Opinions expressed by businesskinda.com contributors are their own.
I don’t think anyone would disagree with the idea that to avoid burnout in any aspect of life, sometimes you have to stop, take some time for yourself and take a step back. Throughout my career, I’ve found an essential middle ground between the constant intensity of leading an organization and the burnout that leads to complete distancing – and I’ve also found that it often goes unnoticed or unknown.
I think this middle ground is akin to the daily practice of mindfulness, of being able to use pockets of your day (even if it’s just moments at a time) to ground yourself and bring you back to the present moment. Not only is it something that will help you individually, but if applied consistently and applied regularly, it will help your teammates and your company.
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I am no stranger to the level of communication, work output, management and general housekeeping required to run a large organization. Many of us—leaders or otherwise—can look back on our careers or lives and point to hundreds of times when we could have made better decisions, responded better, or chosen a different path. Unfortunately, that way of thinking, while easy to fall into, does us no good as we seek a path of continuous improvement. And often, when we look back, we think of when we could have pushed ourselves harder, put in more effort, and possibly achieved the result we were looking for. Instead, I’ve found that to achieve our long-term goals, we need to do the opposite: take the time to slow down, re-evaluate, and eventually be led to a clearer understanding of how to proceed.
There are many, albeit similar, definitions of mindfulness. The one I like the most is from an article called What is Mindfulness? what it defines as “the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we are doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what is happening around us.”
What I especially like about their explanation of the exercise is that they add that mindfulness is a quality that each of us naturally possesses. Instead of having to learn it as a brand new skill, focus on accessing what’s already inside of you. Now this will apply to almost everyone in many facets of life, whether you run a company, a team, a family or move through this world as a functioning human being. But when it comes to leadership, mindfulness, or slowing down, can be essential to the success of your business.
There are many prominent and obvious situations that many of us have experienced in our work or daily life. A simple example: a colleague or direct report told you about a mistake they made and it’s your job to correct it. At that point, if you haven’t used your ability to be mindful, you may lash out, react angrily, and arrive at a “solution” that may not be the best or even the right one.
At that point, you’re not only damaging your relationship with that person, but maybe the company, the customer relationship, and yourself as well. That’s a very specific example, but to tackle these situations on a broader level, the concept of mindfulness is something that you need to incorporate on a daily basis, even when there are no stressful situations to react to.
As with anything, practice is the key to success. When you start practicing slowing down on a micro level, whether that’s the first few sips of coffee in the morning or on the walk to your car at the end of the day, you’ll eventually be putting them to work on a macro level.
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In 2017, workplace consulting firm Life Meets Work took a close look at what it does to a company when employees perceive their leaders as “stressed.” After surveying 1,000 highly skilled U.S. workers, only 7% of respondents believed that stressed leaders could lead their teams effectively. An even more impactful learning experience from the survey was that more than 50% of respondents believed that if their leader couldn’t deal with their stress effectively, they “harmful or irrelevant to their work and organizational performance.”
Slowing down, mindfulness, reducing stress – whatever you call it – we know it’s psychologically essential to our brains as humans. But as a leader, it’s all the more important because you’re not just hurting yourself; you hurt those you employ and the business you run. When you can learn to manage your stress in a healthier and more productive way, your employees will feel more confident in their role and can adopt and learn from you while leading their own teams.
For many of us, slowing down seems completely counterproductive to keep a business moving and growing. If someone had told me at the beginning of my career to “take it easy” I would have immediately rejected the idea. But as I’ve honed this skill and applied it to my everyday life, I’ve seen the wonders it can do for my business and my team — and vice versa, what happens if I don’t take that time. Like any habit, it will take time to anchor it into your system, but there’s no better day to start than today.
Related: How to Use the Power of Patience to Be a Better Leader
Janice has been with businesskinda for 5 years, writing copy for client websites, blog posts, EDMs and other mediums to engage readers and encourage action. By collaborating with clients, our SEO manager and the wider businesskinda team, Janice seeks to understand an audience before creating memorable, persuasive copy.