One part of making sure you’re fostering a healthy work environment is guiding and encouraging your employees and team to work toward their goals and aspirations so that they may see success. There are a few different ways to do this, but for the sake of this article, we’re just going to stick with some of the basics. So, what are some basic and actionable ways in which you can do this each day? Read on to learn more.
The first and main idea is to lead by example. The reason is simple: if you strive for excellence and authenticity without worrying about perfection, your employees will naturally respect and admire you, and possibly do the same thing. But what exactly can you do to set these kinds of examples? And what habits can you encourage in the workplace to keep everyone at their best? Let’s take a look.
Leading Your Team to Success
There are a few small habits you can implement for yourself and your team that will help keep your work environment and company culture harmonious and positive.
· Meditation. No matter who you are, meditation can be extremely beneficial and there isn’t really a “right” or “wrong” way to do it. Take 5-10 minutes once or twice a day to have everyone sit quietly and focus on their breathing and clearing their minds. Give it about a week and watch the magic happen!
· Open communication. This part begins with you, the mindful leader. If your team knows that they can come to you with an issue, suggestion, or question, then they will have a lot more respect for you as well as feeling more comfortable being open with coworkers. If this is a brand new concept for your work environment or your communication habits need some work, you may consider having daily morning meetings for 15 minutes where anyone who has any questions or concerns can raise them and anyone with ideas or answers can help. Unless it’s a private or personal issue, this should be done with the whole group for best results. Get talking!
· Encourage mindfulness. This has to happen on an individual basis first, so any time you have an opportunity to teach a lesson in mindfulness, take it. No matter what the situation might be, chances are there’s a mindfulness lesson hidden in there somewhere; your job is to seek out those lessons and teach your employees how to be more mindful. It may or may not sink in right away, but there’s nothing wrong with making this a habit and implementing it.
· Celebrate your wins. Even small victories can mean a lot to people, so don’t discount them! Maybe the first hurdle to overcome was a big one, even though the results are minimal. Celebrate it anyway – your celebrations don’t have to be huge. It could be as simple as having brownies after lunch or a glass of champagne in the evening before closing time. No matter how you choose to celebrate your wins, it will help to keep everyone motivated and working toward another one.
· Encourage collaboration. When circumstances arise that force people to work together toward a common goal, magical things can begin to happen with so many different creative minds thinking together. If your work environment is normally pretty competitive, switching gears to collaborate every once in a while might be a nice break from the norm and refresh people. Of course this also depends on the people, so continue to use your best judgment in every unique situation.
· Don’t micromanage. As the quote at the beginning of this post says, your employees should be awesome and have the freedom to express their awesomeness in the workplace, especially if creative or innovative thinking is required. Guide them if they have questions, but allow them the opportunity to learn in their own ways as well.
Which of these ideas do you think will benefit your employees or team the most? Do you have any other easy ideas for enhancing your company’s culture and work environment? Share them with us by leaving a comment below or sending us an email.
As always, continue leading mindfully and thanks for joining us!
For more information on the Mindfulness Movement and mindful leadership, please visit:
http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement
Need some help with your mindfulness practice? The Mindful Moments can certainly help!
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