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Mindful Practices for Busy Leaders: Part One

4/5/2012

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Leadership best practices set the precedent for one's day along with the leadership one exhudes
I’m pleased to share with you my latest article about leadership best practices. Because of the length of the material, I’ve created a series of three articles. Stay tuned for the next 2 articles that will come at the end of April and the beginning of May, 2012!


We know that the most highly effective leaders practice a high degree of mindfulness. Mindfulness is the ability to be fully present in the moment, observing both your own thoughts/feelings and what is going on around you. Mindfulness is important to leaders because they must be aware of both what’s going on inside them (their thoughts, reactions, emotions and moods) and what’s happening outside them in their teams, in their organizations, with their stakeholders and within the larger society. If leaders are unaware of any of these dynamics, they are not able to manage either themselves or their organizations.

How can a leader increase his mindfulness? The research strongly suggests that a daily practice of reflection, practicing quiet attention and regular exercise is one of the best ways to develop your personal and leadership effectiveness. It also helps you manage stress by scheduling brief “time outs” during a hectic day. At Brio Leadership, we suggest a formula called “15/15/15 plus three”. What that means is a daily practice of 15 minutes of reviewing and planning, 15 minutes of focused attention or quiet time and 15 minutes of aerobic exercise, plus three sessions a week of a creative pursuit. Let’s explore each of these.

Writing in a journal assists in reflection of the dayEntry from Kristin's journal
Reviewing and planning
The first 15 minute segment is reviewing and planning: you review the previous day and plan for the coming day. We suggest that you use a journal for the review. Any notebook will do – sometimes I use an inexpensive wire-bound notebook, other times I buy a handsome journal with blank pages. In your review, think about your day’s activities, thoughts, reactions and feelings and note these two things:

  • The two or three things for which you are most grateful, most proud of or that gave you the most joy.
  • The one thing for which you are least grateful, least proud of or that gave you the least joy.
This should take you about 10 minutes to do. I keep a daily journal in which I notate, with a star or asterisk (*) the things that gave me the greatest joy, and with a minus sign (-) the one thing that I am least proud of or gave me the least joy. Here is what a typical entry in my journal looks like:

The other 5 minutes are spent looking over your coming day with your calendar in order to set intentions for what you will accomplish. Think of the people you are going to see, the meetings you will attend, the customers you will call, and ask yourself the following questions:

  • What is the outcome I wish to accomplish with this person? How do I want to feel or think, and how do I want the other to feel or think, after our encounter?
  • In order to achieve this outcome, how will I need to be? For example, I need to be calm and not anxious, or I need to be empathetic and kind, or I need to be frank and forthright.
  • Is there anything I need to mentally rehearse for the day? If you need to have a pivotal conversation today, mentally rehearse how you are going to present your message and how you might interact with the person.

Many of my clients set aside 15-20 minutes at the beginning of their day to review and plan. Your Outlook calendar might look like this:

Setting aside time to review and plan is a great way to start or end one's day
Note the yellow time segments at the beginning of the work day. You could also set aside 30 minutes at the end of the day, or during your lunch hour. It’s best to pick a time and stick to it every day, so you develop a routine and train your co-workers to respect your private time.

I was once in a corporate office where I had the opportunity to see several employee’s Outlook calendars. They all had 30-minute recurring appointments with themselves each morning for planning. The company had sponsored their attendance at a time management seminar in which they were taught to set aside planning time. It was an accepted practice at this office to spend the first 30 minutes in planning. I strongly recommend making morning planning an accepted practice at your office.



In Part Two of this series, I’ll cover Focused Awareness.
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    From the desk of
    ​Kristin Robertson

    • CEO of Brio Leadership
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  • EOS
  • Coaching
    • Team Coaching Assessment
  • The Leadership Challenge
  • Books
    • Happy Mondays
    • A Forgiveness Journal
  • Blog
  • Resources
    • Your Company Culture Quiz
    • White Papers
    • Partners
  • About Brio
    • Client Results
    • Brio Team
    • Community Involvement
  • Contact