the essence of mindful leadership, within this book the definition of a mindful leader is simply a leader who knows himself, takes personal responsibility for his actions, and makes a conscious effort to manage himself to be the best leader he can be.
By putting some effort into developing metacognition, treating yourself with kindness like a true friend, and trying to maintain an optimum state of mind, you’ll be better able to be the best you can in any given situation. Remember: as a human being, you will probably always be a ‘work in progress’. Cultivating mindfulness is a journey, not a destination. It can take a lifetime, but you can feel the benefits very quickly if you practice as you work through this book.
To reduce your stress levels, you need to first identify your current level of stress. There are numerous stress tests online that can help you to gauge your current level of stress. You can find a very simple stress indicator on the Resources page of my (Juliet’s) website – www.aheadforwork.com.
Working in a VUCA world may be inevitable, but suffering as a result optional. When faced with volatility, try to build in some slack to allow for unexpected volatile eruptions. Develop staff to be able to deal with a broad range of circumstances, and keep your workforce as flexible and nimble as possible.
When faced with uncertainty, collect, interpret and share information. Pool resources and support easy sharing and access to information. The more information you can gather, the less uncertainty for all concerned.
When working with complexity, you may need to reconsider your organisational structure. Do you have adequate specialists located in the right parts of the organisation to analyse, make sense of and inform action on the volume of incoming data? Allow time to stand back and evaluate which information is key and which isn’t worth the investment to make else of.
When working with ambiguity and the absence of any information, approach the challenge with an open mind and experiment. Test hypotheses, gather information, learn lessons, and eventually ambiguity will become certainty.
Mindfully Reducing Leadership Stress
Leadership can be a lonely, isolating job. It can also be exhilarating and rewarding. Although you can’t always predict or control the cards that life deals you, you can learn to control your response to them. A core component of mindfulness is learning to observe your own unique patterns of thought and behaviour. This allows you to take control and become a wiser, more considered leader.
Awareness of your patterns of thoughts and behaviour are essential to being a good leader. Thoughts can trigger emotions and tension in the body, which lead to stress. Until recently, these were largely overlooked by leadership and executive education programmes. Over the past few years, leading business schools have added mindfulness training to leadership and MBA programmes.
Basic instruction in mindfulness helps you to develop awareness of the impact of your thoughts on your actions as a leader. In addition, it can improve focus, decision-making and relationships with peers and subordinates.
As you learn to reduce the flow of incoming information into the brain (more about this in Chapter 8), you may start to notice that a considerable gap exists between how you think things are, or how you wish they were, and how they actually are (see Figure 2-1). In order to be a mindful leader, it’s useful to consciously ‘mind the gap’. The thoughts we think are not necessarily facts, but our brain often responds as if they are.
© John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
FIGURE 2-1: Mind the gap.
Mindful leaders learn to observe thoughts as simply mental processes that come and go without knee-jerk reactions.
❯❯ See whether you can start to consciously ‘mind the gap’ in your daily life. Remember: you control your thoughts – your thoughts shouldn’t control you!
❯❯ Practice treating thoughts simply as mental processes that come and go rather than facts.
❯❯ See whether you can notice how thoughts can evoke strong emotions or sensations in the body.
❯❯ When you notice your thoughts spiralling down and depressive or negative thinking creeping in, take three minutes to do the three-step breathing space (see Chapter 10) to help you retain your equilibrium and consider things from a more objective viewpoint.
Gaining a sense of completion can be a good way to diffuse stress.
At work, one task or project can easily merge into another, giving you the feeling that you’re on a never-ending treadmill and are achieving nothing. The truth of the matter is that you’ve probably achieved a lot during the day; you have just failed to register a sense of completion.
❯❯ Break down complex or lengthy tasks into subtasks. Consciously acknowledge completion of each subtask, activating your brain’s feel-good reward circuitry.
❯❯ Pair up small tasks with larger projects or tasks. As you complete these small tasks, acknowledge how they’ve contributed to the advancement and achievement of your larger project or task.
❯❯ Celebrate each and every small win.
❯❯ At the end of each workday before you go home, pause to reflect on and consciously acknowledge all the things you’ve accomplished in the day.
Power stress, like any stress encountered over extended periods of time, makes the body susceptible to serious illness, digestive complaints and disturbed sleep patterns. It can drain your energy and capability to function and innovate.
Recovery and renewal can come from several sources. Small acts of kindness to yourself, others or even random strangers can have a hugely beneficial impact on your brain chemistry. Brain scans have revealed that even imagining an act of kindness, using virtual reality technology, can have the same positive impact on the brain as doing it for real.
Prioritise time to do things that you love doing that you may have stopped doing because you became ‘too busy’. Go dancing, do stand-up comedy, go to the theatre, or just enjoy quality time with friends, family or pets. This time will help you to reduce stress and renew yourself, making you fitter to lead.
Understanding that Mindfulness Is Not a Panacea for All Ills
Consider the following conversation:
Sally: We’ve got a problem
