Selective Thinking Is The Skill Every Leader Needs
As a leader with decades of experience across industries and continents, I've learned one truth that cuts across every success and every setback: Leadership begins and ends in the mind. Over the years, no strategic playbook or management handbook has served me better than one foundational skill—selective thinking.
Many of us in leadership are trained to scan the external environment, analyze competitors and forecast markets. But few are taught how to train our minds—where the real leadership happens. In my journey, merging Eastern wisdom and Western psychology, I've come to realize that mastering what you allow into your mind, and how you engage with it, is the cornerstone of effective leadership.
The Turning Point: Lessons From The Original Mindfulness
Years ago, my deeper understanding of leadership began with an ancient tradition—Sathipattana, in Pali, or mindfulness/introspection in English. During original mindfulness techniques, practitioners direct their attention inward, not outward. They observe the body and mind, turning away from the barrage of sensory input.
The key practice is simple but profound: Don't react to what you see, hear, smell, taste or touch. Instead, notice what's happening inside you. Are you feeling anger? Desire? Worry? Fear? You become a watcher of your own mind. The early teachings describe this first level of meditation as selective thinking—choosing what thoughts you allow to grow and which ones you let go.
As a leader, this practice taught me to monitor the thousands of thoughts racing through my mind, without reacting impulsively. More importantly, I learned not to think about the thought. I simply observe it, and it passes. This may sound subtle, but in the high-stakes, high-pressure world of leadership, it is revolutionary.
When you observe your mind without being swept away, you take back control from unconscious, emotional thinking—the kind that fuels rash decisions and poor leadership.
The Science Catches Up
Interestingly, modern psychology has validated what ancient wisdom has taught for centuries. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), now widely used around the world, shows that unexamined, automatic thoughts drive emotions and behaviors. Leaders caught in cognitive traps like catastrophizing or overgeneralization find themselves making decisions clouded by fear or ego.
Training yourself to observe and challenge these automatic thoughts—what psychologists call metacognition—is strikingly similar to the Buddhist concept of yoniso manasikāra, or wise attention.
In my experience, this mental discipline is not just theoretical. I've seen leaders who cultivate this kind of awareness become far more emotionally resilient, less reactive under pressure and better able to make clear, balanced decisions.
Research supports this: Studies show that mindfulness practices, which emphasize selective attention and thought awareness, are linked to better leadership performance, higher emotional intelligence and improved organizational outcomes.
Practical Lessons: How Selective Thinking Transformed My Leadership
Before I learned selective thinking, I often found myself reacting—sometimes with frustration, sometimes with fear—to challenges that arose. I would get entangled in thoughts about the competition, the economy or even internal politics.
Training in selective thinking taught me to pause and observe rather than react. When faced with a difficult decision or a crisis, I now recognize the initial flood of emotions and then let them pass. I focus only on the essentials, cutting through noise and distraction.
This discipline has saved me from countless impulsive decisions and helped me foster calm, clarity and compassion in the organizations I lead.
More than that, it helped me cultivate what I call inner leadership—the ability to lead myself before attempting to lead others. As the Buddha said, 'Though one may conquer a thousand times a thousand men in battle, yet he indeed is the noblest victor who conquers himself.'
Why Leaders Today Need Selective Thinking More Than Ever
We live in an era of constant distraction. Leaders are bombarded with information 24/7, pressured to react instantaneously. But effective leadership demands the opposite: presence, calm and clarity.
Selective thinking helps leaders:
In my leadership workshops and coaching sessions today, I emphasize this simple truth: Master your mind, and you master your leadership.
Three Must-Do Practices To Train Selective Thinking And Elevate Leadership
In today's fast-paced, emotionally charged environments, selective thinking isn't just a mindfulness technique—it's a leadership necessity. These three practices are essential mental habits for leaders who aspire to lead with clarity, composure and conscious intention.
1. Daily Thought Audit (Mindful Awareness): Strong leadership begins with self-awareness. Take five to 10 minutes daily to observe your thoughts without judgment or reaction. Notice what surfaces—especially in moments of pressure. This builds awareness of your mental patterns, the foundation for intentional decision-making.
2. Intentional Thought Selection (Mental Filtering): Once aware, leaders must filter their thinking. Ask yourself: 'Is this thought helpful or reactive? Productive or emotional?' Release unhelpful thoughts and focus on those aligned with your values, vision and goals. This habit shifts your thinking from automatic to strategic.
3. Interrupt Emotional Reactivity (Disrupting Unconscious Patterns): When strong emotions arise, pause and name them—'This is anxiety,' 'This is anger.' Naming the emotion interrupts its unconscious power. This practice fosters emotional regulation, a critical leadership skill in high-stakes situations.
Final Reflection
Leadership is not merely about strategies and skills. It is about mastering the space between stimulus and response. Selective thinking creates that space—a moment of awareness where true leadership happens.
From the quiet halls of ancient monasteries to the fast-paced boardrooms of today, this lesson remains unchanged: The greatest leaders are not those who control others, but those who have first learned to control themselves.
Forbes Coaches Council is an invitation-only community for leading business and career coaches. Do I qualify?
