Leadership Starts with Mindfulness
Contributed by Carlos Cadogan
Before we can even think about supporting our organization initiatives like improving communication, changing management and DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion), as leaders we need to understand ourselves, our motivations, and our purpose. What leaders need is mindfulness.
So, what is Mindfulness? There are many definitions for mindfulness but the one I like the most is, “Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, and thoughts.”
While this all sounds great, what does this mean for developing our leadership capabilities?
Mindfulness Fosters Self-Awareness
We live in a time where we are more distracted, fatigued and stressed than ever before. Because of this, we are more reactive to our environments. We are not giving ourselves the grace and space to understand what is happening in our day-to-day moments. Our brains are being pushed and pulled by our thoughts and emotions.
Our emotions are controlled by a voice in our head that is concerned about things that can go wrong and can negatively critique what we do. Our inner voice interprets situations instantaneously and it all happens unconsciously. We are unaware of it, but it can create frustration when things do not go as expected.
As leaders, while we believe we are conscious and deliberate in our thoughts, we often live in an unconscious and reactive state. A state that is driven by our inner voice. The truth is that everyone has an inner voice, but listening to it and attempting to understand it allows us to take a step back to observe what it is saying, because our inner voice impacts how we view ourselves, others, and the environments we operate within.
Listening to our inner voice creates self-awareness. It allows us as leaders to better understand our feelings about particular people, events, or situations without allowing those feelings to complicate our decisions.
Mindfulness Fosters our Motivations.
Motivating employees is a crucial leadership task, since motivation translates to inspiring employee’s connection, commitment, work-related behaviours and performance. Motivating others is by no means an easy task, since what motivates one employee differs from another.
To improve how we motivate employees, we need to understand what motivates us as individuals. Our self-motivation is our ability to find enthusiasm, interest, and passion for a particular task. There are two common types of motivation: Internal and External.
Internal motivation is the one that comes from within us. It is our interest, passion, and understanding of our personal and cultural values, and our sense of accomplishment.
External motivation comes from the outside. It is our social status, job title, income, and the praise we receive for ourselves and our work.
Understanding our own motivations is the first step to leading others. It allows us to motivate others in a more authentic way.
Mindfulness can Increase our Emotional and Cultural Intelligence.
Recently, coaching and enhancing emotional intelligence (EQ) and Cultural Intelligence (CQ) has become a major area of focus for human resources and organizations for their leadership development programs. Leaders who cultivate emotional and cultural intelligence set themselves up for success in their careers regardless of if their roles are global in nature or domestic.
Emotional intelligence is a set of emotional and social skills that influence the way we perceive and express ourselves, develop and maintain social relationships, cope with challenges, and use emotional information in an effective and meaningful way. However, EQ alone may not help leaders in creating an inclusive work environment and proactively recruiting and developing diverse employees.
Cultural intelligence (CQ) measures the ability to relate to others in culturally diverse situations. This diversity encompasses not only diverse types of work culture but also differences in an individual’s background, race, ethnicity, gender, religion, and much more.
A leader with high cultural quotient (CQ) is prepared to effectively lead and work with diverse groups of people by understanding their own and others’ motivation, cultural values and adapting their own behaviour to best address conflicts within culturally diverse situations. A culturally intelligent leader will be able to minimize the gap between the different values within an organization or team to help facilitate curiosity and empathy.
For leaders, mindfulness is our North star. It helps us understand causes of stress, allows us to better manage stress, make better decisions, solve complex problems, understand how we see ourselves and others and how we view the world.
It is the starting point to understanding what motivates us. When we can do this, we can motivate others from a place of empathy and authenticity.
Take the lead!
