“The main business case for meditation is that if you are fully present on the job, you will be more effective as a leader, you will make better decisions and you will work better with other people.”
Bill George, Harvard Business School and former CEO of Medtronic (meditating for 40 years)
Of course this makes sense!
But, the world of work has become so frenetic, pressured with endless distractions, it is not easy to be fully present on the job. It is much more common to ‘be driven’ by the endless task list, the noisy mind, working on auto-pilot, reacting impulsively and often just putting in time.
Mindfulness at Work is vital to success
That’s why many people in high performance environments are now taking up Mindfulness Training. They gain by being able to have a calm clear positive mind state which everyone knows is a pre-requisite to successful endeavour.
Research shows that the average attention span is about eight seconds (study by the Microsoft Corp) and people are off task 47% of the time! Not only that, but when attention is wandering (mulling over past issues and anticipating future problems) it is an unhappy place to be.
How Mindfulness at Work Training helps people manage their attention better?
The first step in Mindfulness Training is about waking up… starting to notice how attention is constantly being pulled… noticing the commentary, the judging mind, the storytelling and stepping back and just observing how all of this works.
The practice of Mindfulness — watching one’s breath and noticing thoughts and sensations helps us to see through the delusion, to step out of the drama and stay with something more fundamental. Then, we cultivate space on the inside, which sets us up to:
- Manage our emotional state and be able to reframe and perceive from different perspectives and so much more…
- Behave more intentionally and make more discerning decisions – able to prioritise, plan, take time over what is important
- Stay open to creative solutions to problems and the ability to think outside the box and be creative and innovative
Mindfulness at Work creates happier, healthier and more productive working environments which benefits both individuals and organisations
These are some of the benefits:
- Lowering levels of work related stress and associated absence
- Improving employee resilience
- Improving staff performance and productivity
- Increasing job satisfaction and employee engagement
- Developing more effective decision making
- Enhancing creativity and leadership
- Making communication clearer and more effective
- Improving relationships and team working
- Addressing conflict in the workplace
- Creating more positive working environments
This is a good time to consider some Mindfulness at Work Training to set your people up for success…
Joanne O’Malley, Mindfulness at Work wrote this blog.
