Mastering Leadership Skills with Mindfulness: The Art of Present-Moment Awareness

BE. HERE. NOW.

We live in an incredibly fast-paced world where each individual is striving to perform better in the corporate world. But most days we get so caught up in the rush that we forget to check in on ourselves. And, especially on our minds.

That is where mindfulness comes in.

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully aware. It aims at mindfully attending to what’s happening, to what you’re doing, to the space you’re moving through. Mindfulness techniques involve awareness, and the willingness to reach a state of peace with impartiality about what we gain from this awareness.

“Mindfulness is the psychological process of bringing one’s attention to the internal and external experiences occurring in the present moment, which can be developed through the practice of meditation and other training.”

Keeping this in mind, Team Shoonyas has come up with a very innovative yet simplistic technique for meditation – a powerful way to practice mindfulness. It helps in focusing the mind on a particular object, thought, or activity whose aim is to train attention and awareness and achieve a mentally clear, emotionally calm, and stable state.

We knew the corporates were busy climbing the ladder of success, with no time to check up on their state of mind. So, we created a program that takes meditation to corporates, fitting into their busy schedule with an aim to incorporate a state of mind that benefits them in sharpening skills like attention, memory, and emotional intelligence, all while creating agile and flexible mindsets that act as the foundation for leadership.

Mindfulness builds resilience –

Mindfulness practices have been found to decrease anxiety, thereby potentially boosting resilience and performance under stress. They help awaken resilience by helping us learn to regulate our central nervous systems so that higher reasoning is available for better decision-making. Awareness and attention to the present moment, the way we experience emotions without judgment, and regulate our behavioral response to them, all come under this spectrum. This is quite a favorable leadership quality because, in situations of extreme pressure, a team needs a leader who knows how to keep their composure and propose solutions, instead of succumbing to the pressure.

Mindfulness builds empathy –

We all know that mindfulness plays an important role in strengthening attention. But there is another factor that is impacted by mindfulness techniques. Compassion. Research shows that mindfulness increases empathy and compassion for others and oneself. It makes you kind, understanding, and positive.

One of the vital leadership qualities is empathy. Empathetic leadership means having the ability to understand others and their needs and being aware of one’s feelings and thoughts in a way that they don’t harm your employees. It is a vital soft skill that is mostly overlooked. But it is a definite game-changer. Empathetic leaders are assets to organizations, they can effectively build and maintain relationships and are synonyms of success when it comes to leading organizations anywhere in the world.

“I didn’t tend to understand what my team was going through. I would just get angry if they did not perform according to my expectations. Thanks to meditation I have developed patience. I have a better relationship with my team. Best of all, I maintain my peace of mind.” – Archana Patchirajan, successful serial entrepreneur and CEO and Founder of Sattva

Mindfulness builds creativity –

Mindfulness leads to calmness. And a calm mind is the treasure box of ideas. Research shows that employees came up with their greatest insights and biggest breakthroughs when they were in a more meditative and relaxed state of mind.

Mindfulness meditation can have many positive effects on workplace outcomes. We’ve seen how it boosts resilience, helps mitigate stress, regulates emotions, and has a more positive outlook so that one can bounce back from setbacks. It also plays an important role in enhancing creativity. It switches on divergent thinking and opens your mind to new ideas. Creativity is among the early benefits of mindfulness meditation and can be seen in the early stages of constant meditation.

Mindfulness builds focus –

Imagine a hectic workday, your workplace is buzzing with calls, your calendar is lined up with meetings. Submission is due at the end of the day. That is the time that you need to focus on the most, to get work done before deadlines. Research shows that our minds tend to wander about 50% of the time. Add in work interruptions, text messages, phone calls, and emails, and it’s no surprise that employees have a hard time staying focused. Unfocused employees mean below-average work.

To escape this vicious cycle, one needs to learn how to build focus. Meditation can help curb our tendency for distraction, strengthening our ability to stay focused and even boosting memory. Mindfulness helps you be aware of your feelings, but not get absorbed in them. And this is what helps you when workplace distractions are at their peak. To feel everything but not get absorbed in them.

The above listed are a few examples of the qualities mindfulness incorporates in a leader. Companies are facing new and different behavioral challenges every day. If you don’t get on par with the challenges, the stress takes you down. To help with that, high-potential programs focusing on mindfulness have been launched. They are specially designed for a leader of today, to help with the stress and anxiety of a workplace, along with increasing focus, attention, and sharpness.

And if in this fast corporate cycle, you are worried that meditation will become just another thing added to your checklist that you have to do. Meditation is not just “one more thing to do”, because, in reality, we don’t ‘do’ meditation; meditation ‘does’ us.

Check out our new program, Meditation for Corporates, where Team Shoonyas has come up with a very innovative yet simplistic technique for meditation, tried and tested on people with various age groups, having different personal and professional backgrounds. And it has shown tremendous positive outcomes.

For your growth,

Team Shoonyas.