How Mindfulness Practices Impact Sustainability Leadership Capacities in Businesses

Academic studies have criticised business sustainability research for focusing on leadership and management rather than examining mindfulness-based interventions implemented to develop leaders’ sustainability leadership capacities (SLCs). This exploratory qualitative research addresses this gap through a multidisciplinary investigation into business leaders’ perceptions of mindfulness, sustainability leadership (SL) and SLCs required in businesses. Multifaceted process-impact model (MPIM) defines and exposes implicit structural interconnections by adopting dialectical-hermeneutic and grounded theory approaches. Four mindfulness methods and five positive impacts were found to positively impact leaders’ SLCs, which enhanced SLCs in businesses to drive systemic sustainability transformation. Mindfulness intrinsically transforms leaders’ SLCs by increasing leaders’ intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence, self-efficacy and engagement quality at individual, organisational and systems levels. Connectedness and consciousness are two enablers identified as increasing leaders’ capacities to proactively perceive, comprehend and interpret systems outside of their businesses to drive change. The research delivers a MPIM that reflects the implicit structure underpinning leaders’ perspectives on how mindfulness practices impact SLCs. Further qualitative research is recommended to determine why business leaders do not practise mindfulness and identify the long-term impacts of mindfulness on SLCs in businesses. MPIM’s elements are harnessed into a mindfulness methods decision tree (MMDT) to cultivate mindfulness habits in businesses.