A mindful leader gets the most out of team

In a recent study, when asked, “What are the top issues you face at work?” leaders said that 76 per cent are on the people or relational side. You may not have anyone reporting to you but whether you are an entrepreneur or a manager in an organisation, you have to inspire your team or clients.

Leaders who are mindful are better-equipped to cope with everyday challenges of their roles and create high performance in others. When you are mindful you are able to both observe and participate in each moment of any action you take while recognising the implications for the longer term.

The start of being a mindful leader is self-awareness which is the ability to be aware of your own emotions, moods and feelings and the way they are impacting you. Self-awareness leads to self-confidence and self-confidence leads to success.

A quote from the book Competent Manager says: "Among supervisors, managers and executives a high degree of self-confidence distinguishes the best from average performers."

The self-confidence I am referring to is not arrogance or cockiness, it is much more about feeing that whatever situation I go into, I'll be okay. And the only way you can know that you'll be okay, is if you know yourself well enough to be able to predict what that will be like.

The first component of self-confidence is self-assessment — what are my preferences, my likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses. It is important so that can prepare for challenging situations.

The second component is emotional awareness. If emotions affect us so dramatically, then we have to know what's going on inside us and to be aware of our internal state and intuitions.

At the core of self-awareness for leaders is that they understand the impact their behaviour has on others. Two other critical points in mindful leadership is to what extent others perceive that you (the leader), is aware of your own strengths and limitations.

Also, to what extent do other people notice you asking for feedback on how you approach things. How would you do if you had to compare to how they see you and how you perceive yourself?

To become a more mindful leader:

1.Reflect on feelings when making decisions.

2.Ask others how they feel about potential solutions to problems.

3.Consider issues from multiple perspectives.

4.Be aware of biases in decision-making (for example, women aren’t as good as men at dealing with certain issues).

A flood of research is increasingly proving that a company’s people are the differentiating factor. Mindfulness is all about “people smarts” — it is about relating to yourself and others.

At the end of the day, mindful leaders have employees who perform better, suffer less burnout and have more satisfied people working for them.