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VreelingK, etal. BMJ Open 2019;9:e031643. doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2019-031643
Open access
How medical specialists experience the
effects of a mindful leadership course
on their leadership capabilities: a
qualitative interview study in
the Netherlands
Kiki Vreeling,1 Wendy Kersemaekers,1 Linda Cillessen ,1,2 Dirk van Dierendonck,3
Anne Speckens1,2
To cite: VreelingK,
KersemaekersW, CillessenL,
etal. How medical specialists
experience the effects of a
mindful leadership course on
their leadership capabilities:
a qualitative interview study
in the Netherlands. BMJ Open
2019;9:e031643. doi:10.1136/
bmjopen-2019-031643
►Prepublication history and
additional material for this
paper are available online. To
view these les, please visit
the journal online (http:// dx. doi.
org/ 10. 1136/ bmjopen- 2019-
031643).
Received 13 May 2019
Revised 14 November 2019
Accepted 18 November 2019
1Psychiatry, Center for
Mindfulness, Radboudumc,
Nijmegen, Netherlands
2Donders Institute for Brain,
Cognition and Behavior,
Radboud Universiteit, Nijmegen,
Netherlands
3School of Management,
Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam,
Rotterdam, Netherlands
Correspondence to
Ms Linda Cillessen;
linda. cillessen@ radboudumc. nl
Original research
© Author(s) (or their
employer(s)) 2019. Re- use
permitted under CC BY- NC. No
commercial re- use. See rights
and permissions. Published by
BMJ.
Strengths and limitations of this study
►Qualitative interviews with medical specialists with
enormous workload.
►Purposive sampling for age, gender, specialty,
leadership role and completion of the mindfulness
course.
►Interviews were conducted at least 12 months after
participants completed the mindfulness course.
►Emerging categories are not always as clearly delin-
eated as the grouping suggests.
►There might be a self- selection bias in our partici-
pants, due to the intense programme of the mind-
fulness course
ABSTRACT
Objectives Medical leaders are facing leadership challenges
that ask for a leadership style that takes care of both
themselves and their coworkers. Mindfulness may support
this leadership style. We explored how a ‘Mindful leadership
for medical specialists’ course affected medical specialists’
leadership.
Design We conducted a qualitative study based on in-
depth interviews. The grounded theory method was used
to analyse the data.
Setting A university medical centre in the Netherlands.
Participants Seventeen medical specialists (six male)
with an average age of 51 years (ranging from 40 to 66
years).
Interventions The mindful leadership course consisted
of 10- weekly 5- hour sessions that focused on cultivating
mindfulness and compassion. In addition, sessions
included didactic and interactional teaching about
leadership theories.
Results Four categories emerged from the data: (A)
Self - Attitude: psychological attitude towards self, (B)
Self - Behaviour: behaviour towards self, (C) Other -
Attitude: psychological attitude towards others, and (D)
Other - Behaviour: behaviour towards others. Themes were
dened within these categories: awareness of self, open
mind, insight and appreciation of self (A), emotional and
cognitive self- regulation, letting go of unhelpful behaviour
and developing helpful behaviour (B), differences in
attitude to others such as awareness of (impact on)
others, keeping an open mind about others, allowing
difcult emotions associated with others, appreciating of
others (C), and communicating more effectively, providing
direction, empowering and caring for others (D).
Conclusions The results help us understand the core
elements of mindful leadership, both with respect to one’s
psychological attitude and behaviour towards oneself
and others. More research on mindful leadership and the
effects on self and others is needed. Mindful leadership
courses could be a valuable part of clinical training
and might contribute to more sustainable healthcare
organisations.
