Mindful Leadership

Imagine being a leader who has the right questions instead of all the right answers. This is the life of a mindful leader.

As mindful leaders, we are dedicated to supporting others in learning new abilities. These are new abilities related to productivity, communication, focus, alignment, planning, and problem-solving.

New possibilities don’t come about because we talk about them. They come about because we learn new abilities to make them possible.

Since our early years of development, learning new abilities has always been about curiosity. Curiosity is mindfulness. Mindfulness is noticing uncertainty — what we don’t know along with what we do know.

Curiosity is ultimate media for learning any new ability. It was exactly how we learned how to talk, walk, think, and negotiate.

Mindful leaders know that to support the learning of others is to support their curiosity. This doesn’t happen by trying to be the smartest person in the room. It doesn’t come from being the one with all the definitive certainties. It comes from leveraging the power of uncertainty in being the one with questions that spark and sustain curiosity. It comes from being a mindful presence in the room.

Supporting others in learning new abilities is all about encouraging curiosity along the way. Offering them new, actionable questions makes this learning easier. New, actionable questions have the power to turn the intrinsic uncertainties in any learning process into new possibilities. This is what it means to be a mindful leader.

There is a simple assessment to determine how mindful a leader is. In any conversation, see who is doing more asking than telling. These are the mindful leaders.

Being a mindful leader makes learning more possible because mindfulness is actually contagious. Imagine that.

From the upcoming “The Mindful Leader” (2024 Jack Ricchiuto, Nuance Works)