Mindfulness and the Business Leader
Resources
... it's in the mind - Reg Birchfield (230.24 KB)
This week a colleague forwarded to me an article by Reg Birchfield, published in the October edition of Management. "Fit to Lead ... It's in the Mind". It is about mindfulness.
Why are we talking so much about mindfulness in business today?
I suspect it is simply because business has become very much more complex.
If the sides of a box represented the different facets of a business 100 years ago, the entrepreneur may have been able to 'see' half of his business. If he also had a good book keeper he could 'see' most of his business.
The business of 100 years ago was comparatively simple because more of goods traded then were the basics of life; food, clothing, housing, transport. A higher proportion of goods were tangible objects, dispatched in a brown paper bag or wooden box.
Today the same business would be a complex diamond with thousands of facets refracting techno coloured light in every direction. It would be constantly changing, and some of the light would be of too high a frequency for the human eye to see.
Today in our developed economy we are well catered for in the basics, so our wants have become more esoteric. We are looking for products and services that will make us feel good, look good, save time, save work, have more fun etc. Even when buying food at the super market we want the super market checkout lady to smile, even if we're feeling grumpy. A large proportion of what businesses sell today has no tangible form.
Over the past 30 years a high proportion of business investment has been in technology and now it seems, we're moving to a greater focus on how people feel. To deliver feel good benefits we must first understand how the other person feels about their problem. As an economy, we're starting to appreciate that whilst computers can help us with logistics they cannot help us understand how a person feels. That requires mindfulness.
Mindfulness requires a far more intelligent ‘computer' than the one sitting of our desk and luckily every one of us has access to such a computer. It's called the subconscious and it's becoming recognised as holding the key to our future. People who have dedicated their lives to understanding the human mind have estimated the power of the subconscious to be millions of times more intelligent than the conscious mind when it comes to understanding feelings.
Although all of us have a subconscious mind, few of us know how to tap in to its power. The concept of mindfulness provides a useful framework for learning how. It's as if mindfulness is the username and password to our subconscious.
Mindfulness not only allows us to access our own subconscious but it also allows us to pool the subconscious intelligence of everyone in our team. The effect is phenomenal. With a mindful culture building a highly profitable business become easy because each individual takes full ‘ownership' of the facets of the business they can ‘see'. They learn what they have to learn, they do what has to be done, and they reap the rewards accordingly.
The opposite to mindfulness can be observed in cultures where the guiding belief is: "we have to train our people". This paradigm has managers satisfied when people leave a training session knowing how they must behave. But having people understand what to do, only works when things are going well. Under stress or boredom, people usually revert to their old ways, because most training does little to engender mindfulness.
Teaching mindfulness creates the space for meaningful conversations across all levels of a business. These conversations help people reveal subconscious beliefs that are not serving them. Once revealed people choose to replace them with beliefs that do serve them, because once we peel away the actions and words, everybody does want to be appreciated for their contribution.
When business was simpler, training alone might have been sufficient. Today we need to be teaching mindfulness as well as training processes and systems. Interestingly the big payoff from teaching mindfulness is that people train themselves. What companies spend thousands on training with mediocre results seems to happen as if by magic.
So what is mindfulness? Reg Birchfield writes; "mindfulness is about developing
skills to control and focus personal concentration." He quotes Maya Nova, the founder of Auckland based consultancy Mindbalance; "about going beyond the hierarchical, conservative [organisational] models into adaptive, intuitive and cooperative leadership". And later in the article he quotes Maya again; "It is defined by clarity, calmness and insight."
Working with mindful leaders I see them displaying clarity and calmness. With these attributes they become more aware of the deeper needs of themselves and others. Their insight allows them to see that what people say they want is often different to what they actually need. Mindful leaders are aware of the macro situation across the whole business as well as the micro situation of the individual. They can hold appropriate aspirations for the whole team or an individual which supports their growth within the business.
Whilst there is no manual explaining how to be a mindful leader, there are principles that guide the mindful leader and in particular, two master principles;
1. An absolute rock solid, number one intention; To help the individual grow.
2. Faith that if the individual is growing they will dedicate their efforts to growing the business.
These two principles are deeply rooted in the beliefs of the mindful leader. With them his spontaneous response to any situation will be engaging and inspiring, even when under pressure.
Maintaining faith and is more difficult under tough conditions. Consider a leader in a line management role. If the pressure is on, he is always the meat in the sandwich. From above he has the CEO wanting the needs of directors and shareholders met and from below, workers want more pay or better working conditions.
The less mindful manager will simply pass on the demands from above and endeavour to persuade the CEO to cut him some slack for the workers, whereas the mindful leader will translate the demands from above into appropriate expectations for his team and visa-versa.
Being misunderstood goes with the territory of a mindful leader. When he communicates his expectation to the workers he will be mindful of them. He will have their growth as his number one concern and so to the less mindful CEO, this may look counter productive. A less mindful CEO may be tempted to interfere, expressing his opinion, directing how the work should be done, rather than have faith in his leader.
If a team member overhears a mindful leader connecting with the CEO he may think he's being treacherous; "He's running with the hares and hunting with the hounds" a worker may gripe. This happens because when connecting with the CEO the mindful leader's number one concernis to understand the needs of the CEO.
An average manager may believe; "Workers can't understand and the only way to avoid confusion is to ensure such conversations are held in private. Or their approach may be; "They don't need to understand, they are paid to work". Or "I'm not aiming to be liked, just respected". Sadly this last belief engenders more fear than respect.
A mindful leader has faith his team can understand, so he invests in education, starting with his senior people, teaching what it means to be mindful and expects them in turn to teach their people.
The primary driver of the mindful leader is growth in the mindfulness of his team. He has faith that his team will set ambitious goals and reach them with growing ease.
More ideas for initiating profitable thought.
Motivate Myself, the audio series
2718
In the Motivate Myself series; Shipping rates
- The Deeper Cause - ... employee to understand the cause of an issue to a deeper level so they are insired to change
- The Myth of the Night Owl - Early in the morning is when we set decide to be effective and productive
- Powerful Pauses - Questions become powerful if we are relaxed about leaving tension in the silence that follows
- Being and Doing - Completing the 'To Do' list is only fulfilling if we can also place a tick beside the way we intended to 'Be'
- The 10 70 20 Rule - A framework for being inspired, organised, productive, fun, for ever learning and at peace
- Grey is OK - A mind game for accepting so we can maximise our influence towards a better situation
- The Personal Escalation Plan - The process for gaining the attention of influential people to get an idea implimented
- The Goals and Causes - How goals without clarity of a bigger cause is only fleetingly motivating at best. What is a cause?
- Asking for Help - Kevin who wanted to chicken out when an opportunity he's worked on for for many yeasr presents itself
Shipping rates
Motivate Myself CD - $20 - The 9 tracks on one 60 minute CD P&P NZ $4.00. Overseas $10
MP3 tracks - You will reap the greatest value when you listen to the audio several times away from your desk where urgent things are demanding your time. Listen to it while driving, training or meditating. - $2
PDF Prompt Cards - The downloadable PDF is high resolution for you to print your own card. On side 2 is a brief explanation. PDFs are free, you just have to register - FREE
MP3 Series - $20 - 9 tracks, 60 minutes
Prompt Cards set - $20 - The 9 prompt cards in the Motivate Myself series in a display case for your desk. Each card has a brief explanation on side 2
CD and Prompts Card Set together - $30 - Play a track on your way to work and set up the prompt to keep it top of mind through the day P&P NZ $4.00. Overseas $10