INTRODUCTION
Healthcare professionals across America and
Europe face pressing challenges. Healthcare
institutions must balance limited resources
with continuous changes in healthcare
systems (eg, insurance), increased produc-
tion pressure, more administrative tasks and
greater amounts of knowledge to digest.1 2
Furthermore, patients have a stronger voice
and are more involved in medical decision
making.3 All these developments have led
to high levels of work- related stress among
healthcare workers,4–7 more dropout than
in other sectors8 and strong increases in
burnout.9 10
Combatting work- related stress requires
good leadership in healthcare organisa-
tions, not only for workers themselves, but
also for patients and the organisation as a
whole.11 12 According to WHO, high- quality
leadership can help support employees (eg,
by providing feedback, being available to
help with questions or problems or creating
a healthy work environment,12 which may
ultimately reduce the risk of burnout).13
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Furthermore, variations in the quality of medical leader-
ship can result in compromised patient care, sometimes
with catastrophic consequences.14 Despite the impor-
tance of good leadership, it is difficult to provide a single
definition of it because it depends on the context.11 In
medical settings, healthcare leaders are asked to create
an environment that is caring and healthy for patients,
staff and the organisation, and to create a strong and
engaged culture.12 That requires leaders to deploy a
range of leadership styles and behaviours that are helpful
for themselves as well as their teams and the healthcare
environment.15
Medical specialists are increasingly in the lead
and ultimately responsible for their units’ perfor-
mance.16 17 However, their medical education rarely
equips them to successfully perform leadership tasks
in the rapidly changing and demanding healthcare
system.2 16 Therefore, it is increasingly recognised that
the current context of healthcare and its requirements
ask for education on effective leadership.11 It is important
that medical specialists receive evidence- based education
to equip them with tools for effective leadership.6
Mindfulness might be a potent way to support medical
specialists in clinical leadership. Mindfulness is defined as
intentionally paying attention to the present moment in a
non- judgemental way18 and it helps practitioners uncover
habitual behavioural patterns and their attitudes towards
themselves, others and experiences. A recent meta-
analysis on determinants of effective leadership training
found that programmes focused on self- awareness and
intrapersonal content, which are inherent to mindful-
ness, are among the most effective in terms of results.19
However, these interventions are also least studied,19 and
therefore a mindful leadership course is the focus of the
current study.
Research has found that mindfulness may improve
leadership via two pathways. First, mindfulness has been
demonstrated to reduce perceived stress, depression
and anxiety, and to improve well- being and quality of
life in healthy individuals.20 Furthermore, there is some
evidence that mindfulness may help medical specialists in
their professional settings.21–23 Given that medical special-
ists are experiencing burnout symptoms at epidemic
levels,9 addressing their personal health is important.
When medical specialists are less absorbed by their own
complaints and symptoms, their leadership skills may
improve automatically.
Second, mindfulness may directly target leadership
skills. Cross- sectional research among a diverse sample
with leaders from different work fields found positive
associations between leaders’ trait mindfulness and
employees’ well- being, job per formance and satisfaction.24
Employees with a mindful leader feel they are treated
with greater respect and experience less stress.25 Finally,
research has shown that mindfulness improves various
areas relevant to leadership,26 such as self- regulation
(including attention regulation, emotion regulation and
self- awareness).27 This may lead to improved relationships
with employees,24 28 improved communication29 30 and
increased compassion and empathy.31–33
Most empirical studies operationalise mindfulness
within the leadership context by asking leaders to fill out
a mindfulness measure, which neglects its integration
and explication in their leadership behaviour and atti-
tudes.e.g.34 35 To advance the field, this qualitative study
addresses the perceived impact of mindfulness training
on leadership among medical specialists. The Radboud
Centre for Mindfulness developed a course, ‘Mindful
leadership for medical specialists’, which addressed mind-
fulness and leadership centring on mindfulness leader-
ship components added as a bridge to daily practice. In
addition to studying the perceived effects of the course,
we used our data to build a theoretical framework for the
concept of mindful leadership.
METHODS
We conducted this qualitative study among a subsample of
participants in a non- randomised waitlist- controlled pre-
post study on the effects of a mindful leadership course
on medical specialists’ burnout symptoms, psychological
well- being and leadership skills.36 According to Dutch
law, the non- medical and non- experimental nature of the
study, combined with the minimal risks and burdens for
participants, meant that this study did not require review
by the Medical Ethical Committee Arnhem/Nijmegen,
the Netherlands. All study participants provided informed
consent. We followed the COREQ37 and SRQR38 check-
lists for reporting qualitative research.
Participants
We recruited medical specialists from various hospitals in
the eastern part of the Netherlands for the parent study
on the mindful leadership course. Participation in the
course was voluntary. In total, five cohorts attended the
mindful leadership course, totalling 52 medical special-
ists overall. Of those 52 medical specialists, we emailed 25
to ask for their participation in this study. Seventeen of
the 25 invitees agreed to participate.
We used purposive sampling to equally represent
characteristics such as age, gender, specialty, leadership
role and completion of the course. All 17 participants
completed the interviews. Six (35%) of them were men
and their average age was 51 years (varying from 40
to 66 year). Eight (47%) participants had an internal
specialty, five (29%) had a supportive specialty (ie, anaes-
thesiology, pathology, medical microbiology, radiology,
or radiotherapy) and four (24%) had a surgical specialty
(table 1). Participants held various leadership roles:
managing departments or teams, role- modelling and
teaching medical residents and students.
