Product Description

In The Mindful Leader, Michael Carroll focuses on ten key principles of mindfulness and how they apply to leading groups and organizations, addressing a range of topics along the way, including how to: heal the “toxic workplace,” where anxiety and stress impede performance cultivate courage and confidence in the face of workplace difficulties pursue organizational goals without neglecting what’s happening here and now lead with wisdom and gentleness, not just with ambition and power start a personal meditation practice to develop your innate leadership talents

The Mindful Leader is also available on audio CD.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #223937 in Books
• Published on: 2008-12-16
• Released on: 2008-12-16
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781590306208
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

From Publishers Weekly
While most business books focus on how readers can do more, better and faster, this welcome addition to the category is about taking a moment to pause and reflect. Anticipating some resistance from harried executives, Carroll, a Buddhist-trained HR executive with many years of experience in both the corporate and Zen worlds, emphasizes the renewal and perspective that can result from taking time out; he only discusses meditation directly at the end. His discussion about Inspiring the Best in Ourselves and Others includes anecdotes and parables addressing issues like developing openness and breaking out of routine. A series of short descriptions of The Ten Talents of a Mindful Leader includes poise, courage, enthusiasm and awareness. After suggesting some practical ways to test these leadership skills, he reviews the basics of meditation. Although Carroll practices what he writes, the book is more informative than preachy. By the end, stressed-out executives may be willing to read about how to give meditation a try as a way to reconnect with themselves and become more open to their colleagues. (Oct. 9)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
“While most business books focus on how readers can do more, better and faster, this welcome addition to the category is about taking a moment to pause and reflect. Carroll, a Buddhist-trained HR executive, emphasizes the renewal and perspective that can result from taking some time out. By the end, stressed-out executives may be willing to read about how to give meditation a try as a way to reconnect with themselves and become more open to their colleagues.”—Publishers Weekly

“Read this book—it could save your organization, your career, and your life!”—Prof. Richard Boyatzis, coauthor of Primal Leadership and Resonant Leadership

About the Author
For over two decades Michael Carroll worked on Wall Street and in the publishing industry, holding executive positions at Shearson Lehman Brothers, Paine Webber, Simon & Schuster, and the Walt Disney Company. Founding director of AAW Associates, Carroll consults with major corporations on bringing mindfulness into the workplace. He is a longtime student of Buddhist meditation and an authorized teacher in the lineage of Chögyam Trungpa. Carroll has taught mindfulness meditation at the Wharton School of Business, Columbia University, Kripalu, and the Cape Cod Institute. For more information, visit www.awakeatwork.net.

Customer Reviews

This book will save your life... or at least make you a great leader!
Reading Michael Carroll's book and attending his weekend retreat earlier this year turned around my attitude at the office, prepared me well for several looming crises at work, and nearly saved my life. His book Mindful Leadership is essential for anyone trying to lead successfully in today's world of information overload, anti-rationalism, and blind decision-making. It is equally helpful for a business leader, public servant, diplomat or aid worker, NGO or community organizer. Rather than give advice on what to do when, he teaches us that mindful leadership means being open and synchronized--which allows us to tap into our own natural goodness and wisdom that is already in our environment and telling us how to lead.

In many respects, Michael's teachings struck familiar chords for me, since I have been meditating and leading mindfully for years. I already knew that dropping our own addiction to rehearsing our emotions as mental dramas and being open to a situation can yield unexpected wisdom, and I also knew that being open to the world can leave us feeling unprepared and deeply exposed (p. 187). It was reassuring to read examples that show awareness and patience to be among the skills of a mindful leader, and to learn to trust in the basic wisdom of our environment and self.

No doubt you (as a leader) are already strong in some areas too, and this book will help you to see how to improve in those areas that may be underdeveloped. Some of his ideas were uncomfortable for me at first--for instance, the idea that it's a waste of energy to fight arrogance and hypocrisy as if they were a static enemy, and that mindful leaders instead paddle with the fluid momentum of organizations by using a synchronized sense of timing, awareness, and realism (p. 174). Once I read that chapter, I realized that Michael presented a more mature approach, and testing it out I found that his teachings were right on the mark. I immediately stopped flailing my arms as a tired boxer, and started working with the world as it is rather than as I thought it should be; this was a change that has helped save my sanity and make me more effective in the midst of serious crises.

Michael's writing style successfully combines unparalleled business experience with the thousand-year-old wisdom of Tibetan Buddhism, without being too strong (or weak) on either. This book reads very much like Chögyam Trungpa's Shambhala: The Sacred Path of the Warrior--very down to earth and practical, yet based on deep wisdom from one of humankind's oldest spiritual paths.

If only I could encourage my colleagues to read this book and internalize its teachings, U.S. foreign policy and government leaders would be more effective. Michael and a few other colleagues have already been applying mindful leadership to the field of law with wonderful results, and there is room for application to other fields. Perhaps if I write a longer review for our diplomatic service publications...

Easy Listening
I listened to this audio in my car over the course of several days. I found Michael's voice to be very soothing, which fit well with the message. While the concepts may not be new, the way they were presented are. It helped me to think out of the box and consider other possibilities.