Meditation, a Practice for Leaders
Most of us are aware of the calming and relaxing benefits of meditation; after all we have all seen the images of blissful individuals perched cross legged in exotic locales exuding tranquillity.
We may be less familiar with the evolutionary aspects of meditation. If we look into the origins of the practice, we learn that the primary intention was not to de-stress but to achieve enlightenment. Meditation was practised by spiritual pioneers seeking insight, evolution and ultimately union with the divine.
While enlightenment may not be just around the corner for most of us, meditation will support our own personal growth and career evolution along the way.
Meditation helps us to build vision, trust our instincts, take timely, decisive action, increase our resilience and bring out the best in our team members; it is, in short, amazing preparation for leadership.
Meditation unleashes intuition
As entrepreneurs and business leaders know moving forward often involves engaging with unknowns. How do we formulate our approach or nd direction in unchartered waters? We use inspiration, our instincts and our intuition.
Intuition is swift and enables us to arrive at a decision even when most of the picture appears to be missing. It gives us a ‘heads up’ from which logic can then perform the ‘due diligence’.
Intuition draws on the inner knowledge of which we are consciously unaware, for example nuances of body language, subtle verbal in ections and connections between people and events. This is knowledge that we don’t know we possess and yet it guides us in the form of insight and creative inspiration. This is the place where ideas ‘come out of nowhere’.
By comparison the use of logic alone seems both arduous and limited, lacking both the scope and swiftness of intuition. Current business thought agrees, with both The Harvard Business School and INSEAD identifying intuition and meditation as the two ‘most e ective business tools’ of our century (Chin-Ning Chi ‘Do Less Achieve More’).
Meditation supports intuition. The practice of meditation progressively stills our thinking mind and those thought processes which rely on cause and e ect, logic and external referencing. Into this stillness intuitive guidance frequently emerges. As we give increasing space for, and awareness of, intuition, it’s presence will grow in our lives.
Meditation supports original thought, commitment and timely action
Once we have received insight or inspiration our challenge is to act on it. Too often we allow original ideas or inspiration to fall in the face of habitual thought patterns and resulting behaviours.
These thought patterns are not mere habits but actual neural pathways which deepen into grooves each time we re run the familiar script. As a result, our thoughts and behaviours become progressively ‘boxed in’.
Meditation practices such as mindfulness gives us the skill to observe our thought processes in real time giving us increased awareness of when we are falling into a ‘groove’. This awareness enables us to consciously choose a fresh way forward with greater frequency.
Meditation also helps us to support our edgling ideas by increasing our scope for sustained concentration. Not only will ‘focussed awareness’ (Norman Doidge, ‘The Brain Which Changes Itself’) help forge new neural highways, essential when learning a new skill or introducing a new perspective into your awareness, it will also help you get down to those tasks essential for the realization of your goal.
Even then, resistance is often encountered, our own and that of others, and we need real commitment to birth our vision. The skill of meditation is founded on commitment, the ability to commit and eventually merge our awareness with the object of meditation. We learn to keep drawing our awareness back to our chosen focus until it becomes more and more effortless to sustain the connection. This skill, developed during meditation, will help you to remain focussed and committed to your larger vision in the face of the inevitable set-backs and resistance.
Meditation helps us thrive during change
To effectively lead we must feel grounded in the midst of change. We need to feel confidant to act even when our target is in motion. For this to be possible we must first soften our resistance to change in general.
Observation of the breath is often one of the first meditation techniques we practice. We observe the breath as it emerges, and as we become more adept we sense with greater subtlety the quality of the breath from moment to moment. We sense that each breath is slightly different, the only consistency we have is an increasing ability to hold our awareness through each new cycle.
As we learn to ride the flow of the breath our resistance to change often softens. We may also notice that our sense of ‘centre’ has shifted in general; we may be less affected by daily external flux or feedback, finding our ground in the quality of our awareness instead.
As our confidence to move forwards into change increases we are better able to perceive and act on the opportunities of the present. We are both nimble and sure footed; perfectly suited to change.
Meditation builds trust, affiliation and resilience
Through meditation you have developed the skills to help you move confidently into new territory, but how do you inspire your team to follow?
While not essential to good leadership charisma clearly helps. One aspect of charisma is simply being present to the person or people at hand. It is through this presence, finely honed during our practice of meditation, that meaningful connections between people are formed. Being present also makes us more receptive to the insights and needs of our team members who grow in confidence and trust as a result. The process is mutually enriching and supportive.
The motivation behind the relationships we form is also fundamental. It matters if we are seeking leadership simply to exert power or if we genuinely seek to uplift our company or cause as a whole. Not only will your team members eventually sense what really drives you, and respond accordingly, but your own wellbeing could be affected.
A study undertaken by Dr David McClelland (presented by John Kabat-Zinn in his book ‘Full Catastrophe Living) suggests that individuals motivated by power over rather than affiliation with people were more prone to stress related illness. As leadership is inherently stressful it is even more essential that we understand what really is at the heart of our actions.
Meditation is a great tool for self-examination, however further evidence suggests that it can also actually change (for the better) our base line motivations. Kabat-Zinn observed that ‘the majority’ of participants in his mindfulness meditation training clinic displayed a substantial increase in ‘affiliative trust’ as the study progressed.
It is in this spontaneous re-orientation from self to group interest, that I believe meditation has the most to o er those who undertake leadership.