What is Mindful Leadership?

Mindfulness in leadership roles is now being taught in many organizations. It’s been found that effectiveness on a personal and professional level increases when leaders practice mindful leadership and, that productivity is increased. Conscious leaders are attentive to their stressors, energy, awareness, and creativity.

Stress is one of the most cited causes of mental and physical complaints about carrying out job tasks and the costs to organizations of medical claims due to pressure is enormous – about $300 billion per year. In today’s world, many of us are at work more than we’re home or elsewhere and the pressure increases with the amount of information we have to learn and the tasks we must complete in a certain amount of time.

Creating mindfulness in leadership positions has been found to decrease the amount of stress, for both workers and management. Mindful leadership is

“a leadership practice focused on cultivating very high levels of self-awareness, wisdom, and self-mastery, allowing a leader to bring his or her best self to all aspects of leadership and daily life, and to inspire greatness in others. Mindful leadership significantly improves both the “soft” and “hard” skills of emotional intelligence and business acumen.”

It can be achieved in the workplace by focusing on thoughts and emotions rather than getting the job done as fast as possible.

Mindful leadership is as vital to our health as are regular medical checkups. There are many benefits, including:

• Thinking outside the box.
• Improving focus and clarity of thought.
• Enhancing mood and more positive emotions.
• Lessening feelings of panic and feelings of guilt.
• Helping lengthen attention span.
• Helping strengthen the immune system.

Our journey to develop the qualities of mindful leadership calls us to be present in this moment, to be ‘still in the midst of activity’. Or, more accurately in today’s world, in the midst of the chaos that often typifies our lives. As we begin to cultivate a practice to develop the qualities of mindful leadership, we begin to recognize the folly of believing that if we could just move faster, we would eventually catch up.

Janice Marturano, founder of the Institute for Mindful Leadership and author of Finding the Space to Lead: A Practical Guide to Mindful Leadership

Mindful leadership is becoming a staple in companies’ leadership training programs and is considered an important topic in most management training classes, but it’s not a new idea. Mindful Stress Reduction programs have been used by some medical facilities to treat chronically ill patients with colossal success. Now, it’s being used to treat healthy people and to keep them from developing stress issues in their lives.

Why be a mindful leader?
After Aetna introduced mindfulness programs to its 50,000 employees, the company found that workers who had taken at least one class reported:
• 28% reduction in workplace stress
• 20% improvement in sleep quality
• 62 minutes weekly, on average, of improved productivity, which the company valued at $3,000 per employee annually
• Employee medical claims declined, saving the company $9 million in the first year of the program.

Mindfulness is gaining attention now because organizations are becoming more informed about effective leadership. Findings demonstrate the best leaders are self-aware and centered in their self-confidence and capabilities. When potential leaders learn how to focus on one task at a time and turn their attention to the broader vision rather than numerous small tasks, they tend to become more competent.

Wondering how to be a mindful leader?
1. Remain entirely focused when people talk to you.
I bet you’re thinking – “Oh Boy” and your right – not easily done. Our minds wander during nearly half of our waking hours.
2. Make thoughtful decisions.
A mindful leader consciously makes decisions without judgment and emotion.
3. Empower team members.
Mindful leaders empower their teams to make decisions, first by educating them on how to make sound decisions, then supporting them through the decision-making process and finally helping them to evaluate the outcome.
4. Get enough sleep.
Mindful leaders ensure they get enough, sleep recognizing the importance of staying focused and level headed during the day.
5. Meditating
Power stress is a term coined for leaders who are more susceptible to stress because of the demands of authority, the inherent loneliness of being at the top, and knowing our daily decisions affect team members’ lives. Practicing 5 – 20 minutes of meditation daily is not time wasted and instead provides the ability to do the job more effectively.

If you want to become a true leader of a team or organization, commit to these five practices. Soon you will discover you can achieve clarity of purpose while training your mind to meet any challenge you might face.