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- Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
- Kategorie: Fachliteratur
- Sprache: Englisch
Mindfulness-Based Strategic Awareness Training: A Complete Program for Leaders and Individuals is the first book to link mindfulness training and positive psychology to the leadership, strategy and management issues faced by individuals and organizations.
- Sets out a complete program in Mindfulness-based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT), a new form of strengths-based business mindfulness training which enhances participants’ ability to perceive opportunities, adapt and grow
- Draws on research from neuroscience, positive psychology, behavioural finance and management to show how leaders, managers and individuals can build and maintain more resonant relationships and adapt to constant change
- Includes real-life vignettes, specific instructions and a wealth of resources designed to guide experiential learning including background information, exercises, guidelines, hand-outs, graphics, and guided audio meditations
- Mindfulness training is increasingly used in organizational contexts – the author is a pioneer in designing and delivering training that applies mindfulness and positive psychology to the strategic challenges of management and business
Reviews by Experts
This book is important for all who seek to lead organizations, showing how mindfulness can be combined with the findings from positive psychology for the benefit of all. The book is not just good theory. It also provides a step-by-step practical program to cultivate a balance between motivation for outcomes on the one hand, and compassion toward self and others on the other. Here are skills that can be learned; skills that can truly inspire and sustain wise leadership. —Mark Williams, Emeritus Professor of Clinical Psychology, University of Oxford, was also the Founding Director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre. Now Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Psychiatry of Oxford University. Author of "Mindfulness: An Eight week Plan for Finding Peace in a Frantic World", Co-author with Zindel V. Segal and John Teasdale of "Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Depression".
In today's disruptive times, it is happy and loyal customers that count. This rich and practical book provides an exceptionally smart learning tool to help consumers make mindful decisions that lead to happiness. And for any leader and manager it is a key reading for making wise business and marketing decisions that create value.—Bernd Schmitt, Ph.D., Professor, Columbia Business School, New York. Author of "Experiential Marketing: How to Get Consumers to Sense, Fell, Think and Act, Relate to your Company and Brands" and "Happy Customers Everywhere: How Your Business Can Profit from the Insights of Positive Psychology."
Juan Humberto Young is the first to integrate positive psychology and mindfulness with a results-oriented focus on business strategy. In today's ever-changing organizations, leaders need clarity and flexibility to adapt and succeed. Built on leading-edge science, this book offers a step-by-step program that will light your path not only to greater strategic awareness but also to greater well-being.—Barbara L. Fredrickson, Ph.D., Kenan, Distinguished Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Author of the two bestsellers "Positivity: Top-Notch Research Reveals the Upward Spiral That Will Change Your Life" and "Love 2.0: Finding Happiness and Health in Moments of Connection".
Juan Humberto Young integrates mindfulness practices, positive psychology, and extensive business experience to design a practical training program that improves personal and professional decision-making. This book offers tools to make decisions that increase subjective well-being because the sources of much unhappiness are poor decisions. For business leaders, lawyers, negotiators, and everyone who wants to improve their quality of life, this book presents a path to achieve the capacity of strategic awareness, consisting of mental lucidity, emotional clarity, and bodily awareness, which results in skillful decision-making. This book provides readers an ideal way to find happiness, personal balance, and professional success.—Peter H. Huang, J.D. Ph.D., Professor and DeMuth Chair of Business Law, University of Colorado Law School. Author of numerous articles integrating Positive Psychology, Mindfulness and Law.
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Boxes, Tables and Figures
Preface
About the Companion Website
Part 1: Foundations for Mindful, Positive Leadership and a Constructive Way of Life
1 The Quest for a Model of Mindful, Positive Leadership and a Constructive Way of Life
1.1 Groundwork for Models of Leading and Living
1.2 In Pursuit of Answers to Intriguing Questions
1.3 Two Discoveries and their Importance for Good Leadership and Living
1.4 From Groundwork to a Model for Mindful, Positive Leadership and a Constructive Way of Life
2 What is Positive Psychology?
2.1 Birth of a New Discipline
2.2 Positive Emotions: The Cornerstone of Positive Psychology
2.3 Engagement and Flow
2.4 Relationships: The “R” in PERMA
2.5 Meaning in Life
2.6 Positive Accomplishment: Fifth and Last Element of PERMA
2.7 Hindrances to Subjective Well‐being
2.8 Positive Psychology Interventions (PPIs): The Instruments for Increasing Happiness
2.9 Summarizing Remarks and Outlook
3 What is Mindfulness?
3.1 Rediscovering Personal Practice
3.2 Defining Mindfulness
3.3 Some Open Issues of Mindfulness
3.4 Operating Mechanisms of Mindfulness
3.5 Benefits from Mindfulness Practice
3.6 Mindfulness‐based Interventions (MBIs)
4 Strategic Awareness: The Key to Well-Being
4.1 The Importance of Strategy
4.2 The Future—Not the Past, Not even the Present—As Key to Well‐Being
4.3 Strategic Awareness
Part 2: Mindfulness‐Based Strategic Awareness Training (MBSAT)
5 MBSAT: The Program
5.1 Its Origin and Goals
5.2 MBSAT: A Decision‐Making Approach
5.3 MBSAT Principles
5.4 MBSAT Mindfulness Components
5.5 The Locus of MBSAT Practices—Minding BETA
6 MBSAT: The Program Design
6.1 Defining Needs: Understanding Afflictions in the Workplace and in Life
6.2 The Format of MBSAT
6.3 The Content of MBSAT: An Overview
6.4 Expected Benefits from MBSAT
6.5 A Finance View of MBSAT Benefits
6.6 The Characteristics of Participants and Related Risks
6.7 Getting Started: Group Composition and Presession Interviews
6.8 Teaching MBSAT
6.9 The Importance of Inquiry in Sessions
6.10 Homework Assignments
6.11 Annex to Chapter 6: MBSAT Precourse Interview Template
7 Session 1: Robotic Living—Automatic Pilot
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Session Organization, Coverage, and Sequence
7.3 Exercises and Practices of Session 1
8 Session 2: Living Above the Neck
8.1 Introduction
8.2 Session Organization, Coverage, and Sequence
8.3 Exercises and Practices of Session 2
9 Session 3: Recollecting Our Mind
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Session Organization, Coverage, and Sequence
9.3 Exercises and Practices of Session 3
9.4 Annex to Chapter 9: Body Scan: Recognizing Emotions and Sensations in the Body
10 Session 4: The Construction of Experience—Like and Dislike (Our Worried and Anxious Mind)
10.1 Introduction
10.2 Session Organization, Coverage, and Sequence
10.3 Exercises and Practices of Session 4
11 Session 5: Strategic Awareness I—Mindful Real Options (MROs)
11.1 Introduction
11.2 Session Organization, Coverage, and Sequence
11.3 Exercises and Practices of Session 5
12 Session 6: Strategic Awareness II—From POMO (Powerful Money) to MIMO (Mindful Money)
12.1 Introduction
12.2 Session Organization, Coverage, and Sequence
12.3 Exercises and Practices of Session 6
13 Session 7: Strategic Awareness III—Friendliness: Opening the Heart
13.1 Introduction
13.2 Session Organization, Coverage, and Sequence
13.3 Exercises and Practices of Session 7
14 Session 8: Minding Your BETA
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Session Organization, Coverage, and Sequence
14.3 Exercises and Practices of Session 8
Session 1
Session 1—Handouts and Homework
Session 2
Session 2—Handouts and Homework
Session 3
Session 3—Handouts and Homework
Session 4
Session 4—Handouts and Homework
Session 5
Session 5—Handouts and Homework
Session 6
Session 6—Handouts and Homework
Session 7
Session 7—Handouts and Homework
Session 8
Final Words and Acknowledgments
References
Further Reading
Index
End User License Agreement
List of Tables
Chapter 02
Table 2.1 VIA–Strengths in six Groups.
