Dalai Lama on Leadership

Dalai Lama, the 76-year-old exiled spiritual leader of Tibet, always

impresses me with his thoughts. While the Dalai Lama, a Buddhist monk,

does not often speak about leadership explicitly, choosing instead to

focus on teachings about compassion and peace, his teaching has always

had a profound impact on leadership.

Here are some thoughts of Dalai Lama’s leadership tenets that I would

like to share with you this month.

Develop your View

In order to lead, you must understand the reasons for our actions. As

the Dalai Lama says, “The nature of our motivation determines the

character of our work.” In leadership, this means remaining aware of not

only your own interests but the interests of all those you lead.

Establish the Right Conduct

Setting up widely-accepted leadership principles, however, is not

enough. I see so many leaders with strong principles which they fail to

apply. In order to ensure your best intentions are consistently applied to

your leadership practices, develop a system of regular progress reports

and evaluations.

Train your Mind

The Dalai Lama describes the untrained mind like a monkey jumping

around in a tree, excited, and unable to concentrate. Buddhists counter

this cerebral activity by training their minds, or meditating. Dalai Lama

maintains that a peaceful, well-trained mind is important for increasing

quality of thought and decreasing irrational impulses. The leader has to

recognize when negative emotions like frustration, impatience, anger,

lack of self-confidence, jealousy, greed start to influence his thought

processes. These negative thoughts and emotions not only can lead to

wrong decisions but also waste mind energy. Simple relaxation

techniques such as deep breaths, relaxing muscles, and controlled

emotions might help even the busiest leaders keep composed at all

times.

Focus on Happiness

What makes you happy? What makes you unhappy? By asking two such

simple questions, a leader can discover how best to motivate his

employees, persuade his customers, and support its shareholders.

According to the Dalai Lama, happiness is the highest universal form of

motivation. We tend to forget that despite the superficial differences

between us, people are equal in their basic wish for peace and

happiness. Employee, customer, and shareholder satisfaction should take

precedent over the bottom line. But, that does not mean sacrificing

profits. Some think happiness is a tradeoff for making money, but it’s

not. A happy company is a successful company. You are more invested

in success when you care about where it comes from.

Become Interconnected

Buddhists believes in interconnectivity—the idea that people only truly

exist in relation with other people. From a Buddhist perspective,

leadership is a network for these connections. The interconnected leader

sees himself or herself as the generator of impulses into an

interconnected system to realize the purpose of the organization. When

an impulse—anything from a conversation to a presentation to a policy—

reaches another individual, it triggers an idea and sets off a chain

reaction for creative productivity. It is the leader’s job to manage and

reinvigorate impulses among colleagues. But, interconnectedness is not

only with relationships within a company but also relationships with

clients, the customers, and even competitors.

Stay Positive

Appreciate how rare and full of potential your situation is in this world,

then take joy in it, and use it to your best advantage. Every problem has

a solution, and having the right attitude from the beginning may help

you find it.