How To Implement Mindful Leadership Strategies

Nowadays, the ability to create a healthy and emotionally safe work environment has never been more important. In this talk, I'll share the key concepts and practices that I use to lead with a mindfulness approach. This approach allows my team to feel psychological safety, which leads to better results from individual contributors and more overall collaboration.

Transcript

In this talk, I want to speak about implementing mindful leadership strategies as a leader yourself. Maya Angelou once said, I've learned that people forget what you said, People forget what you did, People will never forget how you made them feel. When I was an individual contributor, I had a manager that would use toxic positivity as a leading tactic. All the problems or concerns that I had were buried. Team morale was at an all-time low and all the team members kept strategizing to leave the company or the organization. It did not matter what they said or did, No one felt safe or appreciated. This business relationship affected me so much, It carried over to my next role, Making me second guess my skill set and my ability to do the job. Being a leader can be one of the most challenging career paths. It requires an array of skills and a passion for helping others. Why is being a mindful leader so important? When you leave your ego, You lead yourself and your team to frustration. We as managers are trained and taught to focus on strategies, Execution of projects, Deadlines, Results, And so much more. But what if we reverse engineer this? What if we led from a mindfulness base first? Many companies have done the research and have successfully implemented mindfulness programs. Tech companies want to be transparent and share values in the job description, In conferences, Blog posts, Etc. But it's time that we start integrating company values with wellness-based values as well. And that starts with its leaders first. Which brings me to the main point of the presentation. What is the most asked question in a leadership interview? In the past, You probably did some prep work prior to your interview. And with the help of Google, You crafted your own response. We tend to research and learn about all different types of leadership styles. We tie ourselves to one or even combine some of them. The main problem with this is that we're taught that you need to know your leadership style. You need to know your leadership style before you can be a successful leader. But what is a leadership style? And the typical responses vary between authoritarian leader, Participative leader, Delegative leader, Transactional leader, Transformational leader, Among many more. All of these leadership styles have an ego component to them. All if not most don't service the human side of things. They don't service the human beings in our team first. What if instead of choosing an acting per art leadership style of choice, We practice and become a more mindful leader? Being a mindful leader encompasses four main core elements. But we never discuss them regardless of the science behind them. Because they don't fit within the typical business language. These four elements begin with you. Your team, And they also stretch over the organization. The main elements of a mindful leader are self-awareness, The ability to focus on your actions, Thoughts, And behaviors. Focus, Feeling grounded, But understanding that skills and performance evolve over time. Awareness of others, The ability to take in different perspectives. Clarity, The ability to listen and set clear expectations. If we were to drill down into this even more, When we're speaking about self-awareness, You can ask yourself, What's going well with your team? What areas can you improve upon? When we're talking about focus, This can be the ability to produce quality work and execute strategies for your organization. When we're talking about awareness of others, This means your team's psychological safety, Empathy, And compassion. Last but not least, Clarity, Which is the ability to make transparent decisions while practicing radical candor. But we have heard of some, If not all of this before. And with our fast-paced teams, Who has time to practice them? As we all know, This mindfulness community, This meditation practice, This sense of taking a couple of deep breaths, Grounding yourself to the moment in time that you're in, Can really just empower us to be better leaders. If we are not proactive and try to include a mindfulness component on our careers, We become managers with no leadership skills. The main difference between managers and leaders is that managers have people that work for them, While leaders have people who feel inspired, Safe, And productive. Leaders help create the space that is safe and avoid burnout. But this is easier said than done, Right? But what if I told you that this only took 30 seconds of your time? The three-by-three exercise is meant to break a pattern, A narrative, Creating that small but healthy space to respond rather than to react. This exercise can help you feel free, More grounded, As you manage or navigate through any type of situation as a leader. It can even clear the path as you're really trying to navigate through the difficult times of decision-making. As a leader, Your day may consist on one-on-ones, Difficult conversations, Decisions around the business, Logistical, Or operational. It can be a wide variety of different situations that may create high stress for you. Let's actually put into practice this exercise. The three-by-three exercise is all you need, Doing that 30-second window. This is all about creating that space to respond. The first thing that I would like you to do is to find an object around your space. Around your space, This can be a chair, A lamp, A TV, Anything that you're seeing around you. Once you name that object, I want you to take a deep breath, Inhaling slowly, Then exhaling slowly. We're going to repeat this three times. Name an object, Take a deep breath, And repeat. Now, We'll do it with you with items that I'm seeing around my space right now. Microphone, Laptop, Desk. You can do this with your eyes opened or closed. After doing that exercise, How are you feeling? More grounded, More centered, More level-headed. This only took 30 seconds. Three simple, Mindful leadership strategies. It can also be time blocking, Prior times, The time that you need to work on an initiative, Or a deliverable, Prepare for one-on-ones, Anything else that you might need to do that you need a solid amount of time to do this. This will not only help you to lead by example, But those 30 minutes with your team members are essential to their career development. And in order for them to feel safe and heard, If they know that they have your dedicated attention, You will be able to achieve this. Reflect on past leaders throughout your career. How did they make you feel? What resonated with you? How did they lead effectively? Create a community. Create a sense of community within your team. This will allow your team to learn and lean on each other. This will also solidify within your team that feeling of psychological safety. If you wonder what psychological safety is, This is the belief that you won't be punished or humiliated for speaking up, Sharing ideas, Concerns, Even going through mistakes as a team. To learn from each other. At work is a shared expectation held by members and the team that we will not embarrass, Reject, Or punish each other for sharing ideas, Taking risks, Or even asking for that constructive feedback from each other. It's having the ability to create this sense of trust with each other that deepens even the most difficult relationships within your team members. An example of a mindful leader can simply be Phil Jackson, An NBA coach who won 11 championship rings. His main leadership technique was one team, One breath. He used this policy when he wanted to bring consciousness and mindfulness to the forefront. The team would practice deep breathing in unison. He took eight players like Jordan and helped them step away from their egos and work as a team for a common goal. Throughout this example, We learned that in order to have a top performing team, It's not about intimidation or needing to perform because I might lose my job. It's about feeling safe, Appreciated, And feeling like your contributions are making an impact. This is true in the sports arena as it is in any other industry that we might work for. But today I leave you with this quote from Simon Sinek. The role of a leader is not to come up with all the great ideas. The role of a leader is to create an environment in which great ideas can happen. I thank you for listening to this talk around mindfulness and leadership and how we're able to implement techniques and strategies to not only make ourselves feel more grounded to the present moment as a leader, But help our teams feel the same way. If you would like to learn more about me, You can continue to listen to other tracks within my Insight Timer profile and in the About section, You can learn about my website and any other information about me. Thank you for being here today and I hope you have a great day.

Reviews

I love this perspective Marita. Thank you for sharing 🙏🏻