Photo by Austin Chan on Unsplash

Everyone is a leader to a tribe.

The definition of a tribe is a group of people or a community with similar values or interests, a group with a common ancestor, or a common leader.

Tribes include …

• Students that are leading a movement.
• Parents that are leading their family.
• Entrepreneurs that are leading their clients.
• Politicians that are leading their communities.
• Nonprofits that are leading a cause.
• Employees that are leading a project.
• Managers that are leading their team.
• CEOs that are leading their organization.

Each of these leaders has a specific role to play in setting direction, influencing others, and achieving results for their tribes.

The difference between the mediocre leader and the mindful leader comes down to how they can answer each of these questions …

1) How are you and your tribe making the world a better place?

At the deepest level, everyone is driven to avoid suffering and achieve happiness.

Mediocre leaders are doing their job. They are motivated by selfish reasons. They are driven to avoid suffering and achieve happiness for themselves. They build empires, consolidate power, and exert control.

Mindful leaders are serving a cause. They are motivated to elevate the suffering and achievement of happiness for others. They use empathy and compassion to lead their tribe in the pursuit of making the world a better place.

2) How are you enabling yourself and your tribe to perform at their best and do their best work?

Great leaders look to optimize people and processes.

They coach and mentor each individual person, identifying weaknesses, leveraging strengths, pushing them to the edge of their comfort zone, and enabling them to do their best work.

They optimize how the work gets done. Freely sharing their expertise and knowledge as they design systems, improve processes, and remove roadblocks.

The difference between mediocre and mindful leaders?

Mediocre leaders don’t walk their talk, making the excuse that they are too busy for their own personal development. They let their arrogance and fear of change drive their behaviour, avoiding the tough inner work required to notice their blind spots and overcome their reactive leadership style.

Mindful leaders set the example for their tribe to follow by embracing their own personal development. They are self-confident enough to admit that they don’t have all the answers and welcome change. They are open to feedback and criticism and are willing to do the tough inner work required to walk the path of a mindful leader.

3) How are you delivering on your promise to make the world a better place?

Mediocre leaders focus on results. They are motivated by the bottom line. They set objectives, monitor performance, and push their tribes to achieve more with less.

Mindful leaders focus on impact. While they also set objectives, monitor performance, and push their tribes, they are motivated by much more than the bottom line.

They invest in relationships, build trust, and look beyond the immediate, short term, by playing the long game.

They can see how their actions impact their tribes, culture, community, clients, competition, and the world.

Being driven by empathy and compassion, their actions will never intentionally cause suffering, and they look for ways to bring joy and happiness into the lives of others.

In Summary

The difference between mediocre and mindful leadership is subtle and can be found by answering these three questions:

1. How are you and your tribe making the world a better place?
2. How are you enabling yourself and your tribe to perform at their best and do their best work?
3. How are you delivering on your promise to make the world a better place?

The answers to these questions can be found by developing self-awareness, practicing empathy, and living with compassion – the core skills of every mindful leader.