Course description
The ‘Mindful leadership for medical specialists’ course
consisted of 10- weekly 5- hour sessions in the afternoon
and evening with a dinner break in between. The group
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Table 1 Participant characteristics
Identification number Gender Specialty (category)
1 Male Supportive
2 Male Internal
3 Female Internal
4 Female Supportive
5 Male Surgical
6 Female Supportive
7 Male Internal
8 Female Internal
9 Female Supportive
10 Female Surgical
11 Male Surgical
12 Female Surgical
13 Female Internal
14 Male Internal
15 Female Internal
16 Female Supportive
17 Female Internal
size varied from eight to sixteen participants. The course
included the original Mindfulness- Based Stress Reduc-
tion (MBSR) programme developed by Jon Kabat- Zinn.18
The original 8- week programme consists of weekly
group sessions that include mindfulness meditation (eg,
body scan, sitting meditation, gentle movement exer-
cises), psychoeducation about stress and group discus-
sions. Home meditation practice (45 min per day) is an
important aspect of the programme. Furthermore, one
session consisted of a silent retreat. Participants learnt
to focus their attention on the present moment and
observe their own thoughts, feelings and behaviour in a
kind and non- judgemental way rather than identifying
with them (meta- awareness). They were encouraged
to become aware of their own automatic behavioural
patterns and consider replacing them with more helpful
behaviour. In addition to the MBSR, the course consisted
of experiential teaching sessions on cognitive behavioural
therapy, compassion39 40 and three frameworks relevant to
becoming a better leader.
The three leadership frameworks presented were
Covey’s habits for leadership success,41 Hersey’s situa-
tional leadership42 and Scharmer’s Theory U.43 Covey
presents the seven habits of highly effective people,
progressing from independence to interdependence.41
Hersey describes effective leaders as those who adapt
their leadership style to the performance readiness
(ability and willingness) of the individual or group they
are attempting to lead.42 Scharmer’s Theory U describes
a process of letting- go (of our old ego and self) and
letting- come (our highest future possibility: our self) in
which the bottom of the U is ‘presencing’, where these
two selves meet and begin to listen to and resonate with
each other.43 These theories were chosen because of their
relatedness to mindfulness. Each introduces overlapping
themes of becoming more aware of self and others, being
more in the present (instead of in the past or future),
being more in the being- mode (vs the doing- mode), prac-
tising more conscious (instead of automatic) decision
making, listening more carefully and becoming more
sensitive to employees’ needs. After being trained in each
of these frameworks, participants learnt and planned how
to apply their new knowledge to their daily leadership
activities in the weeks between sessions.
Procedure
Two of us (WK and KV) interviewed the medical specialists
12 to 18 months after their participation in the mindful
leadership course (which occurred between September
2014 and June 2016). We used a semistructured style for
the interviews. The topic guide (see online supplementary
material 1) focused on the perceived impact of the course
with follow- up questions about impacts on their leader-
ship skills and the facilitators and barriers to participating
in the course. If not mentioned by the interviewees, the
interviewers asked specific questions related to planning
and organising work, managing people and developing
vision and strategies. The interviewers asked partici-
pants whether they attributed the perceived impacts on
their leadership to the course. Fifteen of the interviews
were conducted in person, the other two were done by
telephone. All interviews were conducted in Dutch and
recorded. The average interview time was up to an hour.
Interviews took place at a location chosen by the partici-
pant, which was usually their workplace.
Data analysis
All interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim.
Data were anonymised and unique research codes were
added to the interviews and transcripts. We analysed the
data using Atlas.TI7,44 a software package for qualitative
analysis.
We used the grounded theory approach to analyse the
data.45 We chose that approach so we could generate a
theorical framework of the perceived impact of mindful
leadership in practice. Furthermore, the grounded
theory approach is an excellent tool for analysing a
social phenomenon like mindful leadership, which is an
under- researched area.45 46 It is a data- driven method in
which the data forms the only input for the theory, which
reduces bias from researchers’ perspectives and previous
theorising about mindful leadership.47 However, this
approach is vulnerable to relativism (ie, researcher inter-
pretation),47 which stresses the importance of a diverse
research group.
The grounded theory approach uses data coding
(labelling and categorising). Codes that are derived
from the data are used to create categories in a theo-
retical framework with three phases of coding, namely
open coding, axial coding and selective coding.48 Data
analysis begins when the first interview is conducted, and
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Figure 1 Two- dimensional model of mindful leadership.
continuous adaptations in the codes and topic guide are
an integral part of this method. Three researchers (HvR,
WK, KV) coded independently to minimise subjectivity.
After every two or three interviews, they compared
and discussed codes and reached consensus. In each
meeting, the researchers updated the coding scheme,
added new codes and combined similar codes. In this
phase, open coding was mostly used, which consists of
reading and re- reading the interviews and developing a
coding three.