Chapter 13
Table 13.1 SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Activities.
Table 13.2 SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Assets.
Table 13.3 SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Opportunities.
Chapter 14
Table 14.1 MBSAT SOPA Worksheet (SOPA Phase II).
Table 14.2 MBSAT Program Overview.
Session-7
Table 13.1 SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Activities.
Table 13.2 SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Assets.
Table 13.3 SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Opportunities.
Session-8
Table 14.1 MBSAT SOPA Worksheet (SOPA Phase II).
Table 14.2 MBSAT Program Overview.
List of Illustrations
Chapter 01
Figure 1.1 Leadership Matrix.
Chapter 02
Figure 2.1 The Broaden‐and‐Build Theory of Positive Emotions.
Figure 2.2 What determines happiness?
Figure 2.3 Clinging and Craving: Hedonic Treadmill.
Chapter 03
Figure 3.1 Interrelations of Mindfulness and Positive Psychology.
Figure 3.2 Mindfulness Interventions.
Chapter 04
Figure 4.1 The Conditionality of Strategic Awareness.
Figure 4.2 The Meaning‐Making Process of Strategic Awareness.
Chapter 05
Figure 5.1 Neuroplasticity: Mindfulness transforms the brain.
Figure 5.2 Positive Mindful Experiential Learning Wheel.
Figure 5.3 MBSAT Mindfulness Components.
Figure 5.4 The Locus of MBSAT Practices—Minding BETA.
Chapter 06
Figure 6.1 The Inverse Dynamics of Benefits and Costs of Mindfulness Practices.
Figure 6.2 Mindfulness as Real Options.
Figure 6.3 Attitudinal Stances of Mindfulness.
Chapter 07
Figure 7.1 Building MBSAT’s Formal Mindfulness Practice (FMP): The Mechanism.
Chapter 08
Figure 8.1 Body Scan Causal Loop.
Figure 8.2 Effects of Body Scan Over Time.
Figure 8.3 The ABC Model of Cognitive Therapy.
Figure 8.4 Strategic Awareness: The Difference Between Doing and Being Mode.
Chapter 09
Figure 9.1 Dynamics of Flow.
Figure 9.2 The Positive BETA Reframing ABC Model.
Figure 9.3 Recognizing Emotions and Sensations in the Body (I).
Figure 9.4 Recognizing Emotions and Sensations in the Body (II) Sadness–low mood.
Figure 9.5 Recognizing Emotions and Sensations in the Body (III): Anger, frustration, resentment.
Figure 9.6 Recognizing Emotions and Sensations in the Body (IV) Positive Emotions: Joy, fun, excitement, etc.
Chapter 10
Figure 10.1 MBSAT Model of Human Experience.
Figure 10.2 MBSAT Worry and Anxiety Model.
Chapter 11
Figure 11.1 The Suffering Formula.
Figure 11.2 The Physics of Worry and Anxiety.
Figure 11.3 Irimi: Moving Towards Adversity Instead of Away From It.
Chapter 12
Figure 12.1 Life happiness vs. real GDP per capita, the United States.
Figure 12.2 Money Accumulation: A systems Dynamics View.
Figure 12.3 Opportunity Costs of Work and Money: Trade‐offs with Well‐Being.
Chapter 13
Figure 13.1 The Three Parts of the Brain (The Triune Brain).
Figure 13.2 MBSAT Heart Quadrants.
Figure 13.3 Mindful, Positive Communication.
Figure 13.4 SOPA for Individuals. Strengths—Opportunities—Positive Action: Facilitating the Mindful Positive Self.
Chapter 14
Figure 14.1 The Mindful Positive Action Quadrants.
Figure 14.2 The Living Zone of a Mindful, Positive Individual.
Figure 14.3 The Institutionalized World of VUCA/The Goal.
Figure 14.4 The eye of Strategic Awareness: WECO.
Final Words and Acknowledgments
Figure 0.1 Minding Your BETA.
Guide
Cover
Table of Contents
Begin Reading
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Mindfulness‐Based Strategic Awareness Training
A Complete Program for Leaders and Individuals
Juan Humberto Young
This edition first published 2017© 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Registered OfficeJohn Wiley & Sons, Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
Editorial Offices350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148‐5020, USA9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UKThe Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK
For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/wiley‐blackwell.
The right of Juan Humberto Young to be identified as the author has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher.
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Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering professional services and neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought.
