Mindfulness can be valuable for anyone. For instance, it can help you cope with stress and recenter your thoughts. It can better your physical health. It can also inspire self-love and confidence.
But what role can mindfulness play in the workplace, particularly in leadership? Mindful management is one of the best ways to maximize productivity and engagement in your team. It can also bridge the communication and connection gap between higher-ups and lower-level employees.
Mindful management is absolutely worth developing. But before we offer tips on how to grow mindful leadership, let’s define what it is and how it supports a positive work environment.
What is Mindful Management?
According to mindful.org, “Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.”
With this in mind, you can define mindful management as leading a team internally whole, conscious of your employees’ needs, and committed to doing what it takes to ensure those needs and yours are adequately addressed.
You take the time to understand what makes work meaningful for your team. You work with their needs rather than holding them against your employees. You also genuinely appreciate who they are and what they bring to the table.
Let’s look at how mindful management supports a positive work culture.
How Mindful Management Supports a Positive Work Culture
Managers who come from a mindful place in everything they do stimulate a positive work culture. When a manager is self-aware, internally peaceful, grateful, and wholly present in every moment, they can inspire the best in their workers and seamlessly navigate challenges.
For example, let’s say you’re in a human resources (HR) management position. In that case, you’ve likely been hit with severe challenges regarding remote work, including handling training remotely, facilitating employee socialization, and ensuring workplace equity.
You must be incredibly thoughtful and creative in addressing these remote work challenges to keep your team and workflow intact. Mindfulness incites critical and creative thinking, enabling you to resolve issues in the best way possible for your team.
Mindful management also helps you with your decision-making. Leaders are tasked with making important decisions often. Mindfulness can help you stay calm during decision-making to ensure your choices are insightful.
Positive work culture is the most productive, but you need mindful management to get there.
Do you want to develop mindful management to make your team more productive and effective at work?
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How to Develop Mindful Management
If you’re ready to develop mindful management, here’s how to get started:
Cultivate a positive relationship with self
A mindful manager has a meaningful relationship with themself. Mindfulness requires you to be self-aware. You must know your strengths, where you’re weak, and how to improve. True mindfulness also demands that you love yourself unconditionally.
Growing a healthy, loving relationship with yourself will help you manage people better too. You’ll conduct your relationships with others based on your relationship with yourself. So, make sure you have a good one.
Positive self-talk, taking care of your entire being, and loving all of who you are will push you toward a better relationship with yourself. In turn, you’ll become more mindful, which will manifest in how you manage your team.
Learning to focus on the present, acknowledge and accept how you’re feeling, what you’re thinking, and how your body reacts in certain situations isn’t easy. Still, it’s necessary for a solid relationship with yourself.
Prioritize mental health care
Much of mindfulness is, well, in your mind. This is why prioritizing mental health care is essential. When your mind isn’t right, getting in tune with yourself, let alone the people you’re managing, is challenging.
On the other hand, taking care of your mind and emotional well-being makes it easier for you to be fully present. Empathizing with, supporting, and inspiring your employees is also effortless.
Do what you need to do to become mentally strong and emotionally grounded. If you need to see a therapist or a counselor regularly, do it. Heal from past pain and trauma if that’s affecting your mental state. Staying active, eating well, and connecting with your loved ones will help too.
You’ll take the long road to mindful management without a solid grip on your mental health.
Practice good time management
Managers typically work long hours and take on a whole lot of responsibilities. Unfortunately, high-stress work environments aren’t vehicles for mindful management. Instead of overloading yourself with too much work in a day, learn to manage your time better.
With better time management comes mindfulness. Learn how to prioritize your daily tasks, incorporate breaks, and take time for self-care. As a result, you’ll be able to regulate yourself better. You’ll also improve how you lead your employees and inspire them to do more.
Good time management will help you designate time for intentional mindfulness activities each day. It will also give you insight into how much you’re working and if that work is productive.
Make breaks a core part of the workday
Breaks must be a core part of your workday if you want to implement a mindful management style. Breaks are significant because they allow you to reset and return to your work with a clear mind and better focus.
