The Pause Principle

Book Description

Accustomed to doing, striving, and achieving, leaders are too often addicted to speed and action. But we live and lead in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world. Change is constant and we are on information overload. The way forward is often unclear. How can leaders deal with critical decisions, develop creative solutions, and thrive in the relentless pace of their 24/7 reality? Paradoxically, Kevin Cashman contends that the answer is not to act more quickly but to pause more deeply—to slow down to go fast, to stop and prioritize, to make time to discern and think clearly. Rather than doing more, we need to learn to do differently. The Pause Principle offers a catalytic process to move from mere management efficiency and transaction to leadership innovation and transformation. Pausing is a powerful methodology to imbue continuous growth in three critical domains: personal leadership, development of others, and fostering of innovation cultures. Drawing on decades of experience working with senior leaders, personal stories, and research in psychology, neuroscience, and leadership development, Cashman focuses our attention on our inherent power to ground our leadership and our organizations in authenticity, generativity, and purposeful transformation. The demands on global leaders have never been more challenging. With so much coming at them, leaders must pause to make sense of it all. The Pause Principle offers breakthrough practices for leading as a whole person, harnessing one’s drive to create more compelling, creative, and sustainable futures.