Library of Congress Cataloging‐in‐Publication Data
Name: Young, Juan Humberto, author.Title: Mindfulness‐based strategic awareness training : a complete program for leaders and individuals / Juan Humberto Young.Description: Chichester, West Sussex, UK : John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.Identifiers: LCCN 2016016535 (print) | LCCN 2016026146 (ebook) | ISBN 9781118937976 (cloth) | ISBN 9781118937983 (epdf) | ISBN 9781118937990 (epub)Subjects: LCSH: Leadership–Psychological aspects. | Mindfulness (Psychology) | Meditation.Classification: LCC HD57.7 .H8494 2016 (print) | LCC HD57.7 (ebook) | DDC 658.4/012–dc23LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016016535
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: Yagi Studio/Gettyimages
Boxes, Tables and Figures
Box 1.1
Leadership Theories
Box 1.2
Cognitive Biases
Box 2.1
Positive Emotions
Box 3.1
Operating Mechanisms of Mindfulness
Box 3.2
Neuronal Connections of Mindfulness
Box 13.1
The Triune Brain
Table 2.1
VIA–Strengths in six Groups
Table 13.1
SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Activities
Table 13.2
SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Assets
Table 13.3
SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Opportunities
Table 14.1
MBSAT SOPA Worksheet (SOPA Phase II)
Table 14.2
MBSAT Program Overview
Figure 1.1
Leadership Matrix
Figure 2.1
The Broaden‐and‐Build Theory of Positive Emotions
Figure 2.2
What determines happiness?
Figure 2.3
Clinging and Craving: Hedonic Treadmill
Figure 3.1
Interrelations of Mindfulness and Positive Psychology
Figure 3.2
Mindfulness Interventions
Figure 4.1
The Conditionality of Strategic Awareness
Figure 4.2
The Meaning‐Making Process of Strategic Awareness
Figure 5.1
Neuroplasticity: Mindfulness transforms the brain
Figure 5.2
Positive Mindful Experiential Learning Wheel
Figure 5.3
MBSAT Mindfulness Components
Figure 5.4
The Locus of MBSAT Practices ‐ Minding BETA
Figure 6.1
The Inverse Dynamics of Benefits and Costs of Mindfulness Practices
Figure 6.2
Mindfulness as Real Options
Figure 6.3
Attitudinal Stances of Mindfulness
Figure 7.1
Building MBSAT’s Formal Mindfulness Practice (FMP): The Mechanism
Figure 8.1
Body Scan Causal Loop
Figure 8.2
Effects of Body Scan Over Time
Figure 8.3
The ABC Model of Cognitive Therapy
Figure 8.4
Strategic Awareness: The Difference Between Doing and Being Mode
Figure 9.1
Dynamics of Flow
Figure 9.2
The Positive BETA Reframing ABC Model
Figure 9.3
Recognizing Emotions and Sensations in the Body (I)
Figure 9.4
Recognizing Emotions and Sensations in the Body (II) Sadness–low mood
Figure 9.5
Recognizing Emotions and Sensations in the Body (III): Anger, frustration, resentment
Figure 9.6
Recognizing Emotions and Sensations in the Body (IV) Positive Emotions: Joy, fun, excitement, etc.
Figure 10.1
MBSAT Model of Human Experience
Figure 10.2
MBSAT Worry and Anxiety Model
Figure 11.1
The Suffering Formula
Figure 11.2
The Physics of Worry and Anxiety
Figure 11.3
Irimi: Moving Towards Adversity Instead of Away From It
Figure 12.1
Life happiness vs. real GDP per capita, the United States
Figure 12.2
Money Accumulation: A systems Dynamics View
Figure 12.3
Opportunity Costs of Work and Money: Trade‐offs with Well‐Being
Figure 13.1
The Three Parts of the Brain (The Triune Brain)
Figure 13.2
MBSAT Heart Quadrants
Figure 13.3
Mindful, Positive Communication
Figure 13.4
SOPA for Individuals. Strengths—Opportunities—Positive Action: Facilitating the Mindful Positive Self
Figure 14.1
The Mindful Positive Action Quadrants
Figure 14.2
The Living Zone of a Mindful, Positive Individual
Figure 14.3
The Institutionalized World of VUCA/The Goal
Figure 14.4
The eye of Strategic Awareness: WECO
Notes and Handouts
Table 13.1
SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Activities
Table 13.2
SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Assets
Table 13.3
SOPA (Strengths, Opportunities, and Positive Actions) Phase I: Inventory of Opportunities
Table 14.1
MBSAT SOPA Worksheet (SOPA Phase II)
Table 14.2
MBSAT Program Overview
Figure 9.7
3 Minutes Breathing Space in 3 Steps
Figure 9.8
Mindful Stretching: Arms and Upper Body
Figure 9.9
Mindful Stretching: Shoulders and Neck
Figure 10.3
The Two Arrows Matrix: Thoughts, Emotions, Body Sensations, and Action Impulses
Figure 10.2
MBSAT Worry and Anxiety Model
Figure 11.3
Irimi: Moving Towards Adversity Instead of Away From It
Figure 12.4
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Happiness: United States and France 1980–2005
Figure 12.5
Managing the A‐C Curve: Ambition and Contentment. The Secret of Well‐Being
Figure 12.6
High Income Improves Evaluation of Life but not Emotional Well‐Being
Figure 12.2
Money Accumulation: A Systems Dynamics View
Figure 12.4
Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and Happiness: United States and France 1980–2005
Figure 12.6
High Income Improves Evaluation of Life but not Emotional Well‐Being
Figure 12.7
Selbst‐Portrait
Figure 12.8
Example of a Master Student’s Mindful, Positive Self‐Portrait
Figure 13.3
Mindful, Positive Communication
Figure 13.4
SOPA for Individuals. Strengths—Opportunities—Positive Action: Facilitating the Mindful Positive Self
Figure 14.1
The Mindful Positive Action Quadrants
Figure 14.2
The Living Zone of a Mindful, Positive Individual
Figure 14.3
The Institutionalized World of VUCA/The Goal
Figure 0.1
Minding Your BETA
Preface
The idea of writing a book originates from people I appreciate and admire. One of the first was my doctoral thesis advisor, Professor John Aram. At the time we were jointly teaching a master level course on leadership at Weatherhead School of Management, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio. John thought I had a gift for simplifying complex theories and integrating diverse disciplines in a coherent, easy to understand, way. Over the years collaborators at work, students, and clients have confirmed John’s view and exhorted me to put my reflections down in writing.
At the University of Saint Gallen, Switzerland, my classes on strategies to improve people’s and leaders’ decision skills leading to happiness stirred keen interest from the students and were always overbooked. Based on this experience I designed a one‐year Executive Master program for positive leadership and strategy with positive psychology and mindfulness as the foundations of the curriculum. It is currently running in its fourth year at IE University, Madrid, one of the world’s top business schools. The consistent application of positive psychology and mindfulness throughout the program makes it a unique training opportunity for professionals from a wide array of fields and industries. It is taught within a faculty that is composed of the best specialists in their respective fields, all pioneers in implementing positive and mindful approaches.
