on Leadership

A few days ago, I was reading an interview with James Hackett, the CEO of Steelcase. When he was asked about his most memorable leadership lessons, he spoke of the importance of becoming a leader who was not "prepackaged." In the course of his work, he met many CEOs and he noticed that the ones who were truly impactful—truly leaders in every sense of the word—were those who were not "prepackaged." The great leaders were those who exhibited a "sense of peace, this self-awareness that says, ‘I understand who I am.’"

In preparation for the Institute for Mindful Leadership's recent Mindful Leadership retreat, we send some prework to the participants, inviting them to begin to notice some of the "autopilot" conditioning we all engage in from time to time, especially in parts of the day when we are transitioning from one place to another, like driving from home to work.

Just a few days before the retreat, one participant, Major General Gale Pollock (ret), was on her way to work when she found herself stopping and getting out of her car to join a group of people gathered on the street.