In last week’s blog post we gave you some tips for getting started with practicing mindful meditation, as well as some ideas for how you can incorporate it into your day at work. It’s possible for you to take a few minutes to meditate just about anywhere – sitting behind your desk is a great place to gain some mindfulness and bring yourself back to centre.
I hope you have started incorporating a few minutes of mindful meditation into your daily routine, whether it’s while you’re in the office, a part of your morning routine, or something you’re using to wind down after a long day. Taking that time to sit and be still becomes easier the more you practice, and the benefits are well worth the effort.
Self-Awareness and Emotional Intelligence
Open, honest, and accurate self-awareness is the cornerstone of emotional intelligence for leaders. As Goleman writes in Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ:
“Self-awareness means having a deep understanding of one’s emotions, strengths, weaknesses, needs, and drives. People with strong self-awareness are neither overly critical nor unrealistically hopeful. Rather they are honest – with themselves and others. People who have a high degree of self-awareness recognize how their feelings affect them, other people, and job performance…It shows itself as candour and an ability to assess oneself realistically. People with high self-awareness are able to speak accurately and openly…about their emotions and the impact they have on their work.”s
Mindfulness Meditation Benefits
There are two basic approaches to cultivating leadership talents through mindfulness meditation. One is to engage the practice as a method that allows us to improve ourselves. From this perspective, we can develop abilities and benefits. For example, research shows that meditation produces the following positive results:
- Enhanced physical health,
- Enhanced emotional health,
- Reduced anxiety and stress,
- Feelings of joy and compassion, and
- Enhanced wisdom.
But if you view meditation solely as a means to achieve positive outcomes, you may misinterpret what you’re really doing and misunderstand the reasons why it’s important.
The other perspective is to approach meditation from the standpoint of appreciating the experience for itself. Meditation is no longer a means of achieving anything at all. Rather, it becomes an expression of who we are as we meditate.
Being You
To become a mindful leader, you must understand the distinction between trying to improve yourself versus experiencing who you already are:
- As a mindful leader, you acknowledge you’re already open (not trying to be more open).
- You acknowledge the wisdom and kindness you hold within (not trying to be more wise or compassionate).
- You don’t strive to achieve a better, improved you. Rather, you meditate to get in touch with who you already are and to discover your basic sanity and true qualities, as they already exist within you. You turn off the inner judge and critic.
Your goal has little to do with achieving arrogance and perfectionism (unattainable, for the uninitiated). Instead, you’re trying to find comfort with yourself as you are, rather than anxiously trying to become more or better. You’re developing a profound sense of honesty – the strongest foundation for genuine leadership, which creates authenticity in your efforts to lead others.
The Art of Non-achievement
Practice mindfulness meditation with non-achievement in mind. Meditation’s benefits are attained by exercising unseen “leadership muscles” as you sit still. You can then exert these muscles at work and in all aspects of your life to make a lasting contribution to your world.
Ten leadership talents developed through meditation are presented in Carroll’s book:
- Simplicity,
- Enthusiasm,
- Poise,
- Patience,
- Respect,
- Awareness,
- Courage,
- Skillfulness,
- Confidence, and
- Humility.
Leading others is no small task, requiring a poised, courageous, and down-to-earth acknowledgment of reality. Unfortunately, many leaders hang onto delusions of control and prefer the status quo, unwilling to face the risk of being uncomfortable or fearful.These skills develop with practice and can then be applied with a natural ease and familiarity.
When you slow down, you gain a realistic picture of what’s going on instead of speeding through your day – or worse, speeding through your life. Meditation and mindfulness are invitations to become more fully human. In everyday leadership, they confer the power to have a real impact on your organization.
If you find yourself struggling with slowing down and exploring who you are through mindful meditation, a morning with myself and the horses may be just what you need to get started on this journey. As always, I’d love to hear from you. I can be reached here or on LinkedIn.
