The Mind of the Leader

Core Leadership Strategies for the 21st

Century

Rasmus Hougaard
Founder, Potential Project
Rasmus.hougaard@potentialproject.com

© 2017/19 – Potential Project

 THE LEADERSHIP CRISIS
Lack of leadership
77% leaders think
US$ 46 billion
they do well is spent on
Suffering leadership
65% of employees 82% of their training
would forego a pay employees disagree annually
raise to see their
leader fired
Lack of engagement
Only 13% of global
workforce is
engaged

24% is actively
disengaged

Forbes: Majority Of Americans Would Rather Fire their Boss Than Get A Raise & Gallup 2016 Survey & McKinsey & Co. & ATD
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IN SEARCH FOR EVIDENCE BASED LEADERSHIP

35,000 Leaders
200+ Executives
Leading researchers
350 Corporations

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#1: THE HEROIC MBA LEADER IS DEAD

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#2: GLOBAL MOVEMENT
People centric leadership
&
cultures

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#3: LEADERSHIP STARTS WITH THE MIND

Leading
YOUR ORGANIZATION
Understanding

Leading
YOUR PEOPLE
Understanding

Leading
YOURSELF
Understanding

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#4 MINDFULNESS, SELFLESSNESS AND COMPASSION

Mindfulness:
Being present.
Fully focused and
fully aware.

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THE PAID REALITY

Pressured
Always on
Information overloaded
Distracted

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 ATTENTION DEFICIT TRAIT

47%
Harvard Business Review: “Overloaded Circuits: Why Smart People Underperform”, Edward M. Hallowell / Killingsworth MA, Gilbert DT. A Wandering
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 ADT AT WORK
Mindful Distracted
Conscious choices Autopilot
Sense of control Loss of control
Resilient Stressed
Focused 53% 47% Frenzied
Prioritized mind on mind off Action addicted
Engaged task task Disengaged
Creative Cognitively rigid

Killingsworth MA, Gilbert DT. A Wandering Mind Is an Unhappy Mind. Science 12 November 2010: Vol. 330. no. 6006, p. 932 DOI: 10.1126/science.1192439

© 2017/19 – Potential Project

Our - 73% leaders feel unmindful most of the time
- 96% leaders would like to be more mindful
data
67% of leaders
describe their
minds as
cluttered As a result, 65%
of respondents The biggest sources of
often fail to distraction are: demands
complete their of other people (26%);
tasks. competing priorities
(25%); general
distractions (13%); and
too big of a workload
(12%).

© 2017/19 – Potential Project

 THE ATTENTION ECONOMY

”Understanding and High attention

managing attention is now

Productivity
the single most important Normal attention
determinant of business
success”
Accenture Institute of Strategic Change, Thomas Davenport:
”The Attention Economy” - Harvard Business School Press
Time & skills

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HOW ATTENTIVE ARE YOU?

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NEUROPLASTICITY
THE MIND CAN BE TRAINED

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MINDFULNESS: MANAGING ATTENTION

TASK
AT
HAND

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TRAINING THE ATTENTION MUSCLE

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 THE NEUROLOGY OF MINDFULNESS
MIND WANDERING Posterior cingulate cortex (deep)
Posterior inferior parietal region
Medial prefrontal cortex
Lateral temporal cortex
Precuneus

ATTENTION AWARENESS OF WANDERING

Anterior insula (deep)

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex
Anterior cingulate cortex (deep)

Inferior parietal lobe

Dorsolateral prefrontal cortex

REDIRECTING ATTENTION
Scientific American, The Mind of the Meditator, November 2014
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BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESS AT WORK
Enhanced
Creativity & Increased
Better task Decreased work-life Fewer sick
Innovation problem
performance multitasking balance days
Murphy solving
Dane 2011 Levy 2012 Fortney Barret 2012
1996 Kinder 1997
2013

Better Increased job Ethical

Enhanced Increased
decision satisfaction decision
focus retention
making Fortney making
Reb 2013 Dane 2014
Ruedy 2011 2013 Shapiro 2010

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BENEFITS OF MINDFULNESS FOR YOU
Increased
Better
Increased Increased Enhanced grey brain
immune
Sleep quality happiness attention matter
function
Black 2015 Hanson 2009 Zeidan 2010 Pagnoni
Jacobs 2011
2007
Better heart Improved Balanced
Decreased Increased
rate mental Reduced blood
stress Emotional
variability fitness cellular aging pressure
Gregoire intelligence
Wolever Pagnoni Epel 2009 Rosenweig
2015 Schutte 2011
2012 2007 2007

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SURVIVAL OF THE FOCUSED
The more focused, the higher rank

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THE SPEED OF MINDFULNESS
“If you’re not
present, you
may as well not
have the
meeting.”
Dominic Barton
Global Managing
Partner,
McKinsey

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MINDFULNESS AND SELF-AWARENESS
“Without
mindfulness, I have
little self-
awareness,
without self-
awareness I have
little impact ”
Jennifer Woo
CEO & Chairman
Lane Crawford
Joyce Group

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MINDFULNESS AND ENGAGEMENT

“You'll never connect with

your people unless you
really focus on them. And
then when you're in
conversation with them, A,
you'll learn nothing, and B,
they will know that you had
no interest in them. On
both scores, you've just
failed that test.”
Arne Sorenson,
CEO, Marriott

© 2017/19 – Potential Project

 “I initiated the program expecting that we would
become more focused and productive. That has
happened and I am grateful.
However, I realize another much bigger change:
I experience on myself and my employees that
we are becoming better human beings.”

Thomas Berg, Sales Director

IF Insurance.

© 2017/19 – Potential Project

THEMINDOFTHELEADERBOOK.COM
The Mind of the Leader has captured the essentials of leadership in the
21st century; Being mindful, selfless and compassionate. With these,
we are better able to engage our people and bring more value to our
clients”.
Dominic Barton, Global Managing Director, McKinsey & Company

The Mind of the Leader is a forward and practical guide for companies
wanting to evolve their leadership capabilities to engage both the
minds and hearts of today’s workforce.”
Kathleen Hogan, chief people officer, Microsoft

As The Mind of the Leader demonstrates, creating the context for

others to find meaning, purpose and a sense of connectedness is
becoming the hallmarks of a productive and engaged organization.
Patricia Wallace, Director, Leadership, Talent & Organization
Development Disney University

With a foreword by Arne Sorenson, CEO Marriott

© 2017/19 – Potential Project

 The Mind of the Leader
Core Leadership Strategies for the 21st
Century

Rasmus Hougaard
Founder, Potential Project
Rasmus.hougaard@potentialproject.com

© 2017/19 – Potential Project