Date of Award

Fall 12-19-2015

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

MA - Master of Arts

Department

Interdisciplinary Studies

First Advisor

Nancy Waring

Second Advisor

Marion Nesbit

Abstract

In this two-party thesis study, the need for compassion in our world is presented up front. Upon this foundation of the need for compassion, the building blocks that together comprise compassionate everyday leader are placed: leaders and leadership, mindful leadership, defining the everyday leader, mindfulness, compassion, and how to cultivate compassion. The evolution of broad concepts of leadership are reviewed, from a control-based approach to a more mindful leadership, social-intelligence based approach. In a mindful leadership approach, qualities of self-awareness are cultivated within and then manifest in relation to the leadership process. Everyday leadership is a more expansive and inclusive definition of leadership and takes a wide, personal view of leadership . Alongside this view of everyday leadership are everyday actions we might take to develop as a leader, by adding value to ourselves and others.

These expansive notions of leadership require a mindful presence; an awareness of self and others. Current research and scholarly literature indicate that there are physiological and psychological values to cultivating a mindfulness practice, which is shown through research to relate well to leadership skills. In addition, research points to the benefits of compassion, and indicates that it can be cultivated through training. An examination of three major compassion cultivation programs provides documentation of compassion cultivation practices from which to build, as presented in Part II, an eight-week Cultivating Compassion for Everyday Leadership Curriculum., for use in community, education and business settings.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

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