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Mindful Leadership: The 9 Ways to Self-Awareness, Transforming Yourself, and Inspiring Others Hardcover – March 27, 2012
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If you thought leading a team or organization meant simply creating and implementing a financial plan, delegating responsibility, and watching the bottom line, well, you're only partly right. True leadership comes from within, a place of deep calm and focus, that allows you to respond to any situation as it arises. In Mindful Leadership, you'll learn how to draw on those inner reserves through Mindfulness Meditation, a tool you can use to achieve focus and clarity, reduce stress, and develop the presence of mind to meet any number of challenges.
The book opens up a world of meditation exercises that can be done anywhere, anytime (no chanting or patchouli required!) and that are the gateway to improved judgment and decision making, improved time management, enhanced team effectiveness, greater productivity, and more on-the-job inspiration and innovation.
- Details the nine ways in which leaders can incorporate Mindfulness into every aspect of their lives
- Illustrates how meditation and business actually do mix
- Essential for anyone interested in anticipating and serving client needs
- The author coaches executives throughout North America and is quoted widely in the media
Offering essential skills for both life and work, Mindful Leadership shows how it's possible to successfully lead a team, an entire organization―or just yourself.
- Print length224 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherJossey-Bass
- Publication dateMarch 27, 2012
- Dimensions5.2 x 0.8 x 7.1 inches
- ISBN-101118127110
- ISBN-13978-1118127117
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Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
Mindful Leadership
Meditation and Business Do Mix…Scented Candles Not Required
Effective leaders are self aware and empower those they influence to achieve their potential. Mindful Leadership is a guide to leadership that starts with the selffor business people, members of the public service, professionals, and anyone else in a position to influence others.
Maria Gonzalez shows you how to use a single toolMindfulness meditationto achieve clarity, focus, and self-awareness, enabling you to transform yourself and achieve positive results by inspiring those you lead. In this book, you will learn how to use mindfulness to:
- Achieve greater concentration and productivity
- Reduce the stresses in your life and manage those that remain
- Become resilient and sustain high performance over the long term
- Anticipate and serve stakeholder needs, communicate better, and increase team effectiveness
- Stay focused on what matters and remain levelheaded about what you can't control
- Create calm and focus, see clearly under stressful conditions, and make better decisions
Mindfulness is a process of training the mind that anyone can follow, and Mindful Leadership provides simple techniques you can use anytime, anywhere, to improve yourself as a leader. Beginning with the simple act of being fully present, mindfulness opens up the 9 ways to become more effective in every aspect of life.
From the Back Cover
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Leadership
Mindful Leadership
Meditation and Business Do Mix…Scented Candles Not Required
Effective leaders are self aware and empower those they influence to achieve their potential. Mindful Leadership is a guide to leadership that starts with the self―for business people, members of the public service, professionals, and anyone else in a position to influence others.
Maria Gonzalez shows you how to use a single tool―Mindfulness meditation―to achieve clarity, focus, and self-awareness, enabling you to transform yourself and achieve positive results by inspiring those you lead. In this book, you will learn how to use mindfulness to:
- Achieve greater concentration and productivity
- Reduce the stresses in your life and manage those that remain
- Become resilient and sustain high performance over the long term
- Anticipate and serve stakeholder needs, communicate better, and increase team effectiveness
- Stay focused on what matters and remain levelheaded about what you can’t control
- Create calm and focus, see clearly under stressful conditions, and make better decisions
Mindfulness is a process of training the mind that anyone can follow, and Mindful Leadership provides simple techniques you can use anytime, anywhere, to improve yourself as a leader. Beginning with the simple act of being fully present, mindfulness opens up the 9 ways to become more effective in every aspect of life.
About the Author
Maria Gonzalez, bcom, MBA, is a 30-year business veteran as a corporate executive and entrepreneur who believes that mindfulness transforms lives and organizations, and that it has the potential to transform society. She has been meditating regularly since 1991 and teaching mindfulness since 2002. She applies mindfulness to all aspects of her life, both personally and professionally. As founder and president of Argonauta Strategic Alliances Consulting Inc., she ensures that mindfulness is indistinguishable from her business, whether negotiating complex strategic alliances, doing strategy consulting, or coaching business leaders, professionals, entire teams, or organizations in mindful leadership.
