The Practice Leaders Should be Using at Work
Meditation in the workplace? Meditation for business?
Likely you’ve heard about meditation and the positive benefits it can provide. But isn’t that just for spiritual folks who have space and time to sit in silence? It turns out. We see quite a few CEO’s and successful corporations include meditation as part of their productivity habits. If you’re curious about what meditation has to do with productivity? It is remarkably connected to brain function and reduces the “monkey mind” we all can be subject to. In addition to every day “monkey mind”, as a business leader, you also add on extra responsibility for the success of your department and company. So much depends on you – to show “face” in troubling situations, maintain productivity, and lead with a positive presence. The weight that is on the shoulders of leaders, executives and business owners is heavy, to say the least. You might start to have panicked feelings regarding productivity, business goals, and sometimes the battle strong feelings of self-doubt. And these are mostly in these challenging times.
Enter meditation.
Mastering control of not only your emotions but your mental state will help you develop a powerful mind. There is a reason CEO’s are beginning to use meditation as a source of superpower in their daily rituals. Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, has touted his daily use of meditation and has been quoted as saying.
“Part of the key to time management is carving out time to think, as opposed to constantly reacting”.
William Clay Ford Jr, Executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company, cited meditation as one of the primary things that helped get him through several years of bankruptcy. And to add one last example, Mark T Bertolini, the Chief Executive of Aetna, underwent a horrible injury in a skiing accident years ago. But meditation help get him back to work. After realizing how meditation had helped him firsthand, he decided to incorporate it into his company. He offered mindfulness classes to all employees of Aetna. Before long, he said, the corporate culture had changed. He was quoted saying,
“We’re different now, everybody started coming to me with ideas about how we could be better”. –Mark Bertolini
Examples like these are so pivotal because we are still on the tipping point of utilizing meditation within companies and organizations. If you have yet to experience meditation for yourself, I will encourage you to keep an open mind. I invite you to suspend your attachment to any preconceived ideas about meditation. Instead, urge to recognize that perhaps the actual key to better productivity, higher energy and overall higher output comes from the opposite—slowing down. Think of this as a way to plug yourself back in and give that human “battery” a FULL charge.
Imagine the endless possibilities that could exist for you and your company by introducing something so beneficial. And this might be THE time to do it! Finally, the last plug I can make about meditation and mindfulness in the workplace is the cost vs reward. The minimal, if any, cost involved with introducing meditation and mindfulness to the workplace would beg to suggest that there is little to no risk involved. Hypothetically you implement a meditation/meditation program. And the worst that happens is your employees marginally feel a bit more relaxed and are encouraged to take a breath for themselves. You not only get to take the credit for the implementation. On the contrary, WHAT IF you experience a great culture shift and employee engagement like Aetna did? Or what if YOU, yourself, feel more energized and have so much more PASSION for giving to your employees and company? This is one of the most simple, tactful, not to mention, NEEDED tools we can implement.
By practicing meditation we hone our mind to become a finely sharpened tool–more able to overcome barriers, handle discomfort, and gain control, which are all big components of being successful in business (and in life).
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/practice-leaders-should-using-work-valerie-cordes/
