The Mindful Leader: Sit and Be Still

ost business books focus on how leaders can achieve more. How can you do more, better…and faster? This article takes the opposite tack: how and why, as leaders, you should sit and be still.

Psychologist Daniel Goleman, an authority on emotional intelligence in organizations, calls this the leadership paradox in Primal Leadership: "For leaders, the first task in management has nothing to do with leading others; step one poses the challenge of knowing and managing oneself."

• Connecting with deep values that guide
• Imbuing actions with meaning
• Aligning emotions with goals
• Keeping motivated, focused and on task

Honing the skills of awareness leads to mindfulness - becoming aware of what's going on inside and around us on several levels. Mindfulness is living in a state of full, conscious awareness of one's whole self, other people and the context in which we live and work.

Before you dismiss mindfulness as New Age rhetoric, pay attention to the research. Recent studies in management science, psychology and neuroscience point to the importance of developing mindfulness and experiencing meditation.

Mindfulness meditation has long been practiced by Buddhists and others seeking greater calm and peace of mind. A Buddhist-trained HR executive, Michael Carroll encourages business leaders to take time to sit and be still. Stressed-out executives, he maintains, need a way to reconnect with themselves to become more open and, consequently, more effective.

In his new book, The Mindful Leader: Awakening Your Natural Management Skills Through Mindfulness Meditation (2008), Carroll explores the key principles of mindfulness and how they apply to leading organizations.

• How to heal toxic workplace cultures where anxiety and stress impede creativity and performance
• How to cultivate courage and confidence in spite of workplace difficulties and economic recession
• How to pursue organizational goals without neglecting what's happening here and now
• How to lead with wisdom and gentleness, not only with ambition, relentless drive and power
• How a personal meditation practice develops your innate leadership talents

• Companies like Raytheon, Procter & Gamble, Unilever, Nortel Networks, Comcast and prominent law firms have offered employees classes in mindfulness meditation.
• Executives like Bill Ford Jr., chairman of Ford Motor Company; Michael Stephen, former chairman of Aetna International; Robert Shapiro, ex-CEO of Monsanto; and Michael Rennie, managing partner of McKinsey & Co., meditate and consider the practice beneficial to running a corporation.

• Repaired immune systems
• Heightened emotional intelligence
• Reduced anxiety and depression
• Sustained levels of joy and satisfaction
• Greater career resilience
• Improved cardiovascular health
• Fewer days lost to illness and stress

But practicing meditation requires much…well, practice. It demands vulnerability and heart, rather than ambition and achievement—a tall order for hard-driving, results-oriented executives.

• Sit upright-relaxed, yet alert
• Open your eyes and maintain a soft, relaxed, downward gaze.
• Place hands palms down, resting gently.
• Tuck in your chin.
• Breathe normally.
• Observe your thoughts gently, without judgment.
• Label your thoughts as "thinking" and dismiss them. Let them go.
• Return your focus to your being, breathing and bodily sensations.
• Be still.
• Experience being you in the moment-in the now.

At some point in meditation, we experience our mind's restlessness-a strong desire to be somewhere else, doing other things. You'll be reminded of matters that need your attention. When you experience restlessness, you'll come to realize how you shut down your sense of "here and now"-your own presence in the world as it really exists. It's easy to become distracted, yet hard to sit and be still with ourselves.

This is when we begin to discover how we interact in the world: by shutting off the here and now, distorting our sense of purpose and missing opportunities to appreciate our true environment. The ensuing anxiety prevents us from being open.

• 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.

Practice mindfulness meditation with non-achievement in mind. Meditation's benefits are attained by exercising unseen "leadership muscles" as you sit still.
Ten leadership talents developed through meditation are presented in Carroll's book:

These skills develop with practice and can then be applied with a natural ease and familiarity.

As you know from experience, leading others is no small task, requiring a poised, courageous, down-to-earth acknowledgment of reality. 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.

Chip's upcoming books, available in 2009:

"Too soon old, too late smart"

- Bohemian proverb, as told by my Grandmother, Lyda Morine Scholz

Turning Potential into Action, Ryan Scholz

No, Ryan is not related by ancestry, but I do happen to share many of his philosophies and business ideas.

In this book, Ryan keeps it simple and direct, and gives you a road map for being more effective in your work and your life. What I especially like about the book is that in a short 87 pages he has detailed 8 Outstanding Principles for becoming a leader and maintaining great leadership within an organization. His guidelines for tapping into the human potential and ultimately the potential of the whole organization are a must read for anyone who desires to release the power of their organization.

Ryan put some pretty incredible thought into this book to make it simple, descriptive and prescriptive without being preachy. A seasoned expert in personal development in manufacturing environments, Ryan uses his real world knowledge to turn theory into reality and great illustrations into something you can take action on immediately. Whether you are a pro or a novice in the world of management, leadership or supervision, you will find this book not only helpful, but perhaps transformational.

Turning Potential Into Action

Ryan Scholz
Best Price $15.95

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