After eight interviews, a different group of researchers
(AS, WK, KV) began dividing the codes into themes
with axial coding, in which a list of categories and (sub)
themes is made from the list of codes. Based on discus-
sion in research team, the topic guide was adjusted for
subsequent interviews to collect more detailed informa-
tion about leadership roles. After 14 interviews, no new
codes were emerging from the data. This indicated that
saturation had been reached, as all new data fitted into
the existing codes.45 We still conducted and coded three
more planned interviews to confirm this.
After the 17 interviews were transcribed and coded,
two researchers (WK and KV) grouped the codes again
with axial coding. In two group discussions, the research
team (except LC) grouped the codes into themes and
categories derived from the themes, to find the core cate-
gories (selective coding). We discussed the themes and
categories until we reached consensus. The categories
originated naturally from the data and showed familiarity
with mindfulness theory and practice. During and after
the process of defining themes, we continuously checked
with the original data to make sure themes fitted. Finally,
we selected illustrative quotes for each of the selected
themes and translated them into English. Translations
were checked by a native English professional translator.
Credibility of the data
The research group had different backgrounds and
knowledge, which facilitated a broad view due to different
perspectives. The group consisted of a professor in psychi-
atry/mindfulness trainer (AS), a business researcher/
professor in leadership (DvD), a senior researcher/mind-
fulness trainer (WK), a PhD student/psychologist (LC)
and a business consultant/mindfulness trainer (KV).
The interviewers (WK and KV) did not have any rela-
tionship with the participants prior to the study, which
increases credibility by reducing the chance of socially
desirable responses. WK and KV expected the mindful-
ness training to have positive effects on leadership skills.
Participants were given the rationale for the study (so they
could provide informed consent), but they did not know
the interviewers’ personal goals, which may also reduce
socially desirable responses. Only the interviewer and
participant were present for each interview. The partici-
pants did not receive interview transcripts, but transcripts
were carefully created and checked with the audio files of
the interviews. Participants did not provide feedback on
the study findings.
Patient and public involvement
There were no patients involved in this study, which
focused on medical specialists. Results will be communi-
cated to the participating medical specialists.
RESULTS
One participant (no. 11) said that the intervention did
not have any perceptible effects on his leadership or
personal life. However, the other participants did report
effects, of which results are described below.
Four categories originated naturally from the data and
resulted in a model with two dimensions: attitude versus
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behaviour and self versus others (see figure 1). Through
an iterative process, we reduced the 200 codes to 15
themes describing a process. These themes describe the
four categories with the underlying two dimensions. They
are described below. Quotes for each theme can be found
in table 2.
The core dimensions of our model are ’Self’ versus
‘Other’ and ‘Attitude’ versus ‘Behaviour’. ‘Self’ in our
model refers to the attitude and behaviour towards
oneself. ‘Other’ refers to the attitude and behaviour
towards others. The Attitude versus Behaviour dimension
aligns with the being versus doing dimension that can be
found in mindfulness literature.49 One has a tendency
to constantly do as a habitual behaviour on automatic
pilot as opposed to simply being and experiencing the
moment. In a mindfulness course, participants experi-
ence the difference between ‘doing’ and ‘being’.
In our model ‘Attitude’ describes different attitudes in
being towards self and others. ‘Behaviour’ describes inten-
tional behaviour: a chosen action, internal or external,
done deliberately and with awareness. Combining these
two dimensions creates the following four categories:
A. Self - Attitude: Psychological attitude towards self.
B. Self - Behaviour: Behaviour towards self.
C. Other - Attitude: Psychological attitude towards oth-
ers.
D. Other - Behaviour: Behaviour towards others.
Within these categories, we identified different themes
(figure 1).
The responses from the participants described a process
from attitude to behaviour. Categories were often interre-
lated and could strengthen each other. This can be seen
in the quotes (table 2), which often contain themes from
different categories.
Self - Attitude
The first category in which the participants mentioned
an impact of the training is their psychological attitude
towards themselves as leaders. It is a development in
which awareness and an open mind lead to insight and
an appreciation of self. We gathered four themes.
Awareness of self
Participants described an awareness of their internal
processes like their emotions, the coming and fading
away of emotions like stress or tension, physical reactions
to their emotions and their own behaviour in situations.
Open mind
Participants described how mindfulness helped them see
the bigger picture and notice what is there. They reported
an ability to observe from a distance, take a wider perspec-
tive and look at what is happening. They described having
a fresh view and being contemplative.
Insight
Participants mentioned having more insight into what
triggers them to exhibit certain behaviour or make a deci-
sion. They reported enhanced self- reflection.
Appreciation of self
Participants described being more accepting of who they
are and noticed more confidence in their own capacities.
