Mindfulness – Page 2

Mindful Leadership Summit and Tools for Success

November 9, 2016 by Wilma Jones

Last weekend I attended the Mindful Leadership Summit. This is a two-day gathering of leaders and aspiring leaders in the field allowing folks to share, learn and connect. The opening keynote, “The Happiness Track: How to Apply the Science of Happiness to Accelerate Your Success,” focused on strategies for handling stress and our over-scheduled lives.

The annual 2014 Gallup survey confirmed yet again that job related stress is the number one contributor to American adults lives. Pointing out that this work related stress costs employers $300 billion, Emma Seppala, Ph.D, Science Director of the Stanford University Center for Compassion and Altruism Research and Educationmade it clear that using mindfulness as a way to improve your work place should be important to company leadership as well as individuals.

Reviewing the impact of disengaged and actively disengaged workers, who together comprise well over 50 percent of the workforce is massive. The cost is estimated at $500 billion dollars in lost productivity. This drain on our economy can be reduced through implementation of mindfulness techniques. Seppala discussed her viewpoint that Americans love to be over scheduled. I am not sure if I totally agree with that. I think many of us have a hard time saying no. But for whatever reason, I agree that we often have way too much on our plates.

The advantage mindfulness provides is that it helps you “be present.” And the strategy that was discussed in this keynote, and really emphasized throughout the summit was my favorite, deep breathing. I knew deep breathing was good for me, and I know it’s improved my health. Maybe I heard it before, but it was good to know that lengthening your exhale will immediately lower your heart rate. And then we practiced it.

It’s little changes like taking regular deep breathing breaks that can make a difference in your workday and your health. Imagine how your blood pressure and heart health can be impacted by lowering your heart rate. It’s amazing how small changes can make big impacts to our lives. The summit started off with an awesome session reminding me and all the attendees of one of the bedrock components of living a mindful life.

Take Advantage Of Mindfulness Techniques for the Office – 3 Great Tips

November 1, 2016 by Wilma Jones

Running a small business is hard. One of the most challenging aspects is managing employees. And actually that’s true whether it’s a large or small business. At a workshop last week for a national association comprised of small business owners in the government relations area, we drilled down on the problem of keeping employees engaged and productive on the job.

Gallup estimates that disengaged workers cost the economy over $450 billion in lost productivity in the US annually. Another study equates the loss for each disengaged worker at over $2,200 per year. That is your money going down the drain because members of your staff are no longer committed to getting their job done with a sense of meaning and purpose.

One solution that companies like Google, General Mills and Aetna are finding great success with is adding mindfulness strategies to give employees options for reducing workplace stress and increasing focus. Results prove mindfulness makes good business sense because it improves worker performance by increasing focus and creativity. It reduces sick days because of the reduced on the job stress affecting workers. And it also reduces employee turnover because people feel better about their jobs and themselves and are far less likely to leave for another company.

Interested in how to get started to incorporate mindfulness into your workday? Whether you’re the owner, a manager or an individual contributor, the following 3 mindfulness tips can help impact the bottom line where ever you work.

Tip 1. Deep Listening

When having a conversation with a colleague we often listen in order to determine how we want to respond. (I am so guilty of this sometimes…) Deep listening is all about listening to build trust between coworkers. It doesn’t mean acceptance, agreement or approval of what they’re saying or asking. It simply requires acknowledgement to be effective.

Tip 2. Walking Meetings

When you are planning a meeting between 2-4 people that has a goal of finding a solution to a challenge or problem, think about having a walking meeting. Research has proven that the creative output increases up to 60 percent, people get to the point quicker and it increases engagement among employees because it breaks down the organization hierarchies between management levels and staff, too.

Tip 3. Unitasking

Instead of doing multiple things at once, try doing just one thing at a time. I know in many organizations that seems impossible but when you are working projects or deliverables that require accuracy, unitasking increases focus and allows you to do better work in less time.

Check out the infographic from the workshop:

Get your copy of the infographic HERE —>>> 3-mindfulness-techniques

Check out what the executive director of the National Institute of Lobbying and Ethics had to say about the Lunch and Learn session:

Send an email to Wilma (at) WilmaJ.com or call (703) 653-0241 for more information on Workplace Wellness Workshops for your organization.

Does Your Small Business Need to Implement Mindfulness?

October 13, 2016 by Wilma Jones

If you’re a small business owner maybe you think mindfulness doesn’t have a place in your business. Maybe you think it’s only for big corporations like Google, Toyota Motors or General Mills who have the dollars to invest in their workers. I think you should think again. Science and experience prove that implementing mindfulness principles can make a big difference in your business.

So let me start with a few questions. Are all your employees engaged and focused about their job? How about you? Small business owners often feel burned out. As entrepreneurs you’re so busy checking off the tasks to get things done, your ability to think about solutions from a ‘big-picture’ perspective lessens.

Building a strong, healthy work culture and giving people the skills to work with their minds, emotions and other people is one of the big benefits gained by organizations that incorporate mindfulness in their workplaces. Mindfulness is a opportunity for you as a business owner to help increase everyone’s level of happiness and well-being at the job. And that what will help increase the business’ bottom line.

If you’re wondering how making people feel better about their jobs will help make you more money, just think for a moment about the demands of most jobs today. We expect people to multitask, because well, everyone has to multitask and do more than one thing at a time on the job. Emails will keep coming, along with calls with customers, marketing for more prospects, meetings, reports, accounts payable, accounts receiveable and taxes and on and on. A few simple mindfulness techniques can help people feel less stress at the job and they’ll learn to increase their focus and accuracy on the volume of work they have to do.