During studies at Oxford University for a Master’s degree in mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy it occurred to me that there was a need for shorter training formats like the well‐recognized 8‐week training protocols common to most mindfulness training courses. Maybe it was time to contemplate writing a book and make the material that I had accumulated over many years into a series of personal journals accessible to people outside academia—not a book about personal exploits, much less an autobiography, but a practical book enriched with human‐centered, anecdotal data and with authentic stories that could illustrate abstract concepts and give them a human face. The drive to overcome my doubts and reservations and start writing comes from what I see occurring in the world around me, and I’m not alone in my observations.
In a recent article MIT professors E. Brynjolfsson and A. McAfee, together with M. Spence of NYU, a Nobel laureate in economics, suggest that one of the key challenges in the future will be assuring an acceptable standard of living for the mass of people being squeezed out of the labor market by the forces of technology. Researchers at Oxford University estimate that in the future 45% of US jobs will be computerized, drastically reducing the workforce. Scientists such as Stephen Hawking also warn about the possible negative effects on social life that will result from a trend towards robots in the workplace that will threaten jobs on a massive scale. While writing these lines the Anglo‐American mining company announced its intention to shed 85,000 jobs. At the same time huge numbers of immigrants pour into the more industrialized economies in search of better lives, although these countries are already under strain both socially and economically.
There are other troubles emerging, too. We watch in consternation the developments at FIFA, the Football Association, with its new costly head office in Zurich only minutes away from my home, as reports of corrupt behavior and arrests make news. We learn also how companies engage in deceptive policies such as VW with its diesel emissions scandal. Daily we witness, and hear about, the effect of climate change and its devastating consequences for the ecology of the planet.
These and other problems are already weighing on people’s well‐being and are likely to impact it even more in the future. An inevitable challenge for us all will be how we can confront these issues and work towards solutions. Some people may place their faith in institutions (government and business organizations) hoping that they will come up with appropriate solutions. My personal optimism is not with institutional solutions given the numerous conflicts of interest and the highly polarized context in which they operate. They rarely seem to get things implemented. My preference is for a personal, entrepreneurial approach, one that places responsibility for well‐being directly on the individual. No‐one can take the need for a person’s happiness and well‐being more seriously than the person themselves. Individuals and leaders will be required to develop inner abilities to help them to navigate through these demanding times that are increasingly being defined as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). This is the central thrust of this book.
I see a great need for individuals to cultivate mental, emotional, and behavioral qualities that allow them to make clear decisions during these turbulent times while maintaining a decent level of personal well‐being for themselves and their families. For leaders there is the need to cultivate an awareness that allows them to create real value for many: not only shareholder value but also value for clients with good and healthy products and services; value for their employees so that their jobs are protected and new jobs created; value for society by making the appropriate fiscal decisions and contributions. This is a very big call but it is one that is required from post‐modern leaders. Individuals able to attain these goals will be sought after and they will be worth the enormous payouts that accompany these positions. Especially in light of the poor record of managers and leaders investigated by Candido and Santos (2015, p. 237) “one of the most challenging and unresolved problems in this area (business strategy) is the apparently high percentage of organizational strategies that fail, with some authors estimating a rate of failure between 50 to 90%. By failure we mean either a new strategy was formulated but not implemented or it was implemented with poor results.”
Today there are too many overpaid mediocre leaders with a flawed view of value who are only capable of reducing the workforce to boost profits or making shortcuts compromising the quality of their products and services in order to save costs when what is really needed is job creation and genuine products. In short they manage the profit and loss (P&L) statements of their business mostly from the short‐term cost side instead of generating long‐term sustainable, organic growth based on a strategy of revenue generation.
The ability to generate genuine value for multiple stakeholders requires a panoramic awareness that I call “strategic awareness”. It implies an open awareness infused with clarity of the mind, positive emotionality, friendliness, practical wisdom (in the sense of finding the right way to do the right things), and skillful responses to our socially constructed reality. It is the kind of awareness that allows for decisions that foster personal and social well‐being while avoiding two of the most common errors in decision making:
Errors in forecasting future personal outcomes of decisions taken today (for example, after being overjoyed with the promotion to country manager in Panama feeling unhappy with the suffocating heat and heavy traffic of Panama City).
Lack of foresight regarding side effects or unintended consequences of their decisions (for example VW’s decisions that led to the emission scandal now affecting many other parties including the second‐generation VW representative who lives next to me and his employees who are suffering a dramatic collapse in sales).
Mindfulness‐based strategic awareness training (MBSAT) is designed to cultivate an open, panoramic awareness using mindfulness and positive psychology as its foundation and behavioral economics, cognitive therapy, finance, risk management, and system dynamics as supporting disciplines. Mindfulness, a millennium old technology of human development, has recently been receiving much attention as one possible way to help individuals cope with the challenges of postmodernity.
J. Sachs, the acclaimed Columbia University professor, speaks of eight dimensions in people’s lives that require mindfulness: mindfulness of self, mindfulness of work, mindfulness of knowledge, mindfulness of others, mindfulness of nature, mindfulness of the future, mindfulness of politics, and mindfulness of the world.
Positive psychology, the second pillar of MBSAT, is an already well‐established applied science of well‐being. It has developed proven interventions for assisting individuals to increase their levels of subjective well‐being. In combination with the other disciplines mentioned above MBSAT forms a robust, comprehensive 8‐week program that, if followed by the participants, can significantly improve the quality of their lives.
Considerable effort and care has been made to design MBSAT so that it delivers what it intends to do and doesn’t become one more program of what critics call “mindfulness McDonaldization” interventions, simplified approaches with promises of fast results, a kind of fast food for the soul.
The author of this book, besides having several years of mindfulness practice, spent two years learning how to design and teach mindfulness interventions at Oxford University and worked for more than a decade with applied positive psychology approaches to human development in various industries. Together with my many years of experience in organizational settings—as employee, leader, business owner, consultant, and teacher at business schools—this gives me a wide background that has helped me to design MBSAT. The course is the result of solid research findings and relevant practical experience. Likewise the book is written for a wide audience: for leaders and individuals alike and can be used as a guide for teachers as well as a manual for individual learning.
