While CEOs might look put together on the outside, the celebrity persona could easily be a mirage. Staying at the top takes focus, stamina, vision and self-care are some of the benefits of mindfulness for CEOs and they are abundant if followed religiously.
Top CEOs incorporate mindfulness as a popular technique for better leadership and exceeding goals. Importance of mindfulness in leadership is accepted by CEOs like Salesforce’s Marc Benioff, Def Jam’s Russell Simmons, Thrive Global’s Ariana Huffington, Oprah Winfrey (OWN) and Bill Gates (former Microsoft CEO) all practices it and encourages others to do the same.
If practicing mindfulness can impact our home lives by deepening relationships and improving overall health, it can also boost productivity and reduce stress at work.
What is mindfulness?
Being mindful isn’t just a concept that can improve our personal lives. It can also benefit the longevity of our businesses. Creating a happy work culture for leaders and employees is a trend we can all get behind. Mindfulness can help calm stress, depression and anxiety, as well as increase productivity and creativity, and improve relationships and health.
Importance of mindfulness in leadership
Benefits of mindfulness for CEOs is not only can meditation enhance your leadership skills, it can also help set an example for all participating employees. In addition, embracing mindfulness regulates mental, physical and emotional awareness that can help accelerate business goals.
Improves mental health
Long-term meditation can improve memory and focus. Keeping the brain healthy makes it easier to self-regulate and make effective decisions.
Helps in maintaining physical health
Meditation is also good for the immune system. In addition, maintaining physical health can reduce job absences and overall healthcare costs and improve morale.
Emotional intelligence improves
Meditation can build emotional intelligence. Emotional intelligence encompasses empathy, patience and better decision-making. When you practice mindfulness, you take better care of yourself, which in turn helps you treat your co-workers with respect and compassion.
Mindfulness boosts productivity
When your mind is free of distractions, it is easier to concentrate on the work at hand. Meditation can improve concentration, reduce anxiety and stress, and boost productivity.
Helps in enhancing creativity
Meditation can encourage critical and divergent thinking. Divergent or lateral thinking is the process of brainstorming multiple solutions to a problem. By relaxing the mind, you can access higher bouts of creativity and find better business solutions.
How CEOs can use mindfulness in work?
The importance of mindfulness in leadership can be seen in workplace and with employees. There are many ways in which CEO’s can use mindfulness in work
Create a welcoming space.
Mindfulness doesn’t need a unique space in the office, but it does require a respected space. Practicing meditation at your desk may be the most convenient, but that can also make it easier to let that intention slide on a busy workday.
Consider choosing a schedule and place that works for most leaders and employees in your business for maximum participation potential. The area should be free of electronics, noise and overbearing odors. Ask different people to rotate leading sessions to help engagement and inclusion.
Formation of healthy habits
Full adoption of meditation isn’t going to happen overnight. Consider adapting to the practice first and then introducing the concept to employees.
If you are forming your healthy habits through meditation, employees should also see a difference in their CEO.
Create inclusive environment
It’s vital that everyone can participate. Although it may be difficult to schedule one time that everyone can meet, offering a few different sessions during the day can help with flexibility. Be sure to include remote workers so that they can allocate the time to attend while still being able to meet production goals.
Try being intentional.
Meditation shouldn’t be an office fad to claim that your business has a positive work culture or is listed as a benefit on a job posting.
Decide on your goals and achieve incorporating the practice and stick to them. If you wish to decrease employee absentee days, boost productivity or deepen relationships, being intentional about mindfulness can help you achieve that.
Go above and beyond
By practicing mindfulness and teaching your employees how to incorporate meditation into their day can have a positive impact on their lives, as well as their relationships with family and friends.
If possible offer mindfulness seminars on a scheduled weekend where family or friends can participate with employees. One can also look into meditation app subscriptions.
