Cultivating Mindful Citizen Leaders

In teaching that authentic leadership emerges from committed citizenship, the Mindful Warrior approach stands in sharp contrast to the currently popular claim that ‘everyone on the team is a leader.’

Leaders establish goals, articulate and embody a vision for the future, cultivate a shared identity and meaning, control budgets, and are ultimately held accountable for success or failure.  In athletics, this obviously describes coaches, not captains.  Yet all too frequently, coaches permit--if not actively encourage--their captains to labor under the weight of a far broader authority than they truly have.  A debilitating, unutterable frustration--for captains, teammates, and coaches alike--is often the predictable result.

Captains who are liberated to focus their primary efforts on the modeling of mindful citizenship, on the other hand, are far better positioned to “deliver the goods” because this construction of their role is one they can manage authentically and with calm confidence, and their teammates can accept without complaint.

Needless to say, the performance advantage for teams schooled in this latter approach is striking.

Mindful Warrior organizes its curricula around the premise that sports culture is a deceptively complex space in which to convey organizational values to young people.  By encouraging athletes to embrace the central challenge of citizenship--namely, how to participate wholeheartedly in something one doesn't fully control--we teach skills that not only enhance performance, but also serve as a point of entry into the kind of authentic leadership that they may one day earn.

In the Mindful Warrior program, coaches learn how to lead their programs in ways that allow each player to feel seen, met, and heard; captains learn how to serve as trusted intermediaries between their coaches and teammates; and new players learn that their team’s greatness depends on all members standing firm in their integrity.

All Mindful Warrior programs are tailored to your team and to your players’ specific needs.  Please contact us.

To find books that teach how to lead from a place of integrity, to refine your decision-making skills, and to manage your authority mindfully, visit our library.