Mindfulness - The Inner Edge of Change Leadership
What ‘s real … a barrage of emails and texts, constantly ringing phones, more to do and everything is urgent and important, tight timelines, working harder, a lack of control over your time at work, work creeping into your personal time, hard to please customers, colleagues and bosses and relentless, pervasive, non stop change. Does this sound all too familiar?
Every day leaders need to solve complex problems, make tough decisions and deal with multiple and competing demands. They also need to need to lead change and complex, non-stop change is demanding higher levels of engagement, collaboration and much greater change intelligence.
Leaders can’t avoid this intense and dynamic environment or postpone essential change and improvements but they can enhance their ability to successfully navigate this reality and lead change well. We have learned that leaders need an additional skill set to stay effective and resilient in this high demand, high change environment. They need an inner edge.
Recent advances in neuroscience are contributing to a greater understanding about the brain and how it functions, the brain’s capacity for change over a lifetime and the practices that optimize brain functioning and brain health.
There is scientific research that strongly suggests that mindfulness training and regular mindfulness practice enhance brain function by improving working memory, attention and emotion regulation, self awareness, emotional and social intelligence, resiliency, creativity and change agility. Mindfulness helps change leaders develop their inner edge.
Jon Kabat- Zinn, a scientist, author and meditation teacher defines mindfulness as paying attention, in a particular way, on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally (open andaccepting way).
Developing the ability to pay attention and see clearly what is happening moment by moment will not eliminate change leadership pressures or demands but it can help change leaders respond in a more constructive, calm manner. Learning and practicing mindfulness can helpleaders recognize and step away from habitual, conditioned ways of feeling, thinking and reacting to every day challenges and enable wiser, conscious choices and better decisions.
Mindfulness training is a powerful tool for developing emotional intelligence (EI). Emotionally intelligent change leaders are better able to manage the intense feelings and emotionally charged reactions inevitable in disruptive change. They are better able to attend to the human side of change, lead change thoughtfully and strategically, find creative solutions to complex problems and more fully engage and collaborate with others. Emotionally intelligent change leaders create an emotional climate that supports continuous learning and improvement and change ready teams.
We introduce mindfulness and mindfulness practices in Brain Savvy Change Leadership workshops, and coaching to help leaders develop and strengthen their inner edge. Emerging insights from neuroscience, underpinning mindfulness, have shifted leadership reactions from “ this is too woo woo” to “wow”!
If practicing mindfulness for 10 to 15 minutes a day seems like a practical path to changing your brain in ways essential for effective change leadership -
Please get comfortable in your chair, feet flat on the floor, close your eyes or soften your gaze and bring your full attention to your breath…
