Matthew Foster

Hopper, L. (2010). Mindful leadership. Georgia Library Quarterly, 47(2), 15-17.

This article describes how librarian leaders can take advantage of some aspects of Buddhism to
improve their abilities. By practicing mindfulness, a leader can both focus on problems better, and
keep a more open mind. Hopper cautions against narrow-mindedness and excessive impulsiveness
while still taking responsibility for the ultimate decisions that a leader must make. She encourages
mindfulness because it facilitates authenticity, integrity, and improves total awareness of the
organization.

The article describes mindfulness in a manner very similar to Sample's description of both
thinking gray and free and artful listening. Mindfulness is the art of paying attention and seeing things
in a fresh and nonhabitual manner (Hopper, p15), while Sample describes free thinking as considering
all the fantastic or absurd options and distilling them into possibilities, and artful listening as essentially
listening with an open mind. These descriptions of leadership skills are essentially the same. Rather
than allow themselves to be restricted to the binary thinking described by Sample, both mindfulness
and thinking free require the leader to reserve judgment and consider ideas as more than just yes or no
events. Hopper also recognizes the problem caused by strong identification with a particular vision and
talks about the importance of making it safe for people to speak honestly and openly (p16). Sample
also describes the solution to the problem in more detail with artful listening which is not JUST hearing
what others say, but surrounding yourself with intelligent, competent advisers, and allowing them true
input into your decisions while still deciding ultimately yourself, and retaining the responsibility for
that decision yourself.
Other Work Referenced
Sample, S. B. (2002). The Contrarian's Guide to Leadership (224). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.