Harvard Sees the Leadership “light”

Posted on August 28, 2013

By Gary Jaffer

Thank goodness Harvard professors are teaching and expounding mindfulness with special regard to leadership and business management.

I recently read this article and I commend it for your consideration. It talks about some of the recent corporate experience with the introduction of mindfulness practices into the workplace and especially into leadership.

http://www.mindfulnessinleadership.com/resources/Trisoglio_Mindful_Leadership_Mobius_130218.pdf

The summary of the Google, Genentech and US Marine Corps programs is fascinating reading and is a wonderful example of what can happen when mindfulness programs are supported in the work environment.

One of the areas that resounded with me was with regard to the “observer” view of things when in a leadership role. This is the ability to not get swept up in the flow of events, but to step back from the heat of the battle as it were and take an “observer” view, including yourself. The leader in this situation is enabled to step back into the fray with a broader view of the entire field of action and a consequent greater ability to act in a way that is of benefit to all those parties involved.

Contemporary leadership science talks a lot about authenticity, resilience and focus. These three can all be improved through mindfulness practises. Authentic leaders are seen as self aware and genuine, mission and results driven, leading with their heart and are in it all for the long term. Self awareness comes about when we examine what is happening in our lives and we need to be present to actually do that – mindfulness. Resilience is often described as “mental buoyancy” meaning that the mind is buoyed above the machinations of the chattering mind and has capacity to consider circumstances, as they are – mindfulness. Focus is obvious. The ability to lend our attention to whatever or whoever is before us is surely the practice of mindfulness.

Mindfulness is a practice I was first introduced to back in the late 80’s and frankly I’m not sure how I would have ended up without it over the years. So often I found that both formal and informal mindful practicing, during my work day, gave me the emotional strength to keep at the grind. Beyond this emotional strength, there has been a clear reduction in the tendency to judge and greater acceptance of the current circumstances that has enabled greater clarity in decision making.

One of our original goals when we established equilibrium9 was to bring mindfulness programs to the business community as well as the public arena, in fact it was this aim that helped us create our name. I’m pleased to say that work on these programs is well underway and we envisage launching them within the next couple of months – we’ll keep you posted!