The result is a program built on the principles of scholarly design thinking. It provides innovative prescriptive forms of applied science with a vision of a mindful positive individual that can contribute to his or her personal well‐being and that of others.
Instead of taking a theoretical approach and seeking to uncover how things are, it proposes an experiential learning approach with practices and exercises. At this point in the history of human sciences including mindfulness and positive psychology there are no reliable answers to the question of how things are anyway. What can be said for sure, however, is that the practices of mindfulness and positive psychology, when done regularly, are highly beneficial to the practitioner. They are not difficult, the challenge is to maintain continuity in doing them and that is hard as there are no shortcuts around this. As a sage once said: “Start by doing what is necessary; then do the possible and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
For those who practice regularly, MBSAT has the potential to generate positive, transformative outcomes for themselves and the world in which they live.
About the Companion Website
This book is accompanied by a companion website:
www.wiley.com/go/humbertoyoung/mbsat
The website includes Handout and Audio files.
Part 1Foundations for Mindful, Positive Leadership and a Constructive Way of Life
1The Quest for a Model of Mindful, Positive Leadership and a Constructive Way of Life
1.1 Groundwork for Models of Leading and Living
This book takes the view that human existence should not be compartmentalized. It is hardly possible to be a mindful, positive leader without being a mindful, positive person in private life. Being one without the other is an oxymoron. In fact, everything in life is shaped by the quality of an individual’s innermost attitudes and the quality of human existence. From that standpoint the content of this book applies equally to normal individuals’ lives as well as the lives of leaders.
Leadership can achieve great things like excellent products, services and dynamic organizations—all of which can make life more enjoyable and enriching. Equally, leadership can be used to damage human experience. Wars, group violence and many different forms of organized, or even disorganized, social destruction can lead to harmful outcomes. However, most of the time leadership is a process that simply sustains the status quo at organizational, group or even individual levels.
In this book I offer a model that, with training, can produce leadership that assists leaders and managers to create value in a positive and sustainable manner. I am particularly grateful for the perspective of the influential management philosopher, Peter Drucker, who defined leadership as “lifting a person’s vision to high sights, the raising of a person’s performance to a higher standard, the building of a personality beyond its normal limitations.” Consequently what I am advocating is that almost everyone involved in any kind of social interaction has the potential to apply this type of leadership.
For example, a mother helping her child to achieve higher grades in school and a colleague helping a team member with problems at work will both benefit from applying these leadership principles. It is a leadership style that produces workable systems within organizations as well as workable solutions for the leaders themselves as for any individual.
Over the years, both in places where I have worked, led and managed groups and at some of the best business schools in the world where I have studied, I have explored a wide range of leadership theories. (Please see Box 1.1 for a brief description of some of the most popular leadership theories.) Careful application of these theories has helped me to improve outcomes for my teams and myself. In terms of standardized measurements, such as return on investment, we performed extremely well. But I wanted to reach beyond standard measures. I was intrigued by the possibility that we could perform more creatively and avoid the emotional problems caused by chronic stress and fatigue. I knew this was possible because of an important personal experience in my youth.
Box 1.1 Leadership Theories
The plethora of existing leadership theories can be subdivided in four core orientations:
Trait Theories
:
These are theories that suggest that leaders must have certain personality traits or characteristics that people either have or don’t have. These leadership theories have lost their appeal lately and are somewhat outdated in the light of neurological findings concerning the plasticity of the human brain.
Behavioral Theories
:
These types of theories focus on how leaders enact leading. An early popular behavioral leadership framework was Kurt Lewin’s classification of leaders by their decision‐making style. According to Lewin leaders fall into three categories: autocratic leaders (making decisions on their own), democratic leaders (inviting team members to participate in the decision‐making process) and laissez‐faire leaders (allowing people to make decisions within their own teams).
Contingency Theories
:
These theories suggest that there is no ideal leadership style as each situation requires a different type of leading. A well‐known framework is Fiedler’s contingency leadership model.
Power and Influence Theories
:
These theories take the view that the key is how leaders use power and influence to get things done. A well‐known framework here is French and Raven’s Five Forms of Power. According to Raven three sources of power are positional: “legitimate,” “reward,” and “coercive,” and two sources are personal: “expert power” (knowing your stuff) and “referent power,” stemming from a leader’s appeal and charm.
In my mind I can still see one of my father’s clients, a young businessman, the owner of a large transportation company dedicated to carrying perishable agricultural produce from the rural parts of the country to the capital, coming down the stairs in the office building as I went to see my father one day after school. He had tears in his eyes and was clearly moved, so I asked him what was happening? He answered that he was overjoyed, because his wife was finally pregnant after hoping for a child for years. He told me that he came regularly to see my father, his financial advisor. They had started talking together about everything, not just business, and this had helped to relieve him from the stress and exhaustion produced by long working hours and constant worrying. As a result he had become calmer and more relaxed and he was convinced that this had played an essential, positive role in enabling him and his wife to conceive a baby. He was so grateful to my father. I was only a 15‐year‐old teenager at the time, but I still remember that I thought “If only my Dad talked to me more often the way he talked with his client, Jorge.”
That story has remained with me because, besides illustrating how pernicious stress can be, it taught me something crucial about the importance of caring and loving relationships at work. I learned that there had to be a positive way of leading people so that they could develop and flourish. I simply didn’t know the “how” and this is what I set out to discover.
Here are the milestones of my quest. It is my way of highlighting the necessity of a model for mindful, positive leadership, and a constructive way of living with its integral parts. It is also a way to honor my teachers and all the researchers that have contributed directly or indirectly to the conclusions I have reached.
1.2 In Pursuit of Answers to Intriguing Questions
After years managing my own business and having achieved a respectable level of financial success, I felt secure enough to go back to the question: can we have better leadership and management models that benefit all parties?
In this search I studied for my doctorate at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management in Cleveland, Ohio. There I met Professor Suresh Srivastva who thought of organizations as centers of human relatedness where people come together “to learn, to care and to grow, to love and develop, to cooperate and co‐create” (as he often used to say during his teachings in class).
At Weatherhead School of Management I also met David Cooperrider, who had the inspiration during a consulting assignment for the Cleveland Clinic, together with Suresh (his PhD supervisor), to invert the question “What problems need to be solved here?” to “What is working well here and how can we replicate it throughout the whole organization?” By inverting the focus they both created the new approach, appreciative inquiry (AI), which is recognized today as one of the most important modern management innovations.