They reported being more at ease, less self- critical and
more relaxed. They described realising and accepting
that they are good at what they do. Two participants
described how they now value their own opinions on
matters and are aware of what they find important in their
lives. Furthermore, they described being or feeling more
confident.
Self - Behaviour
The second category involves behaviour of leaders
directed towards themselves in their role as a leader.
Cognitive and emotional self-regulation
Participants indicated regulating their emotions by recog-
nising their thoughts and behaviour. They described how
they regulate their thoughts and emotions by intention-
ally seeing thoughts as just thoughts, taking time for their
emotions, keeping a distance from them, exploring their
behaviour and using their breath to calm down.
Letting go of unhelpful behaviours
Participants described letting go of unhelpful behaviour:
consciously ‘not- doing’ such as not or not continuously
checking emails, not uncritically accepting requests
from colleagues, not doing things that are not priorities
for themselves, not getting involved, not multitasking
or not reacting to a situation. They described choosing
to step out of the habitual act of doing and deliberately
refraining from it.
Developing new helpful behaviours
Participants described acknowledging and allowing their
needs, standing up for themselves and acting accordingly.
For example, they described expressing their opinion,
blocking time in their agenda for themselves, planning
and taking a rest and making choices that suit them.
Other - Attitude
The third category is the psychological attitude towards
others. It consists of four subcategories:
Being aware of one’s (impact on) others
Participants described being more aware of others. They
mentioned paying more attention to others and being
really present with them. They also reported being more
aware of the positive or negative impact of their commu-
nication (verbal or nonverbal) or their behaviour on
others. For example, participants noticed the impact of
an inconsiderate remark or tone of voice.
Keeping an open mind towards others
Participants mentioned not having a fixed mindset
and described a more open, accepting and explor-
atory attitude towards others. They reported being less
judgemental, omitting judgements in situations or recon-
sidering judgements when they noticed they had them.
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Table 2 Categories, themes and illustrative quotes derived from the qualitative interviews
Category and Themes Illustrative quotes
Self – Attitude 1. Awareness of
self No. 3 – “…what I then notice is that I start breathing faster, I also start talking louder, start
interrupting others…”
2. Open mind No. 17 – “That you’re not so caught up in yourself or the everyday hustle. You can view
things from a distance and that gives you a broader perspective.”
3. Insight No. 14 – “…you can (…) denitely also see that as an outcome of the course, that I think
'well you need to watch out now, look at what’s happening, what is it that triggers you?’.”
4. Appreciation of self No. 13 – “That as a tutor too I stick to my own qualities more, and am more condent about
those, and can more easily say 'I simply want to know this or that' and 'that’s my style of
training.' And that’s made me more condent.”
Self – Behaviour
1. Cognitive and emotional
regulation
No. 14 – “…to then focus on your breathing, take deep breaths, and, pull yourself back
together in a physical sense…”
2. Letting go of unhelpful
behaviour
No. 12 – “We’ve talked about that, about how much we let our phones and email run our
lives. And us constantly checking. You don’t need to at all, of course. People can easily wait
a day. They don’t need an answer within ve minutes.”
3. Developing new helpful
behaviours
No. 9 – “(…) dealing with pressure in a different way (…), taking a moment for myself more
often, taking a break when it’s break time and going outside for a walk and thinking ‘bye
guys, I’m just popping out to get some fresh air’. And taking more moments in between just
to rest for a moment.”
Other – Attitude
1. Being aware of one’s impact
on others
No. 9 – “In conversations with others too (….). I think you start looking at it from a different
perspective, you become more empathetic I think and more sensitive to ‘how does the other
person feel about what I’m saying?’ and ‘how would I feel about it?’.”
2. Keeping an open mind
towards others
No. 14 – “Especially by separating the content from the person talking, and so listening
to the story from a very neutral perspective. What is the message? Where is the conict?
Depending on what presents itself, and then keeping the judgement as focused on the
content as possible, as factual as possible and not letting it be coloured by the way the
story is told or any undertones you might be hearing.” No. 3 – “I judge less. And I’m actually
very happy with that. Especially if you then look back at yourself, that I thought ‘you know.
Everyone is different of course.’ And I often had an opinion about that or was quick to judge.”
3. Allowing difcult emotions
associated with others
No. 8 – “We had just come out of a very hectic period, and (…) a sensitive and serious
conict (…) and as the manager I was right in the middle of that, and it wasn’t easily resolved
(…) A great deal of investment was needed for many of the relationships that had been
seriously damaged, so that was quite a challenge too and at times when it didn’t go as
quickly as I’d hoped, I simply needed to grin and bear it.”