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
‘Sickening' and ‘evil': Musk bashed for USAID cuts after study predicts millions could die
Medical experts and lawmakers are denouncing Elon Musk as cruel after a new study predicted that the billionaire's efforts to help the Trump administration dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development could lead to more than 14 million deaths over the next five years. According to the analysis, published Monday in the medical journal The Lancet, programs funded by USAID prevented nearly 92 million deaths worldwide from 2001 through 2021. Researchers found that across 133 countries, the agency helped stop more than 25 million deaths from HIV/AIDS, about 11 million from diarrheal diseases, 8 million from malaria and nearly 5 million from tuberculosis. Using that data, experts calculated that 14 million people around the globe could die over the next five years because of the USAID cuts, including about 4.5 million children younger than 5. USAID became an agency of particular interest to Musk, as his so-called Department of Government Efficiency carried out President Donald Trump's mission to slash the federal budget. In February, Musk bragged on X that he 'spent the weekend feeding USAID into the wood chipper.' A month later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the cancellation of 83% of USAID's programs, saying they did not serve 'the core national interests of the United States.' Rubio's move had an immediate effect, as NBC News reported: The action brought many overseas humanitarian efforts to a grinding halt, leading to the closings of food kitchens and health clinics in underserved countries and in some cases delaying or stopping the distribution of lifesaving medications, bed nets to ward off malaria, nutritional packets for starving children and chlorine tablets to disinfect dirty water. Samantha Power, who led USAID during the Biden administration, told CNN that the effects that Musk's cuts will have on global health are 'not something that any American should tolerate.' 'Efficiency, we're all for efficiency, but actually taking away programming that is saving lives … that's just devastating,' Power said. Timothy Caulfield, a professor of health law and science policy at the University of Alberta in Canada, called the prediction 'Sickening. Heartbreaking. Evil.' Rachel Clarke, an English physician specializing in severe illness, seemingly singled out Musk, attributing the estimated death toll to 'one man's cruelty & venality.' Congressional Democrats also shared their reactions to the study. 'Donald Trump's legacy: As many as 14 MILLION more deaths over the next five years thanks to USAID cuts made by him, Elon Musk, and his DOGE bros,' Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois wrote on X. 'Absolutely shameful.' 'This administration's cruelty knows no bounds,' Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Washington wrote in her own post. This article was originally published on
Time Business News
2 days ago
- Time Business News
How an English Language Course in Lahore Improves Your Listening Skills
Many English students and professionals in Lahore face problems with listening. They try to speak but fail to understand spoken English. This issue creates stress and confusion. Lack of good listening creates barriers in learning. An english language course in lahore by House of Learning helps them to handle this issue in simple ways. Many English learners do not listen to English daily. This gap reduces their understanding. They speak their regional language in daily life. Therefore, students and professionals hardly listen to English conversations. Their poor exposure to real listening creates big hurdles for them. Native speakers speak very fast. So, most learners fail to catch the words. This speed creates confusion and stress. Moreover, language learners skip many words while listening. This problem affects understanding deeply. Different accents confuse language learners easily. Some speak in British style while some use American words. Learners fail to recognise words in different accents. Therefore, listening becomes harder. This issue blocks smooth communication. Limited vocabulary creates listening issues. Students hear words but fail to understand their meaning. Moreover, unknown words break the flow of listening. Therefore, their understanding becomes weak. Poor vocabulary harms both listening and speaking. Most language learners never watch English movies or news. This lack of exposure weakens their listening skills. Listening improves when the ears catch regular sounds of English. Therefore, missing this habit affects their learning. It also lowers confidence during conversations. Many English learners translate English into their regional language while listening. This habit slows down their understanding. Translating breaks the flow of listening. Therefore, the brain focuses more on meaning than on sound. This process creates confusion and mistakes. Some learners do not focus while listening. Therefore, they easily get distracted. Noise or other sounds break their attention. Eventually, their listening fails to stay active. Poor focus creates gaps in learning. Many language learners do not understand correct pronunciation. Words sound different from their spelling. Therefore, students miss the words while listening. Mispronounced words create misunderstandings. This problem affects both listening and speaking. Some English students focus more on grammar rules while listening. This pressure blocks natural understanding. Therefore, the brain divides attention between grammar and listening. As a result, their understanding becomes slower and harder. Language learners often speak in one-to-one situations only. Group conversations never happen in their routine. Therefore, they fail to find different voices at the same time. This issue damages their listening skills in real conversations. English sounds are quite different from Urdu sounds. Therefore, language learners struggle to catch new sounds easily. Therefore, their brain takes time to adjust. This issue creates slow listening progress. It often frustrates them. Written English looks easy but spoken English sounds different. Many students and professionals understand books but fail to catch spoken words. Therefore, listening becomes difficult. This difference creates a gap in their learning. Many language students never talk to fluent English speakers. Therefore, their ears do not pick natural sounds. This gap harms their listening growth. Regular interaction boosts listening power easily, but