Opportunities for leadership are all around us. The capacity for leadership is deep within us. - Madeleine Albright

In leadership, expertise and experience are vital – what we know and what we have done is invaluable, but we tend to forget the third aspect of leadership excellence which is our essence – who we are as a leader and as a human being.

This is our leadership presence

The ability to meaningfully connect with others is at the heart of all successful relationships. We do this through feelings of sympathy, empathy and compassion.

Have you ever had an experience of inner conflict, where at least a few different voices in your mind are competing for attention? Have you ever thought that you may be going a bit crazy? Don't worry, you are not alone.

"When I'm not thinking, I'm okay!"

This simple, yet profound insight began Byron Katie's The Work. She noticed that it was the negative thoughts that caused stress and overwhelm in her life, so she decided to challenge them!

The process she calls The Work is simple: capture the stressful thought and then question it.

"Change is inevitable, progress is optional." Tony Robbins

During the course of our lives we will all have to go through a rite of passage: losing a loved one, moving house, or city, or country; getting sick, losing a job, going through a significant restructure at work, or starting over - a new job, new relationship, having babies…We are also dealing with changes people close to us go through as well.

lis·ten [lis–uhn] verb

1. To give attention with the ear; attend closely for the purpose of hearing

2. To pay attention; heed

I was once told that Inuit’s have 20 names for snow. We have just one.

How regulating the breath calms the stress response and unlocks clarity and wellbeing

The easiest way to make stress intermittent lies in something that you have to do every day anyway: breathing.

In the world of self-awareness, there are two types of people: those who think they are self-aware and those who actually are.

Recently, I came across a piece of research by organizational psychologist Tasha Eurich. She began by asking the question – How self-aware do you think we are? Something really staggering emerged

agile

adʒʌɪl/ adjective - able to move quickly and easily.

Life is all about change ; it is ambiguous, unpredictable, frustrating…The more attached we are to the outcomes, the more frustrating it gets

But what if change isn’t the problem? What if the real problem is our inability to manage our expectations, to respond to what is actually happening with clarity and without grasping?

Could changing your attitude make you fitter, slimmer, less stressed and younger?

Above is the sub-heading for the Mind over matter feature article by David Robson from the latest issue of New Scientist magazine.

Our minds aren’t just passive observers, they are actually influencing reality.

Sound a bit new-agey?