Leadership & Mindfulness - Mobius Executive Leadership

LEADERSHIP & Mindfulnessmany changing variables that need tobe evaluated with accuracy and speed.And as the evaluation is completed,we need our leaders to haveaccess to all of their internal capacitiesfor creativity, the third hallmarkof leadership excellence. When wehave a calendar that is fully packedwith meetings, and a Task list that fillsseveral pages, the availability of thespaciousness needed for creativity isminimal. Creative solutions and ideashave a better chance of arising whenthe mind is not constantly busy withour ‘to do’ lists. Have you ever noticedthat setting aside time to thinkof a creative solution is not nearly asfruitful as an approach that identifiesthe problem, and then allows themind to simply work at its own pace?How many times have you awakenedwith an answer, or perhaps it poppedinto your head while you were in theshower. Why? A constant stream ofJanice L. Marturanois the Founder and ExecutiveDirector of the Institutefor Mindful Leadership,a non-profit organizationdedicated to training andsupporting leaders in theexploration of mindfulnessand leadership excellence. She founded theInstitute for Mindful Leadership in January, 2011,after ending her tenure as Vice President, PublicResponsibility and Deputy General Counsel forGeneral Mills, Inc.Janice was a strategic leader within GeneralMills for nearly 15 years before leaving todedicate herself full time to the Institute. Whileat General Mills, she co-developed the very firstmindful leadership curricula at the Universityof Massachusetts Medical School’s Center forMindfulness where she served as a memberof the Advisory Board. As a certified teacher ofmindfulness and an experienced former officerof a Fortune 200 company, she has brought theintensive training of mindful leadership to leadersfrom all forms of organizations-corporate, nonprofit,academic and government, military.thinking actually gets in the way ofthat wisdom that is deep within. Wecan train our mind to stand in a differentrelationship to those thoughtsand cultivate more spaciousness forcreativity through Mindful Leadershiptraining.Finally, we need to cultivate our innatecapacity for compassion. And itneeds to begin with us. This was not aneasy lesson for me to learn, and it is notan easy lesson for most leaders. In the25 years that I have held leadership positions,I have had the great privilege ofworking with wonderful people in allsectors of our society. They were leaderswith warm hearts and bright minds,and they generally put themselves atthe bottom of the list of those whoneeded compassion. Compassion is apowerful force and can be defined as‘understanding’. So when we fully realizeour capacity for leadership by going‘deep within’, we are including our willingnessto understand ourselves andto be willing to make choices that arenourishing and supportive of who weare. Only when we honestly embodyself-compassion can we then offer it tothose around us, and to the larger communityin which we live and work.Just as we know that we can developour body’s innate capacities to increaseour strength, flexibility and resiliency,we now know from the field of neurosciencethat we can develop the mind’sinnate capacities, including its capacityto focus, see clearly, be creative andact with compassion. We can no longerafford to have those in positionsof influence lead without training themind’s full capabilities. In the Institutefor Mindful Leadership retreatsand workshops that my colleaguesand I teach to employees and leadersfrom around the world, we repeatedlyhear people say that this experienceand practice has allowed them to seea fuller and more meaningful way tolive their lives, and to lead with more ofwho they really are, rather than tryingto lead like someone else. They cometo appreciate their capacity to offer inspiration,not just set expectations, andthey notice the potential richness thatcomes from the choice to hold ambiguityfor a time rather than making aquick, ‘check the box’ decision. These,and many other discoveries, comefrom a practice that is consistent andpractical. An investment of 15 minutesa day will do to get you started, andthere are an infinite number of ways topractice informally once you have experiencethe basic Mindful Leadershiptraining (see the Meditation Hallwaypractice below).As leaders, our best hope for influencingin a productive and authenticway is to learn to use all of our mind’sabilities, including our ability to practiceMindful Leadership, to embodyleadership presence.Meditation HallwayIf you care to explore a ‘taste of MindfulLeadership training’, try the followingMeditation Hallway practice:Choose a hallway or stairway thatyou frequently walk through duringthe day. Each time you pass throughthis space, bring your attention to thesensations of walking. With each step,notice the touch of the floor, the movementof the ankle and toes, the swingof the foot, the touch of the air, theweightiness of the legs, etc. Feel thesensations, do not think about them!When you notice that your mind hasdrifted away, simply redirect it to thesensation of walking. Do you noticeany differences in how you arrive atyour next meeting?This simple practice can begin tobreak holes in the auto-pilot, reactivityby bringing us back to this moment.Our body sensations can only be felt inthe present so practicing by bringingour attention to body sensations immediatelytakes us to the present. ■56 Mobius Executive Leadership | www.mobiusleadership.com