Moving Forward with Mindful Leadership
Being fully present, or mindful, means having your attention, your thoughts, and your focus all fixed on the present moment. If you are speaking to somebody, your attention is focused on him or her and what he or she is saying, and if you are performing a task, then you are entirely focused on the task at hand.
In recent years, mindfulness has become increasingly popular, and with very good reason; there is a growing body of research indicating that mindfulness provides many physical, psychological, and even performance enhancing benefits. In fact, the benefits have been so dramatic that many organizations have started offering mindfulness programs to their employees. The U.S. Army and companies such as Aetna, Apple, General Mills, Yahoo, Starbucks, the NFL and Google use it to their benefit, with Google going so far to offer their employees a 19-hour course on the subject, which is so popular that thousands of “Googlers” take it each year.
Beyond the benefits of increased attention, mindfulness is also about focusing one's awareness on the present moment and doing so without judgment[1]. By being mindful, you can let go of preconceived notions, worries, or anxiety by focusing on the things around you or a specific task at hand.
For instance, stop reading this for just a moment, take a deep breath and focus on where you are, what you see, what you hear, what you may smell, and what you feel. Simply pause and reflect.
Congratulations, you just aced your first mindfulness exercise!
With all the pressures in today’s society, especially in business, it is very difficult to find the right balance that fortifies our well-being and ensures leadership effectiveness. As your leadership responsibilities grow, you will require solid methods to remain authentic, stay grounded, face new challenges with serenity and measured confidence, and stabilize your professional success with the self-awareness and self-assurance that inspires others. That is much easier said than done…but doable!
The practice of mindful leadership is a wonderful tool to have in your leadership toolbox. It teaches you to pay attention to the present moment, recognizing your emotions and feelings, all while keeping them under control, especially when faced with the rigors and stressors associated with leadership. When you are mindful, you’re keenly aware of your presence and the ways you may impact others when you’re in a mindless state. You’re able to both observe and participate in each moment, while recognizing the implications of your behavior and actions. You’ll dynamically lead from a place of personal values and strengths.
Mindfulness has been found to be instrumental in cultivating the right mindset, building resilience, driving personal progress, and has been scientifically proven to be a key element in the overall contentment and long-term happiness of individuals who practice it.
Leaders can utilize mindfulness in their role to:
Cultivate greater awareness - Mindfulness has been proven to heighten our awareness, which allows us to be responsive instead of emotionally reactive and is a powerful method to help quiet constant brain babble and defeat automatic negative thoughts or “A.N.T.s” Focusing on the present moment - not worrying about what may or may not happen tomorrow, or dwelling on yesterday’s so-so day, enables us gain clarity and make better decisions.
Clarify and set intentions – To stay mindful in your leadership role, you must focus on clarifying and properly setting intentions. When you become clear on what you’d like to achieve, you can better make those decisions that help you set your goals into motion. You should set intentions that challenge you, but also help you focus on strategies and outcomes.
Control internal and external judgments – As humans, our brains tend to make instant judgments of people and scenarios. Using mindfulness, you can avoid making snap judgments about employees or scenarios, taking time to respond in a way that is most aligned with your organization’s mission. It has been proven that mindful leaders who display better customer & employee understanding, focus and empathy, also positively influence organizational culture.
Your brain also likes to make internal judgments, so I’d like to pause here and suggest that you avoid being hard on yourself as you lead. It’s rare that someone immediately possesses all these traits, but they can be honed.
Become more decisive - Remember that you’re never going to have all the information, and for many leaders making a quick decision can seem too risky, as their mind is telling them to back away. Because of indecisiveness some can develop analysis paralysis, which according to Wikipedia is “the state of over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome.”
In leadership, quick decisions can sometimes be necessary, and you can use mindfulness to let go of the fear and make those swift resolutions. Your BOOM moment may just be one decisive decision away!
Handle rejection - Learning to handle rejection is one of most important skills you can develop in your role as a leader, as it can become very difficult to stay motivated when you receive rejection after rejection. By using mindfulness, you can let go of the self-judgment or fears trying to deflate you. Focus on what strides you have made and how you’re improving in your leadership capacity with each interaction.
As you have already surmised, mindful leadership can result in widespread transformation in your life and the workplace. Mindful leadership is a relatively new kind of leadership, characterized by a ‘presence’ that allows the leader to encounter more, and different, ways in which to influence the lives of others. A mindful leader can influence individuals in their team, organization, family and community through their improved strength of character.
Taken in part from Michael R. Frazier’s book, Mindfulness, Mindset, Moxie, and Mojo.
[1] Non -judgment is stressed in mindfulness because if left alone, our brain tends to automatically judge things as good or bad, right or wrong, fair or unfair, urgent or non-urgent and so on. Mindfulness- based approaches encourage the acceptance and non-judgment of our experiences, allowing us to be more aware and encouraging fresh perspectives.