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Mindful Leadership Summit and Tools for Success

November 9, 2016 by Wilma Jones

mindful-summit
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.

Filed Under: Mindfulness Tagged With: leadership, mindful leadership summit, Mindfulness

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

November 1, 2016 by Wilma Jones

3 mindfulness techniques

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:

image

 

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.

 

Filed Under: Mindfulness Tagged With: deep listening, Mindfulness, unitasking, walking meetings

Does Your Small Business Need to Implement Mindfulness?

October 13, 2016 by Wilma Jones

Small business mindfulness

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?

Filed Under: Mindfulness Tagged With: Happiness at Work, Mindfulness, Productivity, small business, Wilma jones

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

September 14, 2016 by Wilma Jones

Mindfulness is Changing How You Feel About You Not the Job

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.

Filed Under: Mindfulness Tagged With: living happier at work, Mindful, Mindfulness, Wilma jones, Work Life Balance

It’s Real Folks. 1 Horrifying Example Of Hateration At The Office

August 22, 2016 by Wilma Jones

It’s Real Folks. 1 Horrifying Example Of Hateration At The Office

Let’s say you work for one of the big communications companies in the U.S. You’re one of thousands of hard-working professionals keeping dial tones humming and great throughput on connections to the cloud for millions of customers every day. But when you go in the office one day this is what greets you:

noose hanging in cubicle

Unless you’ve been hanging out under a rock for the past year, the climate in our country is getting a little heated. And I don’t just mean the temperature. Naw, walking into your cubicle and seeing a dang noose hanging from the drop ceiling is more than a bit scary.

Yet, this is exactly what happened a couple of weeks ago at an AT&T office building in downtown St. Louis. It turns out it was an office of contractors from Ericcson. The company blamed it on an “international contractor” who didn’t understand the “disturbing racial and cultural implications a noose has here in the US.”

That response makes me think, “really?!” Excuse me, but anyone from any country who has been living in the US for the past year would be aware of the cultural implications of a noose or a host of other racist symbols.This happened in St Louis. Anyone familiar with Ferguson, MO? I don’t believe for one moment that someone who lives in region of the country that has been a hotbed of racial tension for months was unaware of the implication of hanging a noose in a coworker’s cubicle. Someone who thinks it’s okay to play this type of joke at the job has issues.

I am glad to know the person was fired. That was the right thing to do. At a minimum, this was another disturbing example of the absence of consideration and tolerance in US workplaces. Your thoughts?

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Mindfulness Tagged With: cubicle hate, Happiness at Work, hateration, Mindfulness, Work Life Balance

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Wilma Jones
Wilma J, LLC
Wilma@WilmaJ.com

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