Breaks are also the perfect opportunity to enjoy intentional mindfulness activities. For instance, you could take a power nap. You could go to a nearby park and take a short walk. You could get on a call with your therapist. Or roll out your yoga mat for a meditation session.
At the very least, take a few 15 minutes breaks and a 30-60 minute lunch each day. And don’t go longer than an hour without standing up and stretching.
Making breaks a core part of your workday opens up the opportunity to incorporate mindfulness activities regularly.
Find a schedule that fosters balance
A mindful manager is all about work-life balance. A life that’s equal parts work, family life, socialization, and passion facilitates a level of peace and comfort necessary for mindful management.
Find a schedule that fosters balance. You could be in-office all the time. You could work a primarily remote schedule. Or combine the two. Look at your job responsibilities as well. Ensure they aren’t causing you so much stress that you no longer find meaning in your work.
When you find a schedule that allows you to maintain a healthy work-life balance, you set yourself up for mindful management.
Take time off and encourage your employees to do the same
Sometimes, becoming more mindful will require you to take time off. It can be challenging to practice mindfulness every day when you’re consumed with work and other responsibilities. Being a compassionate, focused, mindful leader can also be tough when you’re constantly stressed out.
So, disconnect from work. Reflect and appreciate all around you by taking time off often. Use all of your vacation time. Take advantage of your sick/personal days when you need them. And encourage your employees to do the same so you can all reap the benefits of mindfulness.
Taking time off and encouraging your employees to do the same gives you the space you need to practice mindfulness more deliberately.
Focus on genuine interactions with others
Successful managers focus on building strong relationships with their employees. Without solid relationships, company culture suffers, and so does your ability to manage people effectively. That said, strong relationships require genuineness. And mindfulness can bring forth that genuineness.
Whether they’re employees who work under you, coworkers who work alongside you, customers, stakeholders, or those to whom you report, focus on ensuring each interaction is genuine.
Facilitating genuine interactions with others is critical for mindful management.
Tap into your support from higher-ups
Even as a leader, you have someone or a group of individuals you report to. Not only should you be working with them to get things done and manage your team better, but you should also be looking to them for support on being a more mindful manager.
Form great relationships with your higher-ups. Talk about your journeys with mental, physical, and emotional health. See how they’re practicing mindful management. Then, absorb their advice and create action plans for being a better, more conscious leader.
Lean on those you report to for support and guidance on how to best manage with mindfulness at the forefront.
It’s time to develop mindful management to help you become a better business leader!
Do more of what resets and relaxes you
A significant factor in being fully present is your ability to prioritize relaxation every day. Permit yourself to do more of what resets and de-stresses you.
How you reset will vary depending on if you’re working or not. When you aren’t working, you can wrap your entire day around things that help clear your heart and mind. When you are working, you can implement different activities in shorter stints.
Here are some activity ideas for resetting and relaxing throughout the day:
- Take a nap
- Draw or paint
- Get into a good book
- Do breathing exercises
- Go on a date or social outing
- Practice yoga or meditation
- Take a walk or go on a hike
- Talk to a counselor or therapist
- Reach out to someone you love
- Watch your favorite movie or TV show
- Sit in silence and work through your thoughts
Choose to do more of what resets and relaxes you to facilitate rejuvenation of your mind, body, and spirit.
Practice Mindful Management for a Better Workplace Culture Now and in the Future
A mindful management style benefits you as a leader and benefits the employees you’re managing. When you’re centered and at your best, a productive workforce and solid decision-making follow. Use the tips above to develop mindful management today.
Growth Hackers is an award-winning digital marketing and growth hacking agency helping businesses from all over the world grow. There is no fluff with Growth Hackers. We help entrepreneurs and business owners become great leaders by developing mindful management to increase their productivity, generate qualified leads, optimize their conversion rate, gather and analyze data analytics, acquire and retain users and increase sales. We go further than brand awareness and exposure. We make sure that the strategies we implement move the needle so your business grow, strive and succeed. If you too want your business to reach new heights, contact Growth Hackers today so we can discuss about your brand and create a custom growth plan for you. You’re just one click away to skyrocket your business.
