Mindfulness-Based Leadership Quotes

“Mindfulness cannot be practised in a cave. It requires active interaction with the world in the present. The place where you are is the place where you are meant to be and that is where you experiment. Your home, workplace and the society you live in is your mindfulness gym.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“With wisdom, we recognise that our employees, members, owners, customers, shareholders, suppliers, creditors, society and other stakeholders are after all people just like us. All of them are seeking this wholeness through so many endeavours, ideas, activities, relationships, etc. Recognising this universal fact allows us to respond with compassion.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Wisdom recognises wholeness and the value of being wholesome. With wisdom, we recognise that wholeness is not a state to be attained but a way of being.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Wisdom depends on knowledge but the presence of knowledge may not necessarily mean the presence of wisdom.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“I define wisdom as the assimilated knowledge that the self, others and the world are connected. Wisdom is humanistic and responds in a way that promotes well-being and realises wholeness.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“The uniqueness of mindfulness is that we are not only interested in the process of reaching a goal but also the goal itself. The means are as important as the end. The end has to be wholesome in every sense of the word.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Leading with mindfulness is ideally facilitative in nature rather than prescriptive. Your leadership uses awareness as its compass. A compass never tells you anything about the destination. All that it does is to show you the direction. But a compass is of no use without a destination.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Mindful leaders are more than what they do, and not limited by it. Intention completes the picture. That is the reason why behaviour should not be the sole basis for judgment.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“There is a tendency to assume that the end justifies the means. I would say that this is not true except in dire or exceptional situations. As mindful leaders, we should bring our awareness to the entire chain of intention, action and results.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“It is not innovation that we are looking for in new business models but wholesomeness, because innovation without wholesomeness is of no use to humanity.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Intention rather than instinct is required for mindful leaders, such that our decisions, strategies and goals are born of clear intention rooted in happiness, well-being and wholesomeness.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“You may wonder if such a thing as a perfect response exists. The answer is yes and no. A perfect response exists only as a best possible response at a given time, place and circumstance.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Doing depends on being, but being does not necessarily depend on doing. This relationship is key to Mindfulness-Based Leadership as we act from mindfulness and its practices and insights. It is mindfulness practices that inform action, not the other way round.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“For a leader, doing is as important as being, with the key difference being that a mindful leader is able to see the intimate non-separation between the two.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“The first misconception that people hold is that a mindful person should have no expectations. However, this expectation of not having an expectation is itself unreasonable and goes against our fundamental nature. The issue, therefore, is not with expectations but how we deal with the results.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Acceptance is the invitation of all experiences – including discomfort, distractions, rumination – with a sense of accommodation, without any kind of judgmen”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Liking what you do is a bonus but not a necessity in Mindfulness-Based Leadership.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Mindfulness is not a panacea for the world’s ills. The world is far too complex for a single thing to fix it. We need to pay attention to the dangers of over dependence on pet theories, so as to avoid going down the road of dogma, bigotry and fanaticism.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“In a way, we are no more than a bunch of habits.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Mindful leaders bring their attention to bear on the fact that habits can significantly affect the way they lead, as well as how others respond to their leadership.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“The mindful leader is attentive to the fact that all his team members seek happiness or well-being. That said, this is in no way a call for leaders to make their members happy at all cost.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Leaders cannot afford to ignore or betray this diversity inherent in humanity. in fact, the fear of diversity, and the wish for uniformity, threaten the well-being of the world.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“This awareness is therefore whole and complete without the need for any identity. It does not judge; it is always available in the present moment; it is just being; and it is what you are when you are naked without the clothes of identities, roles and presumptions. This awareness is the same in everyone for it is identity-less.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“One of the deepest insights that mindfulness practices lead to is the discovery of awareness being whole.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“For leaders, other-awareness is crucial to success. it helps us to influence others more effectively. Without other-awareness, leaders resort to coercion, nonchalance or withdrawal. Being aware of others’ intentions, values, emotions and thoughts helps mindful leaders make more wholesome decisions, with clear recognition of what needs to be done.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“It is not a requirement that others are as self-aware as I am. At the same time, there will be people who are more self-aware than I am. But all of them are just like me.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Self-awareness advances us towards other-awareness, which is the awareness of others who are within our sphere of life.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“When an individual gets angry, he creates chaos in his home; when a leader gets angry, he creates chaos in his organisation.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Self-awareness is the practice and trait of noticing our inner experiences non-judgmentally. It is the ability to be aware of one’s thoughts, feelings, emotions, intentions, motivations and actions.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One

“Being a leader is only one of many roles you might play. You also play personal roles such as a sibling, parent, child, spouse, grandparent, etc. all of these roles depend on you for their existence. But what mindfulness shows us is that your awareness can be independent of these roles.”
― Kathirasan K, Mindfulness-Based Leadership: The Art of Being a Leader - Not Becoming One