Inspiring ideas also came from other teachers during my doctoral studies. Richard Boyatzis was teaching about the need for leaders’ emotional intelligence and John Aram articulated the need to reform the management profession to reflect the needs of not just one stakeholder but society as a whole.
Also working in the field was Richard (Dick) Boland, my other thesis advisor and one of the early advocates of design thinking in management—a way of managing that was oriented toward creating desirable and creative, yet sustainable futures. Dick’s inspiration for design thinking came from working with Frank Gehry, the iconoclast architect who designed the avant‐garde Weatherhead building, and observing his design methodology and working approach, which involved engaging the actual users of the building in the design process.
The experiences at the Weatherhead School of Management made a deep and lasting impression on me. It became clear that leading and managing well was not about learning and implementing the latest theories and tools on leadership and management but involved something beyond technicalities. Reading about the work of Albert Speer, the Minister of Armaments and War Production in Germany’s Third Reich, it became evident that good management tools were not the answer.
Speer explained how he employed advanced management systems such as ad‐hoc democratic styles of management control and flat hierarchies. However, as we all know, these innovations were put to use for purposes universally recognized as immoral that led to crimes against humanity. This historic reality highlights how a leader’s qualities are a key variable for skillful and sustainable leadership rather than just great leadership tools and models.
1.3 Two Discoveries and their Importance for Good Leadership and Living
Inspired by the ideas and management philosophies I had learned at Case’s Weatherhead School of Management I started focusing on ways to improve management. I realized that management was a profession that needed to improve its standing with the public. Many people saw—and still see—managers and leaders as value destroyers rather than value creators.
Searching for answers I made two important theoretical discoveries: first, I became aware of one of the most complete models of human motivation, a rigorously researched theory called self determination theory (SDT), which had been developed by two eminent psychologists, E. Deci and R. Ryan (2000).
Second, I stumbled upon the evolutionary view of leadership (ELT). For me it was the most sensible theory of leadership. While most theories attempt to find a magic bullet that will solve all leadership questions, evolutionary leadership asks why we have leadership and what is its adaptive value, if any, in social behavior. It is the brainchild of two scientists working independently, the Dutch psychologist Mark van Vugt and the German psychologist Michael Alznauer. It offers a strong theoretical foundation for the kind of alternative model of leadership and human existence that I was looking for.
I knew from experience that a robust scientific foundation was needed and that gut feeling was not enough. Sometimes individuals have intuitions about concepts before having a solid scientific explanation for them; a case in point is Marty Seligman, the founding father of positive psychology (PP). He explains how fortunate he felt when he discovered Barbara Frederickson’s theory of positive emotions (2003), which validated his intuition about positive psychology.
During his presidency of the American Psychology Association, Seligman had created the field of PP out of a sense of need for a nonclinical population. When he developed the idea there was no theory supporting the foundation of the discipline.
In the same way David Cooperrider started practicing appreciative inquiry (AI) without a supporting theory. I remember presenting AI in the early years of the discipline to analytically minded managers and when they asked me how the model actually worked, I did not have an explanation. All I could offer was that it was working and producing good results. The breakthrough eventually came with Fredrickson’s positive emotions theory. It provided the theoretical underpinnings for both PP and AI.
Based on these experiences I thought that if I wanted to present a leadership model I needed a theoretical anchor. As the late K. Lewin, the pioneer social scientist of MIT, used to say: “Nothing is as practical as a good theory.”
My joy at discovering self‐determination theory (SDT) and evolutionary leadership (EL) was derived from the realization that they could enable me to answer two key questions about an alternative leadership model:
What makes people feel well in life? SDT could show convincingly that well‐being results from the satisfaction of three human needs: autonomy, mastery and relatedness.
What are impediments to great leadership and why is great leadership so rare? EL suggests three barriers: a biosocial mismatch between modern and ancestral environments, decision‐making biases and an ancestral, archaic tendency in human psychological patterns designed to dominate other individuals.
Taken together these two theories provide a solid theoretical framework: If we can find ways to reduce barriers to good leadership and enable managers and leaders to create contexts where people can fulfill their human needs and have good lives at work, then we have a good starting point for a mindful, positive leadership model.
Contemporary surveys in the United States illustrate how high the hurdle for good leadership is: 60–70% of employees indicate that the most stressful aspect of their work is the interaction with their immediate leader (Hogan, 2006). This is almost as high is the failure rate of leaders in organizations—which is around 60% (Hogan & Kaiser, 2005).
Let us look now more closely at both SDT and EL.
1.3.1 Evolutionary Leadership Theory (ELT)
Evolutionary leadership theory argues that good leadership is essential for the effective functioning of societies and organizations. This is why leadership emerged in early human societies (e.g., in tribes, clans and extended families).
Furthermore ELT suggests that leadership is a task, not a trait or a skill, with the purpose of ensuring that the probability of success in a group is higher than they would be without a leader. Leadership in the ELT model involves setting direction, coordination, organization and the allocation of resources to accomplish group goals.
ELT (van Vugt and Ronay, 2014) defines three barriers that potentially inhibit effective leadership:
Biosocial mismatch between modern and ancestral environments
In ancestral times leaders were selected by their followers. Today, leaders are chosen by their peers (boards, executive members, etc.)—this inevitably results in modern leaders having a deep sense of loyalty towards their peers instead of their followers (employees, customers, etc.). Furthermore, in ancient times the task of leadership was distributed, as people were chosen to execute leadership tasks according to their skills. In contrast, today’s leaders are expected to perform all types of functions (being an expert in multiple areas: markets, products, technology, finance and organization, foreseeing future trends and generating innovative ideas, acting as coach in professional and personal matters, excelling in public relations, etc.), although most modern leaders do not have the broad set of skills required for such a variety of duties (Kaplan & Kaiser, 2006). In today’s modern environment this mismatch applies to both formal, explicit leadership functions as well as informal, innocuous relations, for example in family, friendship, or sports teams.
Cognitive biases and errors
Evolutionary psychologists (Haselton & Nettle, 2006) argue that cognitive activities are prone to two types of errors: (a) type I errors of false positive (believing in a false belief) like thinking it is a harmless piece of dry wood when in reality it is a venomous snake and (b) type II errors of false negative (not believing in a true belief) like thinking it is a snake when it is in reality a harmless piece of wood. The consequence of making type II errors is mostly anxiety and stress, whereas type I errors can be fatal. Given this asymmetry of consequences, nature has adapted the human brain to err more on the side of type II errors (tending to assume it is a snake, not wood, to be on the safe side) to minimize type I errors. Inevitably this results in a very anxious mind. In today’s management environment these types of responses tend to be disproportionate.