Mindful Leadership is Maria’s second book. She is the coauthor of the award-winning The Mindful Investor (Wiley, 2010). You can visit her online at www.argonautaconsulting.com; read her blog at www.argonautaconsulting.com/blog; and access her Mindful Leadership App for smartphones and tablets.
Product details
- Publisher : Jossey-Bass; 1st edition (March 27, 2012)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 224 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1118127110
- ISBN-13 : 978-1118127117
- Item Weight : 9.1 ounces
- Dimensions : 5.2 x 0.8 x 7.1 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #319,271 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #4,066 in Leadership & Motivation
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Maria Gonzalez (BCom, MBA) is an award winning and best-selling author and a 30-year business veteran as a corporate executive and entrepreneur. She believes that Mindfulness transforms lives and organizations, and that it has the potential to transform society. She has been meditating regularly since 1991 and teaching Mindfulness since 2002. She applies Mindfulness to all aspects of her life, both personally and professionally. As founder and president of Argonauta Strategic Alliances Consulting Inc., she ensures that mindfulness is indistinguishable from her business, whether negotiating complex strategic alliances, doing strategy consulting, or coaching business leaders, professionals, entire teams, organizations or individuals in mindful leadership.
Maria teaches Mindful Leadership at the University of Toronto and has taught strategy and organization development at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management in the MBA and BCom Programs and the Executive Institute. She is a contributor to the Harvard Business Review. You can listen to her interviews and view her HBR articles at www.argonautaconsulting.com
Over the last two decades she has served on numerous boards and has been a member of the Corporate Advisory Board for the Harvard Medical School—MacArthur Foundation’s study on depression and workplace performance. Having served as a founding member and vice-chair of the Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addictions and Mental Health, she knows the toll stress can take on individuals, organizations, and society.
Maria is an award winning and best selling author. Mindful Leadership: The 9 Ways to Self-Awareness, Transforming Yourself, and Inspiring Others (Jossey-Bass / John Wiley & Sons 2012) is Maria’s second book. She is also coauthor of The Mindful Investor (John Wiley & Sons, 2010).
She has launched the Mindful Leadership App available for Apple and Android devices. The app has 12 categories and over 70 guided meditations.
You can visit www.argonautaconsulting.com for more information; read her Mindful Leadership Blog at http://www.argonautaconsulting.com/blog/ and visit her YouTube Mindful Leadership’s Channel at: http://www.youtube.com/user/MindfulLeadership
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1. BE PRESENT
Being present is the biggest gift you can give and is the starting point of being a mindful leader. The key to being present is pairing intention with attention. Be in the moment regardless of circumstance. Never waste energy and time regretting the past or fretting the future.
Observe how others take in what you're saying and see if you have buy-in or doubters. Scan and study the non-verbal conversation. Beyond just words, listen with the "third ear" to the intonation and conviction with which people speak. Truly listen to what someone says, rather than what you wish they had said or what you fear they have said. Slow down, wait in order to hear, hear in order to listen, and listen in order to speak.
2. BE AWARE
Being aware starts with being receptive. Be mindful of arising thoughts and feelings at any given moment - don't be blindsided or hijacked by your emotions. However, don't suppress what you are experiencing. Don't interfere, just notice.
Being aware also means noticing how you affect others. Constantly observe how your words, your actions, your demeanor and energy impact those around you. Be receptive and listen for possibilities, without judgment. Stay in a constant feedback loop in the world and the interconnectedness of all things.
3. BE CALM
Have you ever noticed how much easier it is to have a conversation with someone who is relaxed? While some people appear to have a greater tendency toward calmness, the good news is that calmness and relaxation are readily learnable.
A leader that remains calm under any circumstance is invaluable. If you're less impulsive, you can respond appropriately instead of being reactive. Keeping control in any situation assures others that a difficult task is manageable. Employees following a calm leader can face challenges with smart problem solving rather than emotional panic.
