The Sustainable Mind of Leadership: From Self‐Existence Awareness to Collective Flourishing

ABSTRACT The author, founder of MBDGs (Mind‐Based Development Goals), had an 18 year career at All Nippon Airways. It was this experience that led to her insights about leadership development. Her “article introduces self‐existence awareness—a nonconditional sense of worth that exists prior to performance, evaluation, or achievement.” She describes in detail the MBDGs model. At the heart is Self‐existence awareness, which she describes as “the difference between believing, “I am valuable because I can do something” and recognizing, “I may not fully understand why, but my existence itself has value.”” For instance, in her words, MBDGs describes inner growth as a natural flow; and first, self‐understanding deepens . She describes “six interconnected goals,” which in her words are: 1. self‐establishment, 2. vision, 3. diversity and inclusion, 4. cooperativeness, 5. growth cycle, 6. responsibility toward the next generation . The model was built in Japan, based on Japanese experience, especially in the high‐pressure world of aviation. But it is applicable to settings elsewhere worldwide, and to settings beyond business, including education, where the author has teaching experience. She has witnessed shifts where “words and actions are guided less by the pressure to prove outcomes and more by purpose and long‐term direction.”