University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Capstone Projects Capstones 8-2015 Walking Their Talk: The Role of the Body in Effective, Positive Leadership LeeAnn M. Mallorie University of Pennsylvania,
[email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone Part of the Health Psychology Commons, Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons, Leadership Studies Commons, and the Other Psychology Commons Mallorie, LeeAnn M., "Walking Their Talk: The Role of the Body in Effective, Positive Leadership" (2015). Master of Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) Capstone Projects. 90. https://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/90 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. https://repository.upenn.edu/mapp_capstone/90 For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Walking Their Talk: The Role of the Body in Effective, Positive Leadership Abstract The way we do anything is the way we do everything. Be it giving a presentation in the boardroom or running a marathon, we must take action using our physical bodies. Yet, despite this fact, the body has been largely overlooked in research on leadership and organizational wellbeing. The present paper aims to dispel the myth that the body is simply a tool, arguing that body-mind connection may be a critical missing piece in the formula for effective, positive leadership. I propose that important aspects of positive leadership like character strengths and practical wisdom may be trainable via mindfulness practices that involve coordinated movement of, or attention on, the physical body. Ten teachers of body- based wisdom and ten corporate leaders were interviewed to explore these hypotheses.