10 ways that mindfulness can help leaders

“Integrity is the only path where you will never get lost.” Mike Maples Jnr, Leader

Mindfulness practice has so much to offer leaders. Today, many leaders of successful organisations are vocal mindfulness champions. While mindfulness is not a panacea, is not for everyone or beneficial in all circumstances, here are 10 ways that mindfulness can help leaders:

ONE – Mindfulness Develops Self-awareness

Great leadership starts with self-awareness. Self-awareness is the skill of being aware, from moment to moment, of one’s thoughts, emotions, motivations, reactions, strengths, weaknesses, values, and impact on others. This level of self-awareness is generally associated with higher levels of satisfaction, self-control, and happiness, and is negatively correlated with anxiety, stress, and depression.

Self-awareness also gives leaders an understanding of how other people view them. In general, people with this level of awareness are more empathic and better at seeing things from other peoples’ perspectives. Leaders who understand how their employees see them tend to have better relationships with their employees and generally see employees (or followers) as more effective and dependable.

Self-awareness enables leaders to see more clearly what is happening within themselves, for others and within their organisations, and thus empowers leaders to lead with authenticity and integrity, “the only path where you will never get lost”.

TWO – Mindfulness Cultivates Emotional Intelligence and Emotional Regulation.

Emotionally intelligent leaders make great bosses and leaders because their decision making is generally not about who is right but what is right. Emotionally intelligent leaders generally lead without fragile egos, over-inflated sense of importance, or influence of the lure of power. They are less likely to react impulsively to frustrating or emotionally charged situations and can slow down enough to manage their emotions, remain calm and respond with empathy and logic. Emotionally intelligent leaders can make uncomfortable or unpopular decisions and navigate difficult conversations as they follow the truth about what is right for the whole organisation, rather than ego about who is right.

THREE – Mindfulness Boost Performance

Mindfulness increases leader’s ability to be present, aware and to focus attention for sustained periods on what is important, letting go of distractions and what is not important. This directly improves performance by increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Mindfulness practices are seen as tools of performance in leadership circles, cultivating the capacity for singular focus of effort and attention to be more direct and decisive in work.

FOUR – Mindfulness Develops Compassion and Empathy

Mindfulness develops “human” leaders, enhances people skills, and helps leaders lead from the head and the heart. The compassion and empathy cultivated through mindfulness practice allows leaders to focus on relationships and results; to listen to and connect with the people they lead and are accountable to. The most successful organisations over the long term tend to be the ones that look after their people first, aware that by taking care of their people, they will take care of their customers, and their customers will return.

FIVE – Mindfulness Enhances Creativity

Mindfulness encourages divergent thinking, an essential part of the creative thinking crucial for problem-solving and innovation, while studies and experience suggests we are more creative when in a calm state of mind. A leader’s best creative work is not done when on the ropes, struggling to survive, but when able to take the time and space to nurture insight and idea generation.

SIX – Mindfulness Helps to Improve Relationships

The core business in any organisation is relationships – with self, with one another and with the people the organisation serves. Mindful principles of being intentional, fully present, remaining open and non-judgmental, and relating to others with compassion aid communication and people management. Many leaders seem to end up in managerial roles by simple fact of their longevity in the organisation. Or they have entered leadership through study such an MBA. But technically skilled people don’t always make good leaders. You might have all the smarts for strategy and numbers, or have the leadership theory down pat, but if people don’t like working with or for you, they will be unhappy and increasingly likely to leave your leadership. Without self-awareness and the ability to understand and communicate well with other people, leaders can be seen as inauthentic, leaving people unwilling to follow or support their leadership. Increased mindful self-awareness can increase a leader’s ability to engage, motivate, and foster collaboration among staff.

SEVEN – Mindfulness Reduces Stress

Research suggests that when a leader is stressed, the rest of the organisation feels it. And if those stress levels get too high, employees will likely move on. Decades of research on mindfulness show that regular practice reduces stress, anxiety, depression and overwhelm. Leadership inherently comes with constant apprehension, urgencies, concern, and challenges that often no one else in the organisation can manage. Being mindful allows leaders to make better decisions in those moments, while also role modelling and reassuring staff with an equanimous state of mind.

EIGHT – Building Resilience

Resilience is the ability to bend not break under pressure and to become stronger because of it. As the adage says, you can’t stop the waves, but you can learn to surf. Seeing threats as opportunities and recovering from setbacks requires that leaders can sleep well, accept and be grateful for what is, remain calm and composed under pressure, and let go of what they can’t control, all qualities cultivated by regular mindfulness practice. In today’s rapidly changing and uncertain world, leaders need to be resilient, and mindfulness is a great tool to develop resilience.

NINE – Mindfulness Helps to Develop Agile, Flexible Mindsets

As above, today’s leaders require agile, flexible mindsets to navigate the challenging and constantly changing social, political, economic, and environmental landscapes we live in. More than simply a tool for relaxation, mindfulness practice helps to build these key leadership skills to support retention, talent development and innovation and thereby achieve organisational goals.

TEN – Mindfulness Develops Executive Thinking

Executive thinking, or the ability to ‘keep all the balls in the air’ whilst planning and achieving goals is an essential skill for leaders to successfully manage projects and workflow. This higher order thinking also helps leaders know when to utilise their strengths and when to delegate. It is in this sense that mindfulness practice is often described as providing an ‘update to your operating system’, upgrading thinking, so to speak, that enables decision making less clouded by bias, more proactive than reactive, and better aligned with the needs of the organisation.

Mindful Qualities Help Leaders Lead Well

Mindfulness primarily gives us the gift of self-awareness. When we see ourselves clearly, we tend to be more confident and more creative. We make sounder decisions, build stronger relationships, and are better communicators. For these reasons, mindfulness can help leaders be more effective, nurture and retain happier staff and achieve organisational success and profitability. As studies show, organisations with strong financial performance tend to have people with higher levels of mindful self-awareness than poorly performing organisations, it is clear that mindfulness can be very helpful for leaders!

At ACMM we offer Certificate, Advanced Certificate and Diploma Training Options, with optional Business Development Support alongside and after your training. PLUS we now offer a  Community Work Placement program as part of the Diploma course, where students will be given opportunities to teach meditation within support service organisations such as Aged Care, Hospitals and other Not for Profits and receive all they need to teach a 6 week course. Click here to learn more.

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Blog by ACMM Coach Jen Hill

Source:

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