Cognitive psychologists have identified specific cognitive biases that can lead to errors. These biases include overconfidence, group thinking, confirmation bias, status quo bias and so on. For a more detailed overview of frequent cognitive biases affecting business leaders and individuals, please see Box 1.2.
Box 1.2 Cognitive Biases
Frequent Biases Affecting Decisions
Action‐oriented Biases
Excessive Optimism:
Tendency for people to be overly optimistic, overestimating the likelihood of positive events and underestimating negative ones.
Overconfidence:
Overestimating our skills relative to others’ and consequently our ability to affect future outcomes. Taking credit for past outcomes without acknowledging the role of chance.
Perceiving and Judging Biases
Confirmation Bias:
Placing extra value on evidence consistent with a favored belief and not enough on evidence that contradicts it. Failing to search impartially for evidence.
Groupthink:
Striving for consensus at the cost of a realistic appraisal of alternative courses of action.
Misaligning of Incentives:
Seeking outcomes favorable to one’s organizational unit or oneself at the expense of collective interests.
Framing Biases
Loss Aversion:
Feeling losses more acutely than gains of the same amount, making us more risk‐averse than a rational calculation would recommend.
Sunk‐Cost Fallacy:
Paying attention to historical costs that are not recoverable when considering future courses of action.
Escalation of Commitment:
Investing additional resources in an apparently losing proposition because of the effort, money and time already invested.
Controllability Bias:
Believing one can control outcomes more than is actually the case, causing one to misjudge the riskiness of a course of action.
Stability Biases
Status Quo Bias:
Preferring the status quo in the absence of pressure to change.
Present Bias:
Valuing immediate rewards very highly and undervaluing long‐term gains.
Anchoring and Insufficient Adjustment:
Rooting decisions in an initial value and failing to sufficiently adjust away from that value.
Leaders are chosen based on their ability to make good decisions and avoid errors. Aspiring leaders usually seek to project an image of competence and thus tend to succumb to overconfidence about their ability to make the correct decisions. Overconfidence can result in a number of negative traits including lack of self‐awareness, inflated self‐evaluation, defensiveness in the face of errors and ultimately failure to learn from experience (Hogan & Kaiser, 2005). These weaknesses can have far‐reaching consequences. Yet in the hierarchical structure of today’s organizations leaders’ mistakes are often difficult to trace and frequently have no consequences. The absence of punitive actions for decision errors creates a strong incentive to pretend confidence and seek leadership positions even when this competent image masks incompetence.
In ancient times, however, overconfidence by pretending to have competence was easily observable and the cost of mistakes was often fatal for both the leader and the group. Only people who were certain to accomplish the task had a chance of being selected as leaders.
3. Human inherent tendency for dominance
The third barrier identified by ELT is the psychological tendency, inherent in many human beings, to dominate others. In ancient times the dominant figure in the group was better fed, had a higher chance of reproduction and disposed of a larger share of available resources. But any potential excesses were tempered by direct control of the group of followers.
Today the dominance of a leader, which exists in leader–follower relations, is often characterized by a decreasing ability by leaders to empathize with subordinates (Galinsky, Magee, Inesi & Gruenfeld, 2006). The current concentration of power, normally at the top of the hierarchy, can lead to asymmetrical pay‐offs between leaders and followers and, if unchecked, to imbalances in the distribution of resources (van Vugt and Ronay, 2014).
As the human species evolved from a life of survival that determined the form of leadership—mostly male, strong and tall as the best guarantors for assuring group survival—to a life beyond the needs of physical existence (at least in many parts of the world), more adaptive forms of leadership are needed. Our brain’s natural responses, and consequently the way leadership is executed, seem to be dominated by what neuroscientists call the “reptilian brain,” the oldest part of the human brain physiology. The reptilian brain has a predisposition towards attack and defense (fight or flight) and negativism.
Given the accomplishments of modern society, this archaic human proclivity needs to change in the twenty‐first century, if people are to live their lives to the fullest.
1.3.2 Self‐Determination Theory (SDT)
As early as 1943 Hull suggested that when human psychological needs are satisfied they lead to health and well‐being. When they are not satisfied they lead to pathology and ill‐being.
“Human beings can be proactive and engaged or, alternatively, passive and alienated; it is largely a function of the social condition in which they develop and function” (Ryan and Deci, 2000). SDT shows that the difference between the two motivational states: engaged or disengaged, is closely correlated to an individual’s satisfaction of their needs.
Leaders and managers should be familiar with the notion of human needs. Most of us are familiar with Maslow’s theory of hierarchical needs (Maslow, 1943), which is still popular in business schools.
Maslow’s pyramid of needs takes a progressive approach in which individuals move from satisfying physiological needs to satisfying self‐actualization needs. Yet despite its flawless logic (which accounts for its popularity) Maslow’s theory was speculative. It was not an empirically tested theory.
On the other hand, SDT has been thoroughly tested in rigorous empirical research carried out over several decades. This makes SDT a very robust model of human behavior.
SDT is a theory that explains the forces that motivate people to do things and analyzes the types of motivation that generate the highest satisfaction. In this sense SDT differentiates between extrinsic (derived from external cues such as fame, money) and intrinsic motivation (derived from internal cues such as fun, interest). Extrinsic motivation is a continuum of external motivations, whereas intrinsic motivation is self‐determined and leads to enjoyment and inherent satisfaction in the pursuit of goals.
Thus, for SDT a critical aspect relates to the degree to which individuals can satisfy their basic psychological needs as they act in pursuit of valued goals. SDT suggests three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness.
Need for autonomy
:
Harvard Business School Professor Teresa Amabile (1983) found that when people are exposed to external rewards and evaluations, their level of creativity decreases. Creative activities—those things that people do naturally and spontaneously when they feel free—are autonomous. When people are able to self‐regulate, their acts represent intrinsically motivated behavior. Self‐regulation is reflected in experiences of integrity, volition and vitality.
Deci and Ryan’s (2000) studies show that coercive regulation—such as contingent rewards and evaluations—tend to block and inhibit people’s awareness, thus limiting their capacity for autonomy and hence their creative potential.
Need for competence
:
The need for competence spurs cognitive, motoric and social development, which gives autonomous people advantages making them more able to adapt to the challenges of today’s volatile environment.
