Creating Mindful Leaders: How to Power Down, Power Up, and Power Forward

by Joe Burton

Unleash your inner mindful leader

Mindfulness, emotional intelligence and resilience are the “must have skills” for modern leaders—yet many professionals are too stressed to know where to start. Creating Mindful Leaders provides deep insights and easy practices based in neuroscience, brain training and positive psychology to help professionals thrive in the “age of disruption.”

Written by a global COO turned successful tech entrepreneur, the book provides a roadmap to greater health, happiness and performance. It speaks to every professional wanting to reduce stress, achieve greater success and enjoy life more.  

Offers immediately actionable techniques for professionals at all skill levels Provides relatable, real-world advice Helps build resilience while changing your relationship to stress Shares a roadmap for sustainable performance in the face of ongoing change Creating Mindful Leaders provides an informed, humorous and expert peak into the sources of stress caused by the modern pace of living and offers practical, actionable tools and techniques as the antidote to manage stress, increase resilience, and improve your wellbeing, performance, relationships, sleep and physical health. 

Genres: Nonfiction, Personal Development, Business

239 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 28, 2018

About the author

I discovered mindfulness as a super stressed executive after dismissing it as “definitely not for me” and it changed my life. I share this journey and the related learnings in my new book, Creating Mindful Leaders (Wiley, 2018).

I'm the retired founder and CEO of Whil Concepts, Inc. (“Whil”), a digital training platform helping employees to reduce stress, increase resiliency and improve their sleep and performance. Along the way, I've been an entrepreneur in scientific wellbeing, an early investor and the first President of Headspace and spent fifteen years as a global COO in public companies. I'm an alumnus of Harvard Business School and regular contributor to Forbes, Business Insider and The HuffPost. I've had the good fortune to worked in over 70 countries and travel the world speaking on topics including disruption, culture, emotional intelligence and mindfulness as competitive advantage.

Reviews

[John of Canada · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you've read more than two motivation/business books,I'm not sure this book is necessary.I would suggest instead that you read the original Goleman book,a book of quotations,and The Miracle of Mindfulness by Nath Hanh.There was nothing terrible about this but it's been done before,and better.I was irked by a few things,notably the acronyms and Burton's continuous cutsieisms.An editor would have been helpful.
Burton talks about Maurice Cheeks helping a young girl who had a bit of a panic attack while singing the national anthem before a playoff game.Outstanding!I saw it on youtube.Very moving.For that Mr.Burton gets another star.Thank you.

[Jacob Steinmetz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Breath in, breath out...and stop paying interest on a loan you're never going to take out!! I'm paraphrasing here, but the jist of this line early in the book made the light bulb flash...and flash, and flash, and flash. Joe Burton captured the essence of my life in one simple line. Literally as I was reading the book and I read this section, I started to think about where I was and all the stress and anxiety that I would build up during a particular moment in the sales cycle (I'm in sales; obviously) and yet I could count on 3 fingers how many times a sale or deal had actually fallen apart or simply not worked out. At the end of the day, the sale always worked out because in my line of work everyone involved wanted it to work, so despite the unprofessional-ism that would creep in to the transaction, it would always work out. So all this stress that I would build up was for naught.

Take it from me: read this book. It's a no frills, based in reality, super insightful, fact based book that isn't about saying namaste or meditating while you're in the bathroom for 10 minutes a day, or whatever else is out there. It's an incredible portal into how to, as the title reads: power down, then up, then forward. Bravo to the author for a fantastic read!!

[Tara Cousineau · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very refreshing and honest read on leadership from the trenches. Joe Burton gives the real scoop on the downsides of corporate culture and the hope — not only how to manage the stress and anxiety that is rampant in many workplaces that value the bottom line above all else, but he shows the reader how to cultivate resilience, self-awareness, and joy. Drawing from positive psychology and the compelling science on the benefits of mindfulness, Joe Burton inspires us to find the leader within.

[Sarah Swanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Creating Mindful Leaders is a must-read for anyone not just professionals - a truly approachable, engaging, eye-opening guide to improving one's ability to manage and cope with stress in the workplace and in one's life at large. Burton, with his skilled wit, approachable writing style and super cool brain-training techniques, gives you all the tools you need to tackle work-life moments with greater awareness and ease.

[Janine Lewandowski Graves · Rating 5 out of 5]

I actually had the honor of working with Joe Burton during his more “commanding” but no less witty days. For that, I will always be truly grateful. We shared type A personalities and workaholism. While I ended my workaholic hours years ago afraid of dying at my office desk, I never quite lost the unhealthy mentality. Joe’s book came to me at a very fortuitous time in my life and offers all readers hope that we too can gain professional perspective through mindfulness. We can be the leaders we all aspire to have for ourselves. And we CAN lighten it. Thanks Joe!

[Susan Uffner]

This book was such a learning experience and
one that makes you think and reevaluate yourself.
Joe's humor is priceless as laughing is the best
therapy. I found myself smiling and laughing
out loud many times throughout this book. Joe’s
dedication and research shouts well done!

This book hit home with me to be present
in the moment. We all have to multitask
today and get caught up in rush and overload.
I have felt changes for the better happening to
me by just being present in the moment and
resolution. Please read this book for YOUR
well-being and watch the positive outcome.
It is quite uplifting! I just loved this book and
Will read it again.
Susan Uffner

[Laura Putnam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for every leader, especially in the age of being always on. Joe offers clarity on a topic that is top of mind for many.

[Ryan Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

No exaggeration, this is the best book I've ever picked up. Not one word wasted. This is one of those rare books that I'll spend the rest of my life studying so I can teach people all throughout life but most importantly my children about mindfulness. I think I might go look for a job at Whil now, no joke.

[Ellen Feldman · Rating 2 out of 5]

I picked this up at a lunch and learn at my company so it's not really a book I sought out or anything. I didn't learn anything new about meditation or mindfulness.

[Carrie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I saw Joe Burton speak at a women's leadership conference for my company. He was very engaging. I enjoyed seeing so many scientific references behind his work in mindfulness. There are some good skills here to pick up.

Merged review:

I saw Joe speak at a conference and appreciated his data/research driven approach to mindfulness. This book has a lot of interesting advice and had held up on rereading.

I only give it 4 stars because the app that is constantly talked about in the book is only available if your company is signed up as a member (individuals can't use it). I have used the app for a short time and it was great, but I have no way to access it now.