A cutting-edge guide to avoiding tech distraction and achieving authentic leadership, from leading experts in business psychology and mindfulness.

It’s no secret that we live in a hyper-connected world, full of distraction and information overload. So how can leaders cut through the noise, to lead effectively despite these challenges? The Clear Leader provides evidence-based guidance to doing just that, helping modern leaders to strategize, prioritise, and connect, while sustaining their own wellbeing.

The authors identify and provide guidance on four key leadership capabilities:

1. Purpose: getting and staying clear about your purpose and communicating that to your team.
2. Priorities: being conscious about what you put your attention and energy into as a leader.
3. People: leading people with your full attention – and theirs.
4. Personal: managing your attention and energy in your personal life.

The Clear Leader provides a bold new perspective on modern leadership. It is a culmination of the authors’ own academic research; James N. Donald as a Senior Lecturer in business psychology and Craig S. Hassed as an internationally renowned mindfulness expert and trainer. Between them, they provide insightful and accessible advice to leaders of all types, going beyond surface level to determine the inner attributes it takes to be a natural, respected, and indeed clear leader

James N. Donald, PhD is passionate about cultivating purposeful, self-aware, and skilful leadership within teams and organisations. Since 2007, James has worked with leaders in numerous private and public sector organisations. He has a PhD in psychology, is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney Business School, and regularly appears in print, radio and TV media, discussing issues of workplace wellbeing and leadership. James is also an active researcher in positive psychology and leadership, regularly publishing his research in the world’s leading research journals.

Craig S. Hassed, OAM has worked within the Faculty of Medicine at Monash University since 1989, as well as teaching into other faculties, and coordinating mindfulness programs across Monash. In 2021, he became the founding Director of Education at the Monash Centre for Consciousness and Contemplative Studies (M3CS). Craig has authored 120 papers in peer-reviewed journals, published 14 books and 17 book chapters. He is regularly invited to speak in Australia and overseas in health, educational, government and corporate contexts. Craig was the founding president and patron of Meditation Australia and a regular media commentator. He is co-author of the two top-ranked online mindfulness courses in the world, and in 2019 received the medal of the Order of Australia for services to medicine.

Introduction……………………………………………………………………….1
1. Problem……………………………………………………………………….. 11
2. Purpose……………………………………………………………………….. 39
3. Priorities……………………………………………………………………… 77
4. People……………………………………………………………………….. 117
5. Personal…………………………………………………………………….. 151
6. Progress…………………………………………………………………….. 187
7. Looking over the horizon…………………………………………….. 205
Appendices……………………………………………………………………. 218
References…………………………………………………………………….. 230
Index…………………………………………………………………………….. 248