Extraordinary Leadership with Jacqueline Carter

Marcel’s guest on this week’s Love In Action show is Jacqueline Carter. Jacqueline is the international partner and the North American director for Potential Project. She has over 20 years of experience working with organizations around the globe, including Cisco, Marriott and Google, to improve performance. She is also the co-author along with Rasmus Hougaard, of the exciting new book, The Mind of a Leader: How to Lead Yourself, Your People and Your Organization For Extraordinary Results. The book is based on extensive research, including assessments of more than 35,000 leaders, and reveals how leaders can disrupt how they lead by training their brains. Most leaders are overwhelmed and overworked. Jacqueline calls it a leadership crisis. She says that it’s tough to be a leader today and it’s not getting easier. [4:30]Her research gave three major insights: The workplace has dramatically changed - people are looking for meaning, purpose and happiness in their jobs. Creating an environment where people feel happy is a big task for leaders, and most feel ill-equipped to do it. [5:41]Leadership is an inner game - it starts with understanding, managing and leading your own mind before you can lead others. [6:30]Mindfulness, selflessness and compassion are the three core qualities that make great leaders. [6:43]We’re most stressed first thing in the morning because of cortisol spikes, so it’s the most important time to do mind training practices which will help settle the mind and give us more clarity. [8:17]If you don’t set an intention, your day will just happen. [9:00]Because of its neuroplasticity, we can change the way our brain looks and functions. [9:52]Mindfulness is the ability to be present in the moment, to be focused on the task at hand and aware of what’s going on around us. Our mind has a natural tendency to wander, and research shows that our attention span is getting smaller over time. However, attention matters in business. Mindfulness training helps to train the attentional muscles so we can be more focused and more effective. [13:33]Marcel asks Jacqueline how to practice mindfulness. She shares a simple A-B-C-D technique and invites listeners to join in. [16:25]The main reason meetings are not as effective as they can be, Jacqueline says, is because people are not paying attention, their minds are wandering. She shares how practicing mindfulness helped one organization decrease their meeting time by 35% and become more efficient. [22:47]Marcel asks what to do with our devices so we can be more mindful. Jacqueline comments that even the mere presence of a smartphone during a conversation negatively impacts our ability to feel connected with each other. She shares some practical tips to help us get the best of technology without letting it get the best of us. [28:10]Selflessness is not allowing our natural egoistic tendencies to get in the way of being a good leader. We naturally see the world from our own point of view. Selflessness asks us to be more intentional about others and their needs and how we can best be of service. The foundation of selflessness is bringing more humility and gratitude into our leadership. [30:35]Empathy is when we feel with someone. Compassion is more focused on how we can make their life easier. If as a leader, you can help to alleviate some of the unnecessary stress and pressure your workers face, you will be able to create a kinder and more effective workplace. [35:23]Jacqueline appeals to listeners to put your own oxygen mask on first. You can’t take care of other people if you’re not taking good care of yourself. Her research has proven that the most successful leaders are disciplined about taking care of themselves. [41:14]ResourcesPotentialProject.com Email: jacqueline.carter@potentialproject.com 

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