Do All Managers Have to Suck? How Mindfulness Can Make Better Leaders
Let’s be honest: we’ve all had a manager that made us question not just our job, but our sanity. Whether it was micromanaging, poor communication, or a complete lack of emotional awareness, bad management has ripple effects that extend far beyond the workplace. It impacts confidence, mental health, team cohesion, and even creativity.
But what if the problem isn’t just the people in those roles—but how we prepare (or don’t prepare) people for leadership in the first place?
Enter: The Peter Principle
The Peter Principle suggests that in hierarchical organizations, people tend to get promoted based on how well they perform in their current role—not on whether they have the right skills for the next one. That means the brilliant engineer who writes flawless code gets promoted to manage a team, only to flounder because leadership requires a completely different skill set: empathy, communication, vision, and emotional intelligence.
Google’s Project Oxygen: Rethinking Great Leadership
Back in 2008, Google launched a data-driven initiative called Project Oxygen to answer a simple question: What makes a great manager? Initially, the company had wondered if managers were even necessary. The findings? Not only do managers matter—they matter a lot.
Project Oxygen identified the top behaviors of high-performing managers, and here’s what’s fascinating: the best managers weren’t necessarily the most technically skilled. They were the ones who:
Coach and support their teams
Empower without micromanaging
Communicate clearly
Create inclusive, psychologically safe environments
Show interest in employees’ well-being
Sound familiar? These are all emotional intelligence competencies—and every single one of them can be strengthened through mindfulness, rest, and stillness practices.
Stillness Is a Leadership Skill
Here’s where mindfulness comes in. Mindfulness is not just about feeling calm or reducing stress—it’s about cultivating awareness, presence, and intentionality. When leaders develop a consistent stillness practice, they create space to respond rather than react. They’re more attuned to their own emotional states, which makes them more compassionate toward others. They can hold discomfort without shutting down or passing it on.
Mindfulness helps managers:
Become better listeners, which improves communication and builds trust.
Respond with empathy, which fosters psychological safety.
Notice their control patterns, which helps reduce micromanagement.
Create space for reflection, allowing them to coach and support more effectively.
Tune in to their team’s needs, which enhances well-being and inclusion.
Rest AS A Strategy
Leadership in grind culture often looks like endless output and constant visibility. But what if rest is actually the most strategic move a leader can make? When we rest, we regulate our nervous systems. We process. We become less reactive. We tap into clarity, vision, and creativity.
A well-rested manager isn’t just more pleasant to be around—they’re more effective. They model balance. They show their teams that humanity matters. And that’s how culture shifts.
a few things to think about:
If you’re involved in hiring or promotions as a leader: It’s important to look beyond technical skills. Are you also assessing emotional intelligence and those so-called "soft skills" that make or break a team’s health? And once someone is promoted—are you investing the time, energy, and resources to help them grow in these areas?
If you’re a manager: What are you doing to actively build your emotional intelligence? Where are you investing in your own growth?
Mindfulness and rest aren’t bonuses. They’re essential leadership skills. They cultivate the very qualities that Google’s research tells us matter most: clarity, compassion, presence, and care.
We don’t need more bosses. We need more mindful leaders.
