Mindfulness at work. The phrase itself evokes a range of responses — from the hopeful, to the intrigued at one end, and to the downright dismissive at the other.
Sometime during my career, I had an experience that left its mark on me.
It was during a period when the function I was a part of had worked hard over few years to bring about a significant change in the way they operated. The team was delivering significantly more value to the customers even by the industry standards. The entire brain child, and leadership was, of my then manager, a very senior leader in the organisation.
As all things change, so did the organisation environment. A new set of leadership came with new viewpoints & belief that the way of working needs to be fundamentally re-looked at and there were different choices we should have made. Times were tense, with fears of job loss, changes in team structures, job roles and an acute anxiety about the future.
All things change. In life, and at work. Yet, how tenaciously we hang onto what we deem as ‘ours’. How much energy & effort goes onto to maintaining what got done yesterday!
When brought to the notice of my manager, he made a few statements that struck me hard, and honestly, were somewhat unpalatable as well back then.
“Spoil them (the naysayers) with all the good choices. Make sure they are successful in whatever changes they are trying to incorporate and ensure there is no impact to the business during the transition”.
My response was of shock — this person is asking me to ensure success of those who will practically dismantle all that he built!
His response left me more unsettled than before. I felt what the others in the team were feeling as well. However, knowing him I sensed there is more to his response than meets the eye (in this case ears).
I chose to probe, and he responded “ Nothing we build will last forever. What is important is to keep creating value. And what is there to lose? If the new team is not able to make things work as well, we are there to ensure we handhold so that the customer is not impacted. If they are able to make it work, we only stand to learn yet another way of doing the same thing. At the end of the day even they are trying to do the right thing as per what they believe is the best.”
For me, this was mindfulness in action.
A penny drop moment.
In a flash I knew what I had witnessed.
Beginner’s mind, patience, letting go, acceptance, trust, non-judging, non-striving and presence.
Would we not, as leaders of organisations, as HR professionals and as L&D leaders wish for all our leaders to be such epitome of mindful leadership? I believe we would — a role model that would steady the ship no matter what, an ideal to aspire to in these volatile turbulent times.
However, there is one fundamental flaw in the above narrative. While the incident & its contents are true, what we tend to focus on is the image of bliss, focus, clarity and similar qualities.
The aspect of fears, tension and anxiety in the employees’ is mostly ignored.
More as a matter of collective convenience of narrative than anything else. And the picture I chose to paint with my recounting of the above incident was that of the ideal mindful leader; not the uncomfortable narrative of what mindfulness is really about.
Emotions, workplace & difficult conversations?
Often the question asked is, “ Is there a place for emotions at workplace?” Here is my take on this.
The human being walks into the workplace each day. As a collective, we want to tap into his inspiration, passion, ambition, aspirations, imagination, innovation et all to achieve audacious goals. However, we shy away from giving space to the anxiety, self doubt, pressure etc that come alongside. We love the employee who signs up to grow business by 10X in a year, but we do not have the structural or intentional space to address what emotions he/ she goes through along with the challenge.
At best, we call them ‘difficult conversations’. As if, if we don’t address them, they will cease to exist.
The real work of mindfulness begins here.
It is not in the pursuit of focus, clarity or bliss. It is instead, in the gut wrenching, ‘difficult emotions’; what I term as ‘non-glamorous emotions’.
Mindful leadership is not just in being equanimous and stable. It is as much in embracing emotions — the easy, desirable ones along with the painful, uncomfortable, not so pleasant ones.
In oneself, first — and then creating the space for the emotions of those we work with. It is holding the space where feeling, expressing, sharing and reaching out for support is celebrated & encouraged along with the ability to ability to harness them towards goals & targets.
We all have a mix bag of emotions all through the day, mindfulness helps embrace, resolve and accept them all as real — and focus, clarity and bliss become by-products along this journey. Simply because the ‘difficulties of the difficult emotions’ start to become a little easier, bit by bit.
We hire human beings, we leverage human potential — let us also really create the space to allow the human being to be accepted, to flourish & to thrive.
The next time you find yourself in a conversation with someone, check within — what am I feeling as against what am I thinking?
The next time you are faced with a differing opinion/ perspective, ask yourself — in this moment, is it more important to be Right, or to be Sensitive.
And watch your experiences start to shift, ever so slightly.
Be Mindful, be Mindwize.
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