Mindfulness At The Workplace – Lead Change

Written by: Alex Bravo, Executive Contributor

Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.

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This is my fourth article of the mindfulness at the workplace saga. As it was explained on the first article, I’ll be elaborating on the benefits that disciplined meditators ‒ that have participated on “The 8 Week Mindfulness program”, which I facilitate ‒ have reported working on 7 competencies that Gallup has defined to be key for a successful leader.

We’ll explore the behaviors, traits and results that leaders that operate on an “auto-pilot” mode have versus the ones that "mindful leaders” have. Throughout the Mindfulness at the Workplace saga, I will consistently recall that meditation is the path to mindfulness. Even when there are very pragmatical mindfulness tools that leaders can use on a daily basis, it is the formal meditation practice that will allow leaders to almost automatically make a pause whenever they are experimenting a stressor or a difficultsituation, take a breath, start recognizing the sensations, emotions, stories and ideas that are arriving to their minds so they can welcome them, accept them, investigate how those sensations, emotions, stories or ideas feel in the body and understand what is really happening in the present moment and finally, identify all the options that they have to proceed, shutting down the auto-pilot mode and it’s limited vision. It is also important to remember what Mindfulness is: The practice of maintaining a nonjudgmental state of heightened or complete awareness of one’s thoughts, emotions, ideas, stories and sensations on a moment-to-moment basis. The competence to be explored on this article is lead change.

As departure point it is worthy to revise what does lead change means? Digital Transformation, Metaverse, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Quantum computing, Web3, Blockchain, Internet of Things, RoboticProcess Automation, Sustainable Technology, etc. We could continue naming all the trends that organizations have ahead. Something is true, no business survives over the long term if it can’t reinvent itself There are plenty of examples about it. On the other hand, human nature often resists change. Change can be hard. The status quo is comfortable by nature. According to Andrea Dealer, Ph.D. and Jenny Ray, Ph.D., our brains have evolved to like certainty, which stems from our basic drive to survive. We have evolved to predict and control our circumstances because doing so optimizes our ability to live. When we experience change two things may happen:

1. Our brains can interpret it as a threat ‒ leading to distress ‒ Our hearts beat faster, and vascular resistance make it harder to push blood through our circulatory system. In other words, our physiological resources are not efficiently mobilized. We may feel anxious, frustrated, being stuck in the current situation without an apparent solution.
   

2. To experience change as a challenge, an interesting opportunity, this is when we are more likely to experience eustress because the new environmental demands seem within our abilities and limits. Our hearts still beat faster, but now with a decrease in vascular resistance. We feel more positive.

I guess that is clear what a great leader should do. They need to ensure people can experience change as a challenge. And yes, that itself is a great challenge! According to John Kotter (retired Harvard Business School professor) the most general lesson to be learned from successful cases is that change process goes through a series of phases. Skipping those steps can create an illusion of speed that will never produce satisfactory results. A second very general lesson is that critical mistakes in any of the phases can have a devastating impact, slowing momentum and negating hard-won gains. Do you wonder how does a leader who operates on an “auto-pilot mode” tries to lead change vs a “mindful leader”? Let’s take a look! These are some of the behaviors that leaders working on an “auto-pilot mode” might experiment trying to lead change:

1. They might personally understand the purpose of the change, but they do not inspire people to act. They do not build momentum that excites them. Their teams and colleagues will not understand what is the purpose of the change.
   

2. They fail to create a coalition of committed people at all levels of the organization. Change purpose and planning is only communicated within the C-level.
   

3. They also fail communicating on detail what the change means and all the implications that it will bring. They do not get the buy-in from different stakeholders as they underestimate how powerful is to express what’s in it for the different players.
   

4. Very few people get involved in the journey. The majority will not be keen on participating.
   

5. They do not dedicate time to identify the obstacles on the road to drive change. They might continue working in silos and without a clear project plan.
   

6. They underestimate the power of short-term wins. If they do deliver some short-term wins only few people in the organization get to know about them.
   

7. They do not dedicate time to understand and learn the progress they have on the road. They might “not have enough time” for that. They just keep going without a pause.
   

8. They fail articulating the connections between behaviors and organizational success. They do not make sure they continue until they become strong enough to replace old habits. The can be asking the “change” to happen very soon in the process creating frustration across the organization.
   

On the other hand, these are the behaviors that leaders that have attended to The 8 Week Mindfulness Program have expressed to practice leading change:

1. They understand that to accelerate change every step matters. They start by inspiring people to act ‒ with passion and purpose ‒ to achieve a bold, aspirational opportunity. They build momentum that excites people to pursue a compelling and clear vision of the future, together.
   

2. They get that a volunteer network needs a coalition of committed people ‒ born of its own ranks ‒ to guide it, coordinate it and communicate its activities.
   

3. Mindful leaders clarify how the future will be different from the past and get buy-in for how people can make that future a reality through initiatives linked directly to the vision.
   

4. In order to create large-scale change, they foster massive numbers of people rally around a common opportunity. Individually they all really want to actively contribute. Collectively, they are unified in the pursuit of achieving the goal together.
   

5. They remove the obstacles that slow things down or create roadblocks to progress. Clear the way for people to innovate, work more nimbly across silos, and generate impact quickly.
   

6. They get that wins are molecules of results. They create massive trust. Short term-term wins are recognized, collected, and communicated – early and often – to track progress and energize volunteers to persist.
   

7. They continuously make sure to sustain acceleration by double checking the are not skipping any steps or the learnings.
   

8. They articulate the connections between new behaviors and organizational success, making sure they continue until they become strong enough to replace old habits. Evaluate systems and processes to ensure management practices reinforce the new behaviors, mindsets and ways of working that were invested in.

This is just a sample of a list of behaviors that disciplined meditators practice within the corporate arena when they lead change. There might be more behavior that could be included. Meditation benefits arrive to its practitioners in different ways but if there is something in common is the ability they have to shut down the “auto-pilot mode” to find that there’s always a set of options to consider before making a decision. Understanding this fact is a game changer.

Stay tuned. We’ll elaborate on Inspiring others in the next article.

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Read more from Alex!

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Alex Bravo, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine

Alex Bravo combines 22 years' experience as Sr Director leading CX, Innovation, Transformation and large Operations teams mainly within the Financial Services Industry with 15 years' experience as Sr Executive Coach and Mindfulness Teacher. Given his struggle with anxiety and depression at some point of his career, his purpose is to instill the importance of assessing mental health in the corporate arena and recall to his colleagues that the way they deal with their inner world defines the way they show to themselves, how they interact with others, how they lead and how they love. He is a Harvard Business School Grad and holds a BSc in industrial and Systems Engineering and a MSc in Quality and Productivity.