lack of it delays progress. An English language course in Lahore offered by House of Learning improves listening step by step. Trainers offer daily listening exercises. Language students listen to slow and fast English. Therefore, the brain adjusts at different speeds. This practice makes listening easier. This spoken English course includes role plays and group talks. Students listen to others in real situations. Therefore, listening becomes active. Group discussions train ears to handle many voices. This practice improves real-life communication. This professional English language course in Lahore uses videos, podcasts, and audio lessons. So, students listen to different accents and voices. That's how their listening grows stronger. As audio content trains ears better than books. Trainers help students spot their listening mistakes. Students repeat words until they sound clear. Therefore, wrong patterns slowly disappear. That's how trainers guide them step by step. This support strengthens their listening quickly. Limited listening skills create big hurdles for English learners in Lahore. Many reasons block this skill, like: Poor practice, Stress, Fast speech, and Weak vocabulary. An English language course in Lahore by House of Learning solves these problems effectively. Regular practice, real conversations, role plays, and trainer support make listening better. Students start understanding easily and speak with more confidence. Their listening grows step by step with simple and regular effort! Click here and read more blogs TIME BUSINESS NEWS
New York Post
2 days ago
- New York Post
Media's perverse focus on heat deaths is leading to wrongheaded climate policies
Across the United States and Europe, the media is warning of dangerously high temperatures. 'Extreme Heat Is Breaking America,' warns The New York Times. 'Lethal heat is Europe's new climate reality,' adds Politico. It's an annual routine: Expect to be inundated with alarming stories about heat domes, heat deaths and heat waves, pointing to the urgency of climate action. Advertisement But this narrative will tell you only a misleading fraction of the story. The impacts of heat waves are stark and immediately visible, meaning they are photogenic and coverage is click-worthy. Heat kills within just a few days of temperatures going up, because it swiftly alters the electrolytic balance in weaker, often older people. Advertisement These deaths are tragic and often preventable, and we hear about them every summer. But the media seldom reports on deaths from cold. Cold kills slowly — often over months. In low temperatures, the body constricts peripheral blood vessels to conserve heat, raising blood pressure. But deaths from cold far outnumber those from heat. The most comprehensive Lancet study shows that while heat kills nearly half a million people globally each year, cold kills more than 4.5 million — i.e., nine times more. Advertisement Yet, perversely, global media instead write nine times more stories about heat waves than cold waves. We deserve to know which is the bigger threat. We should know, for example, that the United States sees more than 80,000 deaths from cold each year, vastly outweighing its 8,000 heat deaths. In Latin America and Europe, cold deaths outweigh heat deaths 4 to 1. In Africa, astonishingly, it's 46 to 1. Advertisement Even in India — where the Western media has fixated on extreme heat this year — cold deaths outnumber those from heat 7 to 1. Global warming indeed causes more heat waves, raising the risk that more people die of heat. However, it also reduces cold waves, leading to fewer cold deaths. The Lancet study found that over the past two decades, higher temperatures have caused 116,000 more heat deaths annually — but 283,000 fewer cold deaths. On balance, that's 166,000 fewer temperature-related deaths each year. It is a travesty that this is almost never reported. Sure, as temperatures rise, that balance will shift. But a near-global Nature study shows total deaths from heat and cold will remain lower than today even with as much a 4.8°F temperature increase, which is near what's expected by the end of this century. One of the most obvious ways to keep populations cool is through cheap and effective city design: more trees and green spaces and painting black roofs and roads white to make them more reflective. A study of London shows white paint could reduce heat-wave temperatures by as much as 18°F. Advertisement A Nature study shows large-scale, global adoption of cool roofs and pavements would cost about $1.2 trillion over the century but will prevent climate damages worth almost 15 times as much. The best way to reduce both heat and cold deaths is ensuring access to cheap energy. Affordable energy allows people to use air conditioning during heat waves and heating during cold snaps. In America, heat deaths have dropped by half since 1960, largely due to air conditioning — despite more hot days. Affordable heating, enabled by lower natural-gas prices from fracking, now saves an estimated 12,500 lives each winter. Advertisement The big problem is that climate policies prioritize reducing CO₂ emissions over energy affordability. Policies that increase energy costs make it harder for people to afford heating and cooling, which can mean more deaths, especially among the poor and vulnerable. The International Energy Agency's latest data shows a clear correlation between more solar and wind and higher average household and business energy prices. Advertisement Countries pushing net-zero climate policies and fossil-fuel taxes like Germany's have seen energy costs soar. Three in four Germans say they're worried about whether they can afford the high cost of Germany going green, and nearly 60% shiver in the cold instead of turning on heat, per a survey by a Sweden-based energy group. Though climate change is a real problem, the media's reduction of this complex issue to sensationalist stories of heat deaths is misleading. We need policies that prioritize human well-being, ensuring affordable energy for heating and cooling, along with adaptation. Advertisement To tackle long-term global warming we need to invest in energy innovation to make green energy cheaper and more reliable, rather than imposing costly mandates. But the media's focus on heat deaths will only promote harmful policies and keep us from considering more sensible solutions — both for climate change and temperature-related deaths. Bjorn Lomborg is president of the Copenhagen Consensus, visiting fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution, and author of 'False Alarm' and 'Best Things First.'
