Crafting a mindful workplace: Essential elements for mental wellbeing
Modern workplaces tend to be carried away by the hustle-bustle of the corporate world. Employees eventually overwork to meet deadlines leading to burnout, excessive stress, and mental exhaustion. This collective burnout can hinder the performance of the team as a whole. Furthermore, this may lead to more serious mental issues. As a leader of the team, you must address this issue to maintain wellbeing of your employees.
An extremely effective approach is to craft a mindful environment that prioritizes employee’s mental wellbeing. This can promote mental health in employees early on to avoid burnout and other mental health issues. Additionally, it can help identify and address more serious issues, providing appropriate measures for care and treatment. Let us have a more in-depth understanding of what it means to craft a mindful workspace.
Mindfulness at work: A cornerstone of mental wellbeing
Mindfulness can have many definitions, but in this article, we will be looking at it in the context of workspace. Mindfulness in the workplace is simply being present and actively engaging with the environment. It includes being aware and collecting information from the environment without reacting to it. A mindful individual will be open and focused when retaining new information while approaching tasks and relationships with colleagues non-judgmentally.
This is highly effective in improving mental health. Mindfulness reduces stress, and emotional exhaustion, and even develops compassion and empathy. A study reveals that 10 minutes of mindful sessions can make employees more likely to give up their seat in public transport by 23% displaying traits of compassion and empathy. Productivity also bolsters mindfulness practices in the workplace.
Hence, this close relationship between mindfulness and mental wellbeing can be leveraged to improve the mental health of your employees. Investing in maintaining employee mental wellbeing can be highly beneficial in the long term. The benefits extend to your overall team performance, having a positive impact on team trajectory.
Creating a mindful workplace environment
There are multiple strategies to incorporate to promote mindfulness in your workplace environment. The strategies mentioned here are relatively low-cost to implement and will prove to yield a high return. These tips can push employees to improve their mindful behaviours and maintain overall wellbeing. Let us take a look at the tips:
Encourage breaks: Breaks are essential to ensure employees are not overworking. This will allow them to destress and relax. They become more attentive and aware of the task. Often employees overwork to the point of burnout. Leaders, managers, and HR executives must encourage employees to take breaks as per their needs.
Encourage working out: Working out can be a great stress buster and promote mindfulness. Encouraging employees to work, specifically engaging in yoga and meditation can promote active processing. A study from Stanford shows that meditation can reduce about 30% of stress-related symptoms which tends to be the gateway to serious illnesses.
Ensure rest: Having adequate sleep and rest is essential for the body to function at its full capacity. The more well-rested employees one has, the more attentive and present at the moment they are. This allows them to attend and process stimuli in their environment making them aware of their surroundings.
Active listening: As an employer, you must engage in active listening and encourage your employees to do the same. This form of listening requires practice and promotes retention of information being communicated to you. It improves the ability to follow verbal instructions and understand the message conveyed.
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Leadership's role in fostering mindfulness
When a change occurs in the workplace, employees look to the leaders to learn how to react to and navigate the situation. Leaders act as the prime role model and their employees often mimic their behaviour. Hence, leaders need to practice mindfulness when introducing new environmental changes. Here are a few ways leaders can begin:
Prioritize mental health: If the team leader is overworking themselves to the point of burnout, employees will imitate this behaviour regardless of the encouragement to take breaks. Taking breaks and prioritizing mental health will show the employees that they can do so when required.
Mindfulness training: Incorporating mindfulness training in the induction training programs for employees will show them that the firm wants mindfulness to be promoted amongst their team. They will feel valued and it will improve overall job satisfaction and performance in the workplace.
Be patient: One key aspect of mindfulness is to be patient with everyone. This is a crucial quality for a leader to have as well. Being patient will encourage employees to have you as a role model and not fear to speak up when needed.
Be open to criticism: Mindfulness includes approaching conversations in a non-judgemental manner. When employees and colleagues provide invaluable feedback, it is up to the leader to take appropriate measures to bridge the gap.
Continuous change: Achieving a mindful environment takes time and effort from both employers and employees. Furthermore, there will always be more elements that can be added to the environment to enhance mindfulness. Hence, leaders should always be open to change and suggestions to better the environment.
These are some low-cost but extremely effective ways leaders can craft a mindful environment. On incorporating these, employees will feel more attentive, alert, and aware of their environment which will improve their decision-making and problem-solving skills.
Conclusion
Mindfulness can be extremely beneficial for you and your team. It can enhance multiple cognitive processes and allow employees to be actively engaged in their tasks. Additionally, it can significantly improve mental wellbeing as well as reduce stress and anxiety. Cultivating a mindful workplace can prove to be essential to your organization. It will become one of the key components to maintaining your employee’s mental health.
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