When people feel overwhelmed in the job they often feel the opposite of mindfulness, they feel mindlessness. When your job feels like you’re putting out fires all day, going from one work mini-crisis to the next – that’s mindlessness at the job. Learning mindfulness won’t change the activities we have to accomplish during the workday. But it will change how we let those tasks influence us. It is those changes that create the impact on the bottom line.

The ability to complete tasks in less time with greater accuracy means you and your staff are more productive. Feeling less stress at the job equates to fewer sick days, aka ‘mental health’ days when your staff can’t face another day at the office. Trust and believe, mindfulness measures up to increased revenue, improved employee retention and better work environments and even helps develop better business leaders!

Have you thought about how mindfulness can help boost your business?

Being Mindful Is About Changing How You Feel About You, Not the Job

September 14, 2016 by Wilma Jones

In a conversation last weekend I was asked if mindfulness can really make you feel better about your job. I had to think about it for a moment, because the way the question was phrased was a little different than the way I usually approach being mindful.

It’s because of my mindfulness practice that I was even able to look at things from this perspective. Pre-mindfulness I only cared about things like that from my perspective. Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not self centered to a fault or anything. I just looked a life from my side a little too often.

I don’t think mindfulness makes you feel better about your job. For me, it makes me feel better about me. Where I am at that present moment, including the work I do. It makes me feel good because mindfulness allows me to look at the moment without judging myself. I am here, on this planet in this universe holding down this little piece of life. Part of that is working at a job I do well. Solving business problems and making things happen.

So I responded that no, mindfulness isn’t about making you feel better about your job. It allows you to put your job in its rightful place in your life. To understand your relationship to your job and the benefits you enjoy as a result. It boosts the feelings about the good stuff and minimizes the feelings about the bad stuff about work. Because what you focus on is what you draw more of to your life.

Mindfulness is a key component to creating a happier attitude toward your job. Because it makes you feel better about all of you, including the work you do.

3 Things Your Staff Wishes You Knew About Meetings

September 6, 2016 by Wilma Jones

It’s often referred to as one of the biggest time wasters in the American office environment today. Meetings. Many people feel they suck productivity from staffers. But other studies reflect the fact that when done right, more than 50 percent of office professionals think meetings can be productive.

Harvard Business Review (HBR) completed a study at a major company to look at how many hours it took to support a weekly executive meeting for all the management employees in the company. Because these executive meetings use information rolled up from all their respective divisions and departments, managers and directors in their reporting chains have meetings with their teams to compile data and provide explanations for outlying data, big deals or any other item company leadership may want to know more about. The sum total of all these meetings was an incredible 300,000 hours of company time devoted to this one weekly meeting!

It is estimated that 15 percent of an organization’s collective time is spent in meetings. If you’re a middle manager you spend an estimated is 35 percent of your time in meetings. And senior management? Well, you’re looking at half your time at the office participating in a company meeting.

With so many corporate resources devoted to meetings we should figure a way to make the bad ones suck a little less. In survey after survey, the top 3 complaints people have about meetings are that they are 1) unnecessary, 2) they go off-topic and that 3) people repeat things too often. I ran a quick survey asking via social media and email newsletter, “What do you hate about office meetings and why?” Here is a sampling of the responses:

“Un-organized & Not staying on topic !!!!”

“Necessity – Often times, they’re not even necessary and the intent can be accomplished through email or over the phone.”

“They’re not always efficient and are sometimes redundant. Just today, I had a meeting to go over what was discussed in a meeting last week. The person that organized the meeting could only be available via teleconference at last week’s meeting. He admitted to us, not the boss, that he ‘zoned out’ last week and he needed this meeting to get ‘caught up.'”

“I hate meetings with a lack of organization, clear direction and expected outcomes, Many times there’s no plan or focus in the meeting so follow on meetings are required.”

If management would begin to model better meeting behavior, organization meetings could be greatly improved. One of the ripest areas for improvement in worker productivity for office professionals is through implementing meeting best practices. To address the complaints the majority of staff have about meetings, management can implement three simple strategies to immediately alleviate the pain of unorganized, off topic and redundant meetings:

Strategy 1: DISTRIBUTE AN AGENDA WITH A MEETING GOAL

When you send the Outlook invitation to the meeting an agenda should be attached that lists the items to be discussed and the goal of the meeting. This gives participants an opportunity to prepare for the meeting.

Sometimes a participant can address the meeting issue and alert the team to a method to achieve the goal and then the meeting can be cancelled.

Publishing an agenda at the time the meeting is scheduled resolves the “no plan or focus,” concerns and the issue of whether the meeting is actually necessary.

Strategy 2: PUBLISH NOTES

Within 24 hours after the meeting ends an email should be distributed to all meeting participants with meeting notes. These notes are simply the agreed upon actions, who will take the action and by what date the activity will be complete. These notes function as the basis for the agenda for any follow up emails, calls or if needed another meeting.

Publishing notes helps participants stay “zoned-in,” regarding the actions and due dates of post-meeting activities that are their responsibility. Follow on meetings to review or discuss subjects addressed in previous meetings are unnecessary because all the information is available in the emailed notes.

Strategy 3: USE A PARKING LOT

If any subjects are raised at a meeting that are important but not directly related to the meeting goal they should immediately be added to the meeting “parking lot.” The parking lot is a virtual space to record something the team needs to remember to address, but it doesn’t need to be acted upon in THIS meeting.

Add parking lot issues as a list at the end of meeting notes for management to address since they are not needed to accomplish the meeting goal. This strategy helps the meeting stay on subject and means the discussion is less likely to drift off-topic.

These 3 simple strategies can save thousands of dollars and improve productivity in your office by reducing the time needed to meetings and in some cases, eliminating the need for a meeting altogether. Do you have other suggestions for improving office meetings?