4. Appreciating others No. 16 –“He’s a bit neurotic and very particular and deals with people in a very different
way that I do. And very dedicated to his work, but I put a kind of negative spin on that (…)
Whereas now (…) I look at things differently (…) when I look at him now, I see a man who has
truly dedicated his life to his work.”
Other - Behaviour
1. Communicating more
effectively
No. 14 – “…then it’s listening, isn’t it, really just listening and nothing else, just listening.” No.
16 – “…being more open towards that and asking more questions. Asking ‘why’, ‘can you
pinpoint why exactly you aren’t doing well?’ ‘Can you articulate what you want, what you
need?’ That I guess, asking more questions and more, well that means not drawing your own
conclusions, but getting more to the bottom of things.” No. 3 – “(…) then I just show there’s
nothing wrong with admitting you don’t know something. Or that you’d like to use someone
else’s expertise.”
2. Providing direction No. 10 – “I think now that I’ve given myself more direction and I can more clearly outline the
direction for the people I manage.”
Continued
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Category and Themes Illustrative quotes
3. Empowering No. 5 – “But experience by now has taught me that the less I interfere (…) the more people
start to develop talents (…) That helps people develop and the product may actually be
better, especially for those people themselves, because there’s a greater sense of them
having done it themselves. So taking more distance, not interfering too much.” No. 3
–“Putting someone down, because that would then feed my ego. That is not at all benecial
to what we need to do, to delivering good patient care. (…) I think well, then I’ll take myself
as an example, and they picked up on that, that I said something along the lines of ‘I don’t
know this’, ‘Can you contribute any thoughts on this?’ Or ‘I did it for this or that reason, but
maybe you have other ideas, or maybe I overlooked something’?”
4. Caring for others No. 9 – “I also noticed with the colleague who’s had a burnout, that I was the rst to notice
that he was burning out and that it started being an issue and that I see it in other colleagues
(…) You’re much more aware, not only of yourself, but also of other people around you.” No.
16 – “And then I try to put them at ease a bit that way, by saying ‘You can’t do everything at
once, so try to take it one step at a time.’ You hope it helps someone a bit.”
Table 2 Continued
Focusing on facts and content rather than the emotions
associated with a person helped them separate emotions
from facts.
Allowing difcult emotions associated with others
This involves being open to difficult things. Participants
mentioned how they allowed and tolerated difficult situa-
tions and behaviour. They mentioned being patient with
others who exhibited difficult behaviour.
Appreciating others
Apart from having a nonjudgemental attitude towards
others, participants described how they now see others’
value more. They realise that people are different and do
not necessarily have the same ideas and ambitions. They
have a greater understanding of other people’s situations.
One participant described seeing people as more equal.
Other - Behaviour
The fourth category involves changes in observable
behaviour towards others. It includes four subcategories:
Communicating more effectively
As part of communicating openly, the participants
mentioned listening, asking for clarification and
connecting with others by sharing expectations, the expe-
rienced workload or their own vulnerability. This theme
was overwhelmingly present in the data.
Most participants mentioned listening with more atten-
tion as a direct effect of the training. They described an
ability to let go of control during communication and
really listen to the other person with attention and focus.
They mentioned refraining from interrupting or finishing
other people’s sentences. They mentioned having more
in- depth discussions and more effective conversations.
Participants reported feeling confident in their ability to
capture essential information, understand key points and
understand another person.
Furthermore, participants not only reported listening
more, but also asking more questions to get clarification.
They asked questions like “What do you mean by that?”
or “Can you tell me what you need?” They also invited
so- called ‘difficult people’ to join in conversations and
engage with decisions.
Participants mentioned connecting and aligning more
with their colleagues. They reported working together
and sharing their experiences, such as workload, expec-
tations towards one another and their own vulnerability.
Providing direction
Participants described an ability to express more clearly
how they see things, what they want and how they want
it. They described expressing a vision towards others and
acting on it. They mentioned formulating their ideas
more clearly towards others.
Empowering
Participants described how they consciously refrained
from responding to emails to tell others what to do
and developed behaviour that facilitated others. They
described how they now give their employees more
responsibility and trust that what they do is right. That
allows employees to develop, and the participants did not
intervene with their learning process. Instead of telling
employees what to do, the participants coached them and
discussed their personal development with them.
Caring for others
Participants described a certain care for their colleagues.
They mentioned actions like devoting more time to their
colleagues, paying more attention to their well- being and
keeping in contact with them when they were on sick
leave. One participant described how he fired someone
with compassion.
Participants also mentioned encouraging others to take
care of themselves. They described advising others to
practice mindfulness or transmitting to others what they
had learnt in the course (eg, being less judgemental and
kinder towards yourself). They mentioned being milder
towards others and encouraging others to do so.
