The essence of Mindful Leadership is to take time to reflect, allow your mind to quite, focus on a specific topic and be fully present in everything you do.  This is more important than ever in our increasingly fast paced world where it never seems like we have enough time to get done with our task list let alone take time away to think about the future and reflect on the past.   I had a chance to start my journey toward this goal and spend a few days at an innovative conference with the University of Minnesota’s Center Spirituality and Healing on Mindful Leadership.

The key driver for me attending this event was that Bill George, former CEO of Medtronic, was one of two people leading this retreat and participants would get a chance to spend two days with him.  Mr. George is a great leader who I have had the pleasure of meeting in the past and who now teaches at Harvard Business School, provides commentary on many business issues for major cable news networks and is a best-selling author.  If you are looking for a great business book I strongly recommend his book titled True North.

The innovation of this conference was that it focused on bringing together Eastern and Western philosophies to work together.  Bill George shared his research on leadership development and Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche shared his wisdom from an Eastern perspective.  It was amazing how well the two worked together to weave the various practices into a toolkit that participants could use going forward.  The sessions included leadership development principles, meditation and very powerful combined dialogs where both men carried on a discussion about a specific related topic and took questions from those gathered.  I encourage you to read Mr. George’s reflections on the retreat and review the material that was presented over the two days.

Everyone involved within the community or in a leadership role struggles with the question of balance and how to get today’s tasks done while also thinking about the future.  Mindful Leadership isn’t the one thing that will solve all problems and give the perfect answers, but I do believe it can play a role in helping.  I am just beginning my journey and ask you to consider following some of the links above and stepping outside your comfort zone in the future to learn more about Mindful Leadership.  The next stage in my journey is to participate in a Mindful Leadership series that my company started a number of years ago and which many of our senior executives have completed.  I encourage you to watch for opportunities in your life to learn more about Mindful Leadership and start your own journey.

These were the words spoken a few weeks ago – with pride – by former Ambassador Geri Joseph, as she helped celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Policy Fellows program at the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.

Ambassador Joseph had every right to be proud; she co-founded the program with with Vice President Walter Mondale in 1990. As she spoke to a packed house of Policy Fellows alumni, there was a collective sense of appreciation for a program that has earned a reputation as one of the best civic leadership programs in the country.

In an increasingly fast paced world, where bookshelves and websites are overflowing with quick-fix leadership tips, the Fellows program has continued to thrive, connecting nearly 600 Minnesotans in a rich cross-sector network of public affairs leaders. What’s the key here? What has made this program last?

Having worked with the Fellows for three years, I’m willing to venture a guess. It’s the honest, genuine and trusting relationships fostered over two decades that have made this program successful. Relationships between classmates, communities, businesses, nonprofits, and political leaders have taken root in the Fellows program. These types of relationships take time. They cannot be created in any other way, no matter how hard we try to condense the process.

A similar theme emerged in a recent Fellows’ workshop with Bill George. Mr. George suggested that the cause of our culture’s “trust problem” is not that we are living in a short-term world, but that our leaders are practicing short-termism. Meanwhile, our shared challenges are getting more complex with each quick fix we toss their way.

Trust. Integrity. These can only be built over time, with genuine patience and dedication.

An attendee at the Policy Fellows 20th anniversary commented: “learning that someone was a Policy Fellow gives them instant credibility.” The other attendees had a laugh at this, knowing there was quite a bit of truth to it. But where does this credibility come from? Probably not from the individual, if they are a relative stranger. Rather, it stems from 20 years of individual and collective investment in the civic culture of our state through this particular leadership program.

I wonder how many of our leaders are practicing short-termism, bypassing the investment of time and the establishment of trust for more immediate and temporary solutions. Can we address our state’s and nation’s challenges without rich and healthy public relationships? Are we personally devoting time and energy to build these relationships? Are we protecting the venues, the opportunities, and the spaces that allow these relationships to thrive?

~ Kate Cimino is a guest contributor.

I am very excited to have the opportunity to share with you some of my thoughts and join a group of individuals who are already leaders in the Twin Cities community.  I have spent the last five years focused on getting involved in the Twin Cities and along the way have made some great friends and built lifelong relationships.  The Twin Cities is an outstanding community to get involved with and truly make a difference.  I encourage everyone to be involved in some way.  That involvement will be different for each and every one of you but that is what makes this community great.  The more different areas we are involved with, the more ideas and experiences we can learn from and share.  That is the genesis of this blog — we each come with different experiences and interests but can learn from each other and share our thoughts with all of you.  Our hope is that it will spark an interest and discussion which ultimately leads you to take action and encourage others to get involved, share ideas and make a difference.

As I am sure will become clear in my future posts, I have a huge passion for getting others involved in our community.  This passion has been built as I have come to see the impact each and every one of us have on this community.  Most of the time we will never know the full extent of our impact, but every once in a while we get a glimpse of it and that makes every minute we spend in the community worthwhile.

One of the hardest things for me was the first step of trying to figure out where to start.  Please visit my personal website (http://www.timhuebsch.com) where I have listed some of the best organizations I have found to get started in the Twin Cities community.

As we come up upon Labor Day and move into the fall season, it is a great time to see where you might try a new experience in the community or reach out to meet a new employee and tell them about an upcoming event in the community.

A standard feature of my column will be a list of upcoming events that I plan on attending.  I hope some of you will choose to join me and I look forward to giving a recap on some of the very best events on this blog.

Featured Upcoming Events:

TEDxTC

Wednesday, September 2nd – 6:30 @ Science Museum of Minnesota (Event Sold Out)
In the spirit of the TED Conference, experience amazing people from the Twin Cities, sharing with you their ‘idea worth spreading’.  TEDxTC celebrates the vision, work and leadership of folks from our own back yard.

Summit on Leading in Crisis host by Bill George

Thursday, September 17th – 5:30 @ Ted Mann Concert Hall – University of Minnesota (FREE Admission)
Join Bill George, former Medtronic CEO, Best-selling author and Harvard Business School Professor, as he moderates a discussion of personal stories from the trenches on leading in a crisis.  Panelists include some of the biggest names in business including:  John Donahoe, Chair & CEO – eBay; Ann Mulcahy, Chair & former CEO – Xerox; Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chair & former CEO – Carlson Companies; and David Gergen, Director of the Center for Public Leadership – Harvard University.