The Three Most Effective Mindful Leadership Strategies
Great leaders are inspiring and motivating. They are strategic thinkers who can see the big picture in business and in life. And yet to sustain this task in our modern age, great leaders must also be present, resilient, and healthy in body and mind.
Thanks to changes in technology, the world of work now moves at an accelerated pace. We now have the ability to communicate with people across the world in seconds and to work anytime, anywhere.
As a result, the line separating work and the rest of life has become increasingly blurred. We now live in a 24/7, “always on,” workplace culture. On top of all of that, most industries and businesses find themselves in a state of near constant change with increasing competitive pressures.
The Three Most Effective Mindful Leadership Strategies
Here are three powerful, easy to implement, mindfulness strategies that we have found to be most effective in our work across a vast array of industries:
1. Pause before a big meeting
Most meetings flow in the same, counter-productive, way. Everyone straggles into the conference room, you talk about random office banter for a few minutes, and then, for the next 30 to 60 minutes, most people in the room are half paying attention to the meeting and half paying attention to their Instagram, Facebook, or email.
Here’s how it works: The leader of the meeting begins by inviting everyone to take 60 seconds to do whatever they need to do to be present. This could be taking several mindful breaths, it could be a quick stretch, or it could even be sending that last text or email.
2. Practice mindfulness on the go
We encourage all leaders to build a regular formal meditation practice, to carve out time for 10, 20, or 30 minutes each day. And yet we have found that many of the most effective leaders also practice mindfulness more informally throughout the day. It’s the practice of following your breath for several minutes while riding in an Uber, focusing on sounds while you wait in the TSA security line at the airport, or noticing the sensations in your feet as you walk from your desk to the bathroom.
By turning these in-between moments into opportunities for mindfulness, you carve out space from the incessant distraction and information overload of modern life, space that allows you to stay grounded and present during even the most rushed and harried workdays.
3. Prioritize time without distractions
Many of the leaders we work with express a common challenge. They’re so busy fighting fires, attending meetings, and trying to reach the bottom of their inbox that they run out of time for their highest priority work. To counter this trap, we encourage leaders to set aside offline time each day for full engagement. This could be 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or even several hours.
This practice does, however, come with one significant challenge. Most leaders will need to guard this sacred time for engagement from the hundreds of incoming meeting requests, events, and opportunities
By using these three mindfulness strategies, you will not only improve your ability to impact the world. You will also model something essential to your entire work community: the deep and interconnected relationship between caring for one’s wellbeing and growing a wildly successful organisation.
Reference:
https://www.mindful.org/the-three-most-effective-mindful-leadership-strategies/