I’ve been in the business world close to 30 years (ugh, let’s not think about that too much), and I’ve seen so many trends in leadership and management. Management by Walking Around (MBO), the 60 Second Manager, 360 leadership feedback, leadership assessment tools, just to name a few. Where does mindful leadership fit in? Would you even associate the two words together?
Often, when people think of mindfulness, they think about meditation, yoga, breathing techniques or some other practice, but they may not necessarily associate it with leadership and/or business in general.
I would contend that the two absolutely go hand-in-hand. We live in a fast-paced society where technology changes daily, new ideas are brought forth and sometimes discarded at breakneck speed. To be successful in our organizations, we have to not only keep up with the latest and greatest, but we’re tasked with being one step ahead of our competitors, all while having to pay attention to what’s happening in the moment.
Mindfulness is the idea that we should be present in the moment and be aligned with everything we are doing in our daily lives (both personally and professionally). On its face, it doesn’t feel like it belongs in our fast paced business lives, but it should be.
There are some great articles from Harvard Business Review that examine this subject matter that really spurred some thinking for me.
The qualities of a mindful leader – focus, clarity, creativity, compassion and courage – these are tremendous qualities that individuals need in order to cope with the many business challenges that leaders often face. It provides leaders the resolve to think through rapid obstacles in order to sustain long-term success
The idea that leaders are walking, journaling, taking time to reflect on the moment, may sound like a novel idea, but I would contend that truly great leaders take time to reflect and ask themselves some key questions about what they can do differently, what mistakes did they or their organization make and how they can learn from them. Taking even a brief moment from the hustle and bustle can make you a better leader.
Many organizations are now offering ‘mindfulness’ classes to their employees such as yoga, meditation and other positive programs that can have a great impact on their employees’ lives. I suggest that you take a moment and center yourself, leverage these principles into becoming a better leader. You’ll be surprised to find the impact they might have.
However you choose to do it, taking a moment to reflect, will have extraordinary impact on your ability to lead and make decisions in this fast paced business world. Namaste!
