6 reasons leaders need to practice mindfulness and how to do it quickly!

Did you know that practicing mindfulness can make you a better leader?
You bet it can!

Mindfulness helps you to: 

1. Be Decisive: make better decisions
2. Have Stamina: endure through long days
3. Remain Calm: be more relaxed during crises
4. Be Composed: maintain your cool when triggered by a comment
5. Focus: able to concentrate instead of feeling frantic and scattered
6. Prioritize: able to use your judgement to put your attention where it's really needed

AND....Mindfulness helps you to be a compassionate leader: 
Instead of being stiff, bristly and focused only on tasks and results, mindfulness helps you be a warm, caring, compassionate, emotionally and socially intelligent leader. 


You are a caring person!!!
And let's be honest, that's who you are at your core! You are kind, caring and passionate about your work. Sometimes, we just get caught up in the mess of the day, lose contact with that part of ourselves (unmindful) and lose touch with the human side of our leadership capacity.


Mindfulness doesn't necessarily mean meditation
Now that we've confirmed, it might be a good idea to practice mindfulness; my guess is your thoughts immediately go to meditation. While that may be helpful, and I encourage you to try that, you don't have to meditate to practice mindfulness.

How to add moments of mindfulness into your day
This morning I ate my breakfast. That's it. I just ate my breakfast.

• No music playing
• No book in my hand
• No phone beside me
• No TV, YouTube or training course

I just ate my breakfast

As I ate my breakfast, I was aware of the sounds around me.

• The fan running in the fireplace
• The sound of myself breathing
• My dog snoring down the hall
• The sound of myself chewing
• The fridge running

Books on Mindfulness and Leadership

• Mastering Confidence: Discover your leadership potential by awakening your inner guidance system 

 

• Mindful Leadership: The 9 Ways to Self-Awareness, Transforming Yourself, and Inspiring Others

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• The Pause Principle: Step Back to Lead Forward​

• Breathe: The Simple, Revolutionary 14-Day Program to Improve Your Mental and Physical Health

You don't have to live alone to do this!
But you might be saying I can't do that. I have a houseful. True. And when you sit and eat and listen to the sounds in your household, what do you hear?

• My daughter would hear her roommates fighting 
• Perhaps you hear the TV on, music or kids bickering 

You might also tune in to what you taste.


Use your senses at any moment to be mindful
Your senses are wonderful ways of bringing you present, being mindful in this moment 👃🏼👂🏻 👋🏻 👀 👅 Even during a meeting, travelling or watching tv, you can practice tuning into your senses.


As I practiced mindfulness this morning, I tasted the cinnamon in my oatmeal, the ground hazelnuts, craisins sprinkled in and the almond milk on top.


Mindfulness is being mindful of this moment...it's that "easy"
Practising mindfulness is simply just that, practising being mindful of whatever is happening around you. 


Are you present or in the past or future?
Instead, most of us let our thoughts pull us back to what happened and regurgitate what went wrong. Alternately, we focus on the future and fret and worry about what is to become. To be mindful is to be in this moment, whatever is going on!


Mindfulness helps you build compassion, care and connection in your nonprofit
In this week's episode of the podcast, Elizabeth Bishop and I talk about love in your nonprofit. By love, we mean compassion, connection and caring. The problem is many of us have lost touch with that part of our leadership capacity. And it shows.

• We've lost the passion for our work  
• We don't so much like the people we work with  
• Sometimes we forget the meaning behind why we do what we do, the outcomes for our clients and the community

You can regain your love for your job, your compassion for the people you work with and reignite that in your team.

More help to build your compassion, kindness and mindfulness 

To help, tune in to my conversation with Elizabeth for tons of ideas, insights and the incentive to practice mindfulness.

For more information on how to use mindfulness to maintain your composure during tough meetings, those of you in The Training Library can watch this webinar.
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TRY IT: Just for a moment now, tune into your senses. Be present to this moment!
Go make the rest of your day awesome!

Have you lost your passion for your work?

• Do you wish you could feel engaged, create an engaged team and enjoy the work you do?

All of that comes from allowing your heart to be involved in your work.
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Too often, we’ve been told to stop being so emotional. To no be so caring.

We’ve been told we’ll burn ourselves out. ​ But we are burning ourselves out by not caring, not feeling and numbing out.
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In this episode, Elizabeth and I engage in a dialogue about bringing your heart back into your work!
You’ll learn strategies, mindsets and most importantly, you’ll gain the permission to once again feel the love in the workplace!