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Apart from effects on their leadership, participants also
mentioned results of the process of practising mindful-
ness in their leadership. The answers can be divided in
two subcategories:
1. Greater satisfaction in work
They described having a more pleasant and productive
contact with their colleagues and the patients.
2. Efficiency
Participants described that the effort they put in the
organisation had a bigger return on investment and
that they received more appreciation from their
employees.
DISCUSSION
This qualitative study addressed the perceived impact of
mindfulness training on leadership by medical specialists.
In addition to the dimension of self versus other, we iden-
tified a dimension of attitude versus behaviour, which can
also be described as ‘being’ versus ‘doing’.49 The psycho-
logical attitude towards oneself was characterised by more
awareness, an open mind, insight and an appreciation of
self. In terms of behaviour towards oneself, participants
reported better emotional and cognitive self- regulation,
which involved letting go of unhelpful behaviours and
developing new helpful behaviours. The change of atti-
tude towards others was characterised by having more
awareness of others and one’s own impact on others,
keeping an open mind towards others, allowing diffi-
cult emotions associated with others and appreciating
others. Changes in behaviours towards others consisted
of communicating more effectively, providing directions,
empowering and caring for others.
The data also showed that the four categories are inter-
related. For example, when people appreciate themselves
more, this can result in better self- care (B), a more appre-
ciative attitude towards others (C) and more caring for
others (D). Insight seems to precede behavioural changes,
although not all insights lead to behavioural change. It is
possible that resources for behavioural change (eg, time
and energy) are not (yet) available but will be in future.
Therefore, some effects of the intervention may become
visible long after the intervention has ended.
Contribution to previous research
Our model is in line with findings from previous research.
Another study that involved healthcare workers after a
mindfulness intervention described an increased open
mind, awareness of self, insight, self- acceptance, letting
go of unhelpful behaviour and developing helpful
behaviour.32 It also reported perceived effects in the inter-
personal domain, like listening, empathy and acceptance of
others.32 Irving et al described an influence of mindfulness
on leaders’ emotional regulation and self- awareness.50
Furthermore, previous research showed that leaders’
mindfulness is related to employees’ well- being.24 Our
study revealed some potential pathways to explain
this relationship. Leaders said that awareness of their
leadership style helps them communicate more effec-
tively and provide clearer instructions. Furthermore, they
are more aware of their employees’ mental and physical
states, which helps leaders empower and care for them;
this is in line with a previous qualitative study on mind-
fulness and leadership.51 However, other pathways may
exist, especially those that appear unconsciously and
are difficult to reflect on in interviews. Interviews with
employees or observation studies may help to elucidate
these pathways. Furthermore, personal relationships may
also improve, although that is beyond the scope of this
study.52 These improved personal relationships may also
have a positive effect on performance at work and as a
leader.
Good et al28 suggested that mindfulness may enhance
the effects of a leadership course. Our study, although
qualitative, found that medical specialists report benefi-
cial outcomes from a combined course, which provides
some support for that idea. Rigorous randomised
controlled trials of leadership courses with and without
mindfulness would be necessary to truly test this idea.
However, previous research did find that a mindfulness
communication course had beneficial effects on conver-
sations with patients,30 while another study of a mindful
leadership course reported benefits to communication
with colleagues and employees.33
One participant in our study reported that the course
had no perceived benefits on their leadership skills or
personal life. Mindfulness- based interventions like the
leadership course may not be equally beneficial for all
participants. for example,53 Therefore, it is important
that future research address the question of who is likely
to benefit and who is not, and raise awareness of alterna-
tive leadership courses that might be a better match for
certain medical specialists.
Relation to different leadership styles
Studying the perceived effects of a mindful leadership
course gave us insight into the nature of mindful lead-
ership. Our model builds on and extends current theo-
rising on positive leadership grounded in ethical and
moral values. Some themes correspond with aspects of
other leadership styles, most notably authentic leadership
and servant leadership. Authentic leadership focuses on
greater self- awareness, an internalised moral perspective,
balanced information processing and transparency in
behaviour towards others.54 In our results, we also see the
aspect of self- awareness that is also an element of authentic
leadership has and, like authentic leadership, mindful
leadership involves behaviour that promotes greater
psychological capacity through cognitive and emotional
self- regulation. A unique quality of mindful leadership is
the more explicit incorporation of a behavioural compo-
nent with a broader behavioural spectrum, going beyond
transparent authentic behaviour and the strong attitu-
dinal focus of authentic leadership.
