Finding the Space to Lead: A Practical Guide to Mindful Leadership

by Janice Marturano

By “space,” I don’t mean literally more square feet in our offices (though that might help). I mean mental and emotional space—“bandwidth,” to use the Internet metaphor: the capacity to see, feel, hear, and reflect on what is in front of us and what is inside of us. When we have that space, we can deal with even an urgent problem in a calm, creative, and humane way, rather than have an expedient reaction to the pressure.

It’s a methodology that trains a capacity of your mind that generally receives little or no training. Just as we know that your body has innate capabilities that can be strengthened through physical training, we now know from more than three decades of research that you can also train your mind to strengthen its capabilities.

When the mind is trained to be fully attentive, even in the midst of chaos, we have the space to make more wise and conscious choices.