentrepreneur: Get Out of the Way and Lead; Create A Culture of Innovation and Fearlessness. Originally, the book was intended to help aspiring leaders and entrepreneurs “do good” for the world. In other words, turn “healthy, positive thinking” (Zen) into constructive actions and results (Entrepreneurship).

You can probably tell by the title that this is not one of your more typical leadership books. Who writes about Zen in th…

by Brian Lowell French, guest contributor

Leaders are consistently challenged by all of the distractions faced through the day, taking focus away from leading the team and managing the important work. These distractions cause leaders to become scattered, making it difficult to be mindful and intentional as they lead their teams. 

When I wrote my recently published book, Harmonic Leadership – Leading with Inclusive, Mindful Caring, the intent was to provide leaders with practical and pragmatic …

By Joy Reichart, New Ventures West, guest contributor

Recently, as part of an organizational retreat—one that was centered on asking questions and being in a space of unknown, of emergence, of creation—we were invited to engage in a 24-hour media fast: no articles, books, TV, podcasts, social media. Essentially cleansing our minds and bodies of the incessant bombardment of other people’s words.

When the invitation was first issued I felt myself go white with terror. My panicked mind started pr…

Jacqueline Carter at the 2018 At Work Summit

Jacqueline provides an overview of current leadership challenges and presents research findings for successful leadership practices in the 21st century. To address leadership challenges, Carter shares how mindfulness is an effective tool to manage attention for leaders. She discusses how research demonstrated most leaders feel ‘unmindful’ and their minds are cluttered, therefore resulting in tasks being incomplete. Carter provides three…

For this month’s Round-Up, we examine the latest findings regarding MBSR and structural brain changes, what our brain waves tell us about how we engage with art, the promise of mindfulness-oriented recovery enhancement, remembering selfless experiences, and look at how functional brain connectivities relate to pain and trauma. We have summarized the main ideas and key takeaways below with links to the full articles.

1. Mindfulness Doesn’t Change Our Brains in Ways Once Thought

Findings from th…

By John J. Murphy

We all know the eternal optimist says “the glass is half-full,” while the pessimist says “the glass is half-empty.” But as the author Simon Sinek says, “People who wonder whether the glass is half empty or half full miss the point. The glass is refillable.” That’s the real optimist. 

Research shows that positive energizers, those who are not only optimistic, but who uplift, motivate, and renew others usually wind up uplifting themselves and their organizations. Their contagio…

Andrew Hafenbrack, PhD at the 2019 At Work Summit

Professor Hafenbrack presents his findings of research studies on Meditation and State Mindfulness, exploring if Mindfulness helps with motivating for mundane tasks. He explores the difference between State and Trait mindfulness, and the response his controversial NYT op-ed received that stated research studies had resulted in people feeling demotivated when it came to doing mundane tasks. This session discusses this research and the imp…

By Mo Edjlali, Mindful Leader Founder and CEO

Recently I stumbled across a Linkedin post highlighting an article featured in the Washington Post, “An unintended consequence of mindfulness” by assistant professor Andrew C. Hafenbrack. I was excited to see folks taking a curious and thoughtful approach to the findings. It reminded me of a very different reaction we experienced when we shared a critical article on social media a few years ago - "You guys are idiots"- the article that ENRAGED our f…