4. BE FOCUSED
Concentrate on whatever is a priority in any given moment. Give your attention to only one task at a time. Keep distractions in the background while focusing on the task at hand. Focus allows you to be fully present in meetings from beginning to end without your mind wandering.
Studies show that people spend up to 50% of their time not thinking about the task at hand. Add to that the fact that the average worker gets interrupted every 11 minutes and it takes about 25 minutes to get back to the original task. Focus is extremely important for productivity.
Multitasking is the greatest barrier of our ability to focus and the most overrated skill, acting as a bad excuse for our inability to concentrate. In fact, multitasking (aka being distracted) is so ingrained in our culture that we admire it instead of demonizing it for killing efficiency & effectiveness.
5. BE CLEAR
Being clear comes back to understanding what drives you and what's important in the grand scheme of things - knowing why you do what you do. Lead from your core and use your internal compass for guidance, inspiration and comfort.
Be clear about your company's vision and mission, your own life purpose, commitment, motives, choices and intentions, your thoughts and emotions and your expectations for yourself and others. Speaking mindfully means you say only what is necessary - no more, no less.
You say what you mean and you mean what you say. In fact, making clarity a priority signals to everyone in your organization that this is your expected standard. This will prompt others to be more rigorous and disciplined in communicating as well.
6. BE EQUANIMOUS
With equanimity - which means being of an even, composed frame of mind - you become aware of what can and what cannot be changed. Equanimity is the ability to make better decisions, see opportunities previously unseen, and to accept "what is" non-judgmentally, without resistance or anger.
To practice this skill, one need to accept that not everything needs to be ideal in order to be content. This does not mean hiding disappointment, but rather address the problem with a composed demeanor and avoid getting personal.
7. BE POSITIVE
Intention and a can-do attitude are very powerful forces in solving problems and seizing opportunities. Set your mind on positive outcomes and they will manifest. For instance, before a meeting, spend a few minutes thinking about what your objectives are for the meeting. Train yourself to expect the best by imagining the best outcomes.
Catch yourself in negative self-talk and don't tolerate any mental abuse in your head. Don't tolerate pessimism in others either. Be a positive force for yourself and your colleagues. You probably noticed that when you're grumpy, things don't go your way. Be grateful, for it increases the chance that something good happens to you.
8. BE COMPASSIONATE
Don't fear being soft or sensitive. Compassion takes guts. True compassion is about caring without attachment to the outcome. Don't let your ego get in the way. Develop your compassion with deliberate acts of kindness.
Enroll people on projects as co-conspirators, not subjects, with a clear sense of contribution and significance. I call it "people over projects." People want to feel seen, heard and understood by the leader, not just act as tools for completing work.
9. BE IMPECCABLE
Mindful leaders are impeccable in their words and deeds - which should not be mixed up with being perfect. You can't be perfect all the time, but you can try your best every time. Try to leave a situation always better than you found it.
Be results-oriented. Foster a climate of accountability, responsibility, creativity and change. Operate with a wise mind: no blame, no attack, no judgment, don't control. Admit if you felt short of your own expectations - showing humanity will build trust with your team.
The author provides also a final thought: we are here to serve.
As leaders, we are responsible for creating an environment full of positive energy nurturing everyone you have the privilege to influence. Mindfulness training makes you realize that you are a spiritual being in a human existence, realizing that you are here to serve the world for the benefit of all beings.
In my opinion, mindful leadership can be your key to organizational health. It unifies people and harmonizes your culture. I think it's fair to argue that every meeting and project would be better off with more mindfulness practiced by all.
I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to be more effective in their daily life; whether they are in a leadership role or not. The book is clear and easy to read.
OK motivational book. Probably will be handed out in many organizations. Good for folks who don't read much. Readers probably won't find anything new here.
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We're going to reference it in our GettingItDone MBA class at the Rotman School of Management, UToronto.
This IS how to manage...with Mindful Leadership.


