Cultivating a mindful leadership style for better mental health

Mrittwika Dutta Gupta -

Mindfulness is a crucial tool for a person occupying leadership positions. Mindfulness boosts desirable traits of leaders in work environments. Professional environments can be extremely volatile and stressful, and the team turns to leadership positions to learn appropriate reactions to situations. This emphasizes the importance of mindful leadership.

Simple practices can be incorporated into leader’s day-to-day lives which improves mindfulness. As mindfulness becomes a quality in leadership style, it manifests in mental health benefits for the team as a whole. Hence, for the benefit of the team, adopting mindful leadership approaches can facilitate productivity and mental wellbeing.

Defining mindful leadership

Mindful leadership is a specific administrative approach. A mindful leader is defined as possessing deep self-awareness, high emotional intelligence, and a good grasp of the intricacies of maintaining good relationships with employees and clients. These leaders understand the impact of actions and words, as well as the importance of prioritizing mental wellbeing.

Teams being led by leaders practising mindfulness have improved mental wellbeing as some attainable expectations and goals are conveyed to them. Furthermore, mindful leaders induce a calm work environment. This can ease the anxiety of employees.

Benefits of cultivating mindful leadership

There are many benefits of intertwining mindfulness in leadership approaches. These benefits are not limited to reflecting on the team’s mental wellbeing, the leaders and organization can reap the benefits of the approach. Here are some key benefits of mindful leadership:

  • Enhanced emotional regulation: Mindful leaders tend to regulate their emotions well. No matter how intense the situation, they can remain calm and think rationally. This fosters emotional resilience, calm, and stability in the organization and team.
  • Improved problem solving: Practicing mindfulness involves making conscious and purposeful decisions. This ensures maximum focus and collection of information available to solve the problem at hand, which improves problem-solving skills.
  • Reduced stress: Meditation and other mindful practices are effective methods to reduce stress. Furthermore, leaders with calm composers during stressful situations too can alleviate stress for the team as well.
  • Clear communication: Leadership and team management heavily relies on communication. Mindful leaders foster honest communication and actively listen to their employee’s concerns. This leads to better collaboration and cohesiveness in the team. 
  • Increase in team wellbeing: Teams tend to follow in the footsteps of leaders. They look at leaders for answers and reactions to crises. Hence, conducting mindful leadership will cause a ripple effect in the team. They will begin to prioritise mental health and take breaks to avoid burnout. This will significantly boost the team's mental wellbeing.

LEAP is a program Manah Wellness offers to help organizations take the right step toward fostering a mentally healthy environment. Experts in the field will collaborate with organizations to ensure a culture of prioritizing wellbeing is fostered at the workplace. Begin the wellness journey for your organization today!

Mindfulness practices for leaders

Now that we know the benefits of a mindful leadership approach, how can one cultivate mindful leadership? There are a few simple habits that can be developed over time to foster a mindful leadership style. Let’s take a look at some of them:

  • Practising inclusivity: Embracing diversity in opinions, beliefs, backgrounds, race, religion, gender, and sex is a quality every mindful leader practices. They foster a work environment where all employees feel comfortable and a part of the team.
  • Purposeful leadership: Having a shared vision and purpose boosts team cohesiveness. Mindful leaders should be deeply committed to their personal and organizational purposes. This will reflect in the team, and they will echo the commitment which inspires the team to work harder.
  • Self-compassion: Leaders practising mindfulness realize that they too are humans. While one may excel at multiple things, they will have limitations. Taking breaks, and relaxing to maintain wellbeing is important for leaders and their employees.
  • Patience: Mindful leaders are aware that change takes time and patience. Furthermore, they are empathetic when employees make mistakes. Leaders should possess high levels of patience when navigating situations and managing employees.
  • Active listening: A key component to achieving mindful leadership is active listening. Leaders should always be ready to listen to their team’s concerns which is key to introducing the change required.

Impact on employee wellbeing

Cultivating mindful leadership in the workplace positively impacts employee wellbeing. Simultaneously, due to this reason, it increases employee productivity and retention as well. There are multiple reasons as to why:

  • Reduced burnout: Burnout has been a prevalent issue in corporations over the years. Despite this, 56% of employees claim their HR to discourage talks of burnout. Under mindful leadership, employees are encouraged to relax when required and take mental health breaks. These practices contribute to a reduction in burnout.
  • Improved job satisfaction: Mindful leadership understands employee's mental and physical needs. Mindful leaders work with employees to be accommodating of their needs and deliver a sense of fulfilment after tasks are completed. This improves job satisfaction and overall mental wellbeing.
  • Increased engagement: Successful leaders always emphasize employee engagement. They ensure everyone feels a part of the team by involving them in major decisions and the team's successes. They acknowledge and reward contributions from the employees which make them feel valued.
  • Increased work-life balance: Since leaders encourage them to have a healthy work-life balance, they can attend to friends and family obligations. They will be able to attend major life events and fulfil their duties, making them happier and boosting wellbeing.

Manahverse is an AI-powered app that can assist you in your mental wellbeing journey. This app focuses on affirmations, assessments, and mood boards, and has trained professionals ready to support you 24/7. This is aimed to cater to the wellbeing of employees at any level.

Conducting a mindful leadership approach at the workplace is beneficial for the leader, employees, and the organization. It boosts wellbeing, productivity, and motivation for employees which bolsters the growth of the organization as a whole. Employee retention also severely increases as their wellbeing is prioritized and they are valued as an employee. More companies are realizing the effectiveness of such approaches and are implementing them to boost company productivity and wellbeing. Using the guide above, begin the mindful leadership approach today.