Although Deci and Ryan recognize differences with M. Csikszentmihalyi’s (1990) popular flow theory, they also acknowledge similarities such as its focus on intrinsic motivation as a necessity for individuals to attain flow.
Flow is described as a state in which a person’s demands of an activity are in balance with their abilities. This means they become totally absorbed in the activity because they experience non self‐conscious enjoyment. It provides a sense and state of mastery and competence often observed in athletes, scientists and artists. SDT suggests that people need a sense of competence for their attainment of well‐being.
Need for relatedness
:
Intrinsic motivation, the cornerstone of SDT, tends to flourish where people feel a sense of security and relatedness. For example, an infant’s sense of curiosity tends to develop if they feel attached to their parents. School students tend to develop a higher level of intrinsic motivation if they feel their teacher is caring.
My students at the University of Saint Gallen, Switzerland, often tell me that they have never worked so hard for a class that didn’t put stringent formal demands, but that they felt individually so valued and cared for in my class that they were motivated to reciprocate by producing outstanding papers, which they did.
It is the balance of people’s three psychological needs that leads to a healthy life. A healthy balance emerges when their need for individual autonomy and freedom doesn’t collide with their need for relatedness and collective social integration.
Self‐determined behavior is therefore self‐endorsed, which leads to positive outcomes. This occurs when individuals feel autonomous with enough optimal challenges to support their sense of competence and with enough attachment to close persons in their family, work and social life who provide caring and acceptance.
1.3.3 Modes of human existence and leadership deriving from ELT and SDT
The investigation of the two variables discussed above, barriers to good leadership and human psychological needs for optimal functioning, led me to identify four modes of leadership and human existence (see Figure 1.1):
Unaware Leaders and Individuals:
This type of person shows poor understanding of both life’s challenges/barriers and the psychological needs of others. They are totally unaware of their own experience and of the necessities of others (bottom left quadrant).
Self‐centered Leaders and Individuals:
They impose themselves with little or no consideration of others’ needs. They have not genuinely overcome the barriers, although they may be successful in acquiring power and money. Even though they know that abuse of power and dominance is detrimental to human well‐being they don’t care much about the fate of others. Therefore they are in the lower right quadrant.
Permissive Leaders and Individuals:
They are not really aware of barriers but are sensitive to other people’s needs. They tend to create social contexts of permissiveness where the exercise of required adaptive authority tends to be absent (upper left quadrant).
Mindful, Positive Leaders and Individuals:
Finally, these are the people who are aware of both their own challenges and the needs of their fellow human beings. They are role models for a mindful, positive way of life as they work diligently to manage the complexity of mastering the inherent barriers embedded in their own life and caring for the psychological well‐being of others. Leaders operating in this quadrant tend to achieve high performance for their teams because they pay attention to the well‐being of the members. This was corroborated by a meta‐analysis by Kuoppala, Lamminpää, Liira, & Vainio, (2008) reviewing numerous studies that searched for a correlation between leadership style and job performance but, interestingly, could not find any link. On the other hand, the research found a strong link between leadership style and followers’ well‐being. The conclusion was that leaders who care about the well‐being of their team members tend to positively affect job performance in an indirect way. This suggests that only positive, mindful individuals are sustainable value creators, while the others are either destroyers of value or simply do not create any value at all.
Figure 1.1 Leadership Matrix.
Source: Juan Humberto Young.
1.4 From Groundwork to a Model for Mindful, Positive Leadership and a Constructive Way of Life
Having identified the two main sets of conditions and impediments of an effective postmodern way of life I was still confronted with the task of finding the missing links that could resolve the key challenge—namely how to develop and train for a way of living and leading that masters the challenges: How could the barriers to good life and leadership according to ELT be effectively overcome? And how can the human needs to flourish, according to SDT, be fulfilled in human relations in general and between leaders and followers in particular?
My investigation led me to two areas of human behavior: (i) the contemporary discipline of positive psychology, which prompted me to pursue a Master in applied positive psychology at the University of Pennsylvania in the United States working with the master Positive Psychologist, Marty Seligman, and (ii) a methodology of human development that is over two millennia old and is known as mindfulness. This led me to pursue a Master in mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy at Oxford University in England working with Mark Williams, one of the creators of mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy. The result was an expansion of the scope of my professional career. From successful corporate finance expert and business strategy practitioner I moved to becoming also a positive psychologist and mindfulness teacher. In the following chapters I explore these two disciplines and suggest how they can help resolve the leadership quandary.
2What is Positive Psychology?
2.1 Birth of a New Discipline
For half a century, from World War II onwards, large numbers of psychologists have concentrated on healing trauma and curing mental illness. They have established a psychology of victimology and weaknesses.
As the twenty‐first century approached, the then‐president of the American Psychology Association Martin (Marty) Seligman called upon his colleagues to start focusing on another essential mission of psychology, namely how to make lives of people more fulfilling and how to nurture exceptional talent. He caused controversy among professionals when he declared, in his presidential address at the 1998 annual conference of the American Psychology Association, that it was time to focus on helping build strength, resilience, and health in individuals. These resources were needed to deal with the tribulations of postmodern life by average normal people, not just clinical cases.
This appeal was influential in the creation of positive psychology as a whole new field in psychology, a scientific and practical discipline built around human strengths and individual well‐being.
The field of positive psychology generated a large number of research studies and new findings. This process ensured that the new discipline further evolved and refined its focus.
Around 2005, when I was studying for a Master in applied positive psychology (MAPP) at the University of Pennsylvania, positive psychology was primarily concerned with achieving happiness through three basic paths: positive emotions, engagement, and meaning. It was argued that, in combination, these three dimensions led people to achieve higher satisfaction in life.
In a recent book Marty Seligman (2011), the authoritative founder of positive psychology, complemented his views regarding the integral elements of a fulfilling life when he added two additional dimensions: relationships and accomplishment. The ultimate goal now is well‐being in the sense of making people flourish. This is succinctly expressed by the acronym PERMA, which defines the key elements:
P
ositive emotions: feelings of happiness.
E
ngagement: psychological connection to one’s activities.
R
elationships: feeling socially integrated by caring and being supported by others.
M
eaning: feeling connected and interested in something greater that one’s self.
A
ccomplishment: feeling capable of moving toward valued goals, having a sense of achievement.
Throughout this book we will revisit the components of PERMA.
