Are You a Mindful Leader and Why Does it Matter?

As a business professional and a leader in your company, you find ways to make your life as efficient as possible to zoom through your day so everything gets done. However, you should try becoming a mindful leader and slow down for a bit. It's one of the many cures for what Business News Daily calls "hurry sickness."

What Does a Mindful Leader Do?

Being a mindful leader means you are finely tuned to what's going on around you. You have a high amount of awareness of what goes on in your company, your business environment and within your immediate team. You are present in the current moment with what needs to be done most immediately, but you also have a highly collaborative mind that lets you delegate your tasks to others.

Tuning Out Distractions

As a mindful leader, you become an expert at tuning out distractions. There's the blip on your computer or smartphone that signals when you get a new email or text message. Another alert tells you when someone likes your newest LinkedIn post. The lights on your office phone blink with calls on hold. Mindfulness means paying attention to what matters most and ignoring the little things of that present moment.

Combating Distractions

Turning into a mindful leader is an effective way to combat hurry sickness, or the distractions caused by the busy lifestyle created by humanity's continual pressure to multitask and accomplish goals. Technology forms a huge part of this efficiency. While accomplishing things makes you feel good inside your brain, you can end up tired, stressed, fatigued and even sick. These effects make you less productive and not worth your weekly salary.

Why Does Mindfulness Matter?

Mindful leadership matters because this lets you listen and ask the right questions so you can determine the correct answers. Once you have the answers, it's time to inspire your team to collaborate and use its talents to accomplish the tasks you need. Mindfulness lets you inspire leadership abilities in others.

As part of this mindful leadership, make the time to learn what happens around you. Use meeting times wisely, get to know what motivates your teammates, and then learn how to make the team work together to accomplish goals. Know when to get your team to work faster and when to slow things down a little. Prove to yourself and to those around you that you have the leadership skills to finish the job right, but also to take the company to the next level.

Your mindful leadership sets the example for everyone on the team. Your leadership style lays the ground rules for the rest of the organization. Eventually, your team knows what to expect from you and adapts to the way you focus on your job.

A mindful leader listens first, asks questions next and acts last to get things done. Think about this the next time you have to make a decision involving a project as your company moves forward with the newest item on its busy agenda.

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