Huge conglomerates around the world are adopting new methods of reducing work stress through yoga classes, coloring-in books, and meditation. These stress-relief strategies are collectively called ‘mindfulness.’
Mindfulness is a popular method of inducing people to savor the present moment and any physical surroundings. It also helps to unwind.
It may look counter-intuitive to ask employees to slow down on their focus on the present, especially in light of the pervasive corporate culture of efficiency, speed and goal attainment.
However, as mindfulness practitioners will tell you, taking some time to meditate or practice yoga will recharge an individual, thus, vivifying the worker’s productivity.
Besides, a growing body of mindfulness research is confirming that indeed openness, reflection, and thoughtfulness can have a long-lasting positive impact on the productivity of a company’s employees.
Mindfulness, as a leadership strategy, helps folks to get more effective because it directs an individual’s focus to the most relevant task at hand, thus, resulting in employees making better decisions and improving interactions. It is a foregone conclusion that mindful decision makers always examine all of their options and, thus, will make better and more informed decisions.
Leadership experts also aver that if managers could model and promote mindful practices in the workplace, then there can be better engagement.
It is no wonder then that a variety of leading organizations have implemented mindful programs in their organizations.
The most notable among these organizations is Google. Google is lauded as being socially conscious as it offers its employees some perks and benefits. One of these benefits is a couple of mindfulness courses. The most popular mindfulness course from Google is called Search Inside Yourself.’
The course has been around since the year 2007, and boasts of impacting several people now doing well in their fields. According to Google, it offers mindfulness courses to teach people emotional intelligence.
Emotional intelligence helps people to better understand each other and, consequently, interact well. The courses also improve mental focus as well as inculcating resilience. Participants in the program often report being more patient, calmer, and better listeners.
General Mills also offers mindfulness programs to many of its employees. The courses are meant to increase the focus, clarity, resilience of the employees.
Intel, on the other hand, began offering its mindfulness program quite recently – 2012. Participants in the course report a surge in their feelings of happiness and well-being as well as an increase in their ability to focus on what is important. The employees are more productive, and their level of engagement during meetings is markedly higher than before the company rolled out the program.
There are many more companies that offer mindfulness courses or encourage employees to practice mindfulness as a strategy to improve an organizations’ employees’ efficiency, dedication, and resilience. These companies, as expected, record higher returns than those companies that do not embrace mindfulness.
Most importantly, mindfulness permits or enables employees to think; it is the essence of any engagement. Mindfulness enables an employee to be fully present- and, of course, fully functional. And the results- at both personal and professional level- are pleasantly astounding.
Therefore, it is no surprise that the practice is catching on in most organizations.
