Mindful leadership
Leading without losing either your decency or your clear head.
Mindful leadership
The Pygmalion effect: when a leader's expectations become the team's results
In 1968 two researchers lied to the teachers of a California primary school about a handful of pupils, and eight months later those children really had improved. How far the famous story holds up, and what a manager should take from it.
19/09/2026 · 5 min read
Mindful leadership
The quiet manager: why listening is harder than talking, and four small habits that get people to speak up
The average teacher waits about one second after asking a question. Stretch the wait to three seconds and the answers get longer and better. Managers in meetings are no different. This piece covers the research behind that, and four concrete ways to make your meetings less silent.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read
Mindful leadership
Feedback people can actually hear: why the sandwich fails, and one sentence that nearly doubled how many students revised their work
A 1996 review of feedback research found that in more than a third of cases, feedback made performance worse. Most feedback fails not because it is wrong but because the listener is busy defending themselves. Here are some concrete ways to lower that defence.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read
Mindful leadership
Deciding before you have enough information: one-way and two-way doors, the seventy per cent rule, and the half page to write before you commit
Waiting for enough data sounds prudent, but most important decisions never have enough. Jeff Bezos argued for deciding with about seventy per cent of the information you wish you had. The real question is whether the decision can be reversed.
07/09/2026 · 3 min read