Meditation and leadership have not often been put together in the same sentence, but soon you’ll see it all the time. Meditation is well researched scientifically for deducing stress, improving clarity, calm and courage among many other benefits.
It is still however (and sadly) all too often a tricky investment for businesses to make in their leaders, despite the very long list of benefits. Leaders need to be able to sustain their presence and resilience in the face of whatever challenge throws them this week and meditation and mindfulness are great ways of achieving that.
For a one off cost, leaders will have a practice in their toolkit they can use day after day for the rest of their lives. And once they’ve started I can’t see why anyone would stop.
That all said, there are some pretty obvious myths out there about meditation and we’re here to help you demistify them.
1. “I have to clear my mind of all thoughts”
You do not need to clear your mind of thoughts, thoughts are welcome in the Frankly practice that our associate Jo teaches for our Mindful leadership programme. Which is one of the reasons this practice is so effortless 😑
2.”I should experience some kind of alternative blissed out reality”
You should definitely not expect to levitate or hang out with John Lennon. Meditation is not that. The benefits from meditating often come after you’ve done your meditation. Your head feels clearer, you’re thinking more focussed, you’re a little lighter on your stress. 😎
3. “Meditation is not for leaders”
Meditation is for everyone. The benefits of a regular meditation practice (reduced stress, improve creativity, enhance courage, offer more clarity), are absolutely benefits that leaders need. Show me a non stressed, not overworked or overwhelmed leader who isn’t juggling a million tabs in their brain, putting everyone else first… meditation is a direct way to address ‘oxygen mask first’ approach to leading others. The type that doesn’t leave you burned out!
4.”I can’t meditate properly, I’m doing it wrong”
Again, it’s really hard with the effortless practice we teach at Frankly to get it wrong. Wether you do 5 minutes or 50 minutes (we recommend 20), there is no measure of what a good meditation looks like so you literally cannot get this one wrong! 😯
5. “We can’t afford to use our budget on ‘nice to have’ training like this. It’s not business critical”
If you think that stress, overwhelm, burnout, micro managing, fuddled thinking, lack of innovation is NOT business critical, then you DEFINITELY need to invest in this training. It’s a one off investment that will give you a tool you can use for the rest of your life daily. The benefits are far and wide and, you know if it was good enough for Steve Jobs (and he puts meditation down as a direct correlation to his innovation with Apple)…..
To register your interested in our next Mindful Leadership programme (a one day workshop to teach effortless meditation for leaders), email jennifer@wearefrankly.co.uk
