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Mindful Leadership and EQ

Great leaders make a lasting impression on us. They inspire, energise and develop us because they understand how to motivate and engage us. All truly great leaders embody and practice mindful leadership techniques that create an abundance of emotional intelligence, or EQ.

What is Emotional Intelligence?

In a nutshell, EQ is the ability to identify and manage our own emotions alongside the skills that enable us to choose how we respond to the emotions of others in a way that sustains effective interactions and relationships with others.

What Are Mindful Leaders Doing Differently?

Mindful Leaders are in tune with their thoughts and emotions. They are readily able to interpret their emotions and predict the consequences of allowing unchecked emotion  to rule behaviour. Perhaps more importantly, mindful leaders are highly skilled at understanding what makes others tick, they’re able to utilise this understanding to respond to their teams in ways that bring out the best in people, a leadership style described by psychologist, Richard Boyatzis, as resonant leadership.

How do Mindful Leaders Bring Out the Best in People?

  1. Mindful Leaders manage their emotions when events don’t go to plan. We’ve all heard tales of managers in meltdown, screaming at their teams and tearing their hair in frustration. Mindful leaders are skilled at managing their emotions, at creating a space between an event and the response they provide to their team. They understand that their response to failure and setbacks within the team can either inspire or destroy motivation. They are able to assess their own emotions and those of others. Instead of taking the view that it’s quicker to tell others where they’ve gone wrong and what they should do next, they cultivate the habit of mindful pause, taking time to ask key questions about the situation and context, choosing an approach that enables individuals and teams to analyse their own errors and plan the next step. In this way mindful leaders provide the necessary opportunity and guidance for they people to really develop and flex their thinking and skills.
  2. Mindful leaders create an environment that fosters a mindful approach in others. It can be all too easy to recognise the many benefits that mindfulness can bring for individuals and organisations, yet neglect to cultivate the time and opportunity to practice making mindfulness a habit in the workplace. Cutting edge organisations such as Aetna and Google have crafted their own mindfulness courses which have proved hugely popular both within their organisations and further afield. Amongst the reported benefits of these work based mindfulness sessions, participants list decreased stress, sharper focus, improved relationships -both at work and home – and an increased sense of general wellbeing.
  3. Mindful leadership is focused leadership. One of the key advantages that mindfulness practice provides is the ability to choose where our focus is placed and maintain that focus in the face of distractions. We live in a fast paced VUCA world which can often result in a leader’s focus being pulled in all directions. Mindfulness is a great tool that supports leaders to self regulate and train focus on themselves, their teams and the wider environment. Katherine Zalesky, co-founder and president of PowertoFly and mindfulness advocate explains,

“Mindfulness is key to my role as the cofounder and president of a gender diversity platform for top brands. Every company presents us with a new challenge. So if I haven’t cleared my head each morning through my mindfulness routine, it’s very easy to get stuck and not see a clear path forward.  And as a manager, it’s also important for me to take ten minutes each morning to remind myself of my intentions for the day.”

Like to discover out more? Want to know ‘How Mindful Are You?’ Visit our resources page to take our free mindfulness test and find out more https://planetpositivechange.com/how-mindful-are-you/

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