“Work is part of life. But work is life only when done in mindfulness. Otherwise, one becomes like the person who lives as though dead”
– Thich Nhat Hanh
How mindful are you at work? To be mindful is to live in the present moment. That is hard enough to do on a meditation cushion, and in the stillness of the morning or evening, but even more so in the cut and thrust of a busy workday. How does one remain present whilst analyzing the past and forecasting and planning for the future? How does one remain present when customers are upset, orders are late, employees are disgruntled, or absent, cash is short and profits are declining? How does one remain present in the crises, large and small that beset a business every day?
How does one remain mindful in a global pandemic, when everything seems to change on a whim, and the “new normal” is no normal at all?
These are some of the questions that arise for business leaders who are attempting to manage the gap between their personal and business lives. Work IS life, and a major part of life at that. We spend more than half of our waking hours preparing for, travelling to and from and being at work. COVID has reduced or eliminated our commute, but working from home has its own challenges of intertwined work/home space. Most of us are far from present in this huge chunk of our life.
Simply put, being mindful at work requires you to be totally focused on who you are with and what task you are performing at each and every moment.
- If you are on a phone call, you are on that phone call and nothing else – no checking e-mail or responding to a text. You are totally present to, and listening to the person on the other end.
- If you are in a virtual meeting, you are in that meeting and nowhere else – not thinking about lunch, furtively checking Facebook, reading a report, or on another ZOOM call. You are totally present to the people in that meeting, what they are saying and the agenda at hand.
- When writing or studying a report, block uninterrupted time to focus only on that report. Be present to the task and nothing else.
Here are 5 benefits to doing your work in mindfulness:
- Reduced stress. Nothing causes stress like your efforts at multitasking!
- Improved productivity. Mindfulness affects the part of the brain responsible for self-regulation, allowing you to stay focused for longer periods.
- Increased customer satisfaction – the customers you interact with will feel listened to and cared for. In this listening, you will learn more deeply about their needs and how you can satisfy them. Customers love to talk!
- Give them your full attention and they will give you many answers.
Improved employee satisfaction and productivity – the team members that you interact with will feel cared for and treasured. And, as the Harvard Business Review of Jan/Feb 2012 pointed out, happy employees are 31% more productive! - A mindful culture will start to emerge – your team members will adopt the same behaviour over time, thus embedding it into the culture.
Be mindful at work today.
Approach a task as Thich Nhat Hanh does:
“I clean this teapot with the kind of attention I would have were I giving the baby Buddha or Jesus a bath”.
Attend a meeting as if it were a meeting with an enlightened being, or one of your heroes.
Be fully present and observe what happens.
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