Mindful Leadership: A Better Way to Lead

In 2016, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff approached Zen master Thich Nhat Hahn about creating Mindful Zones on every floor of the company's San Francisco headquarters. Salesforce generated $12.77 billion in assets and nearly $52 billion in sales that year. According to Benioff, these meditation areas were critical to encouraging empathy as they enabled employees and leaders alike to rejuvenate and cultivate greater mindfulness.

The practice has gained increasing momentum since then, and companies like Aetna, Check Point, and Natural Intelligence are creating meditation rooms for employees to pause from their work and practice mindfulness. These rooms create a physical space within the company where employees can rest, disconnect from work, and reconnect with themselves.

Today, the world is in need of strong leadership particularly, mindful leadership. Since we spend so much time at work, organizational leaders can have a profound effect-and on a much deeper level than most people realize. Leaders are capable of inspiring employees to reach their full potential and awaken their inner self when they see them as a whole and complete human with their own struggles, aspirations, virtues, and demons.

What is mindful leadership?

With mindfulness, leaders witness the present moment for exactly what it is not what you expected, not what you hoped, not with judgments that have the potential to lead to conditioned reactions, but just the way it is. You give yourself over to the moment and meet it with tranquility all at once.

Now that the workplace is increasingly digitized, time is often measured in internet microseconds. Work patterns are changing, resulting in employees and leaders finding their career paths radically altered over time. Organizational leadership and employee relations are now faced with new and complex fiscal and human resource constraints.

Leaders who excel in such uncertain times must be those who not only have outstanding credentials and bright minds but also warm hearts, a passionate commitment to their mission, strong relationships with colleagues and communities, and the courage to take risks. It is mindful leaders’ commitment to excellence, innovation, and making a difference that drives them.

We live and work in an ever-changing environment, and the workplace can be stressful at times. It's easy to see how much mindful leadership is needed when considering the challenges leaders face today.

How can you invest in being a mindful leader?

It is not necessary for leaders to wait for the implementation of large-scale training initiatives or culture changes in order to enhance mindfulness within their organizations. You can simply model mindfulness in your own life and incorporate it into your everyday work-life routines and practices. The possibilities are endless.

Engage in mindfulness exercises:?

Find mindfulness exercises that interest you. No matter how you train your brain, whether through a mindful walk or a body scan meditation, make sure you're in the moment. Practicing mindfulness can also be enhanced by breathing exercises. By practicing a simple breathing exercise, you will feel a reduction in stress right away. Each team member can take a breathing break during the day.

Another method involves mindful eating. During mindful eating, you eat without hurrying and at your own pace. With leaders and employees working from home, they can turn a meal or a snack into a mindful meditation practice. It can help reduce stress and improve concentration and focus.

Remember, consistent practice is the key to mindfulness. Syncing these skills with your leadership style can bring about huge changes in the workplace.

Be sure to disconnect regularly:

When it comes to managing your time, how well do you do it? Are you able to take time out during your workday or in between tasks? If not, now is the time to start. You can start with the Pomodoro Technique, which helps you focus your attention on a particular task and disengage in a systematic manner.

Another way of disconnecting is by setting expectations and boundaries. No matter how long you plan to unplug, whether it's 45 minutes, four hours, or four days, your team needs to know and understand that. Provide information about your availability and the expected timeframe for your response. This puts you one step closer to becoming a mindful leader.

Focus on self-awareness

A mindful leader should develop the ability to be more aware - be it of themselves or their surroundings. For example, a bad day at work affects you as much as your employees. In order to lead your team efficiently on a bad day, you must first take care of yourself.

Thus, by being more mindful, you recognize the signs of needing a break, stress, or anything else that might hamper your and your employees’ well-being.

It's not that hitting quarter-end numbers isn't vital -- it is. Leaders, however, are defined by something much more abstract than quantitative metrics.?This involves mindfulness. As a leader, whether you are making an impact on millions or a handful, you cannot afford to live your life or work in automatic mode. The connections you have with those you serve and those you work with can no longer be overlooked.?In order to become a better leader, you should reconnect with the things that inspired you to lead in the first place.