Book Review : The Mind of the Leader By Rasmus Hougard and Jacqueline Carter

The Mind of the Leader By Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter

Based on extensive research, including assessments of more than 35,000 leaders and interviews with 250 C-level executives, The Mind of the Leader concludes that organizations and leaders aren’t meeting employees’ basic human needs of finding meaning, purpose, connection, and genuine happiness in their work. Most leaders think they are effective at motivating their employees, but study after study shows that employees are more disengaged and uninspired than ever. The solution lies not in more management training or fun off-sites but in looking within–into the mind of the leader. Based on their years-long research and practice, Rasmus Hougaard and Jacqueline Carter, of the Potential Project, have conclusively found that three qualities stand out as being foundational for leaders today: mindfulness, selflessness, and compassion–what they call the MSC Leadership Mind, the ideal mind of the leader. They need to develop managers and executives who lead with these three core mental qualities.

Mindfulness addresses the distractedness that kills our focus, stunts our productivity, and makes us action-addicted multitaskers. Selflessness addresses the general lack of fulfilment in work life by helping us–and the people we lead–find true happiness and meaning. And compassion addresses today’s social disintegration by enhancing true human connections, followership, and engagement. While some think these traits are innate, Hougaard and Carter, together with hundreds of their associates working with thousands of leaders around the world, have developed a system to help leaders of all kinds learn and cultivate the MSC Leadership Mind. By addressing their own needs first, then those of their people, and finally the culture of their organization, every leader can learn to embody what makes for great leadership in today’s challenging organizational environment.

The Mind of the Leader has the potential to change how you lead yourself and your people and to transform your organization. Using real-world inspirational examples from Marriott, Accenture, McKinsey & Company, LinkedIn, and many more, The Mind of the Leader shows how this new kind of leadership turns conventional leadership thinking upside down. It represents a radical redefinition of what it takes to be an effective leader who can implement a practical, hard-nosed solution to every organization’s engagement and execution problems.