We also see a link with servant leadership, which has
been described as having six characteristics: empowering
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and developing people, humility, authenticity, interper-
sonal acceptance, providing direction and stewardship.55
The characteristics of empowerment and interpersonal
acceptance overlap with mindful leadership. Empower-
ment describes a leader’s focus on employees’ autonomy,
enhancing their personal growth and having a general
coaching attitude. All these elements are part of mindful
leadership to greater or lesser degrees. We also see a link
with the interpersonal acceptance dimension of servant
leadership: the themes ‘awareness of others’, ‘open mind
to others’ and ‘appreciating others’ from our results dove-
tail with this characteristic of servant leadership. Mindful
leadership differs in that the focus is both on self and
others. Servant leadership is grounded in serving others,
the six characteristics are all defined in terms of the rela-
tion between leader and follower. Mindful leadership
describes more explicitly and in deeper detail the intrap-
ersonal aspect of being a leader through different helpful
attitudes and behaviour. Thus, mindful leadership offers
components not present in authentic or servant leadership.
Although our data are qualitative and require further quan-
titative research, they suggest that mindful leadership adds
components that are relevant to leadership in a medical
setting.
Strengths and limitations
One strength of this research is that we were in the unique
position to conduct interviews about the application of
mindful leadership in real life with a group of partici-
pants who have enormous workloads. These interviews
and real- life examples gave us the insights we needed. We
applied purposive sampling that considered age, gender,
specialty, leadership role and completion of the course,
to make sure a large variety of perspectives was included,
which is a strength in qualitative research. All the inter-
views were conducted by researchers who were not the
teachers, which made the responses less prone to subjec-
tivity. The research group that analysed the data consisted
of researchers with a variety of expertise, to avoid bias
from particular perspectives. A final strength is that the
interviews were conducted no less than 12 months after
the course ended, which made it possible to say some-
thing about how the lessons from the course were inte-
grated into daily work practice.
Despite its strengths, this research also has some limita-
tions. First, categorising was helpful when analysing the
results, but it sometimes felt forced and artificial. In reality,
the distinction between the different categories were not
always very sharp. For example, being aware of your judge-
ment about a colleague was categorised as an awareness
related to others. But a case could also be made for label-
ling it as awareness of self. Clearly the categories influence
each other, and the reality is not static. The same applies
for the themes within categories. Second, our mindful
leadership course was an intense programme. Therefore,
it is possible that self- selection for participation created a
bias in the participants, which may compromise the study’s
generalisability. Finally, we only focused on the perspective
of the medical specialists themselves, which can be seen as
limitation. The perspective of their employees could also
be informative, which is an interesting avenue for future
research. Despite these limitations, we feel that this study
adds to the research on mindful leadership in general, and
leadership among medical specialists in particular.
Implications
Our results reflect changes in psychological attitudes and
observable behaviours and are a first attempt to define
mindful leadership and its components. Furthermore, they
suggest that a mindful leadership course may be a valu-
able training option for medical specialists. More research
on mindful leadership and the effects on self and others
is needed. Future research may address the effects of the
course from the perspective of employees, and randomised
controlled trials with large samples are needed to address
effectiveness. Furthermore, it may be valuable to study
beforehand who will benefit from the course.
Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank Dr Hiske van Ravensteijn for her
contribution to the coding of the data.
Contributors KV contributed to the conception and design, acquiring data,
analysing and interpreting data, drafting and revising the article, and approving
the nal version. WK contributed to the conception and design, acquiring data,
analysing and interpreting data, drafting and revising the article, and approving the
nal version. LC contributed to drafting and revising the article and approving and
submitting the nal version. DvD contributed to analysing and interpreting data,
drafting and revising the article, and approving the nal version. AS contributed to
the conception and design, acquiring data, analysing and interpreting data, drafting
and revising the article, and approving the nal version.
Funding The authors have not declared a specic grant for this research from any
funding agency in the public, commercial or not- for- prot sectors.
Competing interests AS is the director of the Radboudumc Center for Mindfulness
and WK, LC and KV were employed by the Radboudumc Center for Mindfulness at
the time of this study.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Ethics approval According to Dutch law, the non- medical and non- experimental
nature of the study, combined with the minimal risks and burdens for participants,
meant that this study did not require review by the Medical Ethical Committee
Arnhem/Nijmegen, the Netherlands. The principles of the Declaration of Helsinki
were followed wherever applicable. In addition, participants agreed to participate by
signing an informed consent. Data were treated condentially and according to the
Dutch ‘Protection of personal data’ law.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement No data are available.
Open access This is an open access article distributed in accordance with the
Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY- NC 4.0) license, which
permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non- commercially,
and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is
properly cited, appropriate credit is given, any changes made indicated, and the use
is non- commercial. See:http:// creativecommons. org/ licenses/ by- nc/ 4. 0/.
ORCID iD
LindaCillessen http:// orcid. org/ 0000- 0003- 2030- 8646
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