Jacqueline Carter and Rasmus Hourgaard of Potential Project recently published The Mind of the Leader: How to Lead Yourself, Your People, and Your Organization for Extraordinary Results, a book about how awareness can allow you to be an effective leader. The Garrison Institute hosted a book launch event with Jacqueline that was moderated by James Gimian, Executive Director of the Foundation for a Mindful Society. The following is an excerpt of their discussion.
James Gimian: What was the motivating force behind your writing The Mind of the Leader with Rasmus Hourgaard?
Jacqueline Carter: We wanted to find out what the key challenges were facing leaders today, and some of the things that could really support them to be able to be the more effective leader they wanted to be. What we found, in particular, when we started really getting into it, is there’s really a leadership crisis. That was really the first point of call for us is that, when we look at—and many of you are probably familiar with the Gallup surveys that come out every year, in terms of how many people are engaged.
We know that, in terms of the global workforce, 24% of the global workforce is actively disengaged at work, and that number seems to be increasing every year, instead of going in the other direction. We found surveys, including one that said 65% of employees would forgo a pay raise to see their leader fired.
And the other thing was perception. There was a McKinsey study that identified that 77% of leaders thought they were doing a pretty good job leading. They thought that their people were pretty engaged. 82% of their people disagreed. So, just this real disconnect.
In addition to that, the many leaders we talked to said they feeling very busy and overwhelmed, saying, “You know what? I walk into a room, and then I see that maybe you’re not having a good day, and I really would love to find out how you’re doing, and I don’t have time. And it makes me feel like crap as a leader, because I really should, but I don’t have time.”
A lot of leaders are saying they’re not necessarily being the effective leader they wanted to be, to support their people, to support their organizations.
And so a lot of leaders are saying they’re not necessarily being the effective leader they wanted to be, to support their people, to support their organizations. So, that was really what we found, and that was really the starting point–just this leadership crisis and how tough it is to be an effective leader today. Then we started saying, “Okay, well, that’s depressing, so let’s try to bring some hope into this.”
We partnered with Harvard Business Review, just an incredible partner, because we wanted to make this a research adventure for us, and we thought if we just interviewed all of our own clients, nobody would buy the book, because it could possibly be regarded as a self-selected study that wasn’t valid.
By partnering with Harvard, we were able to assess over 35,000 leaders in over 72 different countries. We were able to interview over 250 C-suite executives. We engaged leading researchers specifically looking from a neurological perspective, so neuroscience. In addition to that, we did also tap into our very extensive client network. What we found is that three qualities came up again and again and again, in terms of how important they are to be able to address the leadership crisis that so many of us experience today.
Three Soft Skills That Give Leaders a Competitive Edge
Mindfulness
The first one is mindfulness. Just to give a simple definition, just being able to be here now. Being able to be present with the people you’re with, with the task at hand. Because if we’re not, we’re wasting our time and everyone else’s. And being present in today’s crazy work is actually a lot more difficult than we think. So, these are simple in principle, but not easy.
Selflessness
The second quality that we identified—and it was just so inspiring to us to hear this from leaders—is selflessness. The definition for that is not letting our own egoistic tendencies get in the way, and egoistic tendencies can be about self-preservation. It can be also feeling vulnerable and not wanting to share that with other people, because you’re going to seem weak. So, not letting our own egoistic tendencies get in the way.
Compassion
And the third one is compassion. We heard this from CEOs who talked to us about how critical compassion was today in organizations, because we live in such complex world—many of us are working with people that we may not even see on a regular basis. We’re trying to bring more diversity into our cultures, because there’s so much benefit to that. But we’re working in such under-pressure environments that, if we don’t take care of each other, if we’re not kind to each other, if we aren’t intentional about really making sure that we support and care about each other, we’re not going to be able to perform well, we’re not going to be able to collaborate well, and we’re not going to be able to meet the challenges we’re all facing. We’ve got to be more in this together.
We’re working in such under-pressure environments that, if we don’t take care of each other, if we’re not kind to each other, if we aren’t intentional about really making sure that we support and care about each other, we’re not going to be able to perform well.
Building trust, building cohesion, is really part of a strategic aspect of compassion, including compassion also being having tough conversations with people so that we can grow and develop.
Those were the three qualities.
James Gimian: How do you bring this into organizations? We’ve heard that places like Target and Walmart are starting to call the skillsets that mindfulness prepares people for—things like emotional regulation and better collaboration—are actually power skills, and they want them in the employees that they need for the future, so they’re adopting these kinds of training programs. Are there other examples you can give us?
Jacqueline Carter: One organization is Accenture—a global consulting firm we work with that has up to 400,000 employees. They are focused on consulting, strategy, technology, very fast-paced, very dynamic—the life bread of Accenture is based on the minds of people and how much they care about them.
It was actually really inspiring to us. One of the stories that they shared with us a number of years ago—and this is rea