In honor of the beginning of the new fiscal year next month, we thought it might be a great time to go back to the basics for a few weeks and talk about your leadership skills and habits and how mindfulness can serve you in every area of your ongoing development as a leader. This effect, of course, trickles down to your team, and if they are encouraged to follow your example and practice mindfulness for themselves as well, you may see shifts and growth in your work environment unlike any you’ve ever seen before. Mindfulness practice can have this effect on every area of your life as well, and practicing it gets more and more effortless, so let’s take a look at some of the scientifically proven benefits of mindfulness and meditation and how these practices might change your leadership experience.
Mindfulness is an incredibly effective method for cultivating inner wisdom and peace. Some of the core concepts of mindfulness are being present in the moment (because now is all that truly ever exists) and observing life around you as well as your emotional state so that you can make decisions from a place of peace, love, and wisdom rather than making decisions based in fear conditioning.
According to Jon Kabat-Zinn, there are seven attitudinal factors for fully integrating mindfulness practice*:
- Non-Judging
- Patience
- Beginner’s Mind
- Trust
- Non-Striving
- Acceptance
- Letting Go
Each of these is a way of perceiving or seeing life that you choose by directing your focus and practicing mindfulness and meditation. We have discussed some of these ideas on the Mindful Leader Blog before, and each of these ways of perceiving can be practiced by observing and paying attention to what is going on within you.
“Now, when we think of mindfulness, it’s about being aware and in the moment. Bring those two concepts together. Mindful leadership is about being aware of your motivation and the reasons you choose to lead. It’s about asking yourself: Why am I choosing to be a leader? Am I serving my needs or the needs of others? How am I treating others as I go about meeting the goals of the organization?”
– Pandit Dasa**
When you practice mindfulness as a leader, you receive a multitude of benefits on a number of levels. Mindfulness allows you to consciously hone in on what’s going on and gain insight from it by keeping reactionary emotions from dictating your responses in the “heat of the moment,” so to speak. This is a powerful tool to master, and the more you practice using it, the more refined your discernment will become in each moment, and the more layers of detail you will begin to notice.
Recent research highlights the many benefits of mindfulness meditation:
Repaired immune systems,
Heightened emotional intelligence,
Reduced anxiety and depression,
Sustained levels of joy and satisfaction,
Greater career resilience,
Improved cardiovascular health, and
Fewer days lost to illness and stress.***
The incredible benefits that mindfulness practice has to offer speak for themselves, especially now that scientific evidence has been gathered to support these findings. As you begin to learn about mindfulness practices, you will begin to see the benefits and gain insight after a fairly short amount of time. As you lead by example and share your experiences, you may inspire others to begin a mindfulness practice of their own, and this has a ripple effect on your entire organization.
Pretty soon you might see employees enjoying their workdays, fewer stressful situations cropping up, a more focused and productive work environment, and many more smiles even as the day progresses to afternoon and evening. You will see people collaborating joyfully and solving problems much more quickly because everyone will be living from a more open and peaceful perspective led by the practice of mindfulness. This tends to happen naturally as you progress in your meditation practice, and you will notice yourself noticing more and more about everything in your life… being “tuned in” and clear about what’s going on and how to move forward.
So, how do you and your team begin practicing mindfulness on a daily basis? There are many different types of mindfulness practices, some of which we will discuss in next week’s article. We hope to see you then!
In the meantime, thank you so much for being here, learning, and growing with us!
For more information about the Mindfulness Movement or the International Mindfulness Federation, please visit:
http://executivecoachinguniversity.com/mindfulness-movement
* 7 Attitudinal Factors of Mindfulness Practice:
http://mindfullife.net.au/further-resources/seven-attitudinal-factors
** The Business Benefits of Mindful Leadership:
https://www.hrbartender.com/2017/leadership-and-management/business-benefits-mindful-leadership/
*** The Benefits of Mindful Leadership:
https://unbridlingyourbrilliance.com/mindful-leader-benefits-mindful-leadership/
