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Mindfulness is a mental discipline that has been practiced for thousands of years. Modern science has researched the impacts of mindfulness on health and well-being over the last 40 years. In recent years, researchers have turned their attention to exploring the benefits of applying mindfulness to the way people work.

Nowadays, hundreds of corporate organisations, from Google to General Mills, from Dow Chemicals to the UK Parliament, use mindfulness to help their employees boost their resilience, productivity, emotional intelligence, focus and well-being. Leading business schools now recognise that mindfulness provides the foundation for effective leadership and routinely offer mindfulness training to MBA students and those in search of new approaches to the challenges of the modern-day workplace.

A lot of hype and myth surrounds mindful leadership. Simply put, mindful leadership = mindfulness + leadership.

A mindful leader is simply a leader who uses mindfulness to gain deeper knowledge of himself and makes a conscious effort to use this knowledge to manage himself better, taking personal responsibility for his actions and striving to be the best leader he can be.

Mindful leaders provide calm, clarity and a clear sense of direction, carefully balancing the needs of the organisation with the needs and aspirations of the workforce. Mindful leaders monitor themselves to maintain a focus on present- moment reality, their impact on other people, and their reactions to stressful situations.

Mindful leaders experience the reality and vividness of what’s going on in any given moment, without knee- jerk reactions based on negative mind states (such as anxiety, fear or anger) responding with a calm awareness and care for themselves and others.

Mindful Leadership For Dummies offers a highly accessible and practical guide for busy professionals. It includes all the basics you need to know, such as what mindfulness is and how it works (Chapter 1) and the underpinning neuroscience (see Chapter 3). It includes a full six-week WorkplaceMT course (Chapters 8 through 13), which you can use to teach yourself mindfulness or as a course workbook if you decide to attend a WorkplaceMT course. It includes practical guidance on improving your presence and influence (Chapter 14), leading in a digital age (Chapter 15) and mindfully leading change (Chapter 16). For those looking for ways to introduce mindfulness to their organisation, you can find pragmatic advice and guidance in Chapter 17.

We hope you enjoy reading Mindful Leadership For Dummies and that it leads to improvements in the way you work, your happiness and well-being.

About This Book

Whatever your reason or level of engagement, you’ll find something in this book for you. It’s designed to be practical and accessible, full of real-life examples that you can start applying straightaway. For some, this book will prove the catalyst for major change; for others, the messages in this book may be less resonant.

This book provides you with the information and guidance you need to make up your own mind and decide how mindfulness can help you become a better leader. We encourage you to read with an open mind and a sense of exploration. In the spirit of mindfulness, suspend judgment as you read and experiment with some of the concepts and techniques described in these pages, and then take from it what works best for you.

Foolish Assumptions

When writing this book, we have made a number of assumptions about you, the reader:

❯❯ You’ve picked up this book because you’re committed to becoming a more mindful leader.

❯❯ You have experience working in a professional role.

❯❯ You’re ready to change the way you work for the better.

❯❯ You’re just curious, or even sceptical, about mindfulness.

❯❯ You’ve read about mindfulness in the business pages of your newspaper or an article in your trade journal and you want to know whether the hype is justified.

Icons Used in This Book

Like other For Dummies books, this one has icons in the margins to guide you through the information and help you zero in on what you want to know. The following paragraphs describe the icons and what they mean.

Information flagged with this icon is useful and worth keeping in mind when working with your experience of low mood and depression.

The text next to this icon offers quick and effective ideas to support your leaning about mindfulness.

This icon flags text that you need to take heed of.

This icon points out interesting bits of information that goes beyond need-to-know. You can skip paragraphs marked with this icon if you’re pressed for time, but reading them will further enhance your understanding.

When you see this icon, you can download an MP3 to guide you as you practice a formal mindfulness exercise.

Beyond the Book

In addition to the material in the print or e-book you’re reading right now, this book also comes with a free access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that provides top tips on becoming a mindful leader, the most recent research into mindful leadership and developing a leadership approach that works best for you. To get this Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and search for “Mindful Leadership For Dummies Cheat Sheet” in the Search box.

We also offer further resources that go with this book.

❯❯ Visit the Resources page of www.aheadforwork.com for leadership, productivity and mindfulness resources. You can also use this website to get in touch with Juliet about the programmes offered.

❯❯ Go to www.workplacemt.com to find out more about WorkplaceMT mindfulness training, its research base, teachers and teacher training.

❯❯ Check out The Mindfulness Exchange Ltd. (TME; www.mindfulness-exchange.com). Marina is the owner of TME, which is a spin-off from Oxford University’s Oxford Mindfulness Centre (OMC) that provides mindfulness training for the workplace. You can use this website to contact Marina.

❯❯ To find out more about mindfulness and its research basis and to browse books and resources, check out www.mindfulnet.org, the mindfulness information website.

We’ve recorded MP3s to guide you when you practice the formal mindfulness exercises as detailed in Chapters 8 through 13. Download them from www.dummies.com/go/mindfulleadershipfd.

Where to Go from Here

This book is designed so that you can dip in and out as you please. You’re invited to make good use of the table of contents (or the index) and jump straight into the part or chapter that grabs your attention. You’re in charge, and it’s up to you.

If you’re new to mindful leadership, or not sure where to start, begin with Part 1, and you’ll have a better idea of how to proceed. If you’re ready to start your mindfulness development, start at Chapter 7, and then work through Chapters 8 to 13 in order.

We wish you all the best in your quest to be a more mindful leader and hope you find lots of valuable ideas and information within these pages. Above all, see this book as an exploration with nothing to lose but everything to gain.